fivewayswelshcobs

To be honest you are looking at 2 different skills one being saddle fitting and the other being a saddler. You can learn to do flocking as a saddle fitter, the Society of Master Saddlers (UK) recommends saddle fitters if they wish to do this attend training and at some point this is likely to be compulsory if you want to be a member there are some flocking and doing repairs without this training that do not have sufficient skills and are creating problems. If you are more interested in working on saddles I would highly recommend training as a saddler so you know how and why saddles are made as they are and the best ways of repairing them, you can then train for saddle fitting and do the complete job. A good place to start is to contact George at uksaddlery.com Many saddlery workshops are actually smaller than you would expect I started in half a single garage but now have half a shed about 25 feet by 14 feet but then I do harness, bridles and other leatherwork as well as saddles so have lots of leather and increasing amounts of machinery (it's addictive). Hope this helps

Hi this maybe too far Abbey England sells red bridle which is Sedgewicks so if you can find a supplier over there selling Sedgewicks ask as they do it here.

It was in the Express and Star on the 14th of February 2017

Just got back after picking up my new toy - a BUSM no.6 with treadle, tomorrow I get to find space in my workshop and put it back together then play. I once said I was going to everything by hand, now I have 2 no.6's , 2 45k's , a skiver, powered splitter (as well as several hand splitters) , now I need to enlarge the workshop as no space to work everything !

Looks like Walsall Leather Museum has been saved for the moment and will stay where it is which is great news.

I would recommend uksaddle.com , based in Scotland.

To add further to the confusion names many vary within a country or even within a town.

In the UK I would have thought that leather workers would have used what was available locally , ie linen thread . I must admit that I have never thought of machining with it but then again my first thought is always hand stitching. Last year I had been looking for a good weight of silk thread for doing some wallets but struggled to find what I wanted and then got side tracked back to the harness. Most leather workers are creatures of habit and following tradition - .me included but I did a course with Val Micheal at Tetbury and she uses silk threads.

Heavy horse harness, I'm using 6 cord linen thread.

Silk is naturally very strong for its weight. I do know that silk thread is used on some high quality light goods, ie wallets, purses and some bags so I guess that it's use would depend on the thread you have and what you want to use it for. I have used it a few times but most of my work is too heavy for silk. Hope this helps

You can get the length by using rein or harness back ie shoulder and butt together, the strongest bit is down the backbone but you will need to watch the shoulder end as it will be lighter in weight and more stretchy. I managed to get a rolled dog lead to over 97" once all hand stitched from a rein back.

I have one too but needs a treadle. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.

Hi Hendreforgan, thank you for the heads up, I have just signed up as I trained in Walsall and have regularly visited the museum in fact the first belt I ever made was on a day course with Val Micheal at the museum.

I have used Abbey a lot over the last 15 years with few problems and their online ordering works well, Bakers I tend to ring and then have a day out to collect and select it myself. Sedgewicks will deal in large amounts direct but usually sell through Abbey. Have also had leather from Metropolitan, Grade and Clayton with no problems but in my mind Bakers is the best. . There is also Midgley in Somerset.

Have you tried Abbey England, talk to them as they may have something apart from the catalogue. Is it just the bridle type of buckle as I would use either the wire buckles or west end for the larger widths

There probably aren't many patterns out there but to get the size put a rope halter on and position it where you want then stick tape on the length of the nose and the head strap then make an allowance for the rings ,ie use the radius of the ring not diameter. If doing the rolled halter then add enough leather to the ends of the nose so it will fold around the ring and allow about 1 inch for stitching and another inch feathered down to nothing to tuck in the start of the rounding, repeat at other end. The width would depend on the size of the animal so for a cow 1 inch or more but for a calf proportionally narrower. On the head strap do this to the ends of the strap (work it out on paper) then add around 2 1/2" to the allow for the buckle return and feed into the rounding after deciding the position of the buckle, for the point strap add 2" +the space you want the holes to be apart eg 3/4" between holes add 11/2" to give you the centre hole, if measured accurately can reduce to 3 holes to shorten the point end but this can limit the animals it can be used on. I assume from the style it is a dairy heifer as this style is not strong enough for beef animals. I hope this helps.

Sounds like you want to French bind it but that can be difficult to go round some corners , it is easier with thin bindings but these are less durable. To help with your actual project I would agree photos would be helpful.

I agree many of us this side of the pond do have a very confused system, we measure thickness in mm but still work in imperial for other measurements some buckles are now coming in metric but since the straps are 1/2" 5/8" etc I still ask for them in imperial. In other areas I still cook using ounces, pounds etc, the fields are measured in acres but officially in paperwork they are measured in hectares ( who on earth can visualise a hectare ie 2.471 acres) . When we started farming livestock were in cwt now in kilos so we often spend most of the time translating measurements. It must be fun for youngsters trying make sense of all this as some do not understand imperial measurements at all unfortunately this makes me sound old and grumpy but no just grumpy and not so old. I also tell customers I still work in English ie feet and inches.

Good start but now consider the leather you want to use. A thicker leather will need to be cut larger than a thinner leather (think smaller hole on inside of pouch as taken up by leather thickness) . The suppleness of the leather as some leather will not bend as easily as others so it will need to be cut larger. The leather finish will also affect fit as suede will grip the item more than a smooth finish. Also consider the end user as one person can cope with a snug fit early on but another can't so is less likely to use the pouch, l did a Kobe sleeve for my Mum it was a quick job but I found it easy to put on/off but as she isn't as strong she struggled and rarely used the sleeve so had a to make another one. Hope this helps.

Hi Zuludog sounds a good idea but I would check about the glue some places can be funny about it not sure why could be fumes. It might be worth taking some small scraps to practice stitching or finishing on first.

I agree with Matt after all we are the home of English bridle leather- it says it all in the name.

Have you got a picture of what you want as different areas know things by different names.

Saddle stitch is by far the strongest, a running stitch is OK if there will be no wear, personally I wouldn't use it on the base of a bag as it is one of the places it needs strength and if being made on a commercial level machine it but with 2 rows of stitching.

It looks OK but I have a problem with the fit. The headstrap for the noseband should be under the cheekpiece and the same the other side as it will cause the bit to rub and if used correctly the front of the nose is sitting too low and will restrict the breathing. Once this is adjusted it will look much better and suits the horse. Sorry if this seems a little blunt but I have a real problem with badly fitted bridles (too often seen in the UK).

The most interesting information I found when looking for leather vessels was the Reverend's Big Blog of Leather it will almost certainly give you some ideas of where else to look .