Fender repair...

[Cattledude]

Please rivet the D on the flank cinch. If that comes loose there’s a good chance of getting bucked off… 

[Brokenolmarine]

1 hour ago, Cattledude said:

Please rivet the D on the flank cinch. If that comes loose there’s a good chance of getting bucked off… 

I wasn't able to before but may have figured out a way to do it now.  I was thinking it would be a good idea because she doesn't take the time to clean, so even glued, that screw might come loose.

[Cattledude]

I use 2 copper rivets through all layers when I attach the D to the cinch, flat side of the rivet to the horse.. Dont ask how I know that a loose hobble on the flank can get you bucked off…. 
 

[bruce johnson]

On 1/21/2026 at 9:07 PM, Brokenolmarine said:

Back at it again, I carefully stamped the tooling pattern around the inside of the border, AFTER I cut the inside line deeper with a swivel knife the blade of which I had re-sharpened and polished.  I now had a clearly defined sharp reference to work from.  Each stamp was checked before I struck it and EACH strike was firm and careful.  I wanted to avoid a glancing blow or a bounce, both of which could ruin the entire line.

In the picture below you can see the border, as well as my Maker's Mark at the bottom of the leg on both Fenders.  Again, Careful Placement, and then even more careful in the strike.  Too much work to blow it now.

 

A closer look at the border pattern.  This is what she wanted.  I would have gone with a Serpentine Pattern myself, but then... not my saddle. LOL.

 

Next session, I'll work on dressing up the edges in preparation for applying Watco Oil or stain.  There are some spots I'll want to smooth out the "Line/Flow" of the edges so that we can burnish the edges.  I'll take a couple scrap pieces and make test panels for stains for color comparison.  The owner of the saddle finally sent pics to assist with color match, though she isn't too concerned.  I like to try.

I did get to do some Clean Up work on the blevins, removing old glue, rust, staining...  We'll be reusing the old beat up ones.  They tell me they can't be seen, So why not.

 

I missed this string earlier but here's the grumpy old guy evaluation. 

"I did get to do some Clean Up work on the blevins, removing old glue, rust, staining...  We'll be reusing the old beat up ones.  They tell me they can't be seen, So why not."

Plain and simple - because the pins are corroded and partially eaten away. At some point those pins may fail and even though this is a favor to a daughter's friend, shit gets real if that happens. She may have said not to change them because they can't be seen. If she lands on her head, somebody else may not be so casual about it. Yeah they can't be seen when riding but they are seen now. The only reason they haven't been seen is that she didn't care or know enough to look at them once in a while. Pretty basic part of a routine maintenance and safety check. This is like being asked to change the hubcaps and finding the brakes are about shot. Seriously, for the cost of stirrup buckles - change them out. You have more cost in leather than a set of new buckles.  

Have I seen worse, yeah. What would I do if somebody dropped this repair off and said don't change the buckles? Even in the black hole period of my life when nickles counted, I would not have done it. They would get a call about "hey, we need to change the buckles". If no,  they would get the pieces back to go somewhere else along with best wishes finding a shop that would do it.