justken Report post Posted June 20, 2009 A customer brought in a silver mounted Ted Flowers parade saddle today. It's missing a couple of silver pieces and a couple of "belt" tips that were on saddle strings. Anyone know if these or reproductions are avilable? The swell caps are also dented up some,has anyone on here ever pulled them off to get dents out? There's only 3 pins/nails holding on that I can see,but I'm leary of scratching the silver.Any tricks to this? Also interested in any info about these saddles. You don't normally see many of these in my end of the world. The guy also is looking at a gold mounted one,but it has a green tarnish on some of the "conchos".Did Flowers make any of these saddles with brass ? I know thay were made with "rosegold" but that dosn't look like this one does. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
superchute Report post Posted June 20, 2009 try flitz one the silver it works great. Use a old tooth brush to get in the little spots and make shere not the wife's good brush. lol please post pics of it Russ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bruce johnson Report post Posted June 20, 2009 Ken, I lived around that area for a while. Loon Creek Leather in Huntington IN (260 356-0726) bought what I think were all the dies and patterns from the family. They are supposed to be making them on some level again, and I'd give them a call. I would not trust that these conchos are silver like Bohlins. Many of them were not. The green is probably verdigis from copper in the JB alloy. Not much of a trick to removing the swell cover other than to be careful you don't lift the head off the nail. Most of the time you can chase out those dents from the back unless it is really cheesy plating and flakes off. As an aside, what is the tooling like? Some was pretty decent and some was fairly mediocre on the Flowers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justken Report post Posted June 20, 2009 Mr Johnson, I just got done doing a search for Flower's saddles and found Loon Creek Leather.Will be giving them a call monday.Do you know if thay sell any of their Diamond conchos outright? The tooling on this one looks ok but not real fancy. This saddle is a 14" youth. It's complete except for the bit,it's a cheeper aluminum (sorry-no spell check).Well other than a couple missing pieces of the silver.At first,I thought the silver looked more like aluminum but there starting to clean up. When I was a kid, my Dad had a silver mounted saddle. I think it came out of southern Cal. Just remember having to polish the durn thing.If you got caught on the barn roof,you got to polish it. Other than replaceing a couple of hanger straps this saddle's in pretty good shap.He is haveing me go over it then clean it up. Then it's going on E-Bay. He's looking at a gold mounted one also. He brought in the part that would go over the rump. That's what had the green tarnish on it.Looks a whole lot like brass to me. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justken Report post Posted June 20, 2009 try flitz one the silver it works great. Use a old tooth brush to get in the little spots and make shere not the wife's good brush. lol please post pics of it Russ I'll try to post some pictures on monday.I have the slowest dial up in the world at the house and i'm not sappost to load anything on these puters here at work. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justken Report post Posted June 20, 2009 Thought I'd added a reply but must have hit the wrong button... This saddle is a 14' youth,all the pieces are there(other than the missing silver)It's all original except the bit which is a cheep aluminum one.Only really bad thing is that someone cut the fenders down on it. Stright line cut and about what looks like 3"-4" off. I'll try to post some pictures on monday. I have the slowest dial up in the world at the house and am not sappost to load anything on these puters here at work. The tooling looks nice but it's not super fancy. I'll be giving Loon Creek Leather a call on monday. Their web site shows the triangle conchos that I'm needing. Thought I'd lost my posting..but thay are there now..sorry...Some day I'll learn how to drive these durn things... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Randy Cornelius Report post Posted June 20, 2009 I have done some research on Flowers saddles in the past when I had one come in for repairs. All of the silver pieces are attached with one copper split rivit soddered to the back. Most of these Flowers saddles are all over 20 years old. They were sewn with linen thread and the fact is that over that amount of time linen will rot. When making repairs there is just no place to stop as you will keep finding places that need the stitches fixed and it goes on and on. I know of one person that does total rebuilds of these old Flowers saddles. Some my know Dusty Johnson who lives in Colorado. The name of his shop is Pleasant Valley Saddle Shop. He has a web site with his phone number and he is a wealth of information and loves to talk about these old saddles. I suggest you give him a call. He helped me out on the one that I worked on. Randy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilverSaddle1 Report post Posted July 5, 2009 Well I can answer just about any question you may have about the Flowers saddles. We do all our own repairs and even have built new pieces to use with the saddles. Part of our Flowers collection. Scott Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Traveller Report post Posted July 5, 2009 That's the shiniest saddle collection I've ever seen! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HorsehairBraider Report post Posted July 5, 2009 @SilverSaddle1: Holy Smokes! What an awesome collection! Now that is a wonderful sight indeed. Do you have a website with these listed one at a time? I would love to look at them. They are just beautiful. I've never been near one of these in my life although I would dearly love to be. I've always loved these saddles. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilverSaddle1 Report post Posted July 5, 2009 Well we don't really have a site yet. I have on I'm working on, but not going public yet. Here is a pic of one of our sterling Flowers sets. This was taken before a parade we rode in at Valentine, Nebraska. This set is all sterling and also has 17 22kt. gold horseheads on it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HorsehairBraider Report post Posted July 5, 2009 THANK YOU, SilverSaddle1! That is amazing. It just boggles my mind to imagine doing the sterling silver work for that! What a beautiful piece of history. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Randy Cornelius Report post Posted July 5, 2009 PM sent Well we don't really have a site yet. I have on I'm working on, but not going public yet.Here is a pic of one of our sterling Flowers sets. This was taken before a parade we rode in at Valentine, Nebraska. This set is all sterling and also has 17 22kt. gold horseheads on it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Traveller Report post Posted July 6, 2009 Wow! How much does a saddle like that weigh? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilverSaddle1 Report post Posted July 6, 2009 Wow! How much does a saddle like that weigh? This saddle in silver and gold tops out at about 90 pounds for the complete set. That is a lot of silver! Got Silver? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
broncobuster Report post Posted July 6, 2009 Ive got a ted flowers catalog from the 70s or 80s n i could of had one for 500.00 then ack just kick myself for never buying one. Bronc Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
