Stretching Stirrup Leathers - When?

[JAM]

Hi, all,

Question about stretching stirrup leathers: When I do a plain saddle, it doesn't much matter when I wet the assembled leathers/fenders and put them on the stretcher to dry, but if I tool the fenders (and I do half-leathers) at what point do I soak the assembly and put it on the stretcher? After the carving is complete? Will that hurt the carving?

Julia

[PcCowboy]

Now it may be just me but I have never heard of stretching stirrup leathers. I cut my leathers right out of the back where there is no stretch in the leather. Now I wet the leathers and the back side of the tooled fenders, assemble them and turn them and let them dry. Should have seen the first time I took one of Wilford's tooled fenders and dipped the whole thing in water, I thought he was going to come unglued. He said you never take leather that has been tooled and wet it on both sides. It ruins the tooling.

[Reg Marek]

Hi Julia

I cut my stirrup leathers and wet them good and do up the edges nice and then take out some stretch with a glass slicker. Then I let them dry. I tool my fenders and let them dry. Then I assemble them (I usually use half-leathers also). Then I wet the entire fenders and stirrup leathers....I don't completely soak them but they're pretty wet. Then I put them on a bare tree and twist and weight them down with heavy shot bags that sit on a stick that's through the stirrups. I don't think that this method damages stamping or carving. I hope Keith Seidel replies to this as I always respect his opinion. (I respect lots of other's opinion also)

Reg

[PcCowboy]

I take my assemble fenders and leathers and put them back to back. Buckle the bottoms with a strap and then take the top and twist and turn them and buckle them together and let them dry. The picture show what they look like when I pull them apart.

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

I made a "stretching rack" to do mine. I wet the back of the fender mostly down by the bottom where it will want to twist when being used, and I wet the stirrup leathers, half or full, no matter, then I put then on my stretcher, not so much to stretch but to "set" them with a twist in them so that when on the saddle they will want to stay twisted so the rider will have a much more comfortable ride with less stress on his/her knees. Here are 3 pics of different saddles, both half and full leathers.

Bob