Saddle Skirt Stitch Removal

[keplerts]

Just wanted to give my experience using a tool I bought from Bruce Johnson. Bruce posted about using a Stitch Gouge or Patent Leather tool to cut the tops of the threads holding the sheep skin to the saddle skirt. By doing this you would be able to pull all the threads out with the sheep skin and not have to hand pick all the thread tops out of the skirt.

To start I cleaned the stitch line so the dirt would not dull my tool. I then ran the gouge over the tops of the tread. Took a screw driver and inserted it between the sheep skin and skirt. Using the screw driver I pried the skin loose and then just put the sheep skin off the skirt with every thread coming with it! I had absolutely NO thread pieces to pick out! The whole process took no more than 15 minutes to complete. This is one of the best tips I've learned in a long time! From now on this is the way I will be doing fleece removal. No more hand picking thread and marking up the skirt in the process. Anyone who does re-fleecing would save a lot of time using this method/tool. I'm so excited about this that I just had to share it with you all.

Also, ordering from Bruce was a great experience as well. He was very helpful and his fast service was excellent. I ordered on a Friday night and got the tool on Monday!

Thanks Bruce for the great tip on stitch removal and on the great service.

Tom K.

[CWR]

They don't come any better than Bruce. He is a great guy and I have never gotten anything from him that I wasn't tickled with.

CW

[bruce johnson]

Tom,

I can't claim this as an original thought. I had an old guy who showed me this about 15 years ago. He was in the leather business for almost 70 years or so and I learned a lot sitting in his garage. He traded in tools and machines later on in life. I was heading home one day to reline skirts, saw his door was up, and stopped in to BS. He was good about "Did I ever show you how to....." and then he'd show me. Right after that, he'd sell me the tool to do it with. I called him after I did the first one, and asked him why he didn't show me that about 5 relinings ago. He said it sort of came up that day, and he figured a guy always appreciated things more once he'd done them the hard way a few times anyway.

[keplerts]

Well, Bruce, I've only done 3 relinings so far and I already appreciate that tip! Thanks again! It has really make my saddle work a whole lot simpler.

Tom

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Good story Bruce! There are so many of those in life. Kinda lends credence to that old line from "Tall in the saddle", goes something like, "I like grumpy old cuss', hope to live long enough to be one!". LOL! Have a good one all.

Bob

[oltoot]

After all these years! Who woulda thunk that there was a tool. I've accomplished the same thing with a knife that has a long, slim point though it takes a little longer than 15 minutes and a little tongue biting to boot. Over the years I have run in to a few that were sewn with the machine adjusted so that the lock was way low (in the space between the skirt and the woolskin) that thwarted me and almost every stitch had to be pulled out as the top thread was cut a lot. Just a few though!