Repairing rawhide saddle seat

I recently bought an early Santa Fe-style saddle with a big "pancake" horn, so proper for the fur trade era. But there is a three-inch tear in the rawhide that covers the tree. I'm trying to figure out how best to repair it. Moisten the rawhide to soften it, then epoxy it down? Any advice mucho appreciado.

Bill pictures might help to give you advice. I will say this once the rawhide is wet epoxy won't stick and rawhide is like any hide in that it breaths (comes and goes) with the weather conditions to a certain extent.

A patch might be in order but without pics I am not sure what to advice. There are others on here that have more experience maybe they will chime in!

Cliff: Righto. Soon as the sun comes up out here in Oregon, I'll try to get a photo.

That'll be this summer, won't it?? :rotf:

Moisten the rawhide and sew the tear (with linen or even better, rawhide). You would be wasting your time with epoxy. A rawhide patch (treated as above) would not be out of the question.

I agree on moisten and sew, but kinda watch over your shoulder. Or more accurately, under your backside. :rotf:

I dunno if you're planning to use that saddle, but if your stitching puckers up much you'll really regret it. We wear Wrangler jeans exclusively for long days in the saddle because the inside seam on Levis just wears heck out of your legs. I can pretty clearly imagine what a great big old seam would do to you in that saddle seat. :shocked2:

Bill, you may want to go here and ask this question

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?act=idx

Some well none saddle makers and leather crafters here

Here are a couple of photos, guys:

The tears:



The whole saddle:

Thanks also for the thoughts fellas. (And yeah, Mike, get back to me in three months!)
I got some very good advice from Lloyd Molar to get myself a hunk of buffalo robe, hair on, to pad my bony old tookas if and when I can corner and saddle a horse. Apparently it is HC, too.

As an ex-saddlemaker (including trees) the "right" way to do it would be to recover the whole thing. Considering the size as well as the fact that the rawhide tore there (probably a thin spot) I'd be cautious of sewing as you're more than likely to tear the edges out. IMO - if I were to repair it then I would use PC hot hide glue to glue the patch on - it's the glue that was used on rawhide (and still is by many) wet or dry or if PC is secondary then use Super Glue (yes folks it works fine on wet rawhide and no it is not PC).

The buffalo robe will help as will a sheepskin (which were available in the SW during the RMFT era) but with one caveat, when wet they SUCK big time!

One final note - that horn style is nowadays actually a bit later than the smaller pre-1840 era style as shown in Miller.

Chuck: Thanks for that insight. I'll have to think about this project before I act on it, which I suppose is the common sense thing to do anyway.
PT incoming.

Ok LaBonte has schooled me. I knew epoxy wasn't going to work but never thought of hot glue or CA. I will have to file that one away for reference later!

From the pic and where it is at I got a feeling a patch may be a pain in the backside figuratively and literally. I would think about doing a complete replacement repair.

I went back and looked at the pic again and the piece of rawhide that covers the rear of the saddle appears to be a separate piece from the middle of the saddle. OK I am not a saddle builder so I am struggling for the proper terms.
It looks like not only do you have two tears the rawhide is worn in two where it tucks under in the center of the saddle.
If it is a separate piece it must be glued as it appears to lap over the center,and I don't see any stitching. You may be able to just replace the rear piece only!

Bill, as usual Chucks got the right answer. It is a Mexican Charro Saddle, still made the same way they have been for a couple hundred years. You could do as suggested and rehide the whole tree, which takes some time and effort but it will fix it for a very long time if you take care of it. I have one that I have rehided once in the last 20 years or so and its holding up well. Good luck with it.

i have seen repairs on saddles,guns,and powder horns made by cutting a copper plate and tacking it down around the perimeter you could also add epoxy underneath for a strong but primitive looking repair. This method saved my buddys powder horn which got drilled out the side during construction.