BTW, my experience has been different from Don's where oils and fats seem--for me--to allow undesirable stretching and permanent changes, whereas water soaking has never resulted in permanent stretching (as long as no weight is put on the saddle) and, but does allow permanent reshaping if allowed to fully dry. I like to use Proofhide or Obenauf's to condition the leather after drying, but I always use as little as necessary.
Mitch Harris Little Rock Canyon, Utah
P.S. Sorry about not signing off properly before--seemed like more of an ibob question and I got confused about which list I was posting to.
On 5/28/07, Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca> wrote:
>
> Hey everybody, I know you're ecstatic about your free saddle and
> cannot wait to share the news with others ~ i really do understand
> completely ~ but when it comes to reshaping a saddle WOULD YOU PLEASE
> LEARN TO USE THE ARCHIVES !!!
>
> http://search.bikelist.org/
>
> When you're done reading THOSE articles, come back with any questions
> you may still have. And NO, wetting with water is NOT always a good
> idea since it will mobilize certain types of fibers in the saddle and
> it's much safer to start out with oils and fats than with H2O wetting
> on a leather saddle ...
>
> - Don Gillies
> San Diego, CA