Draft Harness Resto: Backpads

 

These photos show just one part of my Draft Pair Show Harness restoration, the saddles or backpads.  These shots, and this work, took place in June and early July, before BreyerFest.  

The backpad restoration started with finding the original paper patterns, last used in the 1990s.  They were only 1 envelope away from where I thought they'd be!  (All my patterns are kept in paper envelopes.)  Upper pattern = strap piece body.  Lower = uptug.

(Below) This shows why I had to replace the middle layer (strap piece) of one of the backpads:  the strap itself had broken off.  There was a marked difference between the 2 backpads:  One was in much better shape.  The other was, in a word, friable:  It could easily be pulled apart.  Under the stress of feeding through a buckle, it did just that.  :(  Also, note the brand new double-buckle uptug on the left, its leather more matte-looking than the old one on the right.

 

 

Here we see the first steps of replacing the strap piece body.  The small brass 1/8" faceted dome spots have already been transferred to it.  A slit is cut to receive the lace loop which holds down the rein terret ring.  (In the old strap piece, the lace loop is still there.)  The photo shows the stitch which holds down one end of the lace (underneath)... the tip of the needle is pointing at it. 

 Below, the old patent top is held down in place by the new terret lace loop.  The old little domes are still green with 41 years of corrosion.  Amazingly -- one of the most amazing things I learned during this resto -- the patent pieces were still usable.  They were still flexible and strong enough to take the stress of the restoring.  All they needed was cleaning (accomplished with rubbing alcohol and scraping). 

Why has it been so hard to work on these?  It seems to be a pattern of my life:  When I'm not doing tack projects, I resist, I procrastinate:  everything else is much more important.  But when I do buckle down and begin again, I fall in love:  It's so much fun.  I make great strides and desperately don't want to stop --!!  There's probably a psychological term for such retrograde behaviour.  Right now I'll call it 'the tail wags the dog.'  However one explains it, this restoration project has taken wa-ayyy too long,... again,... but it has been tremendously pleasing and a great learning experience.  

Here we see the other stitch that holds the terret lace loop.  The top is held back for the making of the stitch, which hides beneath it.  The extra lace will be cut off soon. 

In this somewhat out-of-focus view, one can see the underside of the strap piece (held in hand).  Those 4 stitches hold down the rein terret rings (not visible).  This surface will be hidden against the bottom layer, with pins, later.

Something which concerns all 3 layers is the S-shaped checkhook.  These were made of heavy gauge brass wire and curled around all the layers, crimped into place and securing the 'sandwich.'  I had to take them out and clean them, then re-install the wire into the original holes and re-squeeze, carefully.

Here we see the re-installed checkhook, the top back in place and, as it happens, a couple of 'stand-in' terret rings.  Later in the process -- like, a month later in August! -- the terret rings would be replaced with gold-filled wire ones.  But that would be easy.  This, here, is the hard part:  cleaning, polishing, replacing and re-pinning the layers.  

The blue plastic tub holds my gold-colored pins.  They are labelled gold plated.  I so hope they are! ... I've no way of testing.  But they've not tarnished in all these years, so there is hope.  Gold truly is the best way to keep corrosion at bay over time.  My methods are not perfect (the cut ends of the gold-filled sometimes turn green), but they are so much better than anything else I know of.

Below is a view of the pins, which will clinch the 3 layers together.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my skill of pinning, documented in the Guide and seldom used for the past 30 years, had suffered no loss.  I could still easily do it.

The finished backpad, ready for the gold-filled wire.  At this point extra gold was on order but not yet arrived.  (I was about to run out.)  Turn your eyes away from the corroded brass trace hook (I would clean, polish and seal it later) and admire the smooth newness of the backpad straps and uptugs or trace carrier pieces.  (Not to be confused with the mud drops, also called trace carriers.  Those have brasses.)

A bird's eye view of the restored backpad.

BreyerFest took 3 weeks away from work on these harnesses (although they enjoyed the Fest attention very much!)(below, in Room 612).  After BFest, there were innumerable distractions, puttings-out-of-fires and other unpackings before I could get back to work.

The restoration resumed by July 26th with the kidney drops, cruppers and backstraps.  The entire breeching, complete with sidestraps and mud drops (trace carriers) was tackled during the first half of August.  At least at this moment I plan a third post for all those parts.   Still to go:  Traces!  and final testing.

I am dreaming, yes that's the word, of the time when the entire pair is finished and I can actually hitch up the wagon! and take them out for a shoot.  Even I, who've been making model harness for more than 47 years, have discovered new stuff with this resto, and it all makes me want to make more tack and harness.

 Thank you for your patience.