English Is My Forte

[Ozarky]

Hello forum.

I wandered in to learn techniques to dye leather - and then saw the mighty saddle and tack section. I was so excited, it became the highlight of my weekend. Yes, even surpassed thanksgiving. I am an exercise rider by trade, and trying to finish up my degree in Wildlife Research and Management in Central WI. I also have a mild case of saddle addiction, oh, its actually quite serious I guess. I have skills in the ability to find really cheap saddles, often 10-40 years old. I do basic repairs and good oiling and sell them off for more then double what I paid. I've recently gotten adventurous with my repairs, more recently attempting to replace knee rolls in a free crappy ebay dressage saddle, but since it had lived its life in a moldy basement - the cardboard "leather" tore as I was tightening stitches. Which only means I should gut it and see whats inside right? Did I mention that I study the insides of wildlife, its only natural that I want to figure out how the inside looks.

I wanted to join this forum to learn about doing saddle repair, on a college budget.

Oh, and how to dye leather - my father is a book binder, and has a small treasure trove of leather dye powder.

Oh, and how I should go about gutting this saddle in order to best learn from it.

oh, I may just like learning... that might be why this girl is still in college for so long... ohhhh debt, how I like you too.

[Kevin]

Generally speaking, to take it apart, lift up the flap in front as far as you can. In between the flap and panel,if you pull the flap tight, you will see thread and maybe a knot, cut it , you may have to cut another thread after that one, but the pommel will probably just pull apart and you can just pull the thread out.

I forgot, start where the sweat flap is sewn to the panel, pull them apart and cut the thread, this will all just pull apart.

Now, you have the front apart, pull it away from the saddle and at the back of the flap you will see where the panel is stitched to the saddle, again, just pull so you have pressure on the thread, cut it and the back will start to come apart, it's just one thread so you can pull the thread out or cut it, but if you pull it out you will get a better idea of how it went together.

There may be some tacks holding it together, but they are usually obvious and easy to get out.

Next are the sweat flaps, usually just tacked on. If you might put it back together, mark the tree at the corners and top of the sweat flap so you will know where it came from.

Now come the flaps, you have to remove the saddle nails and dees (fall down staples) and some times it takes some real digging to get these out. The saddle nails go through the tree and are bent down along the metal tree reinforcement, this is where you may have to dig it out. BE CAREFUL, you WILL either cut yourself on the nail or jab yourself with the tack puller, I promise. Same thing goes for the dees.

Once that is taken care of, the rest is pretty easy to see what needs to be done, again mark the tree where the flaps go,if you put them back.

Don't use your mama's antique tack puller, "cause you're going to end up hitting it with your hammer sooner or later.

I hope this is kind of clear, because I'm sure not going to proofread it,

Good luck and have fun,

Kevin

PS you're going to have tacks all over the place and you will track them even further, so you may want to take some kind of precautions.

[brooklyncowgirl]

Thanks for that. Kevin I'm also getting into fixing English tack. (western too but most people in my area ride English so there's more work to do in that area) My first saddle project--a nice little English made 15" Hartley close contact saddle that my daughter fished out of a dumpster when the farm she worked for moved and cleaned out the tack room, is just about ready for sale.

The saddle had been sitting in a tack room for years and was covered in dirt and bird crap. I cleaned it up and oiled it with leather new conditioner, and found that the leather, except for the billet straps which were dangerously dry rotted, was still very good condition. I was thrilled. You can't say enough for quality leather.

The suede knee rolls had been ripped off on both sides and the billet straps were dangerously dry rotted. I restitched the knee rolls and replaced the billets with new chrome tanned straps. Since I hand stitched, I had to enlarge the needle holes a bit but still it came out looking pretty good. I could probably get more for it if I'd replaced those now unfashionable suede knee pads with smooth garment leather but there comes a time when it's just not worth doing--besides I dont think I can make it look good.

I also replaced the billets on an old Bevel saddle which I'm keeping for my own use. Getting the skirt leather out of the way so I could get at the webbing more easily would be a big help. My stitching is solid but it sure ain't pretty. (note to self--get that heavy duty braided thread in white not dark brown--if you're going to do this for a client--the leather side with its punched holes looks fine but turn it over and that stitching on the webbing is all over the place).

I'm glad I found this forum. I'll post some pictures later.

Generally speaking, to take it apart, lift up the flap in front as far as you can. In between the flap and panel,if you pull the flap tight, you will see thread and maybe a knot, cut it , you may have to cut another thread after that one, but the pommel will probably just pull apart and you can just pull the thread out.

I forgot, start where the sweat flap is sewn to the panel, pull them apart and cut the thread, this will all just pull apart.

Now, you have the front apart, pull it away from the saddle and at the back of the flap you will see where the panel is stitched to the saddle, again, just pull so you have pressure on the thread, cut it and the back will start to come apart, it's just one thread so you can pull the thread out or cut it, but if you pull it out you will get a better idea of how it went together.

There may be some tacks holding it together, but they are usually obvious and easy to get out.

Next are the sweat flaps, usually just tacked on. If you might put it back together, mark the tree at the corners and top of the sweat flap so you will know where it came from.

Now come the flaps, you have to remove the saddle nails and dees (fall down staples) and some times it takes some real digging to get these out. The saddle nails go through the tree and are bent down along the metal tree reinforcement, this is where you may have to dig it out. BE CAREFUL, you WILL either cut yourself on the nail or jab yourself with the tack puller, I promise. Same thing goes for the dees.

Once that is taken care of, the rest is pretty easy to see what needs to be done, again mark the tree where the flaps go,if you put them back.

Don't use your mama's antique tack puller, "cause you're going to end up hitting it with your hammer sooner or later.

I hope this is kind of clear, because I'm sure not going to proofread it,

Good luck and have fun,

Kevin

PS you're going to have tacks all over the place and you will track them even further, so you may want to take some kind of precautions.

[saddledoctor]

Summer of 1999 I attended a English saddle making class where I made my first English saddle. After making Western saddles since 1962 I thought English saddle making would be a breeze. Was I so wrong. It was truly a real challenge, but most rewarding. I made several more English saddles after that. Displaying my handmade English saddles in our show room did give me credibility for English saddle repairs. The class I attended was in Ohio. The school had brought in a saddle master from England to teach the class. Actually this was not a school, it was a English Saddle Supply. The name of this company is: English Saddle Supply Contact Name: Linda Williams Phone: +1 440 298 3018. Fax: +1 440 298 3016. E-mail windmillsaddle@alltel . Linda has made some videos of the class and on saddle repairs. These videos are truly wonderful and you will find them to be affordable. I suspect if she still sell these that they would be on DVD by now. Linda is a very sweet, knowledgeable and a pure pleasure to do business with. She can give you a ton of help and will be a good source for English hardware and top quality billets as well.