Recovering Old Saddle

[Patricia]

Ok so here is my big questions and the main reason I joined the forum.

Have been doing leather work seriously for a few years now. I have made lots of check book covers, wallets, knief sheths, guitar and gun straps as well as many other smaller projects.

I would really like to learn to restore an old saddle. So I picked one up a tack sale really cheap. Now that I have been looking at it sitting on the rack in my workroom for some time, I am finding it rather intimadating. I am just not sure how to get started. I like the look of this saddle and from what I can see the tree seems to be in OK shape. But the leather looks pretty bad. What I would like to do is remove all the leather parts and use them as patterns to cut new ones that I can tool with my own designs. Then hopefully be able to put it all back together again with new fleecing and conchos etc. I may have bitten off more then I can chew, but I still want to give it a try. I am hoping you all can start me off in the right direction and maybe give me so tips along the way.

Thanks

[dirtclod]

The seat and fork cover you need to make from scratch. Well you might get by using the old seat for a pattern but it will need to be cut a little bigger. The rest you can probley use to make a pattern. Get some poster board to use for your patterns and check the fit on them before you cut any leather. If i were you i would get the Al Stholman saddle making books. Their are 3 of them.. They will explain alot of things you may have questions about and how to do them. Tear that bad boy apart and get going :-).

[Patricia]

1. I have looked at those books in the Tandy cataloge. Was wondering if they worth getting. And yes it was the seat and fork cover and the swells and horn that worried me. Also the sewing. How the heck did they get that stitched on there like that? I have a big job ahead of me. A lot to learn. I am thinking by the time I get it done I will be too old to actually put it on my horse and ride in it.

[Ken Nelson]

1. I have looked at those books in the Tandy cataloge. Was wondering if they worth getting. And yes it was the seat and fork cover and the swells and horn that worried me. Also the sewing. How the heck did they get that stitched on there like that? I have a big job ahead of me. A lot to learn. I am thinking by the time I get it done I will be too old to actually put it on my horse and ride in it.

Harry Adams Saddlemakers Shop Manual is pretty easy to understnd and I think it is a good place to start on learning. Good Luck. Ken

[Patricia]

">

well if it did this correctly you should be seeing the project saddle now.

">

And this is the only identifiction marking I could find on it.

Edited November 16, 2010 by Patricia

[Patricia]

Ok Here we go. One old saddle disected and/or disassembled.

">

I am looking forward to a black friday shopping spree at my local Tandy Store.

[Saddlebag]

With this saddle I'd have considered making new fenders and leathers and given the remainder a good cleaning, maybe adding some strings and leather conchos.Be sure to keep and mark the straps that held your cinch rings. If you are replacing the straps you will need the exact length to help position the rings correctly.

[Patricia]

Hello Saddlebag, Nice to meet you.

Well the picture dosn't show it very well but the leather on this saddle was in pretty bad shape. So most of it I plan to replace. I enjoy doing the tooling most of all so I am excited to do my own design on it. I havn't had much time to work on it these days. I have been working on a lot of other small projects. But I did get The Stholman Encyclopedia of Saddle Making Volume Two. It was the one the gal at the Tandy store recomended for the project I was working on. And now that I have the saddle pretty much striped down to the bare tree I have to prepare the tree. On page 242 they say that the tree is covered with a heavy varnish to make it water proof. This tree now has a lot of nail and screw holes on it. Not going to be very water proof any more. I was just wandering if anyone out there could recomend something to recover it with that would be like whatever was on it before. Can I just go to the hardware store and get some varnish and paint it on?

Oh and while I had the tree striped of all its leather and all the nails and screws removed, I couldn't resist taking it out to the barn and putting it on my horse. I have been struggling with this whole saddle fit thing for some time and I wanted to see how it sat on my horses back. It really makes a difference seeing how it sits on the horses back when there is no leather on it. It does seem to fit him much better then the one I am using now. I think my saddle is too narrow for him.

Edited December 20, 2010 by Patricia

[Saddlebag]

Nice to meet you, Patricia. Your saddle will be a wonderful challenge. Will you be posting a few pics as the work progresses?

[Patricia]

Nice to meet you, Patricia. Your saddle will be a wonderful challenge. Will you be posting a few pics as the work progresses?

I will try. I am still on dial up if you can beleive that, and posting pics to photobucket and then to the forum is so time consuming. And rite now I am trying to get all these Xmas gifts done. I will post some pics of them in the bragging section. lol lol

[Denise]

Patricia, you don't need to use photobucket to get pictures up on the forum. Here are some directions to help you out. Having been on dial up until lately, I understand what you are dealing with, and this works great so long as you make your pictures smaller before you upload them.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15122

[Patricia]

I will try. I am still on dial up if you can beleive that, and posting pics to photobucket and then to the forum is so time consuming. And rite now I am trying to get all these Xmas gifts done. I will post some pics of them in the bragging section. lol lol

I would love to see your pics too. I was just trying to post to photo bucket and it isn't working for me today. There must be a better way:You_Rock_Emoticon:

[Patricia]

OK I am trying it now....

That Worked:thumbsup: Thanks for the tip. This is a picture of a rifle sling I was working on. I know was off topic but I had to try that photo up load thing.

Anyway back to the saddle project. I don't expect to get back to it untill after Xmas but I will be posting pics.

Edited December 21, 2010 by Patricia

[Denise]

Glad you got it figured out!! Looking forward to more pictures now!

[Patricia]

Well I have a facebook page and photobucket albums with lots of pictures on them but I don't know if posting links is allowed.

[Denise]

Sure it is! It lets us see your stuff!

[Patricia]

OK, This is for my facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sandy-Ridge-Leather/173395786012610

It has the most pictures of Leather stuff

This one is my photobucket

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c249/patriciapotvin/

It has pictures of all kinds of stuff but there are some leather pics there too.

[Patricia]

HI All!

Well I have been working on my saddle. I cut all the pieces. I got the horn wraped and the swells. Now working in tooling the rest of the pieces. I was a little unsure about cutting the leather for the swells. I had a hard time getting the old piece to fatten out so I could use it for a pattern so I cut it really big and just cut off what I didn't need. I has a few goofs. I know where they are, But I guess that is to be expected for a first timer. I will see if I can get some putures to come up.

Edited February 6, 2011 by Patricia

[spurdude101]

HI All!

Well I have been working on my saddle. I cut all the pieces. I got the horn wraped and the swells. Now working in tooling the rest of the pieces. I was a little unsure about cutting the leather for the swells. I had a hard time getting the old piece to fatten out so I could use it for a pattern so I cut it really big and just cut off what I didn't need. I has a few goofs. I know where they are, But I guess that is to be expected for a first timer. I will see if I can get some putures to come up.

Hello, I did the same thing to an old high back made by Tom Flynn of Silverton Colo. what I did was to soak the old pieces in the bath tub for a couple of days. this brought them back to their original size and made them flexible so as to lay flat for pattern cutting. I bought a saddle building book which really helped with the ground seat and finish/ stamping. I'll have to find the pictures and put up the whole story someday. turned out quite well and is on display in our living room.

[Patricia]

I would love to see it.