The Restoration Project

Rawhide Covers-  McClellan Restoration

Now, this ought to be fairly easy - you might have played with some rawhide making that drum kit at Cub Scouts that one year when you were a kid...sorry, whole different ball of wax. Think you came to the right place on the Internet for answers? Wrong again - only thing I can tell you is a story of how badly my experimentation has been with this.

Rawhide is very different from tanned leather - for one, it's cold and slimy when wet; doesn't smell too good either. Its a bear to cut accurately, UNLESS you've got some really sharp, mean looking shears. As for making the lace to sew it onto the tree - try to find pre-cut string/lace if at all possible.

Theoretically, it shouldn't be that difficult, if you have the right tools - which I didn't... There are places where you can get wet rawhide and precut strings/lace, so the real trick is to get the right tools to do the cutting, hole-making and stitching with.

First question should always be - is it worth it? You can have a professionally done rawhide cover put on by a number of different saddletree companies for @ $60 to 80 dollars.  For a really authentic job you might pay up to $150 and up. To buy the raw materials, (wet rawhide, string, tacks, varnish) will put you back about $40 or so. Unless your time is worth less than $20/hour or you really want to learn how it's done, and you don't mind messing a few jobs up to do that - by all means go for it. Generally speaking, I'd rather pay a little bit of money, make very specific instructions on the key points that have to be done for an authentic cover, and let someone else do what they do best.

So, what details make an good cover? And, what if you do want to give it a try?

First, you'll need a really sharp pair of shears - heavy Fiskars at least - I'm not kidding, wet rawhide is really tough to cut. The arsenals cut these pieces with "clicker dies" which look like giant cookie cutters and perform much the same way, so each piece was exactly the same. You also need to have blade small enough to cut small areas, as you are fitting the piece together during lacing. Understand this from the start - YOU ARE NOT STRETCHING THE RAWHIDE - it will do all that by itself. You're just going to get the cover to be as smooth and close to the tree as possible before the rawhide dries. Next, water and sponge - since you're probably not an expert yet, so you need to  keep the rawhide damp as you work.

Next, depending on your dexterity and skill with a needle, you can try two different options to lace the string - you can use a seat awl (an awl that is like a big needle with a handle that has an eye toward the point the shaft of the needle - you can get with a sharpened or blunt end) to punch the holes along the seam, and use the eye of the awl to pull the lace through, or you can use a regular awl to poke the holes, and a large-eyed blunt curved needle to pull the lacing through.

Rawhide covers on McClellans tend to be made from four pieces (sometimes just three) of rawhide - the main top cover, the bottom bar covers, and a section used behide the cantle. The FIRST PIECE TO LACE ON is always the top cover! Here's where it gets interesting - those grooves on the underside of the tree, and the numerous holes through the tree are important here - these are made for the LACING.

IMPORTANT DETAIL #1 - Most Civil War period McClellans used only STITCHES to hold down the top cover where the rider would sit between the pommel and cantle....."huh?"

The top cover (rawhide piece) is laid on the top of the tree, and heavy lacing is poked down through the rawhide, tree and tacked to the bottom of the tree (in a groove!). M1859s were ridden with bare rawhide - these models were customarily smooth where they would contact the rider. Instead of putting down a heavy lace along an edge, and then running a stitch up a hole, through the rawhide, over the lace, back through the rawhide, and down the hole to run along the groove to the next hole (whew!) - they only used the stitches (see pic to right), and not the "stay thong". I call it a "stay thong" as this is the term the military used in the late thirties and early forties..

These stay thongs were always used along the front edge of the pommel and the rear side of the cantle, where the covers really needed this type of reinforcement to keep from pulling up from the tree as they dried. In fact, it is critical in these locations, but not so much so on the open curved faces of the seat section.

This stitched-only seat area is typical of M1859, M1874 and M1885 saddletrees - the '59 and '74 were still just old CW surplus trees with the old covers. The U.S. Cavalry Museum in Ft. Riley has (had?) an excellent example of an unused M1885 tree with its replaced rawhide cover - with the smooth stitched-only seat.  [Like everything, there are exceptions]

The trees that really began using stay thongs exclusively were the new "machine-made" M1896s and M1904s. 

Speaking of M1904 saddletree rawhide covers, you might find this pattern helpful - this is a copy of a 1938 Quartermaster Department blueprint drawing of the rawhide cover for McClellans.

Why is this important? BECAUSE, almost every saddletree company will likely put these stay thongs in place unless you tell them not to - they're customary now. They may also want to place a few strategically place tacks - you will also need to specify NO TACKS to hold down areas of the cover, with the following exceptions - the areas behind the cantle and in front of the pommel are very difficult to keep the rawhide close to the tree (it really wants to pull up from these edges as it dries). A few tacks driven through the lacing and into the tree are not out of line at all.

Following the clues offered by the old rawhide you stripped off - hope you took a pic or wrote these clues down.

If you have the patience (when doing the job yourself), or if you are drawing up instructions for a saddletree company, make sure to ask for many fine stitches (no less than three per inch, and preferably four per inch for '59s). You might have to pay a little more, but it will really be worth it.  Bleached rawhide is best, plus ask for lighter weight if possible - this modern "bullhide" is way too thick.

Anyway - lets say you've had more success in getting the darn cover stitched on then I've had - now it must dry fairly slowly. Place it on some sort of rack that has a minimum of surface contact with the wet cover. Allow to air dry, do not heat it in any way - the rawhide will be best if allowed to dry at it's own pace.

A couple of coats of clear varnish, and you're ready to go - (how's that for a quickie closer?)...

In almost every case, I'd recommend just sending it off for the rawhide cover. Unless you're really into learning the technique of rawhiding, you'll very likely be much happier!

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