Cleaning a REALLY disgusting western saddle.

[Sansena]

Any advice? I got this to help me with Mr. Bucky McBuckster. Nothing fancy, but it is older, tooled and well… musty. NOT moldy & green mind you. Just dry and dusty. The leather could use a good saturation… and I’m off to buy a quart of linseed oil later today. But before that, what method of cleaning would you employ?

Honestly, I’m tempted to hose the damned thing off with a fine mist while I’m using a toothbrush with a bit of glycerine, section by section. Then, I’ll turn it over and ‘Green Machine’ the underside fleece. I’m tempted to just towel dry it, then, soak the dern thing, as best as I can, in oil. Or just get a paintbrush and paint on layers of oil 'till it absorbs more slowly.

Any input?

[monstrpony]

Sounds good to me. I’ve hosed them off before, being careful not to soak the sheepskin. Agree with the toothbrush for the tooling–even saved an old battery-operated one for this. Put it over a fence in the sun to start the drying, and then paint on coats of oil. I’d use pure neatsfoot rather than linseed (but not neatsfoot compound).

If you live in a more humid area, be careful not to over-oil it or you will get good crops of mold. If that’s not the case already, maybe you don’t have to worry. It will never get as soft as a real top quality hunt seat saddle, the leather is just too thick, but it will get more flexible with good care.

[Drive_NJ]

Here’s what I did with my 1950 Western saddle (Textan before there was Textan)

AND what we still do with our harness for many years (at the recommendation of a harness maker back in the 1980s)

Bucket of clean water bucket of warm water with palm of baking soda and large squirt of mild dish soap - Ivory or the like.

Swish the soapy water to a suds. Take saddle apart as much as possible
dunk parts you can in sudsy water and let sit a little for the soap/soda/water to loosen up dirt

then you can go over lightly with toothbrush or soft brush if needed, or saddle soap on sponge if really grungy. Rinse well and let sit to dry (I’d probably avoid full sun as it might dry old leather too much)

Saddle body is wiped down liberally with soapy water sponge, cleaned as above and left on rack to dry

If you still have jockeys, wet again and let sit again to loosen them too

Once saddle and all straps are clean and dry, we use a product called Harness Honey OR use leider balsalm or the like. I would NOT use linseed oil.

At this point, make sure you do not leave the leather in the sun to absorb the oil. My saddler friend used to call that ‘french frying the leather’

With Harness Honey, you wipe it on, let it absorb for several hours and wipe off any excess. Goes on like honey, but washes clean from your hands and doesn’t leave gooey mess behind.

http://www.carouselfarm.com/harness.html

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

I don’t use glycern for actually cleaning–just for conditioning. For dirt, I always use Kirk’s Castile Soap. It’s like a buck. http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=kirk’s+castile+soap&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=m-E9TIi5HN61nAfegoDeDg&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CEsQrQQwAg

[Diamondindykin]

The best way to get the dust out of the tooling is to us an airhose hooked to an air compressor. The you can use any other method to clean and conditon the leather. It works like a charm:yes:

[Sansena]

Gagh… I meant neatsfoot oil, not linseed.

Keep 'em coming…

[equineartworks]

[QUOTE=Diamondindykin;4978146]
The best way to get the dust out of the tooling is to us an airhose hooked to an air compressor. The you can use any other method to clean and conditon the leather. It works like a charm:yes:[/QUOTE]

This is what I did and it worked SO well. If you don’t have a compressor you can use the canned air for computers too…just more expensive. But it gets the dust and dirt out of the nooks and crannies.

[kookicat]

Vacuum it.

[katarine]

shop vac it

attack with Castile soap and scrubby and sad old toothbrush. Poor toothbrush.

oil the snot out of it

[Guin]

Post before and after pictures for all us tack-cleaning maniacs.

[mypaintwattie]

If the sheepskin/fleece underside smells a little Fabreeze does the trick nicely- it worked really well on a saddle that had come from a smoking home. Smells fresh as a daisy now!

[goodhors]

I do pretty much what DriveNJ does, just use Lexol Cleaner as my cleaning agent. I use a natural fiber vegtable brush, covers a lot more area than the toothbrush, when doing big areas like carved fenders and skirts. Tooth brush is good for small spaces.

I start with the blower method, air compresser, vacuum cleaner on blow instead of suction. Just get the dust out from between the layers before dampening anything.

If saddle is older, at all dried out, I would not do the sunshine on leather. This time of year the heat is brutal in drying things. I clean and let saddles sit in shade of the barn or house to dry and absorb the Harness Honey. I hate how Neatsfoot feels on leather. Would NEVER think of using Linseed Oil, that is for wooden items like shovel handles.

I also LOVE the Harness Honey, use it liberally on our leather goods.

Over this last year, I have purchased and cleaned three Western saddles, that ended up NOT fitting my horse!! I cleaned them totally, REALLY used up a lot of Harness Honey in getting them back to the soft, flexible leather they should be. I was shocked at how thirsty the leather was, used several applications before the Honey quit soaking in and needed wiping off. Leather was perfect when finished, had feel, not limp, but soft and bendy for using. One saddle was only 5yrs old, a good brand, but obviously NEVER had been cared for since they won it. Had trophy fenders with the year on it. I guess they used it for rough work, since silver was also bad, in a greenish condition. We had to use the polish wheel to get it back to shiny. Nice quality of silver, just no care. The people who bought the now, nice feeling saddles, all commented on how “good feeling” the leather was to touch. Not oily, but soft, easy to turn stirrup fenders to put your feet in. Leather quality was back to where it should have been because these were nice saddles with good names. I also got compliments on how great the silver looked!

I apply the Harness Honey to both sides of leather if possible, like fenders. I put the saddle upside down on the saddle stand, unfasten the buckles and take off stirrups. This way I can rub the Honey thickly on every layer, between layers and on straps until softened again. I wait about 48 hours between applications to make sure it has really soaked in. Some parts are then moisturized quicker than others, so just the heaviest parts get more coats.

I have never used a nicer product for conditioning leather, and leather stays nice for a long time of use too. I need to use liquid dishwashing soap to remove Honey from hands, but they are not nasty feeling, nor does Honey take off your callus’ like Lexol conditioner does. I NEED those callus’ to protect my hands!! Seems to be a very gentle product and worth the cost, lasts quite a while.

[Griffyn]

Same --only Murphy’s Oil Soap as the cleaning agent.

[Broller]

I cleaned my boss’s saddle that had not been cleaned in a very long time. She had it since she was 16, her first saddle, and it was covered in mold and crap…
I used a little bit of bleach with water and all the mold came right off. Then I used saddle soap and oiled it.
It looked almost brand new if I do say so myself :yes:

[beau159]

Twice a year, I hose off my saddle with water. I am careful to only get the water where I want it, in order to get the dirt out of the tooling (toothbrushes work wonders!!). Then I give them a good conditioning with Lexol non-darkening leather conditioner (I don’t use Neatsfoot oil only because my saddle are light-colored and I don’t want them to darken much).

I think what you have planned sounds fine.

[WorkingDrive]

I set up a cleaning station in my living room, pop on something from Netflix, pour myself a cup of tea, and go to town.

3:1 water to white distilled vinegar ratio, two sponges, a toothbrush, and a rag. I remove any pieces that can be removed (ex: if there is silver) and soak them separately in a mix of lemon juice, water, and mild soap. Scrub, with a sponge or toothbrush, wipe clean with a clean sponge, and let it all air dry.

After it air dries (not in the sun,) I give it a good, deep conditioning with Lexol.

We just received some donated saddles and bridles that were dirty and dingy, but not dry-rotted. The above made them look brand new.

Picture of another saddle cleaned with same technique:
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj193/workingdrive/before-and-after_zps981df628.png

[batman_the_horse]

After conditioning or oiling, seal it in with Jay-El. It is a beeswax based tack conditioner, and is MAGIC. It seems to soak in a lot better than Lederbalsam, and makes tack a little more waterproof.

http://www.kingstons.net.au/products/Lyddys-Jay%2dEl-Leather-Dressing-225g.html

[Mukluk]

When my tack has a lot of caked on grime (I know- one shouldn’t allow that to happen), warm water and a glut of ammonia- get it wet scrub. Remove grime. Go over with clean water. Then follow up with soap (I use castile) and scrub brush. Followed by Passier leder balsam. Pick a warm day and let it soak in in the sun. Sometimes I put my tack in the car so the leder balsam soaks in even better). Then I go over with saddle soap. Then I vow to wipe of my tack after each ride…. I have homemade tack wipes made of small rags in a liquid castile soap/water mixture. Then I get lazy and have to start over at point A. But my tack seems none the worse. I also use livestock shampoo for any sheepskin (I’m english, so my sheepskin items can all go in the washing machine). Obviously couldn’t do that with a western saddle but you could likely wet the sheepskin- use soap sparingly- and rinse well with either a hose of several go overs with a clean wet towels. Got luck looking forward to your before/after pictures!