Draft Harness Resto: Breechings

Surely the butt end of a harness is not very interesting!  Be that as it may, I must try to fulfill a promise, and show the remainder of the Draft Pair as they underwent restoration.  You may take my word for it, this is the most unique harness resto I have ever attempted.  It has involved surprise, beauty, frustration, the glint of gold (a lot of gold, actually) and -- what else? -- a unicorn and a darling pinto Stone Foal!

Picking up where we left off with the Backpads, the next few pix show the state of things on August 11, the day the second gold wire shipment came in.  Up to this time I'd been using stainless steel wire to 'hold' the place of the future gold rings.  This first photo shows the new breeching seat (bottom) next to the old (top), with steel instead of gold for the 4 inner rings (2 visible) on the new.  Everything else -- the lacing, the pins and the breeching leather for this set, and of course the buckles -- is new.

 Note the minor difference in the appearance of the pins.  The old, above, were more silver-colored and slightly smaller than the newer.  Try as I might I could not find the exact equivalent of those old pins.  But I could find an endless supply of nice ones labeled "gold plated," as noted in the last post.  

Carefully I took apart the rest of the harnesses, making decisions part by part as to what to replace.   I have called this job 'unique' and the condition of the leather really has been something I'd never seen before.  Not all of it was dried out beyond help.  Some was still usable,.. but there was little predicting which, until I had the pieces in my hands and could bend them around.  Below shows how the lacing crumbled when I took out the pins.  Taking them out involves "biting from the back" with wire-cutters, removing the cut-off shank parts and then pulling out the head parts from the front with the same cutters.

 Both breeching seats, for instance, had to have all their lacing replaced.  But to my amazement one breeching seat (the leather) was supple and whole enough to serve again.  The other was too stiff and broke when I bent it. 

I'd started this massive job (June 4) with a modest supply of only 2 sizes of gold-filled wire, 20ga and 24ga.  A lot of the 20ga had gone into buckles.  Around July 26 I had a fabulous brainwave when I realized the problem of bare brass rings could be solved after all because I had earned so much at BreyerFest.  I could afford more gold-filled!  What fun!  In a flurry of what can only be described as prideful eagerness I launched off a huge order of 20ga, the most useful of all gauges.  Rio Grande takes PayPal, bless their souls.

 When the 20ga arrived I had a long moment of quiet frustration.  What I'd thought might be 22 was instead 20 and I now had far more 20ga than I'd ever need for the job.  I had blown all that money but now I needed at least two more gauges, 22 and 18.  And the cost!!  Let's just say that at the end of my second wire order I'd spent almost as much on gold as I'd spent on the new pinto Stone Foal,...

 

But oh, the answers that second order gave me.  At last I had a lock on my gauges.  I labelled the little shiny things (why hadn't I done this before?) since my old method of comparing wire to my stainless steel spools had not, somehow, been sufficient for the gold.  If anybody out there has got an AWG (American Wire Gauge) tool they can sell me for a decent price, I'm interested!

Same size 9mm rings, different gauges

 The 18ga opened all the doors.  This was what I'd waited for, what I needed.  After this the work largely became creating rings and replacing the steel ones and the last of the old brass ones.  To be sure, for the largest rings the ga was smaller (above).  But, but, but!  I felt I could not afford 16ga (the old wire had been $1 a foot, the new was $8 a foot), and the 18 was doing a good job.  It was sufficient unto the need.

Breeching seat still with 4 steel rings

This photo shows quite clearly that while 18ga was not a perfect match, it still worked.  Apparently I have my limits, monetarily and labor-wise.

This shot (below) is particularly interesting as it shows the spider, the arrangement of straps distributed across the top of the rump, in the middle of restoration.  You can see the steel "interim" or holding rings;  all straps were renewed, but the patent stayed.   New cruppers, new holdbacks, new everything except for the chafe straps (the shaped patent behind the hip strap buckles)(and even one set of them stayed);  and the mud drops, behind their English brasses.  One mud drop broke its patent, the only time this happened;  I replaced it.

Those mud drops gave each harness its name:  Horseshoes and 3-Crescents. 

 The above also shows how I was making the trace-carrying hooks, featured on the center strap of the spiders.  These hooks were for the trace chains when the horse was being led to and from harnessing-up.  Restoration involved replacing the trace end dee rings and polishing those chain links too.  Speaking of polishing: I cleaned the old patent first with rubbing alcohol, letting it dry;  this was important.  Then polish with a clean Qtip or microbrush.  Then, to really bring out the shine, rub with some kind of oil:  leather dressing, skin oil, whatever.  Even ancient patent took on a shine.

Here's a couple of shots of the overall parts of the breeching.  This first one is the 'Horseshoe' with its spider and kidney drop strung on the backstrap.

This second shot shows the backpad, or harness saddle, having its terret rings replaced.  It also shows one of the traces and the head of another.  I kept the hammered-brass trace hooks but replaced their holding pins on two of the traces.  Amazingly 2 of the 4 traces was still limber enough to serve!  The others were too stiff and broke or cracked under the 'bend test,' and were replaced with new ones.  I had to dig out the stitchmarker I used back then -- I found it in only the second place I looked!

Here's a unique angle, straight down on one of the spiders.  I'm trying to compare the 18ga spider center ring with the original brass one.  Yes, the gold ring is smaller.  But it does the job.  You can see the trace chain hooked up on the off side.

 So what's next?  As you maybe can guess, the restoration is finally done.  Today I held a fantastic photo shoot which turned into a parade down my front sidewalk.  Next blog post!  and thank you, as ever, for your patience.