LonnieChambers

Sorry I havent posted in a while. I have been gone learning. Well here is my most recent wade saddle. I hope you guys and gails enjoy. Dont be afraid to criteq are ask me quesions. I still have a lot to learn so let me know what you think. Thank you. Lonnie Chambers

bruce Where do you get your Renia glue at. I am open for exsperimenting with new glues. How good does the Renia work on oily latigo. And you guys are right about the barge taking a long time to set up before you can stik it. How are the fumes with the Renia Lonnie

hello there.Just wanted to save you some trouble. I think four seperat 110 long strings would get you a 65 foot long rope. A reata needs to be long. So When you rope something you can let it burn on your horn. If you dally of fast because your reata is short you will break it, and splicing them back to gether is not fun.

Hello Foster Good question on the glue. I build saddles and any kind of cowboy gear you can think of. I use barge leather cement. This has worked pretty good for me. I put the glue on bolth peices that are going together. Let the glue set up, to the point that it is almost not sticky. Them put the peices together. The only problem with the glue when you put it on this way is it stickes pretty good. There is no time for adjusting, so you better be on the mark when you stick your lether together. As for glueing leather to a tree. I used to scuff the tree where the leather was going to be glued, this was on a timberline tree. I swithed to a bill bean tree. I went to vist Bill Bean in his tree making shop. We talked about glue. On glueing your leather down to your tree. He said that you do not need to scuff the tree. The glue will stick just fine. I have done some testing and Bill was right. So the barge cement does me pretty good. Thanks Lonnie Chambers

Ben Thanks for your reply. I am learning that detail will deffinatly make you are break you. I have a long ways to go still but every time I build a saddle I learn something new.

Thank you Bob. It has taken a long time but I am finaly getting some where.

Well here is number seven. The tree is a Bill Bean tree. The seat size is 15 and a half. The leather is all hermon oak.

Ben Thanks once agin for your reply. Nice saddles. I see what you are saying. My saddles have about the same amount of rise. This topic came up from a friend that has been building saddles for about 30 years we had a discusion over the phone about the rise in the skirts. If you look at different saddle makers. Some of them block there skirts a little more than others, and some are pretty flat. You would think that there would be some consistency in what we are doing these days, from one saddle maker to the next. Well thank you and I hope to talk agin. Well here is a pic of the last saddle I made. If there is anything you see That I could change let me know. I have never apprinticed under anyone. I have visited many saddle makers over the years off and on.Once agin thanks. Lonnie

Ben Thank you for replying back. What do you think about the rise under the saddle skirts in the back. Where your skirts are laced together. How much rise do you think you realy need to stay with the cuvature of a animals back. So your skirts dont rub a animal in the center of his back. I sometimes think you should go with the flow of the rock that the tree maker has put in the bars on the tree. Well I hope I am making sence. Let me know what you think. Thank you Lonnie

Hello there. I have just got this seet in. Woundering if anyone would have some good ideas to make it better. Where my sturup leathers goo threw I use a peice of leather that is about 13 to 14oz . The tin strainer was pounded out on a anvil. it is 22gaug tin. After the tin is in I add a peice that is a big triange. Then the last peice covers the whole seat. I skive and shape every peice that goes in. To try to keep the riders but close to the tree and keep the saddle narrow where your legs would go. After I have finished all of my skiving. I cutt my hand hole, and then fold my tin leather threw the hand hole and glue down. I also skive the leather that was pulled threw the hand hole down so there is a smoth transition in to the seet. I will post a picture of my fiished ground seat. Well that is all for right now. Thanks Lonnie Chambers

Hello Just wanted to see what everyones thoughts were on how much rise in the back of your skirts you realy need. Are do you think you realy need it any more. I have always been told to make sure you block your skirts when I am pounding them on to fit the tree nice. But after you block your skirts out, how much rise do you realy need. I have looked at over over 100 different saddles from different saddle makers, and I see a lot of difference. The rise in the skirts, it seems like every one is a little different. Thanks Lonnie Chambers

Hello I to have some of the tandy basket weave stamps. I have never had a problem out of them. On the articel above talking about the granit stone. I do agree they can be a pain. I beleave your stone needs to be at least three inches thick. There are a lot of guys that have visited places where they make head stones for cemitarys. You can usaly get a broken head stone that is in good shape pretty cheep. If you dont mind some dead guys name on the back of your tooling stone. My block is about five inches thick. I cut a hole in my tooling table so that the stone sets leavel with my bench. This will let your bigger projects to be flat at all times when you are tooling them. If you are using a thin stone you might be bending are having to hit your tool harder to get a good compretion in the leather with what tool you are needing at the time. This might be why you are bending the tool. I do disagree with the article on the granit stone being use for setting gromets, punching holes are glueing stuff to it, so it can be tooled with out streaching. I used to glue thin leather to thin poster board so my leather wouldnt streach out of shape. But now I use a good clear packing tape. I find it less messy to deal with. And it comes off a lot easyer.

Hello there. There is a couple of differernt things to look at when swival knife cutting. Is your leather cased right. If your leather is to wet when cutting, then the knife cutts will close back together, and you could cut to deep in to the hide. If your leather is to dry, you will have a hard time getting a good clean cut in the leather. I do agree with James on the swival knife being sharp. Your knife should glide smoth when you are cutting. If you are having to grip your knife hard, and you are having to really push down on your knife to get a good cut then you might want to sharpen your knife. As far as beveling. I do a lot of small floral carving, in a lot of your cutting you are tappering your cutts. So not to say anything bad about tandys bevelars, but you can get a bevelar to bevel small cutts. I swithched all my bevelars out to Barry kings. I like how smooth you can flow down a line with them, and I can really do a lot more of the finer work. But this is a prferance on the tool. What works for me might not work for you. Well I think I have said enough. Thanks Lonnie

Nice leg design. It is nice to see some creativity and different ideas. Have you ever thought about running your baskett stamp diagnal. Instead of horizontal. I have found with smaller, long project that if I stamp my basket stamp diagnaly that there is less of a chance you will see a missalinment problem in your basket stamp. I fill that when you try to tool something with streight lines and you make even the slightest mistake then who ever is looking at that project there eyes natraily draw to the uneveness in the streight lines. Does anyone have any of the same feelings on the basket stamp as me.

Hello Dave. This is my first post on this sight, and I am new to this sight. I realy like that everyone on the sight really gives good helpfull advice. If I could add something. Your flow lines on your stem work are a little thin. If they look thin on paper when you go to cutting with your swival knife they are really going to get thin. It looked to me that you had a lot of background. I like to draw floral scrols a lot. Something I do sometimes when I am not shure about my backgrounding is shade the background in with a pencil. This will alow you to really see what you entind to carve and tool. And when you are drawing a desine out it is a lot less frustrating to mess up a peice of paper than a peice of leather. I will try to figure out how to put some pics on of some of my work. I would like here so critique. As I am finding out on this long road, of carving and tooling it takes a lot of time, and a good sence of humar. Thank you Lonnie