Repair on lower flaps of a Passier Mono Optimum saddle

[Mulesaw]

One of my clients had worn through the reinforcement on the lower part of the outer flaps on her Passier saddle.

It is one of those damages that see fairly often. Mostly on dressage saddles. On this saddle I hand stitched on some reinforcements that were slightly beefier than the original very thin ones. 

The main cause of the wear on this saddle was inadequate cleaning. 
The client had oiled/greased the saddle very well, but riding in dusty conditions had caused the dust to mix into the grease that was left in the sewing and other nooks and crannies on the saddle. I tried to scrape of a bit and if I rubbed it between two nails, I could clearly feel that it was abrasive like carborundum. I started of washing the saddle really well, but technically I hadn't been asked to do that by the client, so I just did it on my own time to be nice since she is a good repetitive client. It helped some, but it could have needed an even more thorough cleaning. 

I was at a dilemma if I should tell her uninvited what I believed the cause was. I decided that if I was asked I would tell and show it, but otherwise I wouldn't. I would hate to sound condescending in case she did her best in cleaning already, and generally people (including myself) often get irritated if offered unsolicited advice. 
I really hoped that she would have asked, since I felt sorry about the fact that this damaged could have been lessened a lot with a rather simple job. 

@Goldshot Ron shared a great recipe for a simple cleaner: Water, ammonia, and a few drops of Ivory dish soap. 

I haven't tried it yet since I haven't had any saddles through my shop that required it lately, but it sounds like something that works really well, and equally important - it is a nice doable recipe without unicorn blood or ashes from volcanos as ingredients. 

 

 

[TomE]

That's a neat looking repair, Jonas.  Better than new.  The trend towards using soft leather for dressage saddles should be a boost to the repair business.   I've been asked about a similar repair but the saddle hasn't arrived in my shop.

I am slogging through a pile of dirty tack that's in for repairs.  Includes 7 martingales with the bridle loop chewed off, and a lot of halters with broken nosebands.  Getting a lot of practice splicing new ends onto broken straps.  Not as aesthetically pleasing as making new tack, but it is a skill building exercise.  I am aiming for a 2" overlap at the splice, tapering the ends to about 1/4 thickness to maintain some strength. 

Edited 7 hours ago by TomE