Pictures from old(er) masters

[Johanna]

Chester Hape Saddle 1985

Thanks, Ashley!

Johanna

[bruce johnson]

Thank You Johanna and Ashley,

I will still stand by my statement a few months ago, and expand it a bit. Chester Hape is one of the top two carvers all time in the Sheridan style. It is arguable who is the other, but Chester is one of the two.

Bruce Johnson

[steve mason]

Thank You Johanna and Ashley,

I will still stand by my statement a few months ago, and expand it a bit. Chester Hape is one of the top two carvers all time in the Sheridan style. It is arguable who is the other, but Chester is one of the two.

Bruce Johnson

So I wonder who is the other, I do agree that Chester should be in the top two, should number one be Don King, Billy Gardner, Don butler, or Jim Jackson, maybe the guy who got king started with the style, Lloyd Davis. I think the best all time should go to Don King, since he is the one who made the style what it is today. I do think that Don's Mother hubbard TCAA saddle is one of the best pieces of Sheridan style carving I have ever seen. I think of guys who are active in the business,(Both Don and Chester are retired) the top would be Don Butler and Jim Jackson. Don carves traditional Sheridan style to perfection and Jim has almost evolved to another level with his carving.

Did I miss anyone?

I guess someone whom I did miss was a fellow who worked for Ray Holes, I do not recall his name now. he carved the large mixed flower piece and all the sample fenders in the Ray holes catalogs, simply incredible. he carved more of a California style, with a little more depth and life than Sheridan style, not quite so structured and with many crossovers and turn-backs. this man was the inspiration for Dale harwoods style of carving, who in my opinion is one the best California Style carvers of our time. if anyone recalls the guys name please post it.

Edited June 8, 2007 by steve mason

[bruce johnson]

Steve,

We are on the same wavelength here. Can't disagree with anyone you mentioned. I am partial to Don King as the other of the top two. Maybe we should have age categories. LOL. I have Don's museum poster hanging over my tooling bench. I have the poster print of Don Butler's Wichita Falls saddle hanging in the entry to my house. I can't be anywhere and not be inspired by some great work in my house.

I don't remember who did the work for the Holes catalog. Some guys have told me that Gerry Holes, when he was "on", was about as good as it got for their style. I saw a fender a few months ago that Bill Rogers had just tooled. I don't know how old Bill is, but has to be mid 70s. He worked for Visalia, and then has been around the horn. He was just at Caps for a while. This fender was plenty cool. I have said it before, but I am glad we have these guys to look at their work and borrow (steal) from.

Bruce Johnson

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Hey Steve,

I think that everyone on your list has creativity and technical skills that make the average stamper say wow. I'd agree with you on Don King from the TCAA mother hubbard saddle alone. I'd also place R.Lloyd Davis up there as well as he is a personal favorite of mine; His later work was unbelievable but for one reason or another he doesn't often get the credit he deserves... maybe he should have stayed in Sheridan instead of going to Arizona.

I may be mistaken about Ray Holes stamper but was it Bill Knight?

Darc

[greg gomersall]

Darcy you are right Bill Knight was the stamper on the Holes pictures, he also spent quite a few years as Hamley's head stamper. Greg

[steve mason]

I have said it before, but I am glad we have these guys to look at their work and borrow (steal) from.

Bruce Johnson

Bruce;

An old saddle maker that I respect a ton used to tell me that if I'm looking at someone else's work and see some good ideas that I can use, "I am not stealing his idea, because it's not my fault that he thought of my idea first" LOL

Darc & Greg, Bill Knight is the name I was looking for. Thanks

Darc, I agree that Lloyd Davis did produce some incredible work. Like this piece from the western folklife website>

[Johanna]

Ha ha...you folks are all showing your age! Tandy has spent a lot of money since the Sixties to get people to call it "carving", (Which I suppose justifies prices!) not "stamping" (stamping tools are for Boy Scouts). And here come a few "new" old-timers, who have admired and looked up to the famous names mentioned above, and you all call it "stamping", just like they did. So much for Tandy and their effort to change the vocabulary!

Seriously, welcome to all of you! We are very glad you are here! Would any of you be willing to share pics from your personal collections of the masters? I've heard the names, but never seen their work. If you folks consider them to be the very best, I'm curious to see why, and want to see examples of their styles.

Here in Ohio "stamped" saddles just aren't common. Most of the horses belong to the Amish, and they aren't big on decoration, of course. I'm sure I'm not the only person wondering what the "standard" for stamping really is? I'm just as interested the history of leatherwork as I am in current events, and I would love to see the work mentioned and read your comments, so that I can learn something. If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to look.

Johanna

[steve mason]

By the way, if you would like to have a look at some great pieces of work, have a look at the website where I got the Lloyd Davis photo from, tools of the trade you will see work by, Don Butler, Lloyd Davis, Steve Mecum, Cary Schwarz, Jeremiah Watt and more. If you have not seen this site before, have a good look around it, you can see a video of harwood carving, and a lot more good info.

this is my favorite piece from the contest

ps. I'm not sure how you all post a photo in the small popup window like most of the photos I have seen on this site, when I post this photo it is full size, could someone enlighten me.

thanks

[Beaverslayer]

Steve, I want to know how you get the photo in the thread like you did?

On the thread note though. I'm with Johanna, I would really like to see pics and descriptions of the different styles I've read about.

Eg: California, Arizona, Sheridan and how exactly do you tell one from the other.

Ken

[ClayB]

Here are a few of my favorite saddles from past trips to Sheridan. I think the first ones are of the Don King saddle that was mentioned.

Since I lean more towards figure carving, this one carved by Jim Jackson has always been one of my favorites. I think Jim did the carving and one of the King boys built the saddle if I remember right. It was on display in King's museum for a few years.

All I can find of Don Butler's work is parts of a saddle he had at the first saddle week in Sheridan.

This is Keith Siedel's personal saddle.

And I think this one is from Rick Bean?

[Beaverslayer]

Those are just amazing saddles. I really like the Jim Bean, the way it is highlighted, very nice.

Thanks for sharing.

I would still be interested in knowing the differance between Sheridan, California, and Arizone.

Ken

[bruce johnson]

Ken,

A quick and dirty thumbnail differences for circular patterns. Arizona tends to use larger flowers with the flower on the stemwork. California tends to follow the circular pattern of the Sheridan, but the flowers are larger relative to the circle, centrally located, and overlap the stemwork somewhat. Sheridan follows a circular pattern also, but the flowers tend to be smaller relative to the circle, the stemwork is more intricate.

These styles are not carved in granite, there is overlap, each person tends to view them and definitely do them just a little different. Example - some will say that CA has a checkered background, and Sheridan has bargrounded backgrounds. Rules are guidelines until you find out how to break them for "your" style.

[mulefool]

I never thought I liked carving til I saw a Ray Holes saddle back in the 70's. I was going to mention Rick Bean for his figure carving.