Old Saddle, Leather Restoration.

[Hharmony]

I pulled my deceased father's saddle out of the back of the tackroom and was attempting to clean it up. It has heavy, full, hand-tooling. It was an expensive, custom made saddle when my mother bought it used for him in the late '60s, and it has a lot of sentimental value.

My father wasn't much for cleaning tack, but he did slap oil on it from time to time. So the leather is in decent shape but the saddle was almost black with age and grime. I remember it being a pretty chestnut color when I was a child.

I scrubbed it with Lexol PH leather cleaner, and must have been over-enthusiastic because the next day the leather was raw and uncolored. I have applied Lexol conditioner 4 times and it just sucks it right up and dries raw looking again. I have just applied 2 coats of Lexol non-darkening neatsfoot oil this morning, and don't know how that has dried yet, it looked pretty good before it soaked in fully.

How much conditioning will stripped out leather need?

What can I do to bring back some color and just preserve and condition the leather? Do I need to seal it after it has been adequately conditioned? Will saddle soap seal it and shine up?

I would like to send this saddle out to be completely restored in the future, but in the meantime would like to do what I can for it myself.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

[BillB]

All I can do is provide you what I have experienced in the past and done when restoring leather.

1. I prefer to use saddle soap as my cleaning agent. For me it is easier on the leather finish. I have not tried the Lexol product but it does sound like it removed the finish.

2. You should apply enough leather conditioner until the leather is supple (bends easily and hangs nicely. It should not be stiff unless it was intended to be stiff.

3. Since it sounds like the surface of the leather has been removed to some degree, you may need to refinish the surface. If the coloration was from normal aging of the leather (leather will naturally darken and depending on the type of leather and the tanning process that color can be from a dark chestnut to a light tan). You might try applying a light coating of brown/chestnut dye to the surface. I would find a hidden piece of leather and try a little there first to see how it comes out. You might also want to try yellow saddle soap since that will also add color to the surface. If you use saddle soap it also does a soft finish to the leather as you buff it dry. If you don't use saddle soap, a coat of mink oil and a good buffing should work.

Since you did not mention what you used to apply the Lexol with or remove the dirt with, you should only be using a soft tooth brush to remove the dirt from the tooling grooves - NO WIRE BRUSH or STIFF BRUSH. When applying saddle soap or the mink oil, you should use a soft white polishing rag. If the grooves get filled with saddle soap, then use the soft tooth brush. Although leather is very durable, tooled leather, especially when wet, can be very temper mental. Remember, leather is skin and just like skin it can be damaged.

I hope this helps. If you have any pictures (before, during and after) please post since they help us to understand where you are in the process. It also helps in any restoration process to have this set of pictures.

I hope this helps.

BillB

[Hharmony]

Thanks for your reply.

Here are pics after 2 coats of the Lexol non-darkening neatsfoot oil. I didn't get any before pics. It was very light on the raised parts before I oiled it. The oil has made it dark again and as you can see it is grayish. I intend to apply more oil,it is not quite as supple as it should be. Is there a better conditioner I should be using?

I used a tack sponge to clean it, and a horse brush. The brush was appearantly a bad idea, could see color on the sponge when I wiped it down.

This one shows the original finish, under the skirts.

I would be very happy if I could get the whole thing to look like the pommel still does.

[BillB]

I prefer to use Neatsfoot oil when restoring suppleness to working leather. I would not add anymore oil at this time. It looks like there is still some dirt/dust along with the natural aging coloration of the leather. You can see the aging coloration under the skirt where it goes from light brown to medium brown to dark brown. I have some 50 year old leather that has never been outside and it has gone to the medium brown color by itself.

Did you use any type of soap when you did your cleaning? Even so, I would get some white saddle soap (does not add any color) and a soft sponge and clean do some more cleaning. After each cleaning with saddle soap it should be buffed with a soft rag or towel. I had had to clean some old leather three and four times to get the dirt and dust out. This process take time and elbow grease to accomplish. Here are the steps I would do next.

1. Clean saddle using White Saddle Soap (go to www.fiebings.com and look under leather care, any tack store should have it) Only get enough water on the sponge to lather up the soap. Clean and buff sections of the saddle until the full saddle is done. As you are cleaning the saddle check the sponge to see what it is picking up. If it is small particles of leather then you need to be careful since you may be dealing with a case of dry rot. Dry rot can set in when wet leather is put away for a long time. The water takes out the natural oils, the leather dries and since there is no oil to keep the cell structures strong, they deteriorate. Putting oils back in will help restore the leather but there will always be some amount of leather that will be lost. In the worst case scenario, the leather can actually tear apart with little force.

2. Let it sit and dry. It is my experience that you will never get it back to the color scene under the skirts since there is no way to remove the coloration caused by aging.

3. I would repeat this process twice from what I see in your pictures.

4. I would then evaluate the surface of the leather after I have done a good job of buffing after the last application of saddle soap. Saddle Soap also provides a nice soft finish. If this is not the type of finish you want then I would look at some of the finishers at the Fiebing's website under Leathercraft - Top Finishes. I would apply that top finish to one of the belly straps to see it is what I would want. If it does, then do the saddle.

5. As for the application of Lexol or Neatsfoot Oil, I would apply it to the flesh side of the leather (this is the non-tooled or rough surface) where ever possible. Any application of oil will darken the leather for a period of time until it soaks in. By applying it to the flesh side, you will know you have applied enough when the tooled side starts to darken as the oil penetrates through. Once that happens you have applied enough even if the leather is still a little stiff. Some of the stiffness is because the leather has not been worked and will disappear as the saddle used.

Let me know how you go forward with this process and send pictures as you go forward. It will help anyone else with a similar restoration project.

BillB

[busted]

Thanks for your reply.

Here are pics after 2 coats of the Lexol non-darkening neatsfoot oil. I didn't get any before pics. It was very light on the raised parts before I oiled it. The oil has made it dark again and as you can see it is grayish. I intend to apply more oil,it is not quite as supple as it should be. Is there a better conditioner I should be using?

I used a tack sponge to clean it, and a horse brush. The brush was apparently a bad idea, could see color on the sponge when I wiped it down.

This one shows the original finish, under the skirts.

I would be very happy if I could get the whole thing to look like the pommel still does.

The oil is turning it darker why put more oil on it? Correct me if I am wrong but you want the dirt washed off, the oil is locking the dirt to the surface of the leather. Use saddle soap and water with a fine bristle brush (old shoe brush).

[Hharmony]

Have you any experience with these products? Does the leather detergent sound like an option?

I've saddle soaped the saddle another time. I will keep doing that a few more times, and post pics. It does not look as if the buckstitching is going to lighten up again enough to show. How big a job would it be to replace?

[BillB]

Fiebing is my choice for oils, finishes and dyes/stains. I am not familiar with a Fiebing's product called Leather Detergent.

I expect that the thread used was a Waxed thread to protect it. The problem with waxed thread is if dirt gets worked into the wax, then it will never come back to the original color. Removing the stitching and re-sewing into the same holes would be done by hand. If you replace on set of stitching with brand new white stitching, would you not have to replace all stitching to stay consistent?

Again, some of the color that you are looking at is from natural aging of the leather and from use.

I personally like the aged, used look. It tells me that this is not a new saddle that has been made to look old. The coloration and pattern of coloration is part of its history. It tells me that this was not a saddle used once a year in a parade. It might have been used at rodeos and lots of them. I would stop cleaning and start thinking about the type of finish the saddle should have.

If I was going to go that far with the saddle, then I would take it to a local saddlery/tack shop and get their perspective.

BillB

[Hharmony]

http://www.preservat...sloansaddle.php

Sorry, I was refering to these products. Preservation Solutions. The link didn't show. Perhaps these products are best left to professionals?

I do not think this saddle could, or should be made to look look like new. I appreciate the patina.

It has decorative rawhide buckstitching around all the the skirts edges and fenders.

This is the only place it still shows. It does not seem to be cleaning up enough to be visible on the rest of the saddle. I have never had any success getting rawhide tack to lighten up again once stained, so I was wondering if once the saddle is as good of a condition as I am capable of getting it, if replacing the rawhide stitching would be a reasonable undertaking.

I have always had well maintained tack, have never had to go beyond routine cleaning and conditioning, and have never dealt with a saddle that is this far gone. I have saddle soaped it again, it still looks dirty, but soaping it doesn't seem to be having much effect. The grime is deep in the leather, it still has a black/grey look in places.

Thanks again for your advice, I appreciate it.

[BillB]

I am not familiar with that product. I am concerned when I look at the pictures and I see that the before picture of the saddle shows leather that still has 90% of its original color and finish showing and it appears to be dust covered and dry. This is not the case with your saddle where large portions have turned dark. Since you have no pictures of the saddle before you applied the LEXOL I can not tell if the darkening is from the moisture content of the LEXOL or from wear / dirt / aging. You can also clearly see all of the white buck stitching.

If they sell a small sample bottle, you might want to try it on a piece of the saddle that is covered. If you like the results, then get more and do the rest.

If the darkening in your saddle is due to the moisture added by the LEXOL, then it should lighten up over the next week as the moisture content balances out.

As for the buck stitching, if it is easily accessible, then you could replace it.

For now, I would step back and let the leather rest for about a week to see if any of the color comes back. Since this is your saddle I would take it that there is no rush to get it finished.

BillB

[Analyst23]

How did your saddle turn out?  I've got an old saddle with the exact same tooling pattern on it that I picked up yesterday.  Old, dry, stiff, and tons of surface cracking.  

[chuck123wapati]

21 hours ago, Analyst23 said:

How did your saddle turn out?  I've got an old saddle with the exact same tooling pattern on it that I picked up yesterday.  Old, dry, stiff, and tons of surface cracking.  

this post is ten years old. you have the same saddle lol.