JAM

I've got three - had them for years and use them all the time. I love them! They are different - the edge contour and the alloy make them very different from other round knives. I've never sharpened one in five (?) years, just a quick hone on a hard felt buffing wheel with green compound and the knife will cut skirting like a hot knife through butter.

Yup. Couldn't agree more. Buy the best or make it myself.

Thanks, Dennis (and everyone else). Yes, it came out the way you meant it . The horse is fine, just scared the beans out of himself. He was a little nervous about being saddled again (!) but is over it now. That saddle is just a gentle ride once in a while saddle, now more than ever, and I hope the remainder (original part) of the fork holds through any future saddle horn grabs. The best part of the whole deal is that she got to see what was inside, and compare it to good trees I have on hand and see the enormous difference. Then she rode in my personal 3B with the slick seat and the upright build (no padding, no chair seat) and was blown away at the difference. There is a custom saddle in her (our) future. I agree, it is pointless to cover wood with cheap thin fiberglass mesh and use little or no resin. But customers never see that, so how would they know? One of the reasons I posted these pics is that I wish more people (not us saddlemakers, but saddle buyers) could see and understand what they are buying and be more inclined to buy quality.

Actually I won't for just anyone, but she's a frequent repairs customer and a custom saddle is in the works, now that she has seen the difference (and has ridden in one of my custom saddles). Also I had no idea how bad it was until I got the fork cover off, and then it was just a challenge - I wanted to see if I could do it. I look forward to the day when I am busy enough with custom saddles that I can turn down repairs on junk Julia

Hi, I see lots of posts in which the pictures will fade from one to the next, or have arrows to click to move from picture to picture. How is that done? I just posted a new topic with several picture attachments, and each time I click a thumbnail it opens in a new webpage instead of opening just the picture and being able to show picture after picture. So what can I do? Name: Julia McCormack UserName: JAM IP Address: 50.120.88.150 Email Address: tiffy1@frontier.com

Hi, all, I just finished repairing a broken tree in a Crates saddle, and was less than impressed by what I found. The horse had a wreck (no rider) and the saddle wound up under the horse, and was then removed by the horse. The owner brought me the saddle - the near back rigging dee was broken off. The leather strap holding the dee screwed/nailed to the tree bar had a strong plastic reinforcer inside it, so the leather strap was preserved beautifully but the tree broke (pictures below). Then the owner went for a ride in the repaired saddle, the horse did a big spook leap, the owner grabbed the horn, and POP! the horn broke. We hadn't noticed damage there before, but I'm sure it was from the original mishap. I was shocked by what I found when I pulled the fork cover off (pictures below). The tree is made of soft pine - there's a big old knot in the fork - and is covered with a thin layer of fiberglass cloth with barely a smear of resin in some places and no resin at all in other places. I fixed it by repositioning the broken parts with copious quantities of heavy-duty professional epoxy and then driiling and running long screws for more strength. Then I covered the breaks with better fiberglass cloth and LOTS of resin. I suspect the repairs are stronger than the original tree now. I told the owner not to rope , and because the saddle has a 3-way inskirt rigging, showed her how to use a 7/8 or 3/4 rigging without using the back cinch. Seeing what's inside this factory saddle made me cringe - perhaps if riders knew what was in their factory saddles, they would think twice about what they buy. This particular repair job also made me even more happy about using quality custom trees in my saddles (my personal favorites are the Nikkels) - the difference is night and day.

Hi, I posted this item - Jueschke Lace Cutter/stripper/beveler For Sale - a year ago in the marketplace, and sold it. The topic is locked now (it's archived) and I cannot figure out how to mark it "sold" so I stop getting calls on it. Help? Thanks. Name: Julia (Kelly) McCormack UserName: JAM IP Address: 50.52.24.208 Email Address: tiffy1@frontier.com

I've never had that problem - the blade should be as deeply in the holder as it can be. To make the exposed edge cut better, you want to use pliers to gently, slowly bend the long, crimped edge of the blade holder backwards (just a tiny bit) all along the folded crimp, to make the blade edge stick out (just a tiny bit). It won't take much to make the cutting edge take a bigger bite. Does this make sense? You're not opening the crimp at all, but you're bending that entire "holder" part back to make the blade edge more exposed. You want the blade to stay deep in the crimp. Julia

Every saddlemaker I know uses these occasionally, and every one of them has bent the blade holders for better skiving/deeper cuts. Use pliers, bend a tiny bit at a time until you get what you want, and have two or three or five for different cut depths. There's nothing wrong with altering your tools to work better - leatherworkers have always done it. Just make small changes and experiment on scrap as you go. They're a great little tool once you've made them work for you. Julia McCormack

I've got the Heritage 8 inch - same problem with the handle - like most Weaver equipment, it needs a little further engineering to work properly or well. The handle is supposed to screw down tight to hold a splitting thickness, but it doesn't screw all the way down (and they know this - I showed it to the owner at Sheridan 5 years ago - he said "Oh my goodness that's wrong..."). What you can do is drop a 1/4" bearing ball down into the handle hole. The when you screw the handle down, it will push the bearing ball against the rail, like an extension of the handle, and it will lock down so you don't have to hold the handle down while you pull leather through. Hope this helps. Julia McCormack

I have to agree - his knives are wonderful. I have three - got them about four years ago - no need to sharpen, just hone them when they slow down and they're good to go again. Really good knives, and very sturdy. Julia Kelly McCormack

Hi, all, I'm experimenting with coloring leather and am curious about "spirit dyes" or "spirit tints" - for example, the kind Peter Main uses. I can find the water-based colors at Tandy - but I'd like to find the professional colors, the non-water-based colors. What are some brand names or sources I can look for? Thanks very much, Julia

Okay - thanks. Good answer. Julia

Okay - I certainly agree with the idea of not running strings through the skirts - but why through the tree at all? What advantage does that give?

A saddlemaker friend gave me some really good reasons for NOT putting strings through the tree: (1) The strings will break one day and need replacing, and strings that go through the tree are a lot more work to replace; (2) If a string should ever get hooked on something, he wants the string to pull out of the leather rather than yank the tree and cause a wreck. So, my question is, what are the reasons why a working ranch saddle needs the strings to go through the tree? I can't envision a situation in which the skirts are going to be pulled off the tree and need through-tree strings to hold them on... I'm not a ranch cowboy, so could use the knowledge. Julia

Thanks, JW - these are good calls. The curves need work - it's not the camera angles <ggg> (I need to learn to use a french curve, I think). As for the jockeys - the skirts are an inch too long in front and in back (I think) and I knew that but didn't realize it until after the tooling, and at that point I didn't want to cut new skirts (I didn't have the leather). You are right, I should have lengthened the jockeys to balance the extra skirt length (and to give the bars a little more coverage). I'm having trouble drawing patterns for the full curve skirts I really want - the ones I see in pictures of other saddles. All these points will definitely go into the next saddle. It is so worthwhile to post pictures here and get input from all of you!

Thanks, Ann! Here are pics. The hidden stitch is not as perfect as I would like, but it's better than it used to be The cuts are freehand - I use dividers to mark spacing for the "pollywog" heads, then cut the pollywogs, then cut all the curves (first all the curves that go away-and-to-the-right, then all the curves that pull toward-me-and-to-the-right). It's a crutch to do them that way, I know, but it's how my fingers work best. I am not nearly as good as I hope to be one day - my heroes and inspiration are Claire Kehrburg and Rick Bean - and of course all my practice pieces are SO much better than the real pieces Julia Thanks, Steve - good call. I hadn't even thought of that, but now that you point it out, you are absolutely right. Thanks, Thomas! Yes, it's been a long time! And it's taken me a year and a half to finally finish this saddle (that's what comes from dithering as you go instead of having an overall plan before you begin). Julia

Hi, all, Here's my 4th saddle - it's a vaquero/buckaroo style Wade on a tree from Rod & Denise Nikkel: Wade fork Wade bars, 93 degrees 16" seat (rides like a 15-1/2" seat) all-leather ground seat all hand-stitching 5" Taylor cantle 4" horn cap 3/4 single ring rig (4" bronze rings from Bork) 4" treads in roper-style stirrups full stirrup leathers Hermann Oak leather Being just my 4th saddle, there is still much to learn - so I welcome any and all critiques. Thanks, Julia

Thanks to everyone! This is all very good advice. Since I started this thread a couple of years ago I have learned to do pretty much everything that has been advised here. I've accumulated lots of patterns (buying/borrowing commercial patterns, copying chinks I purchased, trying to copy what I see in photos, etc.) and for shotguns for me I finally cut up a pair of old snug jeans and made a pattern from that... still working on getting the shapes and angles in the belts and top panels just right. And of course doing custom work for patient friends who will come for fittings and sit in the saddle on the saddle tree so I can see how they hang in use (how they fit in the saddle is always different than how they fit standing up). Learning from other folks' custom measuring diagrams has been very educational. A couple of things I haven't tried yet are: (1) Very wide velcro panels to fasten the sides, especially on shotguns, and (2) wide elastic panels between the zipper and back leg of shotguns, all the way down the leg. I haven't been able to find sideways-stretch elastic for this, but there must be something that would work to let the shotguns stay very snug but still bend enough at the knee to make it easier to mount up.

Hi, I posted a thread about a rawhide string cutter for sale, and sold it, so now how can I remove the thread? Name: Julia Kelly UserName: JAM IP Address: 216.255.199.9 Email Address: tiffy@icehouse.net

Wayne Jueschke lace cutter/stripper/beveler for sale. Uses injectable razor blades and/or utility knife blades. Like new, $350 OBO.

At a weekend tooling class I took last summer, a fella suggested going to one of those factories that create the Corian-type countertops - they pour a hard resin to make them and have runoff material leftover after each big pour. This fella had a classful of students go to the local factory (in Spokane) with plastic rectangular kitchen tubs and ask the folks there to fill them with the runoff at the end of their next batch of pouring. They ended up with 1'x2' slabs, ~2" thick, very hard and great for tooling (and free). And you could probably have one poured as thick as you want. Julia

Thanks very much, Rob! Julia

Yup. Patience. And it's amazing how fast rawhide eats up razor blades! I suspect part of my problem is the temper of the rawhide - it seems like it's always too wet or too dry, and if I ever get rawhide that seems to be perfect, it dries out before I can get it all cut/beveled. That's really frustrating, and I have not figured out the right technique/procedure for making perfectly tempered rawhide. There's lots of help available(Bruce Grant's books, folks like those here who work in rawhide, etc.) but when I'm in my own workshop it's hard to make it work. Yeah, I know - practice, practice, practice - I'll get it someday. Julia

Oh, yes, this helps. I already own the Neubert cutter/beveler, a cutter/beveler made by Wayne Jueschke, and a cutter/beveler made by the James's (recommended by Gail Hought). I keep looking for the perfect cutter - the problems with my imperfect strings are no doubt due to operator error, and I keep bouncing from one to another when I'm not quite getting the results I want. Yours (in the pictures) looks so simple and perfect that I wanted to know more about it. If you find the pics of it taken apart, please post them - I'd love to see them. And thank you again for the tutorial. Julia