Can someone explain how to do a pre set stirrup wrap?

[bruce johnson]

A jig is used to set the twist and stretch stirrup leathers and fenders. Some people refer to them as a stirrup leather stretcher. A few guys make them commercially and some guys make up their own. Basically assemble the fenders and leathers, wet them up, put the top of the leather over one bar, the bottom bar goes through where the stirrup bolt would be. You then add tension, usually with a screw mechanism that spreads the two bars.

A drawdown is a saddlebuilding stand with some way to pull a seat down tight with a strap over the top. You can again wet the assembled leathers, put them on a saddle tree, turn the stirrups out and run a piece of post through them, and apply tenson to that post. It will set the twist and stretch them.

A homemade way to do it is to wet the leathers still on the saddle, turn the stirrups out, and run the post through the stirrups with a bucket hanging between them. Add weight to the bucket - water, an anvil, whatever. Let everything dry under tension.

[Saddlebag]

I have a knee breaker with heavy fenders and stirrup leathers. I tried everything to get those suckers to turn to ease the knee pressure. I then reversed the slider, soaked the leather and put a 3" wide collar on them and laced them tight. When dry I removed the collars and low and behold I finally got a nice turn that seems to be permanent. That was 5 years ago.

[Tosch]

Curbstrap,

I just had a good laugh.

I hope you enjoy the trouble you are getting......

Tosch

[Casey Jordan]

Curbstrap2,

I just found this post today, I was in Colorado when it originaly posted.

I had to comment since that is my saddle you posted, and no I don't mind.

The twist you are refering to is called a Nevada twist (well that's what I call it anyway).

The purpose of it is just for what saddlebag refered to. A lot of saddles have the stirrups parallel with the fender, this will get to your knees sore in short order. You want your stirrups to hang perpendicular to the fenders, reliveing the stress on the knee.

The tail of the fender where the bevlin buckle is rivited should have been just a little longer to get it just a little farther from the stirrup.

While the fender is still wet I rivit on the bevlin and squeeze the leather together just below the buckle. I used 1/2" latigo ( with saddle soap on it) with a slit about 1" from one end and run the other end through the slit and start wrapping, keeping it as tight as possible, and run the end back up through the middle. Then put it on my drawdown like previously explained and with tension and left to dry.

Thanks for the help Bruce, you saved me a lot of typing!

Hope this helps.

[D.A. Kabatoff]

not sure how I missed this topic as well but Bruce is absolutely correct about the direction of the pins. Typically, the pins of the blevins would be facing the opposite direction as pictured below. If what you have looks like the photo below, then you will have to drill out the rivets, reverse the plates, and rivet them back in. After that you can wet the leather and make your twist as shown in the photo you posted.

Darc

[cowboycolonel]

When I do this, I put the adjusting buckle on so that when I'm done the pins will face the horse.  If I'm building the saddle, I will often use a bag punch and tap through both the stirrup leather and the fender leather to get a good start. I use a 3/8 saddlestring and punch a hole in one end while tapering the other end and the sides of the string.  Thoroughly wet the string so it will stretch and form a tight wrap.  Wrap around both pieces, but do not tie them off yet.  Put both assemblies on the stretcher and make certain that everything is properly aligned and then tighten the wraps and finish them off by pulling the running ends back down through the wraps (I wrap 5 times).  Then tighten the stretcher as tight as you can get it and set it aside.  I tighten it again the next day and the next.  By then the moisture will be gone and your stirrups will be set forever. 

Please note that you should do all tooling, stamping and dyeing, and edging, including punching the holes for the Blevins or Kreger's or whatever you're going to use, beforehand.

If you still need a photo of a stirrup stretcher, let me know.