Northmount

Did you get your new machine yet? I got one mid December. Sure makes a lot of projects easier and opens up new projects I might not do otherwise. Hope to hear from you more often and to see some of your work. CTG

Ferg ... are you the author? I would like to quote this and give the author credit. Regards, CTG

Drill out the part of the post that is peened over. If you use a drill just a little larger than the post and go carefully, you can avoid damaging the leather. CTG

On another thread here a few weeks ago, someone lost the screws and if I remember right, Tandy has extra screws. Try a search for buckle and screw. CTG

Take a look at this post. Lots of options. Swing away and lift up types. Guides CTG

A leather / boot / shoe / jacket shop I have dealt with uses "Tana Leather Magic Renew Dye" for fixing up leather jackets. Comes in various colors in a spray can.

And of course you know that cardboard gets mushy when wet. So an accidental soaking would take a long time to dry out. Maybe if dipped in varnish or something similar would keep it from soaking up water as long as the varnish didn't get scraped or cracked. I'd look at a piece of PVC or ABS or similar pipe at your local big box store. The stuff used for central vacuums is quite light as compared to stuff for sewer and water systems. CTG

If the saddle was put away in the bag while still moist from horse and rider sweat and not allowed to dry out first, I think there's a very good chance of mildew.

Just a passing thought. Since you keep the saddle in a bag, has it been moist and warm so you have mildew growing on it? If so, it may be able to be cleaned. There are threads here about cleaning up saddles and removing mildew and mold. For vinageroon, leather is usually dipped in the sauce. Maybe worth a search here to see if anyone applies it like a typical dye with sheepskin wool, etc. CTG

Don't sand it unless you are looking for a suede like surface. Once you remove or scratch the grain side, you can't cover it up. You can't get a nice smooth finish again either. (Having said that, there are some people advertising surface repairs to upholstery leather. They spray or paint on a new grain surface. I wouldn't try it on a saddle.) You could experiment with a deglazer to remove the wax etc. that is on the surface. Chances are the black stain will come off with it. Normal darkening from sun won't come off with deglazer. After it has been deglazed, you could use bleach (oxalic acid crystals) to lighten the leather. Then you need to see at that point if you need to add some dye to get the same overall tone. If you need to dye to even out the appearance, then take a look at air brushing. Then put a good finish on after all of that. You need to experiment some, so pick a place that is not too obvious to try out these comments. If you are only showing the saddle while riding, that shouldn't be too hard to find a spot to play with. If you show the saddle by itself, I doubt you can find a place that is stained that would be hidden from normal view. Or take it to a professional saddle shop to see what can be cleaned and refinished. CTG

Kathy ... This is a great tutorial. I combed through it and copied all stuff in context into a PDF file so I could use it for my reference, and thought others might like to have it too. So here it is. Edited, combined both files into one. Carving Horses.pdf Enjoy CTG

Hey, the competition! I used to work for Burroughs for a few years. Also was stuck in computers for quite a while as well. CTG

Leighton's should have parts and supplies for it. They are selling a reconditioned one on their site. Located in Delburne Alberta. CTG

Watch upper and lower case letters or other special characters in the password. CTG

I would pull both sides up tight (stretch it) and staple them, but stay back from the corners 2 or 3 inches. For the front corners, start pulling the side up and toward the center of the seat. Get a couple staples in and keep working your way towards the front and around to the front. If (and I'm sure you will) need to do some folding, try to work the folds to lay pointing toward the side and down the side away from the front. Keep the folds (or pleats if you wish) small and keep stretching the leather to make it lay neatly. You will need to go back and forth a little on both sides of the corner as you are pulling the leather up tight and staple it. Once it is all stapled down tight the way you want it, you can trim off excess leather so its not all bunched up underneath. For some practice before you do the chair, take a scrap about 6 to 8 inches square and a piece of 1/2 or 3/4" plywood similar to your seat. A piece of foam would be a nice addition if you have some. Lay the leather on top a corner on the practice seat so it hangs over the sides a couple inches. Staple the inside corner down firmly (several staples cause your going to stretch/pull hard against them). Then work on the corner to see how much you need to stretch and what size of folds or pleats you are going to be left with. Another option is to cut the leather 1/2" larger (for a seam allowance) than the size of the seat on all edges. Cut another strip to make piping with. Cut another strip wide enough for seam allowance for the piping, plus height of the cushion, plus an inch or two to overlap under the seat board. Sew it all together, pop it onto the seat, pull the sides up evenly all around and staple it in place. This one doesn't need to be pulled up near as tight, since you are building a cover shaped to fit instead of stretching to fit. Trim off the excess and mount the seat. You can practice this one with a cheap fabric. I have noticed other threads here about using piping. Look them up and see how to make it. Making a "tailored" seat seat cover is usually more work, but it will probably last longer than where you stretch the leather to make it fit. Where the leather (or even vinyl upholstery material) is stretched tight, it will wear faster and tend to snag much more easily. The "tailored" one has some give before it starts to tear or abrade since it is not stretched to tight. For your back corners, experiment with some scrap or cheap material first. You'll figure out how to make it fit and look nice fairly easily. The big thing is to dive in and try it. Time to get busy! CTG

After some searching on the web (I'm not a sewing machine or needle expert) I found this information. I looked at a number of charts with needle point styles and no "H". Then finally found this info and assembled it into a PDF. "H" appears to identify the needle has a scarf. Hope it helps. Needle Style.pdf

I used their Gel Antique Saddle Tan. By the time I had an even color across the leather, it was more red than tan. Since then I learned a little about how to apply it. Take a look at George Hurst doing a demo with 3 different products. With the gel, he uses a damp sponge to remove excess coloring. So I did one a few days ago where I wanted really light saddle tan. Scrubed a lot off with the damp sponge and it turned out okay. I also tried a resist with Resolene. It was lighter but gave it a yellowish tone. Not too bad, but not what I was looking for. Definitely pay attention to how long you leave the antique on the leather. The longer it is there, the deeper and darker the color. Take a few scraps and try out different ideas on them to see what works best for you. (And write it down for futur reference, label each sample you do, type of leather, type of antique and any other product info and how you treated it.) Good luck, experiment, practice and keep learning. CTG

I assume that where you said you have tried reducing the tension that you were refering to presser foot pressure. If not, reduce the spring pressure on the presser foot. CTG

The first train ride I remember was a steamer in the dead of winter, colder than heck. The train consisted of the engine, tender, 1 passenger car, baggage (and mail) car and caboose. Wasn't a long distance, about 60 miles. There was a pot bellied wood/coal heater at one end of the car. It was glowing red hot. You toasted on one side and froze on the other. I must have been about age 4. I remember the toilet was open to the track, so you could see the ties whizing by below. Pretty cold seat, worse than an outhouse. During the summer, the engineers used to stop the train during luch hour, get out and eat their lunch along with anyone else that wanted to stretch their legs. The engineers would shoot gophers for a little target practice. No one worried about thw schedule on this lonely side track. In the 1920s my grandfather road the rails (free unless you were caught, then a few days in jail) looking for work across Canada and norther US. CTG

Nice. So often hard to get a good contrast between black and blue. Yours is great.

Your train photos are great. I used to live beside the track and saw the transition from steam to diesel, much to my disgust. When are you going to start on it? We need a pressure welder and good machinist too. Maybe we should get this guy on board too. If I was any good at drawing cartoons, I would do one of you on a 3 wheeler with a boiler spewing black smoke and ash. But I guess my imagination will have to suffice. CTG

Image 2, captioned brake ... Is an automatic oiler for delivering steam cylinder oil to the steam admission valves and mabe to the cylinder as well. The tubing coming out of the bottom goes to each point that needs oil. CTG

Mop&Glo triple action is the only one we could find here. I was testing some dyes and finishes, as well as assembly technique for a special binder I have been asked to do. The cover is lined with a 3-4 oz leather. I had been using some newspaper to keep the bench clean. The lining had picked up some black from the newspaper type. I sprayed a mist of m&g on it. It wiped right off and has left a nice sheene after drying and buffing. So 2 things learned, don't use newspaper where there is any risk of picking up the ink and that m&g will remove some surface grime, etc. if needed. CTG

Put your finish on in very thin layers. Let it dry well between coats so the finish stays in layers. If it doesn't dry between coats, then it is just one thick layer and cracks. Thin your finish to 50-50 mix or so before application. Look up other recent posts on finishing. Some are using 50-50 mixture of mop-n-glow which I am trying out on some scraps to see how I like it. Looks good so far. Depending on the finish you used, you may be able to use its solvent to remove most of it and refinish it. Feibings deglazer might work to help remove the finish too. Might take several applications and lots of rubbing with soft cotton cloth to remove the old stuff. CTG

You have some great work and ideas. I need to look at doing something similar. For your next cover, the spine text should typically be right side up when the book is closed and placed on the table face up. Don't stop work on this one though. I'm sure a lot of people won't notice, and the new owner will love it anyhow. CTG