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Yes I am! And still loving it!. It's good to see that leather work is alive and well

Exactly. I saw that the question was about conserving a family heirloom. I remembered reading a while back that museums had stopped using conditioners.

Thanks. I'll give the old college try.

Yes you will need to take the skirts off and separate them to reline them. These nails help to seal up that top edge and keep stuff from getting down in between that skirt pocket and tree. The strength is in the screws. Lift the nails out, don't punch around them. The idea of fasteners is to have the shank fill the hole in the leather so it doesnt work around as much. If you punch the leather you will have a hard time finding nails to fill that hole without being so big you risk splitting the tree. Start at the back nail and get under the leather around the nail with your puller, pry it up until the nail lifts a bit. Go to the top side and remove the nail with the puller. Work your way forward a nail at a time. Since they are smooth nails you should not have much of a problem.

Are they still available?

Actually I don't have any glue in the holster. The stitching is the only thing holding it together

The fleece needs to be replaced. I will have to take the skirts off to accomplish that, correct? That is the only reason I was going to take them off. But if I'm taking that far, figured I might as well make sure I get it really clean and conditioned while apart. If I understand what shank nails are, no. All the nails I have pulled thus far were smooth. Just thinking by looking at it and not having previous knowledge in saddle repairs, why can't I just get a tiny punch and punch the leather around the nail heads out and pull it up. Then fight getting the nails out. Or hammer them in as flat as possible. Re-nail in the same hole with a larger head nail, or beside these (if I couldn't get the nails out). It seems easier than trying not to rip this thin leather. Am I crazy?

Yes You can clean and condition a saddle without totally taking it apart. If that is the purpose then you are as far was you need to go in the front end. If you are taking apart totally, then to get these rigging nails off then first remove the screws. I always have better luck lifting the nails from under the leather with a heavy tack puller. Once you get them lifted a little then you can go on top of the leather to pull them the rest of the way out. Otherwise you can chew up the leather around them trying to get that first bite. Here are the two I like and now carry for sale. If they are ring shank nails, be ready to say bad words and all bets are off.

Well, it's good to see you again. Are you still doing leatherwork? Life does come at us fast. ~J

Thank you

Great advice, @Dwight Thanks!

This tack puller has worked well for me on English saddles. https://a.co/d/hplCLS2

At extremely low speeds the power of the motor is extremely low, so there is no point to engineer a motor that would be extremely powerful to overcome that. It's better to use a different gear ratio. In the production operators are skilled, and speeds are high. With a combination of needle positioner and other automatic controls low speeds are even less needed. Outside of repairing stuff and hobby users there is not much need for such motors, we should be lucky for that what we have :))))

You can add just one tiny thing to make the whole rig just a bit sharper looking. Whether you use rivets or chicago screws . . . put them thru the outside piece of the leather for attaching the little belt around the holster . Doing that will get rid of the unsightly screw heads and rivet heads on the back side of the holster. Not a serious critique . . . just one of those things that will separate sellers . . . especially if you are at a show or something . . . where others there are showing their wares. You can show that your holster is "cleaner" looking . . . which can result in an extra sale . . . and a slightly higher selling price. Also if you use a buckle . . . put a keeper on the little belt . . . or use a closed buckle . . . makes it look more realistic . . . and again . . . just one of those things that sets you apart from the run of the mill makers and sellers. Always remember that even the slightest "upscale" idea can push your wares out if front of the crowd. John Bianchi here in the states was the guy who perfected that idea. He could almost have designed a cardboard box to carry your gun in . . . and would have had 100 sales sight unseen. May God bless, Dwight

Years ago I never paid any attention . . . but the producer and / or director of Bonanza and a few others . . . must have been anti gun people. None of them carry even one extra bullet . . . blank belts all the way around. Didn't notice it until I got into holster making . . . then started watching . . . goofy if you ask me. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks for this I'll have to do more research on this. Just to be clear this is for keeping leather in a museum/conservation environment, not a working environment.

I actually watched a video of his to get started. I'll search his YouTube page for more that get into details.

Cooling, you can run a servo at very low speed (its just a motor), but you have to current limit so you don't over-heat it, and when you current limit, you lose torque. By requiring a minimum start speed, you assure that someone can't run at very low speeds for any length of time and destroy the motor. At that minimum speed, the cooling design parameters are met. (A stepper motor is designed to remain stopped with the current being sufficient to hold the designed load and not destroy itself, though many systems drop to a lower current when stopped, as you don't usually need the full current to hold the load when stopped. Many DC servo systems do the same when the load is stopped by current limiting. That is not necessary on a sewing machine and would be more expensive to implement.)

Don Gonzalez has a couple videos on breaking down a saddle and cleaning. He gets into a lot of detail and shows you the tools he uses, some he made himself. https://www.youtube.com/@DonGonzalesMaker/search?query=breaking down a saddle

I am deconstructing an old saddle of mine. First time, no help but what I get online. Are there tricks to removing the tiny nails that are in old thin leather without tearing it? Also, my saddle's skirts are sewn together. I was advised not to cut them loose and just take it apart together. Since I have never done this before, I don't know if I will be able to really clean and condition the leather unless I cut them loose. Any advise?

i haven't had a Matt Dillon rig since i was about 8 or 9 lol I still have my Fanner 50 but the holster is long gone. It sure sounds like a fun project. He shot someone every week so he needed a lot of bullets. I still watch the show and check out the holsters. Some of the bad guy holsters are pretty cool too.

Glad you were able to stop by. Seem a little slower on here than it was several years ago. Lots of sewing machine questions.

Very clean looking. Great job!

He probably needed all those bullets to help make him look more regular sized - He was nearly 6'7" tall!

I have had several industrial machines over the years, mostly Singers of various types (eg 166, 154 etc) a Pfaff and a Seiko, I've lifted them and moved them around while building/fitting tables and never had any trouble lifting them - and I'm not particularly strong. I've just about met my match with the CB4500, however!!! The arm through the gap, as Al suggested, has worked for me.