Saddle restoration

[CollinsMS]

Hi everyone. I have not been around for a wile posting or reading posts. I started restoring a 1940's saddle and found that there is little to no information on the net to help with this type of project. So I decided to add a section to my web page with an overview of cleaning, gotchas and putting it back together. I just started building the new section of the site and I am still restoring the saddle so I am taking pictures as I go. Take a look and let me know what you think. Opinions are welcome

The web site is http://www.theleathercraftsman.com then take a look at the menue This Old Saddle.

Thanks

[Johanna]

I respectfully disagree that there is no information about saddle restoration anywhere on the net except your site- we are trying very hard to collect that knowledge here. I am glad to see your site archiving useful info- we need more people to do that. Also, we would love it if you would link back to us to help leatherworkers find the resources we list here.

Johanna

http://leatherworker.net/forum/

[CollinsMS]

I agree and would like disagree. I agree that the Leatherworker.net has an abundance of information. The problem is there is so much information that it becomes almost impossible to find anything pointed. I love the site, but I searched for several hours and could not find enough information to even get started with my project of restoring a saddle. There is a lot of small parts that many people have put on the site, I just don't have that much time to read all the posts.

I do like your suggestion to link leatherworker.net from my site. That is already completed.

[Don101]

Hi CollinsMS you could of asked i could of helped out, and manny other on here would of been more than willing no dought,

i documented a saddle resturation and i could of explained what i used to clean the saddle and provided before and after pics,

alot of this topic has been covered on this forum in the past too,

one question though was it nessersary to compleetly remove the seat or are you recovering with a new one? Don

[CollinsMS]

I considered placing a general question but then ran into a person who has been restoring and making saddles most of his life. He is the one that turned me onto the Ivory dish soap. As soon as I hit the saddle with the hose it looked like an oil change on your car. The oil just ran off the saddle. I took the seat off because I noticed 3 small bumps under the leather. After feeling around on them I decided it must be 3 nails that came loose. It was 3 nails and they came loose because of a crack.

[bruce johnson]

Since we are on a saddle restoration thread, I am curious what everyone prefers to condition with after the cleaning. To kick it off, personally I keep going back to Williams. I have tried several of the others - Hide Rejuvenater, Feibing's Aussie, Leather N Rich, Saddle Butter, Pecards, and the various animal fats and oils at one time or another. I haven't tried Skidmores yet. I think the others do have their place, but it just seems to me that the Williams just gives me a better feel on these older leathers. Anybody else got a favorite for old reconditioning?

[CollinsMS]

I would like to here others opinions on this also. An old saddle maker told me to never use anything other than the good old yellow saddle soap. That is all I have ever used. I know someone that used an oil called Black Rock and had a terrible problem with mold. The saddles were even kept in a climate controled environment.

[Don101]

i have heared nothing but good stuff about black rock but its to expencive for me to buy and import to Germany, after cleaning with a low warm soapy water i let it dry out naturally and use a plain saddle oil (non color) and apply with a rag once that is soaked up and dryed out i then apply a bees waxed leather conditioner its very simular to saddle soap but doesnt dry out with that white powder, here is a pic of before and after, Don

Before

After

[steveh]

You need to look at the home page index, it is very well catagorized, if you go to the saddle index, there is a sub catagory restoration and repair.

[CollinsMS]

Just forget that I ever put this out as a post. If I could figure out how to delete it I would.