Visalia style saddle

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Here's a few pictures of a Visalia style saddle I recently finished. It actually has 23" tapaderos with it but i didn't have a stand tall enough to photograph them with the saddle.

Darc

[steve mason]

Howdy Darc;

good work, nice carve job and great lines with those square skirts. I am very impressed.

[llasso]

Howdy Darc;

good work, nice carve job and great lines with those square skirts. I am very impressed.

You should be very proud of that work. Nice clean lines, wonderful carving and a great choice of color. Nice job, it makes you want to ride again.........Larry Lasso

[Blake]

Well That saddle certainly earns bragging rights.

Tell us all about it, leather, finish, time, tree, etc.

Is it a keeper or do you have to give it up to a client?

Respectfully

Blake

[mulefool]

Man, that is really nice. I'd like to hear more about it, too. Was there one in the old Visalia catalog in particular that you used as inspiration?

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Thanks for the words guys,

I've always liked the old style saddles, especially those out of California and I've always been a big admirer of Chuck Storme's work. I saw a portrait that Jay Dusard did of Chuck with a saddle in progress in the foreground and had never seen a tree like that one before so asked my treemaker if he could make something similar. It's a little difficult to tell from the photos but the widest point of the swell is extremely low down on the fork... makes it a little difficult to attach rigging because there is only about an inch worth of bar below the fork. The saddle in the photos is the second time I've built on that style of tree (the first one is my own saddle) and it was a custom job for a customer... not sure how well it shows in the photos but his last name starts with the letter "O" so I carved it on both sides of the cantle. The silver horn cap was made by Richard Tennisch of Merrit, B.C and he managed to copy the O into the center of the horncap... I'll try to get a better photo of the silver cause it's pretty nice work.

I've attached a photo from a reprint of a Visalia catalog which shows a front view of their various forks... the one labelled KK seems to be similar from the front, but I'm not sure if that's where Chuck got the idea for the fork. The tree has a #4 Dally horn with a horn cap that finished up around 4 1/4"s. The Taylor cantle finished up around 5"s and is shovel shaped.

The leather is Hermann Oak and dyed with Fiebings Pro_oil dye in a Walnut color. I usually burnish the carving when I dye a saddle, that way the recessed areas stay a little lighter while the raised areas get darker... gives it a little contrast. I probably have about 160 hours in the saddle ... I'm a bit slow compared to some guys... alot of that time is spent drawing carving patterns.

Darc

[leathernut]

i dont know nothing about saddle making just motorcycle seats,that is just hands down beautiful man,i would love to see how to on making something like this .very clean from the tooling to the stitching.what color is the dye on that.thumbs up in my book!!!!

[Beaverslayer]

Darc,

Along with everyone else, I think the saddle is just beautiful. I especially like the color and the contrast of the white thread. Keep up the great work.

Ken

[bustedlifter]

Beautiful,man, just beautiful!

[Tangent Creations]

Absolutely Gorgeous! Excellent work and very clean looking as well as a beautifully rich color.

Show us more!

[Alan Bell]

Hey Darc, what more can one say?!!!!

Vaya Con Dios, Alan Bell

There was a Buffalo Soldier in the war for America

Bob Marley

[ClayB]

Darc,

That really is one nice looking saddle. I like the old style too, and the color is just perfect. The time you spend drawing your patterns really pays off. The tooling really fits. Any tips or hints in pattern drawing for something like this that you would like to share?

Great job, thanks for sharing this with us.

Clay

[Romey]

very nice

[KAW]

Nice work I really like old style Visalias the are one of my favorites.

[CitizenKate]

I concur with the others who have responded to your post; your saddle is beautiful. I don't really know much about the functionality of saddles, but the artistry is as good as any I have seen. Thanks for sharing the photos, and I hope you continue posting more work.

Kate

[bruce johnson]

Darcy,

Really neat saddle. The square skirts look really nice, and the tooling sure looks Visalia. I especially like the way this saddle and the one you had on the WH forum come out with the darker brown dye.

[ArtS]

Beautiful!! Wow. Really clean and rich color. That is one great job!

ArtS

[D.A. Kabatoff]

for those who asked, . I've altered the original photos at the top of this thread to show the saddle with the taps and added four more pictures with this post. The silver horn cap was made by Richard Tennisch of Merritt, B.C.

Darc

[karl]

Darc, That's a beautiful saddle. I just finished a little half size saddle and am kinda proud of the way it turned out and my first try at it. I just signed up to start taking a saddle making class starting next week. It will be on Sundays from 2 to 5pm every week for 12 weeks and should be a great experience. I hope mine turns out half as beautiful as yours.

Karl

Edited September 2, 2007 by karl

[mudman]

That is one FINE rig!!!

[pete]

how did you get that BEAD around the seat carving? Did you draw it in and free hand cut it and bevel it both sides?

Beauiful work by the way

pete

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Hi Pete,

there are a couple ways of getting that beaded line. You can use a beader blade in a swivel knife and freehand it or you can use a push beader tool. The push beader has a handle like an edger and a curved metal shaft and blade. Both tools are difficult to use smoothly, but I always had better success with the push beader. I got mine from Jeremiah Watt and have gotten use to it over the years... you need to sharpen them and strop them on a regular basis. I only bevel the side of the bead that the carving is on, the other side I don't touch.

Darc

[Dan Hammons]

WOW That is a great piece of leather work. I love the tooling.

[Don]

Great job! Your tooling is very clean, I love your style, beautiful flower.

[Go2Tex]

Darc, you must buy that brown dye by the case....

But seriously, how do you get those large areas, like the seat, so even?

Also, once again for us dummies who can't remember, what size and brand/type of thread and spacing are you using on that horn and cantle?

You should be giving classes on hand stitching........