Seat Inlays !

[jbird]

Howdy Fellow Saddle Makers!

Here is a question I have been brewing and thinking on for months.

Back in the day Bruce Troy and Keith Seidel lay down there methods for covering swells and in-particular welt less covers on big swells.

Now after doing five straight seat inlays I am wondering if my fellow makers will bless us with there methods, as mine are getting me by but lack something.

If any of you feel so inclined to grace us it would be excuse my language damn good to hear from you.

In order to learn one must know that there are always better ways to do things.

Pictures are welcomed, pleases no one say use the search feature as I want fresh meat here!

Thanks

josh

[steve mason]

Howdy Fellow Saddle Makers!

Here is a question I have been brewing and thinking on for months.

Back in the day Bruce Troy and Keith Seidel lay down there methods for covering swells and in-particular welt less covers on big swells.

Now after doing five straight seat inlays I am wondering if my fellow makers will bless us with there methods, as mine are getting me by but lack something.

If any of you feel so inclined to grace us it would be excuse my language damn good to hear from you.

In order to learn one must know that there are always better ways to do things.

Pictures are welcomed, pleases no one say use the search feature as I want fresh meat here!

Thanks

josh

do a search, there is already a long thread that a bunch of us posted how we do inlays, if you search under 'inlaid seats' or in my past posts you should be able to find it.

Steve

[dirtclod]

Howdy Fellow Saddle Makers!

Here is a question I have been brewing and thinking on for months.

Back in the day Bruce Troy and Keith Seidel lay down there methods for covering swells and in-particular welt less covers on big swells.

Now after doing five straight seat inlays I am wondering if my fellow makers will bless us with there methods, as mine are getting me by but lack something.

If any of you feel so inclined to grace us it would be excuse my language damn good to hear from you.

In order to learn one must know that there are always better ways to do things.

Pictures are welcomed, pleases no one say use the search feature as I want fresh meat here!

Thanks

josh

I've been wanting to try do inlays on some things do you have any pictures of the ones you did ? Plus it's always nice to see pictures of a hand built saddle.

[Steve Brewer]

Josh,I have never had a foam inlay ordered.I have built some inlayed seats but they were quilted inlays like Ray Holes use to do.You well need to get your info from someone else.

Steve

[steve mason]

I've been wanting to try do inlays on some things do you have any pictures of the ones you did ? Plus it's always nice to see pictures of a hand built saddle.

http://saddleblog.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

[dirtclod]

Steve i just took a look at your blog. You do some mighty nice work. Think i'll go get some scrap foam and leather and see how things work out. Thanks for the links Steve and Steve.

[jbird]

do a search, there is already a long thread that a bunch of us posted how we do inlays, if you search under 'inlaid seats' or in my past posts you should be able to find it.

Steve

HA HA Ha Well I tried but I still got the use the search slam. Hay steve I am a big fan and have visited your blog about a million times.

I have done the search and read the thread when you guys were going at it then, and its great stuff. but I would like to add this if you are in the mood to talk about how you get that crisp shape in the chap leather please do.thats the real trick.

Thanks

All

Josh

Edited March 4, 2011 by jbird

[kseidel]

talk about how you get that crisp shape in the chap leather please do.thats the real trick.

Thanks

All

Josh

And much harder to tell then show!

I make a "pillow" for my inlaid seats. Before cutting out the hole in the hard seat, shape a piece of 3-4 oz tooling leather to fit the dish of the seat, and let dry. Cut out the inlaid seat (Be careful to cut perpendicular to leather following shape) and use the cutout for a template to mark on the 3-4 oz tooling leather. This will be the bottom of the pillow. Trim about 3/4" around and skive to a feather edge. Use the inlaid seat cutout as a template and cut a piece of 3/8" closed cell foam rubber. Glue to the tooling leather, matching the line of the cutout. DO NOT SHAPE THE FOAM.... LEAVE EDGES SQUARE. Using the cutout for a template, cut a piece of chap leather of your choice for the top of the inlaid seat. Softer, and more stretchy leather works better than stiff. Thickness is not as critical. Cut about 1" larger than template. Skive to a feather edge all around and taper to about the edge of the template line, maybe a little more if leather is thicker. Glue to pillow sandwiching rubber between tooling and chap leather. Glue edges first, then top of rubber. Apply leather while glue is still wet on top, but tacky around edges. This allows you to move and stretch leather without tearing rubber. Using your fingers, press down around rubber and stick to bottom. Compress rubber about 1/8th inch and using a tickler or rub stick, stick tightly around edge of rubber. Keep the tooling leather flat. Do this on the ground seat... it is the shape you want to end up with. This creates the finished "pillow."

Skive the underside of the hard seat around the hole, removing about half the thickness tapering about 3/4". Finish the inside edge of the hole. Carefully glue the pillow to the hard seat. Do this also on the saddle ground seat. Fit the hard seat tight to the edge of the rubber. Manipulate any way necessary to get a tight fit! Smooth edges underneath and skive off any small bumps. Stitch.

When gluing seat down in final assembly, stretch tight side to side. Use care not to get any wrinkles in pillow. The seat will naturally want to collapse in toward the center of seat.

This method is the only way I have found to get a consistent fit every time for everyone I have taught .

Regards,

Keith

[Jed]

Thanks for taking your time to write this up and share it.

It is appreciated

Regards

[jbird]

Keith

thats just the kind of stuff I was hoping for very detailed info.

Thanks a lot.

I was using a system a lot likewhat you layed out but I was not stretching as I should at that was causing me trouble some times.

Thanks

Josh

[mworthan]

Thought I would put Keith's instructions in a pdf doc like some of the previous instructions that he and others have provided before. Makes a nice "step by step" to print out, hole punch and stck in a reference binder.

thanks,

Mikeseidel inlayed seat.pdf

[Nathan Horn]

I just did an inlay in my first saddle.

Here's how I did it:

1. I cut out the shape in the actual seat leather

2. cut out three 1/8" foam pieces the same size as the cut out

3. Took a little bit of the edge off of the leather piece, then glued the foam pieces on to fit it

4. I inlaid mine in Kangaroo, so I cut out a piece of Kangaroo about 1" or 1 1/2" bigger around

5. I got the kangaroo damp (too help stretch it) then glued it to the foam.

6. Put the whole thing (leather, foam, Kangaroo) back into the the hole I cut out and pushed it down to stretch out the kangaroo and shape it into the hole.

7. Once it dried, I cut out another piece of kangaroo to lay under the seat piece, once again, 1" bigger around than the hole, and glued it in

8. I sewed the inlay piece in. The stitching goes through the thick seat piece and both layers of kangaroo, which sandwiches the padding and leather piece in between them.

Just a note: This is my first saddle, which makes it my first inlay, but it worked good. A guy that's helping me just helped me figure it out, so we kinda winged it. Hope this helps you all. Have a good day.