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The Saddle-Girth Tightener: Two Hinged Plates That Grip the Girth and Lever It Tight
Drawing a saddle-girth tight through its buckle by hand takes a hard pull, and a horseman needs a hoof pick, an awl and a nail puller besides.
Ferdinand von Eulenfeld of Breslau, Germany, received US 455,745, dated 14 July 1891, for a combination tool "more particularly designed for the use of horsemen and cavalry-men and adapted to be compactly folded and constructed for use as a saddle-girth tightener, nail-extractor, punch or awl, calk-tightener, hoof-cleaner, and for other purposes". Two plates hinged together leave a slot between the knuckles for the girth's end; plate B, bevelled, rests on the girth as a fulcrum; moving plate A toward B narrows the slot to grip the girth, and then both plates act as a lever and draw it through the buckle. B carries a nail-extracting notch and a slot for tightening calks; A has a chamber with a pivoted awl under a cover whose arm is a hoof-cleaner.
This rung works out the lever's pull, with a work check, then makes the plates from flat bar with a knuckle hinge and an awl, and tightens a leather strap through a buckle with it.
Intermediate
About 5 hours
Instructions
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1
Grip and lever
Grip and lever
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
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A horseman's tool before it
A horseman's tool before it
The embedded blueprint combines a hoof-cleaner with a knife and other tools. Von Eulenfeld builds his around a girth tightener.
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Read US 455,745
Read US 455,745
"When it is desired to tighten a saddle-girth the free end thereof is passed through the slot c. The outer end of plate B, which is beveled, is placed against the girth and serves as a fulcrum. The plate A is then moved toward plate B, as indicated by arrow x, Fig. 7. As the plate A moves toward plate B the slot c becomes narrower, the upper edges of the slot tightly grasping the girth."
"By a further movement of plate A toward plate B both plates act as a lever, being rigidly connected, or substantially so, by the interposed girth D, thereby drawing the said girth through the buckle d and tightening the same. As the leverage afforded by plates A B is considerable, but a slight effort is required to tighten the girth."
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4
Make the tightener and tighten a strap
Make the tightener and tighten a strap
**Plates.** Cut two 12 cm plates from 25 × 5 mm mild steel flat bar. Bevel the outer end of plate B, file a rectangular notch in it for nails, and cut a rectangular slot through it for calks or nuts.
**Knuckles.** Bend a short strip of flat bar round a rod at the inner end of each plate as hinge-knuckles, set so that when the plates are hinged on a pin through the knuckles a slot about 6 mm wide is left between the knuckles and the plates' ends.
**Awl and cover.** File a chamber into plate A's outer end, pivot a short awl in it on a rivet, and pivot a thin cover over it with a rounded arm as the hoof-cleaner.
**Test.** Buckle a leather strap round a post. Pass its free end through the slot, rest plate B's bevel against the strap, and swing plate A toward B: the slot grips, and the strap is drawn through the buckle. Compare how far you can tighten it by hand, reading the pull with the spring scale.
Materials for this step:
Mild Steel Flat Bar0.4 meter
Mild Steel Rod0.1 meter
Pop Rivets3 pieces
Leather Strap1 piece
Belt Buckle Hardware Set1 pieceTools needed:
Hacksaw
Files (Hand File)
Needle File Set
Bench Vise
Hammer
Propane Torch
Cordless Drill
Drill Bit Set
Pop Rivet Gun Kit
Force Meter (Spring Scale)
Leather Work Gloves
Clear Safety Glasses5
5
A tightener that slips, pinches or will not fold
A tightener that slips, pinches or will not fold
Saddle-girth tightener troubleshooting.
Flow
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History and honest limits
History and honest limits
**Ferdinand von Eulenfeld** of Breslau, Germany, filed US 455,745 on 11 March 1891; it is dated 14 July 1891. The plates A and B had hinge-knuckles a′ a′ and b′ b′; the notch b² extracted nails from a horse's hoof or shoe and the slot b³ served for calks or small nuts; the chambered end of A held a pivoted punch a⁵ under a cover A′ with an arm a³ as hoof-cleaner and a notch a⁴ for opening stirrup-bars. His claims cover the two hinged plates forming the slot, and the combinations with the chambered handle, awl, cover and notches.
**Honest limits.** Filed flat bar and a riveted awl stand in for his made tool, and the test uses a strap on a post, not a horse. The notebook treats the plates as a rigid lever; its forces and lengths are examples. Your tightened strap is the result.
Materials
5- 0.4 meterPlaceholder
- 0.1 meterPlaceholder
- 3 piecesPlaceholder
- 1 piecePlaceholder
- 1 piecePlaceholder
Tools Required
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