Tree Hardware Sources - English Saddles

[Kate]

I'm in the starting phases of restoring a really beautiful old sidesaddle, and need to find a replacement for the truly awful rusted cruddy stirrup bar. Would love to put in a modern safety bar, but shy of buying another complete English saddle and cannibalizing it, I am not finding this particular hardware.

Does anybody here have any leads to getting the hardware? I know, most folks here are Western types - and the last time I put a new tree in an English saddle was near thirty ears back..... had to order that tree from England! Just hoping, ya know.

Thanks for any help,

Kate

[alb]

Hi Kate - I purchased a pair for a bareback rig that I made a couple of months ago. I think the supplier was Smith Worthington. When I get to the shop tomorrow I'll check and if that's not it, I'll let you know. They don't have repair parts listed on their site, but I'm pretty sure that was my source.

http://www.smithworthington.com

Ann

I'm in the starting phases of restoring a really beautiful old sidesaddle, and need to find a replacement for the truly awful rusted cruddy stirrup bar. Would love to put in a modern safety bar, but shy of buying another complete English saddle and cannibalizing it, I am not finding this particular hardware.

Does anybody here have any leads to getting the hardware? I know, most folks here are Western types - and the last time I put a new tree in an English saddle was near thirty ears back..... had to order that tree from England! Just hoping, ya know.

Thanks for any help,

Kate

[Kate]

Hi Kate - I purchased a pair for a bareback rig that I made a couple of months ago. I think the supplier was Smith Worthington. When I get to the shop tomorrow I'll check and if that's not it, I'll let you know. They don't have repair parts listed on their site, but I'm pretty sure that was my source.

http://www.smithworthington.com

Ann

OK, you got me on that one.

What part of a bareback rig does a stirrup leather hang on? Seriously - I know I'm way out of it, but I can't picture this. Please enlighten me!

I do appreciate your offer - Smith Worthington has always been very responsive to customer requests for me on saddle questions (ie, age, etc of saddles) but I never thought of asking them.

I do have a feeler out to Malvern Saddle Co in theUK, as they carry quite a lot of sidesaddle parts and pieces, was hoping they still had a hand in tree making. It's such a nearly arcane thing these days.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks again,

Kate

[Denise]

You can get English Stirrup bars from Windmill English Saddle Supply in Thompson Ohio. Phone 440-298-3018 Linda M. Williams. They source stuff out of the UK if they need to. We purchased some from there this summer.

[alb]

Hi Kate,

Sorry about the delay. Well I was using the term bareback rig a bit loosely. I had a customer come in who loves riding bareback but wanted stirrups. She drew a picture and I built her what she wanted. I can't find a picture of the one I created but it turned out that it was pretty similar to this: http://www.bozsaddlery.com/bare2red.jpg I wish I had a picture of mine. It was a fun little project to work on.

Hope you came up with your stirrup bars. I had a side saddle in the shop for an estimate a couple of months ago. I was really looking forward to working on it but they decided they couldn't spend that much right now. It was in really rough shape. The gentleman that I am learning from has had three side saddles on the bench at one time, but that's been many years ago.

I have a question for you. I'm quite new to saddlemaking/repair. I'm learning from a gentleman who has been doing it for 45 years, all self taught. We use pure neatsfoot oil to oil saddles that come in for cleaning and oiliing. Is there some product that you would recommend that works well to condition but doesn't darken as much as neatsfoot oil? Some of these saddles have been neglected and left out and the leather is as stiff as a board.

Take care,

Ann

OK, you got me on that one.

What part of a bareback rig does a stirrup leather hang on? Seriously - I know I'm way out of it, but I can't picture this. Please enlighten me!

I do appreciate your offer - Smith Worthington has always been very responsive to customer requests for me on saddle questions (ie, age, etc of saddles) but I never thought of asking them.

I do have a feeler out to Malvern Saddle Co in theUK, as they carry quite a lot of sidesaddle parts and pieces, was hoping they still had a hand in tree making. It's such a nearly arcane thing these days.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks again,

Kate