karl

Your photocarving is very nice and looks great and the coloring is great, I think I could take lessons from you. Karl

Thanks Tom, I just took the photo and traced the lines and detail of the truck and carved it on the wallet and then cut and beveled and painted the end result the way the truck looked. Karl

Thanks for the compliment, the picture of the truck I took from a photo of the truck He had taken last year. Karl

Hi, Fellas, Here is a wallet I just finished for a friend who has a 1922 Reo truck and wanted a wallet with a picture of it on it Karl

Frog, When I'm playing around, I just set and look at my different tools and stamps and start seeing a picture in my brain, and then start stamping and beveling itand practice a lot on srcap pieces. I am kind of going slow right now, I am making a small half size saddle with a basket weave on the skirt and trying to picture what else to do with it and letting my Rheumatoid Arthritis kind of calm down for a while. It gets a little out of hand, so to speak, when I over do it sometimes. Karl

Tom, That piece of leather is abour 5 1/2 inches long and maybe 1 1/2 inches or so tall (or wide) and a piece of 10/12 oz scrap from my saddle. Karl

Thanks a lot. I just got a lot of different stamps and love to sketch and in place of drawing on paper, I just let my imagination run with stamps and beveling and just let it go where it may. Karl

Hi fellas, Its been a while since I have posted anything and I thought I would post this. I'll bet a lot of you guys have done this at one time or another. Just take a piece of scrap leather and start stamping different things and seeing what turns up. Sometimes they ain't so bad and you can keep them in a box for Ideas for belts or anything. Karl

Well fellow Leather pounders, you got me. Yeah It's Johanna and yeah I guess it does looka little older than our lovely host and I appologize. I sent this to her the other day plain with no color in it and then decided to play around and used a black magic marker for the hair and blouse and a white out pen for the white in the eyes. Karl

I think this is gonna be fun! I should have taken a lot more time than 15 or 20 minutes tp do this but I did it real quick for a lady on the net here. SO that's the clue for now. Karl

Hi everyone, Here is a quick little picture I did the other day in about 15 minutes and wonder if any one knows who this lady is.....No it isn't the Mona Lisa. Karl

Hey Don,, Thats one fine job! Welcome to the world of saddle makers. It kind of gets in your blood. I see you took my advise an plugged around the skirt. You did one fantistic job. Now like everyone is telling me, now that I finished my saddle, "Now you got to get you a Horse"! Karl

Hi Fellas, I looked real close at the saddle that is in the worst shape and the leather is coming off, shrunk and stitching broken and the bottom leather on the bars is completely gone and the stitching is broken on some of the rawhide, but is has more of the metal hardware than the other saddle so I am going to rob Peter to pay Paul and should be O.K. but I am going to take my time with it, but still would like to know the age. About 8 years ago a friend of mine, and elderely gentleman had a lot of old west collectables and the paperwork to authenticate them of stirrups, spurs, and a few other things I can't remember right off hand, from Buffalo Bills Wild West Show and the one item he had I would sold my right arm for, was an authenticated cavalrky saddle that was at The Little Big Horn Battle with Custer and it did have a serial number on it and I held it in my hands. Boy! what a thrill, I told his son a few years ago that if his dad ever wanted to get rid of it, to let me know and I would give him whatever wanted for it, somehow. But he told me that his dad, gave it to Nebraska state museum at (I think) the University Of Nebraska and as much as I wanted that saddle, he made the right choice. But what a thrill. there wasn't anything on the saddle just the saddle (or Tree you could say) no leather or straps or riggings or anything, but what a prize to own. Oh well! I can only dream. Karl

Hi Don, and evereyone else, I took a good bunch of saddle soap to it and then some neatsfoot oil and after about a half hour of scrubbing and rubbing it doesn't look that bad for as old as it is. and I haven't seen any date or serial number or anything like that yet. As for the color, I can't say that it's black exactly but it's the deepest and darkest brown I've ever seen and in 3 or 4 places the leather has shrunk and stitching broken and the bottom leather on the bars that touch the horse the skirting is normally, has a scratches an wear places or where something has scratched it or gouged slightly where it was thrown over a fence rail or on the ground or something, but the tree is not broken and I bought 3 of these and if the first one works out I'll fix up the other two and sell them. I found a place about military saddles and restoration on line, and it has a couple of thumbnail patterns but when I try to enlarge them even using the portrait style on print setup, it cuts some of the pattern off and the printing is extremely hard to read. Thanks for the Information, and I have read that the 1858 style saddles were black and the instructor (or teacher) in the saddle class thinks its a possibly an 1893 or so model. What he bases his theory on I don't know, that is why I wish I knew if there was a magic or quick was to tell the age. I hope they are older but still think they are 1904's. Karl

Hi fellas, I just finished making my 2nd saddle and am now going to attempt to restore a McClellan saddle. There are some of the pieces missing like strap holders, ect and was wondering where I can find them. Another question is, How can I date the McClellan that I have? I am thinking it is a 1904 model but I showed it to my instructor on the last day of the saddle class and he kind of suggested that it was an older model of around 1893 or so. I know that the 1859s had no leather covering other than the skirts nailed or screwed on and the centerfire rigging, so it's not that old I know, but is there any way to ballpark an age on one? Karl

Scouter, Don & Alex, Thanks fellas and I took the saddle class at Tandy Leather that they started up and it started on September 9th and we met every Sunday from 2 till 5pm and altogether was about 17 weeks. The certificate we received says 50 hours of class but thats just in class and not the cutting and tooling and sewing and dyeing and everything else. I don't have a horse and no orders for any more so all I have is this saddle and the little Half saddle I made back in August that is on the saddle and tack site if you want to see it. I bought 3 McClellan cavalry saddles and I am going to try to restore them. I don't know exactly what I'm in for with these but it ought to be interesting. I don't know why the pictures look bad on your screens cause they look ok on this end and I do have a fairly pricy digital camera and the scan and pictures on this end on my computer look ok,, sorry if they look crappy on your end. Karl

Thanks alot Craftsman, I hope it lasts as long as the satisfaction of completing ilt. I was gonng leave it natural, buy I looked at it and said, "what the heck', and Dyed it saddle tan. Just like Larry the cable guy, I had to " GIT - R - DONE... thanks for the compliments. Karl

Hi fellas, here are some photos of the saddle I made in saddle class and the first one is the plain laddle. After I got it home, I decided to tear it down and put some dye on it instead of leaving it natural. Karl

Rose, I was practicing on a picture of our cat that died last year and my sister in law wants a picture of a cat on a checkbook laying under a bush with the leaves hanging down in front some, and I am still scratching my head on that one. Karl

Buf, Looks like you did a darn good job of it, looks real nice. I have made 2 saddles , 1 half saddle and just finished a saddle making class and I'm kind of proud of the way it turned out. Now if I only had a horse,,,LOL. karl

Hi Fella's & Gals, Here is a carving of a cat I did here while back. Karl

Randy, I have always wanted to try my hand at hand tooled boots, Photo carved. I've made a lot of things from key fobs to purses, and gun belts and a couple of saddles, but ain't gots the foggiest notion on how to do boots. Great job. I'd love to learn how to do that. Karl

Beezachopper, That is a beautiful job on that seat and a great job on lacing. Keep it up. What kind of finish did you use on it in case it rains, you don't want it to have the dye run. Karl

Hi fellas. Here is a leather buckle of a grizzly bear I did. This is the best that I can get out of my scanner for the picture. Karl