John, your method sounds traumatic :) i've replaced a of drum heads, and i wonder if some of the tricks there would apply. it's a different sort of leather - uncured goat (thin) or uncured african cow (thick) - but whenever i work with skin that has to be under tension, i soak it in room temp water and that makes it pliable. you can control how pliable too - a bass drum skin will move like cloth after it's been soaked for 30 min, but has a fixed shell shape after it dries. not the same thing as a broken in saddle of tanned leather, but..
so Scott, i guess if i had a saddle that was perfectly entooshified, and then threw a rail, here is what i'd do: - grab a block of potters' clay and mold it around saddle surface - i'd probably tape the leather up a bit first with a few layers of paper/plastic to anticipate clay shrinkage, and add some drainage holes in the reverse-mold. - let it air-harden and make sure the saddle still fits, sand here and there as needed to get it right. - soak the leather in water for 20-30 min, pulling it out when it's pretty bendy but still has most of the original shape - stretch over the new frame, adjusted to shortest length - press into clay template, allow to dry/set for a day to ensure the leather breaks the right way. assuming my mold has the underside of the saddle "up", i might fill with gravel and bake in a 200 degree oven for an hour or two to set it. - let dry fully, out of the mold. prob 2 days or so, or 1 really long day in the hot sun. - voila! if you actually try this, let me know! :D andrew -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
