In The Workshop

Thus was a fun project!! It's an older Devoucoux that met with a rat in a tack room. I re-webbed the billet webs and lots of other parts. We also widened the channel a bit.

Yes! I love cleaning saddles. It's amazing how even cleaning the stitches can make a huge difference in how clean a saddle looks!

My friend Serena was in town and stopped by this weekend. We had a blast! I gave her some hand stitching pointers and then I shared how I do a complete reflock. We missed the opportunity to get a pic together but she got me working on her saddle (with my giraffe hat)...

I'm always amazed how much the feel of a saddle can be changed by changing the knee blocks. And for some reason I have a lot of fun making custom knee blocks. Here is a pair I'm working on.

This saddle has kept me busy. I've been rebuilding the whole saddle. Here is a picture of the panels as I recover them.

Here's an Albion that got a new seat and is going home.

This kept me busy for a few days. It's an old Pessoa that is now ready to go for another 20 years! It is so fun bringing them back to life!

These are so fun to make. And on wool flocked saddles, they can be let out or taken in to adjust fit.

Here are some pics of the welting being sewn on.

I'm in the middle of a major rebuild (one of my favorite things to do!) and here is a picture of the flaps as I'm replacing them. It's all apart but planning and cutting is really important. Dad and Sooz always say "measure twice, cut once". So true!

When the seat is off, we cut apart the skirt and welting from the seat. You can see the existing holes from when the seat was originally sewn together. One of the reasons reseats take awhile is that we resew the seats by hand reusing these little itty bitty holes. It...

I'm continuing with stirrup bars this week. Here is one where the top river pulled out. Basically had to strip the saddle to replace it but the saddle got a good cleaning in the process.