barra

I have broken all the golden rules. I allowed the left hand to get in front of the plough guage. Enevitably I slipped and split my left thumb right up to the knuckle. In a seperate incident I pushed a seat awl (a large spike) right thru my, again left hand. It went completely thru the fleshy part of the palm from right to left. I then miss used a boot makers knife and nearly severed the middle finger on (you guessed it, left hand). Funny conclusion to that saga. I was 2 days from attending an Army reserve exercise. I did not properly clean the wound. A few days into the exercise, all was not looking good, might have been the green puss. I went to the RAP (Medical) and they ended up putting this HUUUUUGE bandage on it. This produced great mearth from my mates. We then had to go to the range and fire 84mm anti tank weapons. I was the loader. I placed in a high explosive anti tank round, slammed closed the breach and tapped the firer on the back of the head. This is his signal all is ready to fire. It was then I realised the stupid bandage was caught in the closed breach of an about to be fired anti tank gun (bazooka in lay terms). This was followed by feversish helmet thumping and screams of STOP, STOP, STOP. For those not familiar with this weapon. It is equally dangerous from both ends as it has a back blast. Barra

Wiss shears would be my best bet. They do make a let handed shear. Barra

Til death us do part with Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett. Barra

I don't remember some of the shows mentioned being shown in Australia when i was a kid. I'm not saying they were not televised but some were before my time. I do remember fondly Rin Tin Tin. Who remembers Fury with Peter graves and the short lived series he followed with that was filmed in Australia, Whiplash. I also have a lot of old Bonanza episodes on DVD, though some have a different theme tune which is weird. When I am in the US, I stay at a town called Newhall. This is where a lot of these old shows were filmed and was the home of William S Hart. He was one of the early Movie cowboys and was one of Whyatt Earp's pall bearers. The people I stay with used to live one street away from Gene Autry's Melody ranch and the kids would pat and feed Champion carrots on the way to school. I get lot's of stories about the golden age of western movies/TV shows. http://www.melodyranchstudio.com/ Barra

Just an overall view. Barra

This is my stamp bench. Not exactly what I want but it works for now. I have utilised the actual treadle base from the Jones. My stamps are grouped together in plastic cups, geometrics in one, bevellers in another etc. These cups are inside the red folgers coffee container (keeps them out of the air and rust). The stamps I want for a particular job come out of the folgers container and sit in the small wooden box just behind the speaker. This makes for easy finding of the tool i want. On top of the stamp stone is a sheet of plastic vybac. This is the stuff used for windows in the hoods of buggies and convertables as well as cafe blinds. I use this vybac to lay on top of cased leather to delay moisture loss when I have stopped stamping to top up the coffee or get side tracked with the football or cricket game on the teeny tiny TV. Barra

This is my home made stitching horse. On the front I have mounted my splitter. Not ideal but it works. I can easily remove it and I have a place to put down tools. Behind this is my draw down stand and leathers stored in plastic garbage bins. These are easy to move out of the way when the draw down is in use. Barra

I can see I'm going to need Johanna's help shrinking image sizes. This is my main bench set up. The bench in the foreground is made up of modular hammer lock shelves. I have arranged 4 shelving units, side by side length ways and then put a false wooden bench top on. There is space between the wood top and the actual shelving units to slide in various nic nacs like note pads, rulers and the straps of various widths that I use to set my plough guage (I don't trust the increments on the guage itself). Tools are arranged on the back board in fairly stock standard fashion. What I do however is group tools like awls or edgers and mount them onto small wooden boards that are seperate to the main back board. These small boards are then adhered to the main back board with self adhesive velcro. This way I can swap things around as the whim takes me. it also makes it easy to dismantle everything quickly and pack up the tools into trunks. The loops I use for my awls have old corks in them. These stay permanantly in the loop and I jab the awl into the corks. This I find stops rusty awl blades. At night the entire back board also gets covered up and I find this helps avoid rusty tools. In the back ground is an old drafters table that fell off the back of a truck. This table has a drawer the depth of the entire table. It is in this drawer that I store items that are in the process of being assembled to keep them clean and avoid them getting knocked about. At the back of the table I have plastic maxi bins for buckles etc and on top of these there is a shelf that has holes for storing small hand tools I don't use all the time. Against the wall I have various patterns and next to this I have tools on peg board that don't fit on the benches elsewhere ( wrenches, mallets etc) My various edge stains are in empty plastic yoghurt containers. To avoid the inevitable knock over, the stain container I am using at the time, I place in the plastic travel coffee mug as it has a very wide and stable base. Depending On what I am making, I either use my stitching horse or sit at the main bench and use the set of clams that sit in a loop on the front of the main bench. Barra

Ok I see this is going to be difficult. This one is of two of my machines. The one in the fore ground is my Jones stitcher that is mounted on a 29K13 treadle. The other is my Singer 132K6. Both are on wheels so I can shift them to make better use of my limited space (1/2 a double garage). I have a cutting out bench outside under the patio that I can wheel in once the car is outside and hence get full use of the garage. I can then push the Jones out of the way and wheel the K6 up to the mobile cutting out bench for horse rugs etc More to follow as I work out shrinking images so I can load more than one Pic at a time. Barra

Hmmmmm. lets try about $7US a gallon. Barra

Bruce. Give him a break. He does have the obligatory coffee cup.

Elton. I was looking at the Pic of your bench and my old eyes could not figure out what it was that was on the bench under the splitter. Then cha ching. A sideways mounted rein rounder. This has solved a slight dilema I have with limited bench space. My rein rounder on top of the bench gives me the itsha's. it is an in the way nuisance where I have it. Guess what I am doing tonight. Barra

It maybe the Pic but the tension looks like it needs adjusting. Barra.

Ah the old Kiwi ch'lly b'n. They also count to 10 kinda funny (somewhere between 5 and 7). In Aus we refer to what in the US gets called a shopping cart as a shopping trolley. We have this wierd thing going where, when I'm in the States I call them carts and my partner in crime now without thinking calls them trollies. I have her trained to the point where she calls the hood of the car, a bonnet, the trunk a boot and the windshield a windscreen. But the peace of resistance is she eats Vegemite and loves it. Barra

Hilly. Tony made a blue. In this context a mistake. This is as opposed to had/having a blue = fight or argument. On my first trip to the states I needed an interpreter in my first IHOP. Funniest thing is on my last trip in May we were in another IHOP and the waitress could not understand my friend (original interpreter). I was able to jump in and say oh she means XYZ. The waitress understood me perfectly. We have a little chuckle over that.

Looks like much the same purpose as a monkey strap/grip. Funny where terminology comes from.

They will be able to easily tell if it is in fact broken. Barra

Ok, I'm on the big screen and I'm caffiened up. Another sign it is Indian/Pakistani is the leather on the flap. See how it has little dimples (sort of like you would see on pig skin). This is common on these saddles. Remember cows are sacred so who knows what they use. Water buffalo maybe?????

Last pic. Here I have placed the bellies back onto the cantle. The saddler then tacks them in place. If you can see lots of little dots, this is where the old tacks used to be. When you say you have 2" of movement then something is adrift. It could be a broken tree or it could be just the bellies have come loose. Place one hand on the cantle and the other hand behind the cantle. Move the hand on top back and forth and you are more than likely getting the movement you describe. If you feel that nothing is moving away from the hand that you placed behind the cantle, then more than likely the bellies have come adrift. If everything appears to be moving then the tree is busted. When you say you also have side ways flexion. I am leaning toward a broken tree and the saddle is done. Barra

Next. I just saw your reply. When I say Asian indicators I mean normal tell tale signs it was made in Asia (or the sub continent in India/pakistan) which most Australian style saddles on the US market are. OK, these pics. Can you see the cantle on the English tree?. It is a fixed and integral part of the tree. The desired shape of the cantle in both and English and Australian saddle is then built up by the saddler out of leather. These are called the bellies. On the Australian saddles these are far more prominant. On the Australian saddle pic you should be able to see what I suppose appears to be the cantle but is in fact the old bellies. Look just behind this and you should be able to just see what is really the cantle. I just placed the bellies here for illustration purposes. One more pic to come. Barra

Bare with me. My camera flash won't play the game so these pics were taken under a lamp. The pic on the left is an old Australian stock saddle tree and the one on the right is an English spring tree. Both are similar in many respects. Note there are no spring steel bands on the Aussie tree. More to follow. Barra

Curbstrap. A few more q's for you. 1. Whereabouts are you 2. I you look closely where the fleece lining is stitched onto the panel can you see any other coloured fabric. The most common cause of a broken tree is if a horse has rolled with the saddle on. this may be also indicated by score marks and gouges on the seat/poley pads. Spring trees are not common in "Australian" stock saddles like they are in English saddles. I am 99 % convinced this saddle is of Asian manufacture but a few things have me guessing. The asian indicators saddle staples not brass leather used in the seat and poley covers. style of stirrup leathers used What has me guessing at now 6am is it appears to have been counterlined with the fleece over the original lining. Does any one counterline outside Australia??? Maybe after my 3rd coffee my eyes will focus on your pics more. Big screen and not the laptop in the semi dark might also help. Barra

Curbstrap. Leave it with me. i'll gather up some info to assist you. it's 5am and the eyes aren't focusing yet. Your pics are sending me mixed messages. Does the saddle have any identifying makers mark.brand? Barra

I used to think the same thing Tony - sars and root beer being the same thing. To come up with the closest anology I can, root beer in the States is sort of a cross between sars and creaming soda. The most common commercially available brand was A&W. Barra

I stumbled on this link. Best 29 minutes of viewing in a long time. Priceless. http://www.folkstreams.net/film,170 Barra