Friday Report: Restoring TSII #430

 For many months I've been sending Friday reports to those customers concerned with that week's model tack work.  Today I feel like posting such a report to the blog, something I've long threatened.  Usually the two or three people get two or three pictures.  We'll see if this Friday's decision changes anything!  It already has -- there are 8 pictures here.  There needs to be some background to this story...

Let's start with TSII #430.  Built in 2003, this was our fourth Little-Bit scale Silver Parade Set.  So far it is the ONLY saddle I've ever made using Mylar Tinsel as its main silvering element.

Thus #430 is 19 years old.  This is what it looked like (above) when it was new.  Fast forward those nineteen years, and now look at it:

The owner quite reasonably complained that the silver drops (teardrops) had tarnished, and she could not keep them clean.  There were other problems.  The central conchos, main design element of the breastcollar and the serapes (drapes), were badly corroded,  no longer silver but dull brass and green.  Most of the saddle's fastening (structural) conchos were a deep yellowgreen, coated with some awful exudate.  And the cinch was terribly twisted, something I've come to expect with TSII work of the time.  :(

The customer asked whether I could replace the drops.  I said yes.  Then I asked something extremely daring and unusual:  Not to give a quote until the job was done.  I have never done this before;  it's too much to ask.   Amazingly, she said yes.  I am still in a state of humble shock and she will get a discount for such faith... !

Here you can see the old central concho's condition.  They were plated brass and over the 19 years that brass reacted to the leather in no uncertain terms.  I took them off by peeling/cutting the lining and clipping the Mylar tinsel tie-downs.  

By great good luck, I had used separate ties for them.  This meant I didn't endanger anything else when they were removed!  I then made 3 new conchos from i-kandis and hot-ironed them on.  Normally I detest glue, but I haven't yet had i-kandis fall off.  This iron-on approach is simple, fast and guaranteed not to tarnish.  It allows me to match other elements of the saddle's overall design:  circular conchos with a center stamp and squarish borders.

Offside serape with new central concho

Here's what the brass domes did in those 19 years:

All you tackmakers out there who think that brass and leather together 'do nothing:'  This is what can happen.  Verdigris [the green corrosion] is created by the chemical reaction of the tannins in the leather to the copper in the brass.  But beyond that, I do not know the names of the involved chemicals, nor why it happens with some leathers and not with others.  On the same saddle, note (above) how the structural conchos merely turned a bright yellow-green.  I shall have to remove the seat and replace those pin conchos. 

Meanwhile, replacing the drops was progressing.  There are 18 teardrops, so that means eighteen handmade drops with Mylar.  I chose to re-use the small silver balls because they had not turned black like the sterling.  I will be re-using the drop pins.   you can hear a pin drop...

I apologize for the fuzziness.  This gives some idea of what the restored breastcollar will look like, and thus all the new drops.

Future plans include cleaning and replacing the structural conchos (oh boy, another seat to take off, Yarkk!) and making another cinch.  

This will all be put on pause while we go canoeing on Kentucky's Cave Run Lake from the 8th to the 17th.  Spring Migration!  :)   

As ever, thank you so much for your patience.