Draft Harness Resto: Parade Finish

 

The fourth and final post of the 1984 Draft Pair Harness restoration is all about how much fun I had August 22.  It's been ages since I set up a parade on the front sidewalk.  Usually only my NaMoPaiMo ponies get shot there;  but every now and then, over the years, I have an excuse to trot out more.  At the end of this post I'll slip in a pic of the TSII Canadian 8-Hitch (23 years ago), and you all can see that this is not the first time Pirate and Her Majesty's Gift have been in harness.

To begin, here's a series of shots of the completed harnesses on the Clyde pair with my TSII Hitch Wagon.  The wagon was made by Dick Eighmey, the go-to vehicle maker of the model horse hobby in the 1990s.    

At first I put the black horse on the side of the viewer.  I guess I was tired of Her Majesty stealing the show (yes, mine is female).  The frontal view (below) would not, of course, be possible for a typical parade watcher;  but it does transition from 'coming towards' to 'going away.'  The boys, Bo and Luke (dressed by Kim Jacobs), don't look all that steady,... heaven knows what they do during the long years in storage,...

 

 

Here we get our first glimpses of the dogs.  There are always dogs who ride in the wagon.  Two Breyer canines and the Hartland Bullet are my lot for passengers today.  

So much for orientation!  Closing in on the harnesses and swapping direction of travel 180 degrees,

 giving in to the exoticism of long-leaf giant Lilies and the lure of gold, 

 we'll show one more shot of the restored harnesses.  For reference, here's a list of the related posts:

Restoring a Draft Pair Harness

Draft Harness Resto: Backpads

Draft Harness Resto: Breechings

 And then it's off to the parade with a completely different question:

"Who just happens to be tacked up right now?"

 I'm not sure now why I felt the pair had to be broken up and only one be hitched to a cart.  I guess I thought all those pix of the hitch wagon were enough, and wanted to give others a chance.  In any event I pulled out my Mel Reigsecker Draft Cart (also acquired in the 90s) and put Her Majesty's Gift to it.  I pinched a pair of shaft carriers from my Red Hungarian Tandem to do the job.  Naturally, the HR Jack Russel had to get in on the act.  His near hind leg is broken off but you'd never know it.

 By definition, a parade involves more than one entry.  That is why the question, Who happens to be tacked up right now?  I'd used up all my oomph harnessing drafters, I didn't have much more to spend.  However the herd has evolved to a condition where at least a few horses would be tacked up at any given time.  What luck:  There were three available.

 A curiously haunting collection was the result.  In fact I have made only one of these 3 outfits.  The central parade set, on the Appaloosa, is TSII #309, originally made for a Canadian customer in 1991 and later bought back.  

Can you spot the moose on the chest?

 The lead horse, beautiful Minyalucca (Minuet sculpted by Kathy Moody and painted by Elizabeth Bouras and Susan Bensema Young) is wearing my only Heather Moreton saddle, the Silver Acorn set.

 And the trailing horse, my Seurat/Sorpresa, is carrying the So-called Russian parade saddle.  He just never took it off after its last post.  I don't blame him!

You are probably seeing what is so clearly missing.  It dawned on me eventually.  Duh!  Like Anne Field says, Everybody needs dolls!  So this is my Field of Dolls example.  Another duh, she needs a friend or sister or companion or fellow stable girl or,... fill in the blank,...

Also eventually, it dawned on me that a standing horse in the middle of a parade means some kind of trouble.  (Lameness perhaps?)  So I took Chalif down and stood her by her horse.  I thought she should be looking sidewise, into the (imaginary) crowd, alert for trouble.  So is the Jack Russell.  At the same time I thought I'd be sneaky and get in a suggestion of Sorpresa but cut off his rider.  I know, I know:  forty-eight years of fanatical concentration on model parade saddles and not a single parade rider doll,...

 This is the last, and probably best, sidewalk parade shot.  I got 'suggestions' of 2 horses and 2 actual dolls.

 Now, at the end, I can share this other amazing sight.  Back in 2003 I had the opportunity to put Ivy Olensky's Canadian 8 on my own 6 dapple grey Clydesdales.  Of course I needed 2 more Clydes.  The page is on my TSII website under Harness.  Here's a link:  Olensky Canadian 8 Hitch.

And on that note: What's next for the TSII?  I need to get back to TSII #458, the Fire Horse Parade Saddle, while it's still the Year of the Fire Horse (!).  But to transition to so intense a piece, after my happy foray these last few days with a bosal, is difficult.  Perhaps I could do the reins;  I envision black braided ones.  Yet I would also like to make progress on the now-4 other customers who have been waiting so patiently.  At least a small piece for someone else!  Focus on headgear for a while?  Honestly I don't know.  We'll just have to see what the muse reveals.

 

 

Draft Harness Resto: Breechings

This post tries to fulfill a promise, showing the remainder of the Draft Pair as they underwent restoration.  This is surely one of the most unique harness restos 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 my most expensive 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 ancient brass one.  A little refinement won't hurt.  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.

 

 

 

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 the green is a very tiny percentage of what it was before.

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.