Visalia Saddle

[GunClick Rick]

Wished these pics would of come out better,i'll have to go try again.Saddle shop display at our little musem in  Mooneys Grove Park.Also the plaque where the original building was on Main and is now a pub.Gonna go to a place and take a pic of  a huge collection of Visalia saddles i n a day or so.It's a pawn shop owned by a gal that knew my dad.

[GunClick Rick]

A few more..The glass must have been shakin or somethin









[imghttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/gunclickrick/visaliasaddle017.jpg][/img]

[cowboy316]

hey Rick
looks like a place id love to sit and drool at looks like a neat place maybe some day ill get that way
Cowboy316

[David Carrico]

I'm thinking I could make more $$$ and get more people to come in if I turn my saddleshop into a pub! Great idea!
Thanks for sharing the pics, really nice!
DC

[cowboywc]

Hey David
I was kinda thinkin the same thing.........
WC

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Really good collection, there. Thanks for posting the pics, Rick.

DC & WC, that's a good idea. Let me know when it's a done deal.

[GunClick Rick]

The Ride on in Saloon Saddle up to the bar

[GunClick Rick]

Statue of the man the park is named for.Mr. Mooney

[Dr. Bob]

Rick,

Great pix!!   The next time ya go down there, grab that Sombrero and send on here to me!   I'll happily reimburse the postage!!

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi,

The local Public TV did a show on Silvieras Saddles ... supposedly, he was the last person alive to have been taught the Visalia Saddle. He passed away about ten years ago, and when he did, the saddlery shut down .... another bit of history gone ... I think it is a fly fishing store now ....

The sad thing is that the only thing he did for me (it was before SASS) was to replicate the original leather sling for my Model 98 Mauser ... wish I would have known enough to have had him give me some of his knowledge....

[GunClick Rick]

Dee sombrerrro i geets for chreestmas she's to beeg,i reeely lofe my hat but she's to beeg,
can't tell one thing from another,i got married to my brother ,thee somrerro i geets for chreestmas she's to beeg.LOL

That's an old song done by the voice of Bugs Bunny Mel Blanc
You will sometimes find old items at yard sales and such with the name Visalia on them,One guy over on the Sass site found a pair of chaps one time,they did make other stuff.That sling you have may be worth a little..Heck man you all here should start a co-op

There is a website that says Visalia Saddle Company ,maybe they still make them but i don't know anything about the folks the do or have the site.

http://www.visaliastocksaddle.com

[Gun Butcher]

 Hey Rick, those are some great pics man. I could spend a month in that place.

[RollingThunder]

One of the pics has one of my sewing machines in it! Priceless! "They're old! Thaye're antiques" and the dadblamed things still work!

LOL

[GunClick Rick]

Yep my 1940 wurly jukebox still plays 78s like a dream.Has an updated needle but has a sound like no other.Bubbles go up the center.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Rick,

According to PBS, and most of what they say I tend to believe, Silviera was the last extant saddlemaker that was actually trained by Visalia Saddlery alive.

The special went on to say that stars like John Wayne used to come to Sacramento to have their saddles made by him....

I'm just sayin'

According to the same show, and it was years ago when I saw it, the Visalia Company was in several locations due to fires and such. Finally, the company at some time stopped, and was reincarnated.

I believe that, after the company shut down in the 30s or 40s, several of the workers set up their own shop and marketed that they made 'Visalia Saddles' ... and that this shop was the last one of the workers still working in the craft.

The sling has no Silviera marks on it ... but it is nice to have new leather on the old fittings ... in addition, it is reblued (But not enough to loose the markings on the metal), I stripped the stock, ironed all the big divots out of it, and finished it with seven coats of Deks Olje ... kind of a marine mixture of tung oil and polyurethane with an UV filter ... it would last on the wood on my sailboat on the Sacramento Delta for almost a year out in the weather and sunshine, so I decided that I probably could not find anything better.

[GunClick Rick]

Wow that's way cool..

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Rick,

FWIW, I really like this stuff. To apply it the first time, one strips the project of all finishes ... I went through 400 and then 0000 plastic 'steel wool'. Then one just keeps putting a coat on every 20 minutes or so until the finish fills in the grain. Then one just wipes off any excess with a **LINT FREE** cloth. After about 24 hours, the project is ready for use.

Deks Olje (pronounced 'deks olay') is scandinavian in origin and is so tough it is used on wooden commercial fishing vessels.

Deks Olje has two products, named appropriately #1 & #2. Number 1 is a freestanding process in itself and leaves an oiled finish not unlike what is normally found on a gunstock. Number 2 is an additional finish; the #1 is wet sanded and a coat or two of #2 is applied. The result is like a satin varnish finish....

The neat thing is that the finish will feather into itself ... so if the stock is badly scratched or banged, the area can be smoothed out with that plastic 'steel' wool and the oil reapplied. It will smooth out with the old Deks Olje and look like it was never scratched.

Another nice thing is that, if the finish begins to look old, one simply takes a nylon brush, washes the project with a teak oil to remove any old dirt and standing oil. After allowing the wood to dry for 24 hours, one repeats the original process by layeriing coats on every 20 minutes until it begins to stand on the surface (i.e., the grain is filled). Again, one removes any freestanding oil with a **LINT FREE** cloth....

BTW, here is their website;

http://www.deksolje.com/

[GunClick Rick]

Is it temperature sensitive? As in  warmer weather is best to use it? Sounds like i would like to redo the stock on my 92 with that #1,it still has the factory stain on it and i would like to show the grain more.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

I don't know if it was heat sensitive, but I certainly was. So replacing the finish was a late May annual event ... even 'tho the teak was not too much in area, it still took a day to wash it down and a day to put the finish back on .... and then if a farmer started plowing and threw up on of those peat-moss-dust clouds, it meant starting the cleaning all over