repairing a torn horn leather

[twofour878]

Hey, I'm new to the whole saddle world other than knowing how to sit in one. My mother asked me if I could fix a horn leather and I wasnted to ask what you guys would do for this. I don't have a workshop or very many tools so I'd like to avoid taking it apart and just cover the exposed area.

[Randy Cornelius]

This is a fairly easy repair from what I can see from your pictures, they were not too clear. First clean out all the old threads. Use a good glue and glue the piece back down using several needles to carfully line up the old holes. Stick 4-6 needles up through the holes from the bottom and lay over the flap lining up the old sewing holes. You can now sew this back down using 2 needle method or a jerk needle.

Randy

[CharlieR]

Randy--I really hate to sound dumb here, (and this is probably a real newbie question) but what is a jerk needle?

[dbusarow]

This is a fairly easy repair from what I can see from your pictures, they were not too clear. First clean out all the old threads. Use a good glue and glue the piece back down using several needles to carfully line up the old holes. Stick 4-6 needles up through the holes from the bottom and lay over the flap lining up the old sewing holes. You can now sew this back down using 2 needle method or a jerk needle.

Randy

Randy, it looks to me like the bottom half of the horn cap is missing so there's nothing to sew the top half to. Is that correct twofour878?

Dan

[Mike Craw]

I looks that way to me too, Dan. I think, judging by the photo, that twofour878 could take a round hunk of saddle leather, cut and skive a tounge to fit into the wrap under the horn, and Barge it onto the bottom of the horn. The stitch holes in the top piece look like they might be OK, so once the old thread is cleaned out, you can just sew through those holes again.

Oh, and a jerk needle is one the has a notch ground in down by the tip. It kind of looks like a hook. You plunge it down through the leather, hook the bottom thread through the notch and "jerk" the thread up through the hole. Thread the top thread through the loop you have jerked up through the hole and pull both threads so that the loops are down inside thehole in the leather, forming a stitch.

Hope that helps.

Mike

[twofour878]

yeah the bottom piece was ripped off long ago. That sounds about what I was gonna do. Thanks guys just wanted to make sure I'm not crazy.

[Randy Cornelius]

yeah the bottom piece was ripped off long ago. That sounds about what I was gonna do. Thanks guys just wanted to make sure I'm not crazy.

Sorry I could not tell by the photo that the lower part was missing. This is a major repair requiring the saddle to be torn down, the swell cover removed and the horn re-wrapped. Not something I would recomend for a first timer.

Randy

[Timbo]

........or you could get rid of the top piece of the horn cap and make new top and bottom caps, glue and stitch them in place them cover the neck in mulehide or latigo. That way you wouln't have to tear anything down any more than it is.

Tim

[twofour878]

Thanks for the advice. I think for now I'm going to glue the top piece down as a kind of filler then glue and stitch new top and botoms on. We'll see what I can come up with. This saddle isn't really being used very often so I have some time to think about it. Eventually once I get some experience I'll try taking it apart and re-doing it but that can wait until I get some more experience.

Edited January 27, 2009 by twofour878

[rustyriggin]

If I'm not wrong the actual name for the "jerk needle", is a number 6 straight needle, you can find them at almost any shoe repair supply, or just go to your local shoe repair shop. They should have them for around $6.00. FWIW