nobearsyet

I am going to go on the defensive a little bit here right now and expect this to be dropped and taken no further. The pictures I posted from the Black Hills site were in fact my work, when I worked for Rudy it was almost 10 years ago, and I only worked for him part time, and as a sub contractor at that, so him not remembering me comes as no surprise, and the pjoto that made it's way over there from this sight made it over there from this sight was sent to me by a former customer from longer ago than the ones from when I worked for Rudy, granted it familiar, but I never checked, the party that sent me that photo has recieved the appropriate e-mail flogging, and you will here from them in the next few days on both sites explaining himself. Other than that, I have nothing further to say on the matter.

Sorry I've been gone for so long from my little tutorial here folks, here's the progress, it's done, I ended up buying a book, it turned out pretty good. I am going to do another one as one of my buddies saw my finished product and insists he has to have one, well, he's a videographer by trade s oI cut him a deal, I said I'd do it for the cost of the parts if he'd videotape and edit for the folks here, soon to come, a complete, free, online video saddle making tutorial. Stay tuned, this might take a couple months

I got the ground seat done, wound up going with a full seat instead of the half seat I was going to do because I didn't want ot use a metal strainer for my first seat, that was a lot of work, took me a couple days to get it all shaped. THe stirrup leather slots are already cut, as is the handhold hole. So to recap so far I've got the groung seat, gullet, and cantle back covered. I'm fixing to start the jockeys and skirts and all of the other stuff, then I think it's about time for sheepskin and a horn wrap isn't it?

I have saddle straps (as they call them at a tack shop I used to frequent) i.e. Latigos, work great, they're 66" long (at least the ones I boguht were) which leaves you wit habout a 51" usable belt, bigger than that and I guess you tell them you need to make them suspenders

Ground seat is done, now on to the skirts and cantler back, any suggestions

I'll keep that in mind, but as luck would have it I wound up having to scrap the project for an unforeseen problem (i'e' I mispunched the snap on the top and nothing lined up, but I'll be trying it again soon)

Yeah, I discovered I messed up when I cut my skirts out, so I have to wait on another piece of leather and do that agin, so, following Bruce Cheaney's videos (BTW his spur video is great) on youtube, I'm going ot start the groung seat tonight

Photo wit hgun in them would be really helpful

Well, got my gullet on, no wrinkles, and it seems tight enough to not cause problems later, so on to the next step, blocking the skirts, I think I can figure that one out on my own, then it's time to start thinking about the ground seat right?

Last night I destroyed the sheath that came with my beloved buck folding knife, so I did what anybody on here would do, I made a new one, but I am having a slight problem (that may just be nothing but I figure it doesn't hurt ot ask) I wetted the leather with my usual method for when some thing needs molded (held it under the spiggot in the kitchen until it was thoroughly soaked) and slipped my knife into a Ziploc bag and shoved it in the sheath, set it on my dresser until morning and low and behold, it's still too wet to carry after sitting for about 12 hours, never had this happen before, did I do something wrong? BTW, I have molded a lot of things this way, this is the first time i ever had a problem. HELP!!!!please.

I don't need to stretch it tight? Well then, I'll try it again tomorrow (got to go look at another horse tonight, won't get home till after midnight probably, and I have to work tomorrow)

Well, I tried to cover my gullet and ran into a large problem, every time I pulled on the leather to stretch it over it came off, am I not using enough nails to hold it in place or is there a bigger problem?

Possibly a stupid suggestion but I'm going to make it anyways, why don't you trailer over to your friends and stick a bunch of saddles on the horse's back and see which one fits best? That's what I did with my mustangs and found a sadle that happened to have a stock Bowden tree in it that fit her perfect

Through the time I spent as a proffessional rodeo cowboy I wore pink chaps for the 3 roughstock events every night, sometimes twice a day if the shows were close enough (you can pull that off if you belong to a couple diferent sanctioning bodies) and I took a bunch of flack for it. Until later that night at the after party... BTW, they look good enough to me

Tandy sells a book of chap patterns, they turn out pretty good, at least mine did, you do have to adjust for sizing though, and they don't make any provisions on the patter nt odo so

The tree is a Wade style from Bowden trees, my intentions for it are for an all around do everything (I have been known to do a bit of cutting, a little roping, bareback bronc once in a very blue moon, trail rider, everyday saddle), and it appears there are a few people around here that do this, and I might just be getting ready to take a class, but that isn't set in stone yet as it depends on a couple factors (like if they will let me build a full sized saddle as opposed to a half scale job like they will be building in the class). But otherwise, it's me and a set of really bad patterns and a couple books written before the turn of the last century. I am comfortable using the tools, I probably could be better at it, but hey, that's what practice is for. BTW, I am not planning to use a metal seat strainer, there has to be a wa yto build a half seat without the metal

I will try Bruce's method, although I have been invited to attend a short saddle making class at the local Tandy. As we are trying to put together a good general how to, anyone have any pics of the gullet covering process? I don't own a camera

At the suggestion of a couple members in my other thread here, I am starting a new thread that I hope is going to turn into a good how to for the first time saddlemaker (like me). Question number 1. What's the best way to go about covering the gullet as the books I have don't give a rea lgood method for doing this.

Thanks Chris, I think I'm going to do what electrathon suggested and start a new thread that will hopefully turn into a tutorial. But I am still planning to keep this one going if I can. BTW, pictures really help as I have no camera and the books I have are completely without pictures, being as 3 of the 4 were written before the turn of the last century (or photocopies thereof) and the other one is just a waste of good printing paper and ink IMHO

I'll start with the ground seat, is 10-14oz going to be too heavy, I am under the impression that most of what I use thee is going to be skived off And since it's not really off topic, and I forgot to mention it in the last post, how do I go about doing a half seat? None of my books (which aren't real specific as to anything BTW) don't mention anything about doing half seats

I'd use a stirrup blank (and have on a couple belts I've made for a couple different people) and then double it up with the other peice running the other direction

Well, I don't have a saddle shop, but I do have all of the tools (I got lucky on Ebay and got a whole box lot of stuff that hadmost of it in it, and then bought what I didn't have), except for a draw down stand and I got an idea there (I am planning to take an aluminum saddle rack, you know the ones they sell at the tack shops, and cover the top in carpet, then put a 4x4 with a couple eye bolts at the bottom and do the draw down with ratchet straps off the 4x4). That link helped Frank, but they left out exactly where the skirts come into play, do they get layed on in the very beginning, or d othey come towards the middle, or are they the last thing that gets done? I bought a couple of books and they all go about it in a different stage of the game. As far as the cost issue goues, I got the leather for almost free (a buddy of mine butchered a couple cows at home and gave me the hides to send to the tanners, well, another buddy works at a tannery in NY state and got them tanned (veg tanned) for me pretty cheap), and the tree wasn't that bad, bought it from Bowden, as their wade tree fits both of the horses currently munching grain in my back yard real well. Anybody care to give me a general order.

Fixed it, got to watch them all, now to start on that tree sitting in my bedroom

johanna, I like your message, but there a few hitches in the gittalong with that one, 1. I already own 2 horses with a third on the way (she's due in October), 2. I don't have a load of cash, and really want to try and do it myself, 3. I work during the day and if the UPS man leaves something on my doorstep then it invariably gets stolen As far as what I meant, I was just asking for a tutorial as to what order things get done in, I have a pretty general idea as to do most of them, but am not sure as to the order that things get done in.

OK, folks, at the risk of being tarred and feathered, I am going to ask for it. I just finished my first project, my tree arrived when I was too busy to mess with it, and now I have some time on my hands. Would anybody here mind giving a very breif how to, mainly the order of things, and a few tricks here and thee. And before anyone asks I did a search first