mulefool

I can just see my mule roll her eyes when she sees me coming with the tape measure again. ;-) Chris

It's yours, glad to find a home for it. I'll get it out this afternoon. Chris

Anybody need a manual for a Landis 3? I have an old set of photocopied pages I got 25 years ago. certainly not pristine, but complete and readable. I since got a nice reprint and I was going to pitch this, but thought maybe I'd check and see if anyone wanted it before I chucked it. if any one is interested let me know and I will send it no charge. First come first served. Chris

I still struggle with this on custom work after nearly 30 years in business. Although usually my intuition is good on some things, when it comes to pricing it's not. I almost always underestimate the time it will take me to do a custom job. Like you I feel if I do give an estimate I need to stick to it. One way to handle it is give a preliminary estimate and say, "this is off the top of my head, let me take some time to figure out the details and I will call you back with a more accurate estimate." The other thing is to give a range, then if you can hit the bottom end of the range the customer is really happy. I've actually found if I think of a price off the top of my head and then double it, it comes out about right. I hate it though when I give an estimate and the customer says, "Oh, that's way less than I thought it would be".............Then I know I probably estimated low. Just one little comment about not needing to make money if this is a hobby. I don't think the value of the work should be based on how much you NEED it. the work is a skill that we should all be proud of and that we deserve to make a decent wage for. It also makes it more difficult for those of us who DO need to make a living at it to price our work at a fair price. Chris

Well, if you're ordering a side of harness leather you won't have to worry about meeting the minimum! I get the Hermann Oak harness from them for building pack saddles. they have a cutting service which saves me a ton of time. I usually get backs which saves on waste. Chris

I make mine with a finished length of 43" from the end of the dee. Chris TornowETA I spell it britchen, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's right.

Those are real classy. I'm personally not crazy about the ones with the gaudy colors, but these look sharp. Chris Tornow

i've always found them to be very willing to talk to me even when I haven't bought anything. I'm thinking about getting one of those splitters, too. Chris Tornow

Sure is a thing of beauty. I really like the shape of the inlaid seat. I always kind of wonder about what Josh asked, too. Chris Tornow

That turned out real nice, never would have thought it was a first. I always thought those Celtic designs would look neat on a saddle and yours turned out really well. Chris Tornow

I think there are probably a lot of good products out there but I have used either liquid glycerin saddle soap or Murphy's Oil Soap as cleaners for years. i've never thought of them as a conditioner, just a cleaner and then conditioned with neatsfoot or Pitchblend what ever the needs were. Since Montana Pitch blend came out with their new leather soap I have been using that pretty much exclusively. then I condition and protect with either their conditioner or paste. I really like the way it leaves the leather feeling. The way I used the Murphy's was to put a dab on a wet sponge or brush, dip it in the water and then scrub up a lather. Then I would clean it off with a sponge til the water was clear when I squeezed it out. Not sure if that's "right" but it seemed to work for me. Chris

So these will be the first saddles you have built???? Just a suggestion, but you might want to at least get one off for yourself to work the bugs out before selling a bunch. But Maybe I misunderstood. Chris

"She said she wouldn't think of selling it if it fit thehorse she has now." Maybe it doesn't fit because it's CROOKED. but since it's on it's way wait til you get it and then document the crookedness in some way or get a professional to evaluate it for you. Hopefully it's just the angle in the pics, but it sure looks off to me. Good luck with it. Chris

I've got one. If the concho isn't real stuck they work fine, but if it's REALLY tight, I still have to use something else to get it started. It might just be me, though, I don't feel like I can apply enough pressure to make it work on the really tough ones. Chris

I used to have a set of snaffle bit reins like that many years ago, I sure liked them. Afraid I don't have any suggestions on improvements, they look nice to me. Chris