julian-wolf

@Double 0 Soul Yeah, I'm really pleased with how both are looking. The Sassafras, in particular, have seen quite a bit of very demanding wear, so it's no surprise that they've lightened up a good amount. That said, I'd say most of the fading on both pairs is from sun exposure. See the fly placket in the second photo of the Sassafras shorts, and the inside of the back pocket in the last photo of the Bushmasters—plus the interiors of both—for reference.

In September of last year, I joined an experiment aiming to do ultracold atomic physics with titanium. Traditionally, most ultracold experiments use elements from the first and second groups of the periodic table, which are relatively easy candidates for laser trapping and cooling due to their simple electron structure. In certain contexts, this same simplicity limits the types of interactions that can be engineered in the quantum systems that we build, which makes it appealing to look towards preparing ultracold samples of transition metals. This involves some added complication, and the experiment that I recently joined has been actively working towards generating a magneto-optical trap (MOT) of titanium for around 5 years, now. A MOT amounts to a cold (but not yet quantum-degenerate) dilute gas of atoms at a temperature of around 1 mK, and is the first step in most experiments involving ultracold atoms or molecules. As a point of reference, outer space has a temperature of 2.7 K, around 1000 times hotter. Once a cloud of a few hundreds of thousands of atoms is trapped in a MOT, they can be handed off to other more versatile traps and used toward any number of science goals—but most experiments involve this as a first step. In mid-October, we finally observed the world’s first MOT of titanium. This involves two colors of lasers—one at a wavelength of 391 nm, which is invisible to the human eye, and one at 498 nm, which is a beautiful teal color. It's been a pleasure working with this color of light, both from a technical and from an aesthetic perspective, and it's made the pictures very fun to show off. The trapped atoms themselves are the little teal dot in the first and last photos. For these photos, only around 1000 atoms were present, but they were still visible to the naked eye—which is really cool to me.

Great Lakes / Bubo also seems to have some great options, although I haven’t explored them much. I’d really like to try the PCT shorts, in particular, if they re-release them in another canvas. My one pair are the Bushmaster shorts in a very tightly woven light cotton canvass, and they’re the only poorly thought out / executed thing that I’ve ever had from Freewheelers. The bar tacking (of which there’s quite a bit) is done at high density and with thick thread, which seems to have punched right through the finely woven fabric, weakening it significantly right at all the points of stress. Incidentally, I recently got a pair of shorts from Sassafras (don’t remember the model number) that seem to be made from the exact same fabric, and that seem to have the same issue. It’s possible that this specific fabric is just way more susceptible than expected to this sort of thing, but it still seems like a pretty major manufacturing & QC oversight. Anyway, I have a sort of love / hate relationship with the Bushmaster shorts, as they really are well-designed and have aged beautifully in the short time that I’ve been wearing them. It’ll be a shame when they inevitably give out.

I've got a slew of shorts at this point, but Sassafras are generally my favorite. Here's my most-worn pair, the SF10484. They've held up incredibly well, and I’m really pleased with how the fabric’s aged. (Wet spots on the back are just from the table where I took the photos.)

Hey, I’ve got my fair share of down vests & heavy wool sweaters & Anyway, our blackouts happen when it’s hot out, and no one here has A/C to begin with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just wait for this year’s round of power outages and you’ll be set

Haha that thing’s awesome

@Disharmony Most of the stores that get mentioned here have loopwheeled tees in their inventories

Yeah, that would def. make sense

Yesterday Bubo / Weaver’s Stock / Joe McCoy’s / Hollows / Tender Co. / Russell

Yeah, it’s clear in that photo that the fly is twisting some, but it mostly just looks like your shirt placket is way off center…

@Duke Mantee ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Looks plausible, but hard to say on looks alone. Feels pretty similar to the Softee Grain that Tricker’s uses, but with closer / rounder bumps.

More Russell Mocs, unknown model & unknown leather, stripped and partially redyed by me a few years ago I think I’ve written about these before at length, so I won’t go into too much detail. I’m really, really pleased with how these have aged. The leather was a black scotch grain, not struck through but dyed pretty thoroughly. I stripped the coating with acetone and bleached the bumps—but not the creases—with wood bleach, then brushed on a few coats of kakishibu by hand. It’s really difficult to get the color to cover through in photos, hence all the weird angles, but they’ve been looking better and better. Just like the Traveling Sportsman posted above, they’re extremely comfortable. Unlike the Traveling Sportsman, they’re single bottom with no structure, so they’re even lighter weight and flexier, but also less water resistant. They’re about due for a resole.

Russell Art Carter Traveling Sportsman in French calf, courtesy of @illumin8em These are very, very comfortable as every-day shoes. To anyone who’s never given moccasins a try, I’d strongly recommend it (with the stipulation that you avoid brands like Yuketen that incorporate extra insoles, as this really removes the whole appeal). I tried to show, in the last two photos, how well they’ve molded to the shape of my feet. They’re like good slippers, but for wearing anywhere. I’ve been underwhelmed by this leather. It’s held up fine, but it always feels a little dry no matter what I do, and it hasn’t taken on much real character over time. That said, with how comfortable they are it’s hard to complain.

Frank’s Front Range in tan oiled Latigo These are my current favorite boots. I’ve only had them for less than a year, and they’re still not fully broken in, but they’re already very comfortable, and I love the look. Just about perfect construction, as far as I can tell—very clean & very functional. Would strongly recommend Frank’s to anyone in the market for PNW boots.

Slew of big photo dumps coming… Starting with the red cherry water buffalo Bounty Hunters Really good boots in some ways, less so in others. The tongue isn’t stitched on right at the bottom, so even though I can step in puddles no problem they’re no good in any real amount of rain. Besides that, both boots developed a squeak around six months in. White’s fixed that under warranty, and another six months later they started right back up squeaking again. Haven’t bothered trying to get it fixed this time; I just don’t wear them when I’m gonna be in quiet indoor spaces. Oh well. With the negatives out of the way: These are extremely comfortable. They feel like leather socks. The water buffalo leather and the goatskin lining are both very supple, and whatever last these are built on fits my foot perfect. I can be on my feet in these for 14+ hours no problem. They’ve taken almost no upkeep—I’ve conditioned them maybe twice and they’ve never felt dry or otherwise unhappy—really low maintenance.

+ Morning walk photos Tilley / Sun Surf / The Flat Head / Hollows / Cane’s / Frank’s

@MJF9 Snagged the Achille's Heel; they were on pretty steep discount @ The Bureau in Belfast Also picked up a rinsed Type 902

Tilley / Sun Surf / Bubo / Hollows / Cane’s 101B / JK

That’s extremely dope

Went & grabbed my Foreman Pants a bit ago Lots of really, really, really cool jeans laying around

I mean sure, but why not make a T-back size 44? It’s not like they’re sizes are true to vintage anyway

!! That’s exciting Still no word on my end, but hopefully in the next few days Geez, between these, the Roy pants, and a pair of Tender 132 that I finally splurged for on sale for my birthday, this’ll be a really unusually high volume pants month for me…

Yeah, it seems like he probably just took the site down for maintenance & will relist things once the technical bits are figured out a little better. Checking out was not a fun experience. @dvheart I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Meanwhile, I’m really hoping that the 1890s Leroy’s went to someone here so that I can live vicariously. Getting to wear those for a couple of months for the Top Top Elite World Tour a slew of years ago remains one of my favorite / most cherished denim memories (that feels like a very corny thing to write, but I don’t know how else to characterize it); something about that denim was just special. For a while after that I daydreamed about the idea of him making a matching TPB from the same denim, which would have been a lot easier to fit into my wardrobe.