hansol04

Wanted to throw this out to the experts here: When it comes to quality, is there a noticeable difference between the "Old" (Let's say pre ww2) saddles and construction vs the new stuff? Obviously there's some nuance here (junk is junk, no matter when it was built), but is there any truth to "The old leathers were better/thicker", or the old craftsmen did things better, or that kind of stuff? I don't have a ton of experience to judge this, but I know when I compare 1920-1950's era firearms, there's a noticeable difference in quality vs modern stuff. On the other hand, modern Toyotas sure blow the pants off a Model T.

Hi all, TLDR: How do you "fix" this saddle horn? I picked up a 1950-ish Kenway saddle that had been stored in a guy's garage for 30+ years. (He wanted to turn it into a motorcyle seat, but never got around to it, thank goodness.) I bought it off him, gambling that there's nothing actually wrong with the saddle, and just needs some love. I'm in the middle of reconditioning it now, and the leather is in good shape and is coming back to life nicely. But the saddle horn is something that I don't have a clue how to best deal with. My biggest concern is that the underside of the horn is "bare" - You can see the rawhide tree is exposed, and I don't think that's a good thing. Any thoughts from the pros here on what to do about this? Or is this one of those times where it's best to leave something alone. (And yes my shop is a disaster right now...)