JDFred

Turned out really nice. The ride along was neat.

I had the same problem with some spur straps I tooled. I used a glass slicker with water and glycerin saddle soap and it did not affect the tooling and it worked well. It was 9-10 oz leather so there is that difference. However I cut the straps from the belly so when I slicked it I got a lot of compression of the leather and it still did’t affect the tooling as far as I could see.

If you hold the knife blade down handle up and tap the end of the handle with a mallet it will pull every thing back together. Then you can stake the ferrule of epoxy it or both. Or if there is enough room between the tang and the handle you can try to put a toothpick in there and draw it up with the tang as your tapping the end of the handle, and it will act as a wedge and keep things tight. I’ve used this on everything from 16 lb hammers to pitch forks to sharpening steels. But use good judgement when taping on the end of your handle if you have a fancy wood so you don’t mar it. Hope this makes sense.

Cuffs I don’t know. Spur straps you’ll need to measure from stud to stud across the bridge of the foot for a true custom strap. No kidding I know. Most patterns for straps are universal fit wise. The youth pattern I built for my 9 year old are in the middle hole. The adult pattern I made for my 6 year old is the last hole. They fit about the same. But… they are different styles. The dove wing style I made for me are in the first hole while the bib type they replaced were in the middle hole. So that is my long way of saying unless someone has an exceptionally large or small foot standard patterns will work. Focus on the tooling for the custom spur straps.

I’ve not tried to print anything from Tandy, but reading their instructions for printing it seems there are many print options for sizing. So you may just have to experiment with it to get the right size. Some of their patterns are larger than 8 1/2 x 11 and need to be printed at a print shop. Not sure if this is one of them or not.

Thank you. I hand stitch them, I’m not cool enough to have a machine. Time will tell if the stitches hold. I used the handle of a stamp to pack them.

Thank you

Always good to know stuff like that. Thanks for the tip.

I finally finished them. Here’s a picture.

Thank you. I know you said you wanted acrylic templates; but Springfield Leather has a pretty cool pattern pack. I have it as well but they are paper patterns. Tandy also has some paper patterns that I also use.

I’ve used the pattern from tacktemplates.com they have the pattern in acrylic templates also. They have an inlay window in them if you want to that. Here is a picture of a pair I made with their pattern.

They look sharp. There’s nothing wrong being loaded for bear.

Wet would compact better. It would also dry a little bit stiff. Did you ever have trouble with mold or mildew while they were drying? Or have staining problems on the leather from the wool being wet at the time of stuffing?

I have the big one didn’t look to see if it was leather rated when I bought it. I don’t use it a lot mainly for cutting long fringe. The blade that came in it worked quite well even in heavier leather. I bought some titanium blades for it but never tried them as I don’t use it much it still has the original blade. They only cut straight lines you can kinda get away with a very gentle sweeping curve but I noticed you get a little undercut so your edge isn’t square. But that is fixable when you finish your edges. All that to say I don’t really think getting a small one for precise cuts is necessary since you’ll need another knife for corners and curves. I would recommend the bigger one so you don’t limit yourself on leather thickness.

There is a company called Rumber they recycle tires into trailer flooring. We redecked a couple trailer at work and I brought home a couple of the drop-offs that is what I use for punching. Maybe you’ve goat a place that works on trailers close to you that may use the stuff and have some scraps. As far as cutting I use a self healing cutting board.

I was at a new local feed store a couple weeks ago and they had a point of sale from quick books. The lady said it auto downloads all transactions to quick books. If you use quickbooks it might be worth a look.

You could try lining the cuff to hide the back of the snap to relive the discomfort.

Keep up the practice with your curves. I don’t know what you use for a knife, but I had a hard time with curves when I used to use a utility knife. To me the blade flexed too much and the slack between the blade and the handle made curves hard to cut. I switched to a round knife an it helped me a lot in my cutting. If you intend to make a bunch of fobs HandyDave is right about a die. Fobs would be small enough I think you could use those dies with a mallet, if you don’t have a press.

That makes sense to use clippings to get the shape and fill the center with the cut squares. If you do end up with some stuffing rods I would be interested in getting one. Thank you for the help. I’ll post some pictures when I get them done.

I’ve got a friend here that makes saddles and has some scraps of sheep skin but I wasn’t sure if that would work because of the skin. I guess you could shear the scraps?

They need to be fairly stiff as they are used to leverage off of to keep your balance in many different situations, steep terrain, or leaning forward for roping or even a froggy horse. The saw dust is a good idea. I may try it if the bottom flap closes tight as the saddle is intended to hold it closed not be sewn down. I’m not sure either as this is the first pair I’ve made. Thank you for the idea.

I’m building a set of bucking rolls for myself, the packing is supposed to be sheared wool; however I’m not finding a local source maybe I need to look harder. I have set a sorta unrealistic finish time so I don’t think I’ve got time for the internet to bring some to me. I’ve sen a YouTube video with a guy using horse hair to stiffen up a set of bucking rolls. I was wondering if cotton balls would work to pack them? Or is there something else I could use?

A pancake knife sheath for a folding knife was one of my early projects. There are lots of digital patterns on the internet. The one I used was from tacktemplates.com. One other thing to add to that basic tool set is a cork backed steel ruler.

Use a glass slicker to pre-stretch your strap before tooling.

Tacktemplates.com has acrylic templates or you can get them as a digital copy and print it on card stock. Pikes peak saddlery has some acrylic templates also. Tandy’s horse tack pattern pack also has a version of a split ear headstall.