Shire Horse and Dray - Part 2

With the Dray and Horse in reasonable shape the next step was to repair and refit the harness and straps. 

They had already received a coat of cleaner/conditioner to make them more supple. I was delighted to find that what I thought were 'rivets' were actually brass Split Pins so I was easily able to straighten them out and remove them. This enabled me to completely take apart all of the harness so I could identify and repair the various breaks in the leather. I put each section of the harness into a separate container so as to keep my confusion to a minimum. Regrettably, several more breaks occurred as I was cleaning and handling the old, fragile leather. 

I think the best thing I did with this project was take multiple photographs from every conceivable angle because putting the harness back together again, and figuring out which bits were broken, proved to be considerably more difficult than I had ever imagined.

The method I decided on for repairing the broken straps was quite unorthodox .... I used Garden Weed Suppressing Membrane. Though I'm sure there are plenty of 'proper' repair materials, this had all the qualities I was looking for .... thin, strong, doesn't stretch, and is easy to cut. 

Once I'd taken the harness apart it was a case of finding all the breaks and reconnecting them using the membrane. I cut small strips from an old offcut of weed membrane I had lying around, and glued them to the back of the straps using a contact adhesive. 

The final stage of the restoration was to carefully reconnect all the parts of the harness and refit it all to the horse and dray, giving everything a final clean and polish as I worked.

So the restoration is finally finished, or should I say, I've done all I can do. Parts of the harness are very weak and it wouldn't take a lot of handling for it to start falling to pieces again. Short of making a new harness from scratch I don't know what else I can do with it. But overall I'm pleased that it's all been cleaned and polished and that specific breaks in the leather have been repaired sufficiently for them to not be obvious. I've removed all old glue from the horse, none of the harness is now glued to it and the significant break in the leg is no longer visible. In my mind, that's not a bad result and is certainly a better result than I'd expected to get at the outset.