Aeroplane Black, quality degraded or fake?

[badder]

Most recent lot, the head is no longer natural cock, but cheaper dirty synthetic material in between, so the head is easily deformed.

Where Aeroplane want to go next? Falling into 2nd grade?

[kwun]

really? do you have a photo of the cut out?

[badder]

I cut it out last Saturday, but didn't take a picture. Those I bought last year are still nature cork. And the new ones I bought last month are not. Maybe I can take a picture later tonight after work.

really? do you have a photo of the cut out?

[kwun]

I cut it out last Saturday, but didn't take a picture. Those I bought last year are still nature cork. And the new ones I bought last month are not. Maybe I can take a picture later tonight after work.

i still have batches from 2-3 yrs ago. i will be happy to cut out mine for comparison.

[badder]

Here is the picture. I have mixed results. Left is still good, right is not.

[kwun]

Are they from the same batch?

[kwun]

i picked up some from the gym tonight. and have confirmed the existence of the two types of construction on Aeroplane black. here are the cutouts i got:



and here are the two before the cutout. after usage, the one with synthetic layer is obviously deformed and the head is not longer uniformly shaped:

[kwun]

what is more interesting is this. i have enlarged and inverted the previous image, so we can see them in more details.

1. the reason i inverted the image is to look at the fonts. it is obvious that the bad quality one has fonts with thinner strokes. the good quality one is more "bold"

2. if you look at the white leathery cover, they have different texture! the good quality one has finer texture while the bad quality one is rougher.

[kwun]

one last comparison and confirmation.

the left one is a new one that i bought 2.5 yrs ago directly from the US Aeroplane distributor.

the middle one is the good quality one that i cut apart and shown above.

the right one is another that i cut out and shown to be of the poorer quality.

if you look closely, you can see the same consistent observations: fonts, leather texture and the cork material are different.

[kwun]

so there can be two potential explanations.

1. Aeroplane has changed their material and manufacture for their Black. in both the cork construction/material, leather material, and the font.

2. there are fakes circulating in the country.

both of them are possible. but 2 is very scary. because i just casually walked through the gym and found 3 out of 4 to be the inferior quality, if there are indeed fakes, then they must have penetrated really extensively in the market.

[kwun]

so to really confirm, we can do this.

i have a friend who bought some from the US distributor recently. he will give me one of his to investigate.

we will have more idea depending on which type his turns out to be.

[canti]

Oh no... Should I be switching to another brand then?

[kwun]

Oh no... Should I be switching to another brand then?

have you bought any recently? if so can you take a photo of it?

[canti]

I have one for the last batch that came into the U.S in April/May and another one from this month. I dont have a high quality camera like you so I doubt it will show anything special XD

[kwun]

I have one for the last batch that came into the U.S in April/May and another one from this month. I dont have a high quality camera like you so I doubt it will show anything special XD

you don't need high quality camera. just cut one open, make sure you have good light source and even phone camera will show if it is good or bad quality batch.

[canti]

Alright I'll take a picture if no one else does

[kwun]

Alright I'll take a picture if no one else does

thanks.

you can just look at the knots and there is already differences.

on the left is the high quality one. the knot is very clean and hard to even notice there is a knot.

on the right is the bad quality one, the knot is noticable and also the knot on the lower ring has a long stray end.

there are so different it is as if they come from different factories!