Hi all,
Quite an informative site, saddlery is a very intriguing skill and craft. I'm customizing a motorcycle currently and had the idea of using an old trail riding saddle as the seat. I've found a cheap used western saddle on ebay for about $100 to conduct this experiment on. Due to the tendancy tuck over the tank on a motorcycle, it kinda means my stomach would be resting on the horn and pommel, which I would imagine could be painful if I were to hit a pothole or bump in the road. I wanted to pose a few questions to this site about the feasibility of removing the pommel:
1. Am I crazy for wanting to try this? or has anyone heard of someone else doing this? (removing a pommel)
2. What would be the best way to deconstuct it?
Should I try to remove the leather from it before cutting the tree, or just cut through the bottom side and come through the seam between the pommel and the seat/jockey.
I'm also removing the skirt and stirups, thought those are just leather and I have found instuctions on how to remove them without causing any damage. I know the tree is made of wood, so in essence I should be able to cut it out by hand with a dremmel or coping saw. Though I know it's also rather fundamental to the construction of the saddle. So I worry that if I were to attempt this, I may forfeit the rest of the saddle to be structurally un-usable (as a motorcycle seat, obviously this is never going to be used on a horse again). Now I could keep the pommel and cut the horn off, but I think that would look dumb. The hope is to have the horn and pommel still intact to use stylistically else where on the bike. I'm doing this with the stirups and skirt to better incorperate the saddle leather with the bike design and even the metal portion of the stirups as additional pegs.
Any information or experiance is appreciated! And cool forums, leather working is an awesome art form.
Thanks!
-Marco
