Brooks saddles
 

Here are two Brooks I replaced the leather with scraps bought at a saddle shop

Very interesting. How did you bend/shape the leather?

Have you gone riding with them yet? Any stretching? They look nice.

I have ridden them both about 6 months, no stretching, the leather is 5mm thick. I formed them wet, soaked in warm water about 10 seconds.

Do you remember what you costs were? Tools needed? What kind of brass rivet did you use for the black saddle? I have a beat Fujita saddle that may be up for a similar job, if it is cheap enough.

Cost was about $10 for both saddles. Leather scrap large enough for both was $3, rivets were about 20 cents apiece for the steel and 40 cents each for the copper ones. Tools were sharp knife, leather hole punch, ball peen hammer, steel punch and flat steel surface to lay saddle on
to flatten rivets. I have an anvil.
I bought the rivets at local ACE hardware.

No kidding! This is sweet! Cool job.

Well, this will be my problem unless I can come up with an alternative. Very nice work though. They really look great.

Got a bench vise? That would probably work...

Wow very nice, I have a very shot Brooks on a old Rudge I would like to try that on,I guess I could find the leather on line as I don't think there is a saddle shop in my parts anymore. My mother used to repair and make stuff for her saddles all the time and I got a bunch of her tools around here somewhere.

Nice job a77impala.
It can be done.
My attempt

I'm still wondering about shaping the leather? Did you guys make a form, etc? Details... enquiring minds want to know.

Very nice, any thoughts of making a small business out of your handy work?

Nice work! :thumb:

awesome.

Wow, thats cool.

Nice job and great inspiration, for a guy like me. I have often wondered how tough it would be to fabricate the leather for a Brooks. Based on your results, my guess is that a little practice, coupled with care, would produce pretty decent product in no time.

Plus, I have an additional incentive to pursue the saddle cover thing. My Dad left me his complete leather working tool set, patterns and some of the knowledge of how to cut and tool leather. I feel pretty confident that I can copy the Brooks logo, and embossed it on the leather, with little difficulty. It is the shaping and structural strength that has me worried. That said, I think I will give it a try. I do have a very large piece of heavy tooling leather(very thick) rolled up in plastic and resting in the rafters of The Old Shed. The tools are in there, somewhere, also.

Why not come up with your own logo? It'd be pretty cool to have "Jawa Custom Saddles" or something like that on your saddle!

A form is not needed, the damp leather will shape by hand the way you want it, just don't stretch it to much. It will shrink a little when drying and get
as stiff as a new Brooks. It doesn't need to be soaking wet just damp way through.
A guy at the saddle shop said dampen the leather and put it a baggy overnight and it will be perfect to work with. I did not do this as he told me after
I was finished with mine.
Good Luck.

Very nice work. I am going to have to try that with the Brooks on my 48 Rudge.

So did you rivet it up while it was still damp? I find this very intriguing and am really impressed with the results presented.

Yes, rivet it and form and let it dry.

you guys rock!!

+1. I've gotta say that that is the coolest thing I've seen on these forums in a long time. Really makes me want to go out and give it a try.

+2