[Illustration: WORKSHOP.]
The manufacture of saddles and harness for horses is one requiring very
considerable skill and no little patience, since on the ability of the
Saddler depends not only the health and comfort of the horse, but the
safety of the rider. The beauty and finish of the harness and its
appurtenances are so essential to the proper appearance presented by the
whole equipage, that a very great deal of attention is now given even to
the smallest details, such as buckles, mounts and ornamental sewing on
straps and traces.
[Illustration: Spokeshave. Cutting Gauge. Dead Punch. Compasses. Mallet.
Hand Iron.]
The operations in the trade of the Saddler are so similar to those of the
shoemaker, as far as the stitching and cutting of leather are concerned,
that they require very little description. The most difficult part of
his business is the skilful making of saddles. To fit the pigskin over
the iron shape, and skilfully to arrange the padding, is often a very
troublesome task, where a horse requires some peculiarity of make before
he can be well fitted; and to ensure a perfect smoothness and finish
a skilful use of the _hand iron_ and the _spokeshave_ is necessary.
Similar care has to be taken in forming the collars to which the harness
is attached; and indeed no part of the Saddler’s work can be carelessly
performed without serious risk either to the horse or its owner.
[Illustration: Needle and Thread. Clamps. Lead Piece. Hand Knife. Punch.
Round Knife. Pricking Iron. Hand Knife. Hammer.]
As a great part of the Saddlers’ work consists of sewing, he uses the
_clamps_ to hold the leather between his knees, in the same way as they
are used by the shoemaker; but although he employs the _sewing awl_ for
drilling holes, or, at all events, the _pricking iron_, the sewing is
done with _needles_ and strongly waxed _thread_. The various kinds of
_knives_ are used for cutting and paring the leather; the _cutting gauge_
and _compasses_ for regulating the cutting, the _hammer_ for driving
the small nails used in the work, and the _mallet_ for striking the
_pricking iron_ or _punches_. The _punch_ is used for making the holes
in the straps to receive the tongue of the buckle, and is therefore a
hollow tube with a sharp cutting edge, so that it will cut out a little
round piece of the leather. The _dead punch_ is made solid, and is not
intended for cutting. The leather, when it has to be cut with the punch,
is placed on the _lead piece_, a small square block of lead, which being
soft allows a slight yielding of the leather, and at the same time does
not blunt the edge of the punch when it has passed through the hole.
[Illustration: Edging Iron. Seat Awl. Packing Awl. Sewing Awl. Double
Crease. Single Crease. Nail Claw.]
The _seat awl_ and _packing awl_ are used in the padding and making of
saddles and collars; the _nail claw_ for removing nails by which the
leather has been fastened down.
The various kinds of _creases_ are for the purpose of making channels in
the leather along the edges which have to be sewn, so that the stitches
are sunk below the surface, and the thread will not so easily wear out.
The _edging iron_ is for a similar purpose. In common saddlery some of
the comparatively unimportant straps, or the smaller gear, are not sewn
at the edges, and indeed do not require it, although a great deal of the
Saddler’s sewing is for ornamental purposes. In order to make the whole
look uniform, however, these straps are not left plain, but are creased
at the edges, and the channels thus made are marked with the _pricking
iron_, to give them the appearance of having been stitched. The Saddler
is better off than the shoemaker, inasmuch as he generally sits to work
at a bench, and need not occupy such a constrained and unhealthy position.
Some account has already been given of the preparation of leather, but it
will be desirable here to mention other sorts, some of which particularly
belong to the business of harness making.
[Illustration: Screw Crease. Varnish Pot. Sponge.]
Sheep-skins, when simply tanned, are employed for inferior bookbinding,
for leathering bellows, and for various other purposes for which a cheap
leather is required. All the _whit-leather_, as it is termed, which is
used for whip-lashes, bags, aprons, &c. is of sheep-skin; as are also the
cheaper kinds of _wash-leather_, of which gloves, under-waistcoats, and
other articles of dress, are made. Mock, or imitation morocco, and most
of the other coloured and dyed leathers used for women’s and children’s
shoes, carriage-linings, and the covering of stools, chairs, sofas,
writing-tables, &c. are also made of sheep-skin.
Lamb-skins are mostly dressed white or coloured for gloves; and those of
goats and kids supply the best qualities of light leather, the former
being the material of the best morocco, while kid leather affords the
finest material for gloves and ladies’ shoes. Leather from goat-skins,
ornamented and sometimes gilt, was formerly used as a hanging or covering
for walls.
[Illustration: Harness.]
Deer and antelope skins, dressed in oil, are used chiefly for riding
breeches. Horse-hides, which, considering their size, are thin, are
tanned and curried, and are used by the Harness Maker, especially for
collars, and occasionally, when pared thin, for the upper leathers of
ladies’ walking shoes. Dog-skins are thick and rough, and make excellent
leather. Seal-skins produce a leather similar but inferior to that
supplied by dog-skins; and hog-skins afford a thin but dense leather,
which is used mostly for covering the seats of saddles.
Currying is the general name given to the various operations of
dressing leather after the tanning is completed, by which the requisite
smoothness, lustre, colour, and suppleness, are imparted. The processes
of the Currier are various. The first is styled “dipping” the leather.
It consists in moistening with water, and beating upon a trellis-work of
wooden spars with a _mallet_ or _mace_. After this beating, by which the
stiffness of the hide or skin is destroyed, it is laid over an inclined
board, and scraped and cleaned, and, wherever it is too thick, pared
or shaved down on the flesh side by the careful application of various
two-handled knives, and then thrown again into water, and well scoured
by rubbing the grain or hair side with pumice-stone, or with a piece of
slatey grit, by which means the _bloom_, a whitish matter which is found
upon the surface in tanning, is removed.
[Illustration: Rule. Pincers. File. Pliers.]
The leather is then rubbed with the _pommel_, a rectangular piece of
hard wood, about twelve inches long by five broad, grooved on the under
surface, and fastened to the hand. The Currier uses several of these
instruments, with grooves of various degrees of fineness, and also, for
some purposes, pommels of cork, which are not grooved at all. The object
of this rubbing is to give grain and pliancy to the leather. The leather
is then scraped with tools applied nearly perpendicular to its surface,
and worked forcibly with both hands, to reduce such parts as may yet be
left too thick, to a uniform substance. After this it is dressed with
the _round knife_, a singular instrument which pares off the coarser
fleshy parts of the skin. In addition to these operations, the Currier
uses occasionally polishers of smooth wood or glass, for rubbing the
surface of the leather; and when the leather is intended for the use of
the shoemaker, he applies to it some kind of greasy composition called
_dubbing_ or _stuffing_.
Leather is occasionally dressed “black on the grain,” or having the grain
side instead of the flesh coloured. The currying operations in such a
case are similar to those above described, but the finishing processes
are rather different. The leather is rubbed with a grit-stone, to remove
any wrinkles and smooth down the coarse grain. The grain is finally
raised by repeatedly rubbing over the surface, in different directions,
with the pommel or graining board.
Japanned leather of various kinds is used in coach making, harness
making, and for various other purposes. Patent leather is covered with
a coat of elastic japan, which gives a surface like polished glass,
impermeable to water; and hides prepared in a more perfectly elastic mode
of japanning, which will permit folding without cracking the surface, are
called enamelled leather. Such leather has the japan annealed, something
in the same mode as glass; the hides are laid between blankets, and
subjected to the heat of an oven at a peculiar temperature during several
hours.