horsewreck

I agree with Bruce 100%, this type of wreck can cause a lot of damage not seen by the untrained eye. You need to clean the saddle up some and take it to an established saddler and get it checked out, this is not a good one to work on yourself. Good luck.....

You might try starting off with strap, tooling, or skirting leather as these are dry leathers that have not been oiled at the tanner, this is the type of leather we use to wet form. There has been much written on this forum about casing leather before forming to shape, you might check that out. Most true bridle leather has to high a oil and tallow content to wet form. Good luck!!! Sorry I can't help with your bone problem.

Alan, The saddle looks pretty good, I see you used a boot drop at the bottom of your fenders. I like that feature on saddles and us it some myself. Wades and slick forks have started to be seen more in Texas now, I built myself a 3b slick fork in south Texas about 25 years ago to work cattle from and the boys down there looked at it like it was a two headed calf. Times change. I enjoyed the pictures of the saddle.... Jeff

Utility wear such as hay apron, shoeing chaps, and welding aprons are often made from chrome tanned leather splits. One of the most often used leathers is pearl apron splits, sometimes called mulehide but is in fact cowhide. One other leather of note to use in welding clothing is top grain pig skin, it can be had in a lighter weight than some of the other products making it cooler to wear. I would stay away from heavy chap leathers and oil tans because of their weight mostly. You can get these products from Springfield, Siegel, or most any good supplier. I hope I have been of some help.......

WELCOME Sparks, find your place at the table and have a seat. We hope you enjoy this as much as we do.....

I don't know of any well known tanner who is putting out bison skirting. My concerning with using skirting from a small tanner is their ability to turn out a well tanned product that will hold up over time. I think I would ask the customer why he wants bison leather in his new saddle and then point out pit falls and try to steer him to a quality skirting for his new saddle. Sorry I could not be of more help......

Monica, I will check out TX Custom Dies. Ditto on your concern about metal band holding shape but I may try it just to see. Thanks......

Monica, I have seen that press in the northern catalog and have come close to buying it but I still have not found a source of dies that I can afford, my problem is that our product line being mostly custom and covering saddlery and gun leather as well I don't get to replicate items that often. Who do you get your dies from? I think I might try that process of makeing dies out of banding stock like alcoveshop suggests above...... Jeff

Did you mean to say nickel over solid brass? I am not sure anyone makes a crome over solid brass chicago screw, let me know if I'm wrong as I would buy them if made....... Jeff

Have you had problems with aluminum turning your leather black @ the screw? I used them years ago and found that they didn't stay tight because you can't get them real tight without stripping the threads, and they tend to turn leather black as they age. This seemed to be a greater problem on items that get wet from time to time...... Jeff

Great to hear it turned out to be better than you expected. I still haven't given up on finding the actual maker of your find. Let me know if you find any other clues on the saddle...... Jeff

You should be able to get your $300. dollars back if you sold the saddle smith saddle, it's a decent single skirt rig that would make a good pleasure saddle the leather looks pretty good in it. I could not tell to much on the saddle with the bukstitching as I was having trouble with that picture but from what I could see it's good. All in all you made a good deal.......

I have found that plated steel chicago screws seem to be the worst quality. Try buying solid brass or nickeled brass and I think you will be happier. I buy mine from weaver leather and ohio travel bag. The finish on a lot of the steel screws is poor which leads to rust stains which is a good reason to use the solid brass or nickeled solid brass. I hope this has been of some help......

That's a pretty good idea using the old fence stretcher bar for adjustment. Design of drawdown adjustment seem to be as numerous as saddlemakers. It's even a better idea if you hate working on fences as much as I do. Good job, keep thinking.....

The main point I was trying to make is that we should be buying leather by weight not sex. Bullhide is more of a marketing scheme than it is a class of leather. When we buy leather from say hermann oak or wickett and craig we are buying mostly feedlot finished steerhides. This leather is more than suitable for any item you wish to make, in this case belts, if we want to make heavier belts use heavier leather pure and simple.......

It,s all a matter of terms. I suspect most people selling "bullhide" leather goods are in fact selling products of 15oz. skirting. I have been in the leather buisness 35+ years and I don't even have a source of "bullhide" leather. If you are making your holsters from say hermann oak 9oz. strap leather and you want to make your belts a little heavier you could buy 11oz. stap sides or skirting up to 13-15oz. as long as you stay with product from the same tanner matching color isn't a problem. I hope this is of some help to you.....

Bruce Johnson did a decent job of explaining slicking leather, the tools involved, etc, in his post above. I slick almost all the leather I use...... Jeff

As has been stated the only tannery in the US veg. tanning horse butt is Horween. Horse butt is a by product in the production of the high end shoe leather Shell Cordovon which is used to make mens dress shoes mostly. The raw hides are imported mostly from draught horse sized critters, and only the rear "cheeks" are veg. tanned and suitable for gun leather as the rest of the hide is chrome tanned. While as it has been stated the soft roll is a little easier to work with I have made a many a holster from hard roll even in the heavier weight leather. I suspect the drop in quality and size of the butts is due to the lack of older larger horses in the international market. If you do a lot of heavy external boning of your holsters you might be happier with the soft rolled lighter weight stuff but for super duty working holsters I sure like the hard roll with some weight to it, but a lot of my stuff is worn daily by ranchers ,cowboys, and folks that are real tough on their equipment. Hope this is of some value to you guys...... Jeff

By horse hide I assume you mean horse butts which is often used for holsters. I would suggest you try Siegel of Calif. if you have not already done so. Go NRA....

Dave, as far as I can tell Bowden Tree Co. might be your best if not only source for the 1859 McCellan, and the Jennifer tree as they still show both as specialty trees in their catalog. You can always go to a custom hand made tree, but your cost will be much higher.....

It is a good read.... Jeff

Okay, I got the ebay listing to print that helps me. The tree in the saddle looks like it might be made by Steele saddle co but they did not build the saddle as they don't line the skirts with wool under the tree. The stirrups have been changed as the text states. Looks like a decent saddle for the money. With me now having a pic. and knowing it's an endurance saddle I might be able to get to the bottom of this thing yet. It looks like the saddle rigging is designed to be set up in a V shape which is not uncommon for this type of saddle, if you are not familiar with this rigging I can try to send you a picture of how the thing is done between the front and back dees, it does make the saddle very stable on the horse .....Jeff