A Riveting Post

The promising start to the saddle making last week didn't end well. I got the saddle top cut out, creased the edge, cut out the vent and then screwed up the rivet holes. I tried to punch them through from below after marking the positions. The punch tended to wander a little going through the thickness of the leather. The result is that whilst the holes are lined up correctly with those in the cantle plate and the nose piece, the upper sides of the rivets do not line up perfectly on the top side of the saddle. Since I have plenty of leather, I chalked it up to experience and made another. Tim has told me how he makes his holes so this time should be better. Also the second time around I made a few changes to how I stretched the leather top over the block to make the process slightly easier and quicker. I didn't work, it took me longer. For some reason the second top is softer than the first one, this one marks very easily whereas the first one was quite hard, I'll carry on though and see how it works out.

Right where did we get to?

First thing is to cut the leather off the block and make it the right shape.

I asked Tim about how to get both sides the same and unfortunately there is no easy way. Fortunately the facile I am copying still had the original saddle leather so I was able to accurately copy the shape and dimensions.

Next run an edge beveller around the inner edge to produce a smooth chamfer.

Then dampen the leather slightly and run an edge creaser around the outer edge to

 produce a line. This requires care, particularly around the tight bend on the nose.

Then bevel the outer edge.

Then cut out the vent from the top of the saddle. 

I took measurements, photos and a rubbing from the original since I felt this was important to get the dimensions correct. Tim advised that I get a clickers knife to cut the vent. I failed to find one anywhere but I discovered that there is an easily available Stanley knife blade (5192) that is very similarly shaped. The blade is reasonably easy to control and well suited to this job. As an aside, Mr Middleton recently introduced me to diamond files. They come in at least three grades, the finest being of most use to me. I've been using mine to touch up high speed steel cutting tools in the lathe. I recently spotted a curved one and bought it with a view to honing these hooked Stanley knife blades. It turns out that I can get the Stanley blades sharper than new with it, scalpel sharp in fact, I'm most impressed and if you don't already own one, go and get one immediately if not sooner.

Next make the rivet holes. 

This time I took Tim's advice about the rivet holes and managed to get them in the right place. The upper sides need to be countersunk to allow the rivets to lie flush with the surface so that clothing doesn't catch on them.

Dye all the cut edges and when dry burnish to a gloss finish, 

I cheated and used my polished mop to do this. 

Lightly toasted leather doesn't half smell bad you know.

Then comes the bit that I was nervous about, the two creases along the sides of the saddle top. These two lines have to be the same and are done freehand with no guides. I marked the positions lightly with pencil to make sure they were symmetrical and then just went for it. I don't have the correct creasing tool for this so I smoothed the edge of an old fashioned steel tyre lever and used that.

The leather has to dampened again before creasing the line.

Then rivet the top on using copper rivets. I had just enough genuine 1/2" Brooks rivets left over from a previous job. Tim advised that these rivets are too large to be historically correct so I turned them down in the lathe until the heads were 3/8" as per the originals. I hate turning copper, it's so soft that it's hard, a little like sweeping water into a pile. Or herding cats. Or something.

The five holes that I had drilled, the three in the nose piece and the two new holes in the cantle plate were easy to rivet since I had sized them to the rivets. The four original, outermost holes in the cantle plate were larger and I couldn't get the rivets to hold properly and consequently had to remove them and have a little think. Of course I had no rivets left so I had to make some more from some much larger copper rivets used to hold truck brake shoes on. My Father has a large pot full and I stole some many years ago. This time I made some little copper washers and used them as roves to hold the tension on the rivet whilst I headed it, this worked out well. I'm not completely happy with the leather top, I think I could do better but I'll ride it and see how it works out in use.

The saddle is still not yet complete, I'm having a makers stamp made but it hasn't arrived yet. I'll post a photo when I get it.

I can now sit on the bike, and very comfortable it is to, which means that I can now make the handle T grips and get them at the right ergonomic angle. More later.


In other news, this week we've had a bad dose of redundancy going around at work. It's interesting that when the list of redundancies is announced all those on the list become work place pariahs. The fortunate few remaining in employment no longer make eye contact or want to linger and chat. They may catch redundancy you see. For those readers familiar with the traditions of English pantomimes.

"Where's my career"?

All together now children, "It's behind you".

 To my surprise, I am one of the lucky few to be kept on. I've had a lot of time off this year to look after my children and I didn't expect to survive the cut.

I explained what redundancy meant to my children and shortly afterwards they demonstrated their clear understanding of the nature of the problem by playing 'redundancy touch' (no returns allowed). This game is very similar to 'cheese touch', 'Jamie touch' or 'double dog poo touch'. Jamie being an unfortunate boy in my son's class. Children can be so pleasant.