Removing Silver Saddle Trim

[luckyclover]

I am going to undertake dying a show saddle black - for the fun of it My question is how to best remove all the silver. I have the corner plates off and most of the conchos. I have ordered a concho turner for the remaining tricky ones. I am having trouble getting to some of the screws to get the cantle plate off and my biggest problem is removing the swell plates. I have two of the nails out, but I am having trouble getting under the nail heads without marring the plates.

[WyomingSlick]

I am going to undertake dying a show saddle black - for the fun of it My question is how to best remove all the silver. I have the corner plates off and most of the conchos. I have ordered a concho turner for the remaining tricky ones. I am having trouble getting to some of the screws to get the cantle plate off and my biggest problem is removing the swell plates. I have two of the nails out, but I am having trouble getting under the nail heads without marring the plates.

If you don't need to reuse the nails, then you might consider carefully center punching the heads and using a drill bit of the right size to drill the head off

I should think that the sellers of saddle trim would also have silver pated nails for sale