Leather saddle recovery and recovering...who's doing it.
07-17-14, 02:35 PM
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Leather saddle recovery and recovering...who's doing it.
hello
I was wondering if anyone knows of someone who recovers high quality leather saddles...Brooks, Ideale, Wrights....
I saw a man mentioned here, Rudi Mayr, from Lawrenceville, NJ, who has done this, apparently done it well.....but he is seems to do so as an avocation, not a vocation....
...And he has no contact information easily available....
I and a few friends have numerous old saddles in need of new leather....is this a fruitless pursuit or are they're individuals doing this work for love and money?
Thank you for any information you can share....I'm sure this is an old topic that's been knocked around plenty....just wondering what's what these days.
Charlie Flaherty
Baltimore Maryland
I was wondering if anyone knows of someone who recovers high quality leather saddles...Brooks, Ideale, Wrights....
I saw a man mentioned here, Rudi Mayr, from Lawrenceville, NJ, who has done this, apparently done it well.....but he is seems to do so as an avocation, not a vocation....
...And he has no contact information easily available....
I and a few friends have numerous old saddles in need of new leather....is this a fruitless pursuit or are they're individuals doing this work for love and money?
Thank you for any information you can share....I'm sure this is an old topic that's been knocked around plenty....just wondering what's what these days.
Charlie Flaherty
Baltimore Maryland
07-17-14, 03:39 PM
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^+1, Rudi does fantastic work. You can send a private message (PM) to forum members by clicking on a user's name and then click Private Message, but I believe you need at least 50 posts to send/receive PMs (or maybe just send them?). In any case, Rudi checks in regularly and should be along shortly: Paging @rhm...
07-18-14, 08:37 AM
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I don't want to take anything away from Rudi (who's our own member here and does fantastic work, as noted) but the "other guy" who has been at it for many, many years is Tony Colegrave in the UK. He also has been known to occasionally post here, and if you do an archive search you might even find some DIY threads from those who have tried it themselves (with mixed results).
07-18-14, 09:35 AM
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Just a note:
Sometimes what looks like a hopeless case can be restored. I pulled an old frame out of the garbage last fall and on a whim kept the old chewed-up Belt saddle. It was positively "crunchy": the bile looked like it had been left outside for at least one season.
Over the winter I occasionally rubbed some Proofhide into the saddle, just to see, and lo and behold, I'm now riding on it.
Sometimes what looks like a hopeless case can be restored. I pulled an old frame out of the garbage last fall and on a whim kept the old chewed-up Belt saddle. It was positively "crunchy": the bile looked like it had been left outside for at least one season.
Over the winter I occasionally rubbed some Proofhide into the saddle, just to see, and lo and behold, I'm now riding on it.
