Flock- Flock, Flockty

[awharness]

So before I could tell this woman"I dont reflock saddles" the saddle was on the porch when I got home from lunch... The pannel is already off of the saddle, its an old german made stuben, I figure I might as well give it a shot! Any tips? where to get the flock? can I use just carded wool? any secretes tips on how to sew it back up? how much do I charge?

-Andrew

[Kevin]

Are you just adding stuffing or doing a total reflock? Steubbens are stuffed with ground up trash and tend to get lumpy with age. If you can get hold of some nice long staple wool roving, that's the thing to use. I used to get wool straight from being clipped and I spent more time cleaning and fluffing the wool than stuffing the saddle. Taking the panels off is the first thing and it is the right way to do the job. A lot of "saddle fitters" think they can stuff a saddle without taking it apart, but I've never seen one done that way, that was done right, there's no way to distrbute the wool evenly, that I know of.

Why is the saddle being stuffed? Does it need it? Is the tree broken? Is the tree spread? Is it soreing the horse in front? Maybe they've got some super duper stirrup leathers that are telegraphing a nice fat lump through the panels. Probably they tighten up that front billet too much, when they should be using the rear two billets. The reason there are three billets is so you can change rigging position, not so you have a spare like they teach in pony club. Check out the rigging on a McLellan, you can move it where it needs to be.

If you do a total reflock, keep it a little fluffy, then they can ride it a while and it will bed to the horse's back and then you add more stuffing.

Don't forget to make sure the panels are straight when you put it back together.

If it needs billets, take care of that while you have the panels off.

We charge $122 to stuff and $210 to remove everything and totally reflock.

When you put it back together, the back will probably be very hard to pull back in tight.

I used either an arm length and a half or two and a half of doubled Nyltex, prestretched and a curved needle and lace it together loosely. Then go back and pull it tight. Wrap your thread around something like an awl haft to get a good grip and pull straight or you will tear that old dry leather on top of the panel. I don't actually use an awl, because you are pulling hard and it would be very easy to damage something (yourself).

This is just a brief beginning and I am not going to proofread it. Hopefully Jimsaddler or Barra Or someone else will add more.

Good Luck, Kevin

I personally don't trust myself to do this job anymore because I have histoplasmosis in one eye and am not confident enough in my depth perception, its gotta be right or YOU will damage someone else's horse. Whew

[jockey]

Hei I have just done one of these here in England, the main prob I can see you having is that to do this properly you need the horse and rider there so you can keepadjusting the flocking to get the fit right, If your just adding flocking to it and really with an old stubben there should be no need to take all the old flocking out unless something drastic has happend to it, you can add more flocking and adjust it without taking the saddle apart at all, if you lift up the flaps you should see two slits in the top of the panel where you can add new flocking. As a general rule of thumb you should be able to get three fingers between the horses withers and the the saddle at the pommel with the rider sitting in place and if you stand behind the horse and look through the centre gullet of the saddle you should be able to see daylight through, then you know that if nothing else at least the riders weight is not resting on the horses spine, hope this helps a bit

best regards

Tony

[barra]

Andrew. This is not an easy job for the uninitiated. Reflocking is not simply jamming flock in until the seams of the panel want to burst. You have to stuff it so that the panel remains flat. Too much stuffing or placing flock unevenly and you can end up with a domed shaped panel. This reduces the bearing surface on the horses back. If you look at the how it's made-English saddle youtube, you will see the saddler flocking. I assume that the block she is running on top of the base panel is to assist in keeping it flat. Note how she then hammers it flat with a rubber mallet. For this I use my smasher/masher/bouncer. If you place too much flocking at the rear you will have a devil of a time lacing the panel back in.

In the E Jeffries clip you can see the start of the flocking of a new saddle 7 Min 7 Sec into the clip. The bulk of the flocking is added thru the long slit (the length of the panel) before it is closed up. Note how the saddler is pressing down with his hand to again assist in keeping the panel flat. 7 min, 37 sec into the clip you can see how this long slit (the length of the panel) has been closed up. The final flocking is now added thu the slits in the panel you can see. When the panel is finally attached to the top of the saddle, these slits will be up against the tree. Some saddlers stitch these slits closed when the flocking is done. Some don't bother as they feel that when the panel is stitched in, that there is no way the flocking can come out as the un stitched slit is firmly up against the tree. There may be a slit or two at the pommel end of the panel and one or two at the cantle end. It is these slits that are used to re-flock for the remainder of the saddles life.

Most saddlers use wool to flock. The wool needs to be fluffy and clean with no lumps, bumps or knots in it or you will get the princess and the pea effect. To my wool I add a small amount of curled horse hair as I feel it adds just a little springiness.

Now for restitching (front) and lacing (back)

At either end of the panel there is a roll of leather. These are called the facings. Place the panel back on the tree by slipping the points of the tree back into the pockets. Now push up the panel back up into the cantle. You should note that there are holes in the base panel ( just forward of the back facing). There should also be corresponding holes on the seat leather at the back of the cantle. When lacing back in, these hole MUST line up or the panel will end up skew wiff. You may see a hole in the skirt, in line with where the lacing starts and ends. Some saddlers place a stitch right thru the skirt to draw the panel and skirt up tight together, some use a bent awl to make a hole into the flesh side of the skirt that will not go thru into the grain side of the skirt. Some don't bother with either.

At the pommel there should be a piece of leather with a ridge that has been tacked to the tree (imaginatively called the front peice). When re-stitching in at the front, there is probable an old stitch hole where the front peice meets the flap on both the near and off sides. Re-stitch into the old holes. I stitch in behind the ridge of leather on the front peice.

I added the Berney Bros clip because it does briefly show flocking.

Edited March 4, 2009 by barra