Originally Posted by
canopus
I would go for the special saddles though because of the wider rivets. The regular steel rivets have a tendency to out, or more appropriately, through the leather. The wider rivets on the specials don't do this. Plus the looks are killer.
That just isn't true. There is no tendency for the heads of the rivets to pull through the leather. The leather pulls on the shank of the rivet and the hole in the leather gets elongated or it tears. The big hand-hammered copper rivet heads are just for looks and Brooks has said so. Take a look at all the vintage leather saddles with small rivet heads on eBay. The steel rivets on the newer brooks saddles are stainless steel, so they won't corrode.