question about covering stirrups

[Duke]

ok so in my quest to build up my skills enough so that I can begin to make a saddle, I am starting small. going to be covering a set of stirrups. the stirrups are wood, wrapped on the outside with metal, and has a carriage bolt through the top, with a pipe as a spacer. my question is this: what is the ideal weight leather to use? is lighter leather better? I'm not going to be tooling the stirrups, as I will be making a set of tapaderos to go over them, so I dont need heavier leather. pros and cons of light weight leather? any and all suggestions on this would be taken to heart. thanks in advance to all who respond.

[greg gomersall]

ok so in my quest to build up my skills enough so that I can begin to make a saddle, I am starting small. going to be covering a set of stirrups. the stirrups are wood, wrapped on the outside with metal, and has a carriage bolt through the top, with a pipe as a spacer. my question is this: what is the ideal weight leather to use? is lighter leather better? I'm not going to be tooling the stirrups, as I will be making a set of tapaderos to go over them, so I dont need heavier leather. pros and cons of light weight leather? any and all suggestions on this would be taken to heart. thanks in advance to all who respond.

Duke if you are putting the stirrups in a set of taps why would you cover the stirrup as well? Why not just wrap the treads and use a rollar chafe? When I cover stirrups I use 9/10 oz on the outside and 7/8 oz on the liners. Greg

[Duke]

well I was worried about the metal rubbing agianst the taps and eventually wearing through it.that and it looks alot better.

[Bob]

I do the same as Greg said, 9 oz on the outside, 7-8 oz on the inside. The liners on the inside are sew to the outside wet. the outside is dry. The outside is cut to fit around the edges, except the bottom, it's about 1 inch too long, the liner is cut large and wet, like i said. Sew them together, with a bubble. You do that when sewing the second half. trim the inside liner and edge both sides now.

Use a hammer handle and push it into the top end to open it as much as possible. Some folks use glue or liquid saddle soap, put some inside. Or nothing at all. A bench mounted vise is now handy. clamp the long end of the outside piece thats dry, into the vise at the bottom. fold it over and insert the sturrip and push it in. Use a hammer to drive it on up to the top, if you don't have a vise, you'lll have to do this by hand. Trim the excess off at the bottom and push out the bubbles on the inside liner. Do the same for the other side, trim the ends off to butt together at the bottom and cover with the tread. Dip the whole thing into the water and rub the edges, use an awl to locate the bolt holes, drill it out, put in your bolt and spacer, let it dry.

Cut your threads to fit, only cut them about 1 inch long. For a better fit, use a french edger to trim a 45 degree angle off the bottom side of the tread only on the top side where the thread starts to rise, only to the edge of the stirrup, on both sides. It'll lay flat. punch holes and lace together at the bottom.

[Duke]

thanks bob, thats what I was looking for. I appreciate it. good thing I have a good imagination, hels to try to imagine what youre talking about, and try to follow along.

[Bob]

Duke, here are some pictures of work I did today. This should help you out to understand what I'm talking about. Sorry if it seems confusing.

[Bob]

Here again is another couple pictures. Tomorrow when they're finished I'll post some more pictures.

Please note, once you put the tag end in the vice and whale on it with the hammer, be gentle. It's not hard to break stirrups without the bolt in them. Espesially a small 1 inch like this. You should have a 3/8 inch seam allowance around the edge. More if you useing heavy leather, Less for thinner leather.

One more thing, if you run into troubles and the leather is too tight. Dip the whole thing into the water. It helps get things moving along.

Edited April 3, 2008 by Bob

[Duke]

oh wow!!!!!! ok, I got it now! the light bulb just came on upstairs, lol. what a huge help bob. I am in debt to you, for your generous amount of help. I will look forward to the rest of the pics. please explain how you keep the pieces from sliding off before you put the tread on, do you glue it, or nail it, or stitch it? thanks a million

[ryan]

Bob,

Thanks for posting those pics. I've often times wondered if anybody did it that way. I now feel kind of foolish for buying the stirrup plate for my adler 205. I haven't covered any stirrups with it yet but your system makes more sense. I guess I still can use my stirrup plate for holsters!!

Ryan

[Duke]

never feel foolish about buying a tool. its just one more thing that increases your ability to do something.