d-gordon@sbcglobal.net wrote:
>
> Hello, I have some sad news. I was reading on here where people were
> talking about how to soften up a hardened Brooks saddle a few days ago by
> wrapping it and tossing it in a water bath. Well, I did that for a couple
> days, and it was still hard as heck. There was only the slightest of
> movement near the back. Oh yea, prior to this I tried the using up almost an
> entire tin of Profhide on it, with no success. It just absorbed everything
> and stayed rock hard.
> I decided what turned out to be a horrible mistake of placing the saddle
> in a pot of warm water on the stove and gently warming it to try and soften
> it a little. Guess what happened? I hated to mention it, because its
> embarassing and not only that, it makes me almost cry because of what
> happened to a piece of cycling history (my classic Brooks Professional
> saddle). I kept an eye on it and gently warmed to the water to hopefully
> get a bit of softening. I came back every few minutes and it seemed to be
> working. Ummm... Well after about two hours of gentle warming (not even
> close to boiling), I came back and the darn seat leather totally ripped into
> two pieces! Damn. Apparently the stress in the leather was too much and when
> it softened enough it just ripped in half. Now, unfortunately it's a piece
> of junk -- lesson learned -- and I just had to mention it here just in case
> someone else gets adventurous or a little bit in a hurry to 'soften' their
> leather saddle. It was quite an old saddle that I bought on ebay. Maybe my
> story will keep someone else from making the same mistake. I wasn't going
> to try that, but I was encouraged about all the stories on this list about
> successful 'softening' jobs.
Sorry to hear about your Brooks Pro's demise, but all the recent talk about soaking a leather saddle in water was about reshaping a splayed out saddle and had nothing to do with softening a hard saddle. That's accomplished with Neatsfoot oil or Proofide and lots of riding.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
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