I truly enjoy coming to work in the morning, because I never know exactly what will be waiting for me on my bench or in my office; I choose to look at it as a different version of a holiday stocking. Today, along with the Passier with the broken spring bar and the polo saddle I'm re-billeting, there were some saddle nails and nylon webbing from Frank Baines, a Black Country Equinox in need of a bump-up (flocking adjustment) and a racing saddle in need of some repairs. Well, honestly, it had already had some repairs done ...
The owner wasn't really happy about the aesthetics of the repairs, and was hoping I could improve things, maybe make the patches bigger, and just sort of ... you know ... repair the repairs?
After my adventure in re-sewing seat seams - which was ultimately successful, but very time consuming and difficult - I'm a tad more reserved about leaping into a complicated repair on a rather tired saddle. But there's this part of me that just can't walk away from a challenge ...
So I e-mailed these photos to my hero, Patty Barnett, and chatted with her about my ideas for patching and repairing. She made a couple recommendations, okayed my ideas, gave me her patented Saddle Repair Blessing, and left me to it.
First, I had to remove the existing patches. Whoever put them on had certainly not intended that they'd be coming off; they were stitched on tightly and with great enthusiasm for knots. Unfortunately, the needle used was very large gauge, so the stitching holes are quite large and will need to be covered up. My plan is to completely re-cover the bottom half (or so) of the flaps, and patch the tears on the panels. I'll need to trace the flaps and cut the patches, then glue and stitch them back in place.
More when I get the patches cut!
3 comments:
Yeeesh! On the plus side, these saddles are extremely comfortable for galloping racehorses. On the minus, this baby looks a little like the old worn out leather couch kicked to the curb. Hope you post after pictures!
There isn't much to a racing saddle huh?
Could I forward you the e-mail from the saddle fitter about the D-rings... he made it sound WAY more complicated than what you describe. However, I may just misunderstand. He mentioned having to remove the flaps and then reattach them... also charging more (roughly double) than you mentioned...
I just don't have any recommendations from anyone about this guy and want to make sure he's qualified to tear down/work on my saddle! I don't want to post his info so would e-mail be good? Or do you want to steer clear from even commenting on someone else?
Feel free to forward the e-mail. I've never run into a saddle that had to have the flaps removed to install dees, but there's a first time for everything. If you could include a photo of your saddle, that would be helpful, too. Thanks!
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