Saddlebag

You might try hydrogen peroxide carefully dabbed with Q tips.

Is that a flower stamp in the horn? The style is identical to my older Simco roper altho mine is a roughout.

Most production saddles are touted as hand-made, and they are to some extent. Manufacturers speed up the process with machinery that can cut out many, many saddles in the course of a day whereas a saddlemaker will use the better part of a day cutting out one. Each worker becomes very skilled at his/her particular role in the assembly of the saddle. It's like buying shoes off the shelf or custom made. You can still get a very good fit in off the shelf shoes.

Contact Leighton's in Alberta Canada. Check Jack's website. He refurbishes machines.

You could also try Jack Leighton, a wonderful machinist who refurbished stitches of all makes and models. I think his web site is Leighton's, he's in Alberta.

Simco adopted the flower stamp in the horn years ago. The saddle is from the aforementioned time - late 50's, early 60's.

Blake I'd wondered about Big Horn as well as it appears to be their stitching pattern on the seat.

Nah, gotta get them out the door as the space is needed.

I just realized that you folks probably aren't familiar with Glenbow. Glenbow is a huge modern museum located in downtown Calgary that specializes in Western Canadian history. The collection is world class. Glenbow's full title is Glenbow-Alberta Institute. I'm thinking the saddle dates back to about 1930.

The buck stitch is an Arab saddle from I'm thinking early 60's to early 70's. At that time Simco, TexTan and other good saddles did the rawhide wrap around the edge of the horn. I wouldn't be surprised if it has a rawhide covered tree. You could easily get $600 for it. Now I have to look at the other saddle.

With a dry saddle I'll give it a good cleaning with saddle soap, allow it to set 2 or 3 days, then soap it again to help replenish the moisture. Then it it warrants it I'll quickly brush neatsfoot oil on while the leather is still damp and the pores are open. This then sits a week before I do anything else. The waiting times give the moisture and oil time to work deeper into the leather.

A pic of the whole saddle might help

I just cleaned up a saddle covered in SaddleLac because it had spider cracked wherever there was movement in the leather. I find most of the fellas in my area prefer the mellow glow on a holster or gun case, I guess because most are hunters and it's an old carry over about shiney stuff when hunting alerting the game.

What if it were sold as a piece of artwork, after all you are an artisan. What's the diff. it it's oils on canvas or leather carving? In Canada, so far, one would have to prove negligence on the maker's part. eg. I was away. Legal age teen had come to stay with my under age teen over night. They decided to go horseback riding-my horses. Older teen came off and wound up with a few sore muscles. His family considered suing. Family was told no one forced their son to get on our horse and he did so without permission, that I could charge him for stealing my horse. That was the last of it.

My favorites are less than 1/8" thick, 1" wide x 7' long. They are made of good supple leather and are very comfortable to hold. Someone had coiled them and stored them in a leaky shed. One could have used them for a hockey puck. A good bath with a few drops of bleach got them to uncoil and three saddle soapings with vinegar water brought them back to good useable condition. Ten years later and a fewannual soapings they are still going strong. "Ain't nobody borrows these".

Your best bet is to google Dusty Johnson at Pleasant Valley Saddle Shop. It has his email address. He's an expert on refurbishing Ted Flowers saddles and has a wealther of knowledge about them.

I found this technique on the internet altho I haven't tried it. I may stain a similar piece to see how well this works. Leather or Suede Follow these steps to remove water spots from Leather or Suede: Test denatured alcohol in an inconspicuous area. If safe to use, rub the stain with a cloth dampened with a few drops of alcohol. On leather, follow with Tannery Vintage Leather Cleaner & Conditioner or Fiebing's Saddle Soap to condition the leather.

I'd say this style became popular in the 70's. The low sloping forks usually denote an Arab tree. The saddle appears to be of excellent quality.

I do believe this to be a cowboy's working saddle. From my days at Glenbow in Calgary I don't recall ever seeing a saddle of this style used by either the NWMP or the RCMP. The first bunch of NWMP were a pretty straggly bunch using their own horses, saddles and clothing. Since the saddles were privately owned it's doubtful they'd bear the NWMP stamp.

I just finished adding oil dye to an english saddle. It wasn't worth a full blown dye job. This saddle had a marked cantle edge as well and the oil dye is good for this as the first application may not make much of a difference but you can reapply. The spirit dyes - when you apply it, it's there whether you want the color or not. English saddles have a pretty tough finish on the seats and you may be able to darken the seat a little with oil dye, same with the flaps. Once it's dry I'll go over it with glycerine soap altho it doesn't weep like spirit dye. What I like about glycerin soap is it will buff to a nice shine with a soft cloth and a little work. BTW Traditionally black denotes Dressage while browns are traditional with all the other disciplines.

If you have trouble getting the alternate fenders installed, get two large empty yogurt containers. Cut off the top and bottom and discard. You now have a plastic donut. Cut thro from edge to edge, just once on each one. Round the corners a bit as they can be sharp. Put one piece on top and bottom of leather and push thro. It takes all the manual labor and sweat out of this task. You could get two pieces out of an old ice cream pail as well.

Were you able to remove the soot? You've left us wondering?

I've seen where people have gone after the leather a little too vigorously and wound up creating a fuzzy surface where it was once hard polished leather. That is why the soft toothbrush and toothpics work best, less risk of damage. Oh, and lots of patience. Lol

Soft toothbrush and tooth picks are still your best bet. Been there, done that.

Ammonia is the only product that removes soot. I'd mix according to directions on the bottle and try a damp q-tip in a small place. Be sure the area is well ventilated, and mix maybe a tablespoon at a time.