nobearsyet

Howdy

OK, these punches are junk, gotcha, won't buy them. I am in need of a new set so I thought maybe somebody on here might have tried them, you'd be surprised, there is some good stuff floating around ebay for discount pricing.

Please send that to me as well, I need a couple sets of blanks for some special customers too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=300329386141 I saw these over on Ebay and was thinking about picking up a set, anybody ever used them or bought from this seller?

When I was stationed in San Antonio Texas me and a buddy of mine got the bright idea to go rent a couple of horses for a day and go on a trail ride, he had never been on a horse in his life, I grew up around them, so he got the dead hog broke, older than dirt retired from sort of arena discipline thing with no conformation, dead calm, etc. I got the retired (found out later just because nobody wanted to ride his ornery butt) cutting horse (they didn't tell me he was a cutting horse until later). We were riding a fence line on the edge of a pasture that had cows in it. In my infinite wisdom I nudges the horse's head over toward the cows just to let him know they were there, well, I discovered at that moment he should have never been retired, off we went, let me tell you, the old guy still had some nice moves for being 16 and supposedly "retired" for a year or 2. Needless to say I can't decide who was wondering more stuff at that time, me or the horse. Me for trying to figure out what he was doing, or him for trying to figure out why I wasn't trying to rope the cow we were chasing.

Thanks Vikti, I can't get a hair on cow hide for their regular price around here, can you put a phone number or website up so I might give them a call and see if they'll ship?

You might try using the antelope horns as rub sticks after a bit of polishing and maybe a little rework.

After the old man died my Mom needed money to d osome important stuff with, like eat, pay the rent, etc. so a lot of his old tools got sold, but I do have all of the ones that didn't like his round knife, strap cutter, etc. and my Dad always told me to buy the best tools you can afford now and you won't have to buy them again later.

When I made the reins to make that saddle I built, I rolled the bodies of the reins over at a certain point to make them the weight I wanted, I think I used 7/9oz. but I'd have to go to the barn and check before I could tell you you for certain

The Oster A-5 horse clipper with one of the "surgical" blades works well. But the hair on stuff still wants to slide a bit once you shave it.

Of the bit of stuff I've done recently that has been for somebody else (mainly close friends) I've got about a 1 piece made for 2 people that have asked, but here lately most of what I've been doing has been for cost as I try to get back in the swing of things

Over the years I have discovered that fingernail polish remover works pretty good for removing Fiebing's dye

Along these lines, I'm going to jump back quite a few years to when my Dad was first teaching me some of the stuff I know now. This was long before the internet was around to the masses. Me and Dad (as he insisted I go to every gun show, craft fair, etc. with him, much to an 8yo. boy's dismay) where at a gun show trying to hock some of his western holsters with very little success. Late on Sunday afternoon (the last day of the show) a guy walks up to my Dad and asks him why his "junk" is worth more than the stuff the guy down the way has on his table. My Dad looks at him and says, 1. my stuff is all made in America not the Taiwan stuff the guy down the way has, 2. I make mine by hand, I don't buy it out of a catalog like that guy, 3. I have to eat too, and there's so many hours in a day and I can only get so much done, so I can only make so many, but if you like I can give you a plain belt to put it on if you think my pricing is too high. (Dad never told him that everybody who bought a holster got a belt for free) Well, the guy bought my Dad's holster, and several more after that as they became real good friends, and one day (about 5 years later) when my Dad was getting along in years asked my Dad how he did it (as far as the methods and methodology of how he went about building the stuff he made) and my Dad was more than happy to tell him, even gave him a couple of lessons. My Dad passed that following spring, and I am going to say that now I have decided (after a 5 or so year hiatus from doing anything with leather to pursue other interests like blacksmithing, woodworking, etc.) to come back to leatherwork, albeit only as a hobby and side business at the moment, and being as I have decided that holsters have just become, well, boring a lot of the time and that I want to keep trying new things I am very glad I found my way over here as I have discovered that most of what Dad and the other people I have worked with taught me has kind of been forgotten, a lot of it anyways, and that the folks around here are more than glad to offer up the same sorts of assistance and advice provided to me upon request. And with very little ribbing and prodding. and Thank you all very much.

My workshop is a little different than most. I currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my 5 year old daughter, my entire working setup is either integrated with the furniture (you have to get creative when you have a lack of space) or can be folded up and slid into a closet (see the sadlemaking section for mention of my idea that worked quite well for a draw down stand) and my "bench" if you will consists of a marble slab and the kitchen table at the moment, but I've worked out of bigger shops over the years.

I'm definitely more of the Mechanic than the artist, in fact carving and toolling have never really been my bag, although I can do them both, but maybe it's just my personal taste, but I like stuff plane anyways so where do I really fall into the mix? Does not enjoying doing the tooling and carving that most love so much make me any less artistic? Or does coming up with things on my own that the last guy definitely never thought of make me more so? Difficult question this one is, hmmmmmmmmmmm........... now you've really got me thinking.

The saddle I just finished it's right in the middle of the Cheyenne roll, belts, spur straps, little stuff, it goes on the fold over around the buckles (so it winds up on the back side) all other projects (notebook covers, etc.) it gets hidden somewhere inside unless there's no place to hide it then I use my own good judgement about where to stick it someplace tasteful

Pinkchaps, where do you work out of? I want a pair. Guess I'll just have make them now, BTW where the black ones with the blue fringe made for a guy named Mel in OH? I saw him a couple days ago and he had on a pair very similiar to those ones. I really like those, watch for a PM from me.

Has anybody besides me tried using Latigo strips from the tack shop?

My list is short, sweet and to the point Commander 1911 Ultra Compact 1911 Taurus Judge 3" chamber version Colt Bisley, hammer down Mare's leg (prefferably the new Puma version

Thank Y'all very much, if I have any more questions I'll put them here, so really hope the 2 of you have e-mail reply notifications turned on, also, Kevin, do you have any contact info for AGS?

Yet again I am going to say WOW, I must be really behind the curve learning wise, because all of you guy's and gal's first saddles look a heck of a lot better than mine does

All I'm going to say is WOW. it turned out a heck of a lot better than mine but then again I, like you stated, built it for me, and mine is well constructed, as is yours, and what it lacks in good looks it makes up for in the "I built that" factor, although yours doesn't lack anything for looks as far as my eyes see.

Thank you, but after looking at your very useful link in which I saved, I now have to ask the other stupid question, if I am building my first pair of boots, what is a good Iron to use? They're going to be all purpose work, riding, rodeo, s!@t kicking, walking, running, farm/ranch, everyday boots, I already know they have to have a spur rifge, and I am planning to follow the "recipe" outlined in the e-book as far as shape and style, boot I will guarantee you this, they will probably be the plainest boots to ever grace the pages of this forum, as soon as that d!@n camera gets here from the guy on e-bay.

My favorite pair of boots died recently (a sad thing to be sure, I only owned that pair of stock Justin's for a little over 7 years, too bad you can't get your money's worth out of anything anymore) and being in need of a good replacement pair (as I think Justin might have changed their sizing because their off the shelf boots don't fit me worth a crap) and maybe getting a little overambitious after finishing my first saddle, I have decided to make my own. I read the E-book Johanna posted cover to cover after I printed it off (is that even legal?) and took appropriate measurements and sent them to a last maker, now I am sole shopping and have what is probably going to be a really stupid question, what so the Iron Sizes of soles have to do with anything? Can I buy the biggest ones they make just cut the mdown if they're too big? Also, where do I find the pegs talked about in the e-book?

I'm no bootmaker, but that was kind of interesting, I might want to give that one a whirl