Need Help With Horn Repair

[keplerts]

Hello everyone! I have a saddle to clean and oil but they also would like the horn cap fixed if I can do it. The pictures show what I am up against. How would you experts go about fixing this without getting into a full blown major project. Any help you can offer would greatly be appreciated. Thanks for looking and any help you can give. Tom K.

[keplerts]

Of course the title should read "Need" help with horn repair. Sorry!!!

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Not sure how others might tackle it, but; I would just go ahead and strip it down and redo it and be done with it. The hole in the fork cover is fairly large, you might be able to pull the tacks that hold the fork cover down under the gullet and work the horn cover (I call them wings) around and under the cover from the top then fish them through with a pair of needle nose pliers pull them tight and tack. then tack the cover in the gullet and you're done. I have done it that way and it worked just fine. You said it was to be cleaned and oiled, so, I would opt for lifting the fork cover and doing it from scratch. When I clean and oil I usually drop the skirts anyway and lifting the fork cover isn't that much more work at that point. Bob

[rickybobby]

Tom,

I'm sorry to say, you have a major project there! I believe there are some you tube vids about braiding a horn, or you can see if the customer will go for a leather cover horn. (lots of how to info for those).

Either way, you need to lift the swell cover to make it look right.

[keplerts]

I want to thank those who replied and give an update as to what I actually did. The customer didn't care if the cap was rawhide or not. So, I was able to mak a leather cap with a long tail on the end. After wetting the rawhide braid I was able to work the tail down between the horn post and the rawhide. Once that was done I was able to work enough rawhide (after wetting again) up around the horn cap so I could sew the new piece of leather to it. I think it came out pretty well and the customer was very happy with it. I attached some photos. Again, thanks for you helpful suggestions! Also, I could not find anything on how to braid the rawhide horn (even on youtube).

Tom

Edited August 3, 2013 by keplerts

[Goldshot Ron]

Tom,

Your repair looks good. I hope you made some money on this project.

Ron

[keplerts]

^Ron,

^{Thanks! To fix the horn, clean, oil, and a cote of Bag Kote I charged him $65.}