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 Thursday at 01:16 AM by TomE

[Mulesaw]

@TomEThanks Tom

As usual I forgot to take some pictures of the saddle before starting the repair job. But as far as I remember, the reinforcement strips were completely worn through in the middle.

On some of the saddles I get to repair, only part of the stitching is damaged by abrasion, and then I just restitch that part. 

I haven't made tack to sell. I doubt that I would be able to. I know that I can't complete on price, and that is just such an important factor for most people over here. So repair jobs make up for the bulk of our work. 
I would love to be able to sell a triple stitched halter, but for the same amount of money most people will prefer to buy a brand name halter. No complaining, it is just the way it seems to be :-)

I do pretty much the exact same thing with tapering over 1.5 - 2" depending on the article to be repaired. Some jobs I manage to sew on the patcher, and I can see that most tack is machine sewn originally, so I do it to speed up the process and make sure that the customers don't think the repair job is too expensive. 

A reoccurring repair is the buckle straps that are attached to the noseband of the bridles. It is no wonder that they fall off. Often the strap is scarfed really thin, and then it is sewn across the thinned piece. So the slightest pull it will part on the stitch line. 

I really like to make repair jobs on leather items, there is something very satisfying in lengthening the lifespan of a piece of tack to me. And it sure beats repairing then inner lining of a damaged winter horse blanket. :-)

Brgds Jonas