restoring sheepswool on old saddle?

[Don101]

im restoring a saddle at the moment and it has wool felt instead of sheep skin was this comon and is it done today on modern western saddles?

[mulefool]

I've seen some older saddles with felt. I heard somewhere that during WW2 sheepskin was in short supply or used for the troops for something, so they had to do relines with felt. Not sure if it's true.

[barra]

Using wool felt to line is very common in Australia on the Hybrid western X stock saddles. My guess is it holds up better on outback cattle stations where the saddle is going to be used in some of the harshest land on earth. Shearling linings get too matted with the various forms of prickles and of course a stockman being a stockman, the saddle will be treated rough with 2 parts of no maintenance.

During WW2 a lot of our sheepskins got used for lining Bomber crew jackets

Barra

[mulefool]

So that's where the sheepskin went!

[Go2Tex]

Some trail saddles use felt also. The Tucker brand does.