The Restoration Project

Tree Repair and Preparation - McClellan Restoration

Equipment:  First, you'll need a couple of small screwdrivers (at least one suitable for #6 size screws), a utility knife, a tack puller or similar tool, a pair of gloves, a rough cleaning brush, and a pair of pliers. A pair of fine pointed needlenose pliers also come in handy.

(For this example) Since the leather and rawhide covers can't be saved, try to remove all the items that you will want to save, such as hardware. You might also want to save any straps, flaps, etc., that can be used as patterns for new pieces later.

Step 1: Remove all the metal loops, rings, saddlenails (the large brassheaded nails at the base of the pommel/cantle seams). The mortice plates take some finesse, as they used screw pins to affix them. Taking a small screwdriver, slid it under the plate as closely as possible to the pin head, and lift slowly but firmly. Once the pin head lifts from the saddle a little ways, carefully grasp the head of the pin with the needlenose and turn counter clockwise. Practice this on the oval plates first (they're fairly expendable) - when you're comfortable with this process, then take off the pommel shield. You must take care not to damage the pommel shield, unless you have an 11½" seat.

Step 2: Take your utility knife and cut any intact threads left in the seams by running it down between the stitched leather pieces. Pull these off, removing any unseen tacks that may be holding parts to the tree.

Step 3: Now, clean out all the dead bugs, spiders, and general filth that has filled up some of the spaces under the cover, especially along lower cantle/pommel edges and around the stirrup loop. Did I mention you might want to be wearing those gloves? Take the cleaning brush and brush away all the loose debris from the tree and give the rawhide cover a good inspection. Ask this question - would I feel better (at least $75 better) if I had this replaced? It's a judgement call, but generally you will want a cover that is 90% intact, including the rawhide covering the pommel and cantle arches.

Step 4: Take a very hard look at the stirrup loops and the metal brackets holding them to the tree. Are the edges of the brackets worn, and/or cutting into the stirrup loops? Is there any looseness in the bracket mounting? If the stirrup loops are brass, they may have considerable "cuts" worn into them by these brackets - again - ask yourself, would I trust riding on these? If they look good and are solidly affixed to the tree, then don't worry about it. If not...

Step 5: Rip the old rawhide cover off - pliers and utility knives are plenty sophisticated for this job. Since the trees were painted with WHITE LEAD PAINT, you might want to do this outside, with gloves on (and perhaps a light facemask or handkerchief). BE SURE TO WASH ANY SKIN THAT TOUCHES THE BARE TREE. Remove all the rawhide lacing and tiedown lace tacked on the underneath grooves; a small screwdriver point works very well for this. You might find that parts of the cantle (sometimes other areas) are cracked or broken - sometimes they will come off with the rawhide - just be sure to keep these pieces - they're easy to repair.

Step 6: Check the cantle and pommel arches, are there any cracks or other significant damage in progress? Usually there isn't, but if these are cracked, you're pretty much out of luck, unless you can get a friendly welder to patch these for you. These arches are the core strength of the McClellan saddle, and they need to be in good shape.  Check the hardware, making sure it is still tightly attached. If a rivet has broken or given way, you can usually replace it with a long screw, just large enough to thread itself tightly into the metal attachment with the screw head fully seated into the wood. The end can then be trimmed off with a hacksaw blade or large nippers and filed down. When reattaching stirrup brackets, I like to use steels machine bolts, passed through the top of the bracket (chamfered for the machine bolt head to fit flush), the wood sidebar, a metal washer, and then threaded into a nut. This nut and washer needs to be inset into wood just far enough that it doesn't project past the top surface.  Use stainless steel hardware. No one is going to see it anyway, so might as well make it so it will last.

Step 7: Take any broken or cracked wood sections and epoxy these back into place. Since epoxy alone won't do the trick, get a selection of small dowel rod and drill bits that correspond in size. Very carefully drilling through the separate section and the main adjacent section of the tree, make a hole at least 1" to 1.25" deep (not wide!) into solid tree wood. Drip a little epoxy into the hole and drive a tight fitted dowel piece down to the base of the hole. Trim off the top of the dowel, rasp and sand to match the surface shape.

Notice in this image (at left) that the two holes at the top of the cantle haven't been pinned yet.  These pins will help prevent the cantle piece from cracking through the mortice hole (very common).  The two pins in the sidebar (already epoxied and sanded flush) are located where the saddlebag loop screws were.  These have very often been stripped out of the wood - these should be repaired in order for restored hardware to have "like-new" performance.  Using a hardwood pin here means that the attachment screws will likely perform better than the originals did.  Almost a mandatory repair for front saddle ringholders!

Two of these epoxied pins will really firm up a repair - also very good for preventing a crack from getting worse, if a section hasn't broken off yet. Dowel pinning also is very handy for strengthening joints in older saddles (including McClellans) that may have used dovetails, or some other weaker technique - just run pins perpendicular to joint.

Step 8: You've pretty much prepped the tree for rawhiding, with the possible exception of aesthetic changes you might make in the case of WWI contract type trees - some of these can have enormously thick pommel profiles that really look clunky compared to older M1904's and M1896's. I've had some good luck using a power belt sander to quickly take this excess off, but you've got to be careful not to take too much, and it's got to be symmetrical! Now, you might want to paint the tree with white lead paint - good luck finding any! This stuff is just not made or sold anymore! If you do intend to paint the tree in some way, try to stick with wood-stain types of paints/finishes. They make these in white/antique whites that blend well, and since they soak into the wood, are less likely to peel off when the rawhide cover dries (which is kind of unavoidable - very unsightly!).

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