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Was able to work on another tonight.

Thanks for all your advice yes it tangled I stitched in the air lol didn't have something to hold it steady... I saw a few videos and most people has a table with a clamp to hold it steady while stitching I saw one of her videos they are good. And I believe I might have already some hand problem my ring finger and pinky started to numb lol. I tried sanding to even put but it felt like I was just damaging the leather

Just to give some perspective, these are some of the family saddles I'm taking inspiration from, and eventually want to repair, restore, or preserve. This saddle my grandfather had made in the 60's and was one of his general use working saddles. It's one that's still usable. This one was a general use saddle on grandpas ranch, though it was mainly used by my Dad in high school. He had a drop calf he raised on a bottle and eventually trained it to ride and do circus style tricks as a rodeo act, and from the pictures I'm 90% sure this was the saddle he used. This saddle was my great grandfathers and goes back to the 1880's. It's one we've decided to preserve and not restore, as every piece would need to be replaced, and the tree's shape wouldn't fit modern horses anyway. The wear and tear on it to me speak volumes of hard life in the west and give me gratitude for what I have, so I wouldn't want to lose that restoring it. As you can see, these are all standard double ring rigging, and I'm thinking I'll use their ring placement and proportions on the youth saddle in this thread. I also started a thread for a saddle my Dad started before he passed, and I hope to complete. Restoring a Porter Saddle I'll also start threads for each of these and some other saddles eventually.

I agree. Fixing new stuff is insane.

I'm still extremely early in this process, but wanted to start a thread for this project as it's technically already in motion. My Dad, Conrad "Connie" Naegle, was a saddle and harness maker and leatherworker for half his working life, before pivoting towards the machinery side of the industry where our family currently makes it's living. He had inherited several family heirloom saddles and had planned on restoring them eventually (of course life gets in the way). Half are currently in OK shape needing some basic work done, and the other half are far enough gone that they would need to be totally rebuilt. His health went downhill in later life (Alzheimer's and dementia) and he passed away in 2023. Being a working man his whole life, he didn't take well to having his body degrade, and his decline in memory and mental understanding of things we never really learned to cope with. I grew up partway between his leather shop and his machine shop, though my carrier has been on the machine side of things. I worked with him a bit on the saddles, but often found myself having to hold him back from getting in too deep. In his mind he knew what to do, but somewhere between there and his senses things would get scrambled and he rarely recognized it. The saying "He's forgotten more about it that you'll ever know," comes to mind, but in a sad and discouraging way. His original plan was to restore all of the saddles to be ridable again and I think this intent was a way to put his skills to work righting the wrongs of himself and past family members who had let the saddles fall into disrepair (the saddles were all ridable in his lifetime), but we quickly found that doing so would remove a lot of their history and authenticity, especially in the oldest saddles, so we decided to preserve some (such as my Great Grandfathers 1880's saddle) as they were, and make others ridable. This Porter saddle my Grandfather Buster Naegle got sometime in the 1930's in southeastern Arizona before he went off to school and then enlisted in the army during WW2. He went through boot camp down in Ft Bliss, but was transferred to Ft. Reno in Oklahoma where he trained horses and pack mules for the army. At some point after arriving there, there was some problems with their military saddles so with permission he had his family send him this Porter saddle to use and in some way it was a model of the kind of saddles they needed, and I think the guys in charge even ordered more from Porter to use at the fort (I'm hoping to eventually get in contact with someone at the fort to corroborate this, and I've already sent a message to the guys who have the old Porter card file website). I remember in the mid 90's my dad did some minor repairs to this saddle and rode it around our place in northern Idaho. As a kid I didn't make the connection, but my Grandfather died around this same time and I'm certain this saddle was particularly special to my Dad. When we started digging into it, the hope was to soap it up, replace the sheepskin, and do some other minor repairs, but the more it came apart, the more the pieces crumbled and stitches ripped through the leather. In retrospect, I think it should have been preserved as a static display, but at this point I think the can of worms is open, and my choices are to replace 90% of the leather, or call it a loss (not really seeing that as an option). The original leather is heavily worn, which would have been nice to preserve, but I think the alternative is to reproduce the pieces as closely as possible. I'm going to need to reproduce the Porter makers mark somehow. I think hand tooling it will leave too much room for error, so I'm hoping I can have one made without getting in any copywrite hot water. I had considered handing the project off to someone with more skill than mine, but I think these kind of projects always have a level of "artistic license" interpreting what details matter and which ones don't, and it's hard to turn that license over to someone else. Also, since my Dad was the family leatherworker and the saddle is a family heirloom, I think it best to keep the process in the family, even if it takes years to complete. My leatherworking skills have always been better on the technical process side, but I have a lot to learn of the craft and wisdom it takes to build a saddle. I'm starting by rebuilding some saddles that are less sentimental (thread about the first one *here*), but my end goal is to finish rebuilding this saddle (and others I'll post about later). Fortunately, all the pieces are there and give good patterns to follow. Even the tooling I can already see how to replicate. Thankfully it's simple old-school boarders and nothing too artistic, which is how I like saddles personally. Starting with the tree, I don't think I need to remove every bit of leather. I think the floor and other reinforcing pieces will continue to work. There are a couple of places that the wood under the rawhide has degraded, and I'm considering using some modern epoxy filler to fix those points (more on that later). Part of the challenge I think is that I want the saddle to be 100% original, even though so much of it has to be replaced. I can make a new seat and skirts that look exactly like the old ones, but then getting them colored right and formed together right can be a challenge. I don't want to artificially wear or weather anything other than dying the leather to match, but I also don't want the new parts to stand out against the old. Like I said, I'm starting by practicing on some other saddles, but with this one I'm going to take my time. One of my favorite mantras is to "Avoid permanent solutions to temporary problems." History deserves preservation, and I think keeping things functional as they were originally intended to be used is always the best approach.

They both look real nice. Piping can be tough to do, and you did it well. 👍 My biggest critique is that you put the seam of the rolled collar on the inside. I think that could probably be an irritant to the dog. IMO the seam should be on the outside. MIght be easier to sew that way too.

It looks like you're piercing your thread with the needles. This causes tangles and it's a common problem for beginners. Run the left needle through the hole then pull the thread back toward yourself so that your right-hand needle has room to go through the hole without piercing the thread. When the RH needle is about halfway through, tug on the left thread to test whether it's pierced or not. If the RH needle moves with the tug, it's easy to fix now. Study a couple vids on how to saddle stitch by. J.H. Leather on youtube and you'll see what I'm trying to explain. Watch a couple times, practice on scrap and before you know it, you'll have a decent stitch. Once you have the knack, you will only get better. Until your arthritis takes over 🙄

This is one from my Dad's collection. He always called it a "squaw" saddle (no offense to native Americans meant), though I don't know if that's the proper name. I'm not sure where he picked it up but it's old. He had a knack for collecting old western and ag paraphernalia mainly from the American southwest and rural west coast, and he also was around a lot of it during his years doing props and special effects in Hollywood, as he would buy or was given authentic artifacts to study or duplicate for film, and this could be one of those pieces. It appears to be a wood tree, wrapped in rawhide, and then wrapped in leather, with brass dome tacks added for embellishment. They also likely add some wear resistance on the edges. The rigging straps are held on with screws, but I think they are a later repair. The brass tacks seem advanced for a natives saddle? I'd be interested if anyone recognizes what culture, area, time frame, etc. this saddle is from. I have no intention of restoring or selling it. Periodically it comes down for a cleaning and soaping, bit otherwise it stays on the wall.

I bought a kit, it cost me about $120.00 from Amazon and a utility knife. I first made knife sheaths, Every knife at home has a sheath from my first attempts. This gave me an idea of how to cut leather, how to punch it to make stitching holes and how to sew leather. Then decided what I wanted to do next. Learning leatherwork is a step-by-step process, like everything else. You can make bigger, more complicated items, but the quality might not be as you would like because you might not have sufficient practice or knowledge to do it well. My two cents' worth. A bit late in the conversation though. 🙂 I drew the shape of the knife blades on paper, traced that onto leather, added a border for the sewing and jumped right in. it worked.

After some phone tag, I got some guidance. I loosened the Allen screws on the sides and the black screw, but it didn't help. I didn't think anything was in those holes. I was told that if that didn't work, then it probably needed a new bushing and was to take the top mechanism off. Well there's no bushing, just a screw that covers up the spring. As fas as I can tell that's it in the tube. I put everything back together and it worked better for about 7 pulls then started binding up again. Less than before but still not right. This is the schematic. I'm going to call them again tomorrow. I'm quite frustrated and am done repairing a new $2000 machine.

It's a small sample so not a lot to go on. Definitely a skill and practice issue more so than a thread issue. Some of the stitches are very consistent, while others look like a road map ... Exactly where most of us started. The bottom right corner of the first pic looks like one of the holes is out of line. This can be caused by not holding the pricking iron exactly vertical. It's amazing how a little tilt can move the bottom hole out of line. One key to good stitching is consistent hand motions. Up, down, over, under, left, right, whatever you do, do it exactly the same on each stitch. The edge looks like it could have used a little sandpaper before burnishing. Many crafters will go through several grits of sandpaper before they ever pick up the edge slicker. To a point, it's a personal taste thing. For me, I rarely go finer than 150. Others will run up to 600. All things considered, you've turned out a functional piece you can use and gotten your feet wet, so I'd call it a success. Maybe look for one of the many places that sell bags of scrap leather. For what it is, I think it's over priced but it gives you some pieces to make key fobs, coasters, card holders and other small things to practice all these little skills. Hopefully more experienced crafters will weigh in, too. I've only been at it a couple years myself but I'm comfortable offering as much as I have here.

Thank you. I'm fairly sure it's for a heater then.

This earlier post shows the starter kit he got. Pretty much what you'd expect.

We need more information on what tools you have, what tools you are using and so on

C, You get my email? glenn

Made a trading card, first one. Decided these would be a good time to tool things I wouldn't normally do.

check the parts list of your machine and the one with a right side hook post (not sure maybe its the 491) and compare the parts numbers - thats the best bet. If the part numbers are all identical then you may have luck but I doubt it is a good idea. I´d look for a new machine. My 2 cents. 😉

I make baseball gloves. I mostly use this Pfaff 471. The bobbin is on the left side of the needle and I feed the thread from right to left. I’m wondering if anyone has ever rotated the post so the bobbin is on the right side. Looks like there’s mounting hardware to the bed and maybe possible to do but want to see if anyone in the sewing world has ever attempted this. Might require using a donor machine… but just trying to wrap my head around doing this.

Hello hope you all had a good near year and Christmas. First try out sheath for the scissors Had some issues with the thread that came on the kit or maybe I just need to hone my sewing skills and learn how to use the tools better Start getting used to them what some.videos on how to saw. Also got some leather from tandy like some of you suggested tried getting some from.kichaels it is over prized, Amazon I think I choose the wrong one small amount of it for like 30 bucks . But tandy was the best option and it was for sale. Any suggestions things to keep a look on

Yes. I think this saddle is best served as a pleasure saddle and not built for any specific tasks like roping, racing, etc. That said I think the typical double ring rigging would be fine, but that placement of the rings I'm still deciding on. The first photo's of how the saddle started, the rings appear much lower than they should be, but the way they had made the skirts (not sure what style you would call it as they just covered the sides and sewed fleece to the bottom with no real "skirt"?) kind of makes them look lower compared to a traditional saddle. Most of the traditional double ring saddles I'm looking at for inspiration show both rings at the same level, though Al Stoleman's book gives some good points to setting the front rings lower than the back so they don't interfere with the stirps. He also brings up the merits of mounting the back rings to a wider area, having the leather come up each side and lace together behind the seat, provided it doesn't make any raised lumps under the skirts and seat. Coming up with the rigging design for sure needs to be settled before laying in and carving down the floor leather, but I plan to get both started next. I'm also considering attaching the front rings to the tree in the typical way and building the back rings into the skirts as a way to get around having the rear ring mount and the floor leather get in each others way. My only reservation with doing something like this is that it would be a newer design than the traditional saddles I'm trying to emulate. Al Stoleman's book does give some good guidance on how the front rigging placement can interfere with the stirrups and the horses shoulders. With my lack of experience though, I'm wondering if it would be best to keep it simple with the rings at a full or 3/4 position? Mounting the front rings lower also seems to lead to the skirts being elongated in the front to support them. I'd like the skirts to be the more traditional long and squared off design, but that could work to my advantage being able to mask the hight difference between the rings without changing the skirt design. One other thing I might do is replace the front rings with something a little bigger. Reason being is to make it easier to adapt the saddle to a bigger horse. Part of this build is I do want to put together a cinch and ladigo's so it's all ready to go, but I haven't delved too far into that topic yet and not sure if I can make a 'one-size-fits-all' rig for a saddle this small, or if it's better to have a smaller rig for smaller horses and a larger rig for larger horses, and just tackle that aspect once I know what animal it's going to go on, and just stop at the rings for now.

Thank you!

There will (should) be gun oil on the firearm. Gun oils vary between slightly base to slightly acid. The slight difference in pH between leather and gun oil will be negligible. There really is no need to oil the inside of the holster, as some of the gun oil will transfer to the leather. Protecting the gun is the higher priority here and guns should NOT be stored in the holster when not in use. Normal application of NFO during your work process is adequate. It is the new owner's responsibility to keep the holster cleaned and conditioned and the gun oiled.

I looked at that connectors on my servo motor and the the connector on a AliExpress NPS and they were compatible so I bought the NPS for about $40 CDN delivered and installed it. Works a treat, just need your servo motor manual to get it sorted and understand how to program it. If I can do it you can too!

That looks like a very nice addition to your DA! The bamboo will likely wear like iron!

they must be good tools.