greg gomersall

David you could try Diablo Silversmiths at diablosilverdotcom or contact Richard Brooks at Olson Silver. Richard does great work up there in Alberta and is very moderately priced so he might be able to do a custom shape for you at not much more than Hansen's prices. The Can $ is close to 25 % lower than our US $. olsonsilverdotcom. Greg

I ride with a light 100% wool very tightly woven navaho 32 x 64. This is all I usually use if I need a little more I will add a 100% wool felt pad on top of that . The wool felts are availble in various thicknesses from 3/8 to 1 & 1/4" thick. If you need a thicker pad the best I have seen are from 5 Star equine. Most of the problems I have encountered in my career can be placed into 3 catagories as to cause: 1). poor fitting equipment (padding will not cure this). 2). poor quality equipment. 3) OVER PADDING. Greg

Traveller as stated take the lacing out ( the back 2 inches is sufficent). also throw that impact gel pad as far as you can, it will create many more problems than it will solve. A 100% wool navaho blanket and if a pad is needed a 100% wool pad. the thicknesses will depend on horse and saddle. The space aged crap cannont breath so the great sweat patterns they help produce are artifical and the skirts being fully laced are to rigid over the loin area. Greg

Bob, Never seen a bosal, fiador and mecate rigged like that before. Interesting. Greg

The top 3 are 1) Bob Douglas 2) Bob Douglas 3) Bob Douglas. Greg

Ed please keep in mind a fixed blade splitter is not always capable of splitting wide pieces of firm leather consistantly. They work excellant when a person wants to level pieces but to think you can buy one side of 9/10 oz. and be able to consistantly be able to take it down in large pieces to 6/7 , 4/5, or 2/3 might be a reach. The Artisan splitter is based on a Randall design, while a good design the weak point of the Randall was the feed setup, other large fixed blade splitters such as International and Comman-Sense had a better feed system. Not trying to disparage the Artisan splitter as I have been hearing good reports on it, just for the application you are hoping for you will need a band knife splitter and one of any size will cost you a sizable chunk of coin. Greg

Heck Darcy I could be wrong but I always bevel the inside line before I run my carlos tool. Greg

Mort it was not Alan that was having the party it was Steve. If you would take the time to read the posts you might be able to understand the information everybody has been kind enough to try to relay to you. Greg

Nice border stamp Darc. Do you usually bevel the inside line on a carlos border or did you skip that step on these pieces? Greg

Mort Alan is right take the glass and have a few long slow swallows. greg

I used to live 30 miles south of Moose Jaw till the gov't made Canada metric. Been lost ever since, hell ended up in s.w. Idaho. Metric sucks. Greg

If you have a dome before you put your filler on you should still have a dome when your done and if you have a flat horn it should be flat when you are done so why not order the tree the way you want it. With or without dome. Greg

Mort a horse's back never quits changing. His back will be different when he was 3, now when he is near 6 and will be different when he is 11 and 21. the differences might be subtle or they could be extreme there is no way to know ahead. you get a tree made for the body type and then blanket accordingly. Heck a 50 pound weight change in your horse will reflect in the fit. A good horseman has learned to pay attention to the little things while others turn to gimmicks to solve thier so called problems. Greg

You can get 3,5,6,7, and 8 but no 4's. The guy with the flywheel will not trade it off, he is using it as a weighted flywheel on a 20" splitter. Greg

The angle you hold the tool at is what determines the depth of the cut not the amount of downward pressure applied. Greg

Mort I am not so niave to think that some day something will come along that will surpass a good handmade saddle wood and rawhide saddle tree. bob Wattrus from Australia has been making carbon fibre trees for several years now, Mark Howe here in the US is using some of them. As far as a cost saving unless you know something they are not letting us know it is very little. As far as shimming the bottom of bars for pressure points as you were discribbing people do that with rawhide trees as well, I have not seen many done with any sucess. There is alot more to it than shimming one spot as generaly what you do there will interfere somewhere else as a horse goes thru its paces. As far as offering a good product that does not take long I believe you will learn that if the product is good and does catch on (the 2 do not nessecarly work hand in hand) you will run into a major problem. the demand will increase to the point that you will not be able to keep up. Then you will have to decide whether to start a waitng list or hire staff, if you choose the latter you will lose some of the quality control you yourself would have. People need to start paying attention to confirmation when they buy a horse, some backs do not hold a saddle well. The type of horse that cowboys and good horseman tend to ride are not hard to fit. When someone comes to me with a hard to fit horse story I pay attention to what the person says as from this you can figure out that generaly it is best to send them else where because they are gonna want some gimmick or a tree made to fit a horse of poor confirmation. The horse should be made into dog food and the person will either buy a different horse or get out of horses within 3 to 5 years and then there is a frak saddle on the market with your name on it. That saddle will end up being bought by someone who has heard the maker is good but has no clue to saddle fit and they will not be happy with the results they get so they will blame the saddle maker instead of the IDIOT that had a saddle made to fit a horse that wasn't worth saddling. Greg

The pressure mapping pad is not new. Why not tell us your real name to put some credability behind your statements. Maybe more of us would be willing to discuss this with you if we knew who we were talking to. Greg

the book How to Make Cowboy Horse gear by Bion in the back on saddle making by Lee Rice. The nessescary directions are there. greg

forgot to post that creaser was sold. Sorry for any inconvience. greg

PLEASE DO NOT TURN THIS SITE INTO AN INFORMERCIAL> Greg

Your machine is a 545. There has been lots of talk on here regarding pfaff manuals over the last 10 days. look them over and you will find varios suppliers for manuals and parts. Greg

I don't use neat-lac on any horse gear because you cannot oil thru it after it is applied. If your customer tries to oil the saddle a year down the road the oil just lays on top except for the few spots that the neat-lac has wore off and then the rig looks like a friggin pinto or paint. Greg name='hidepounder' date='Nov 18 2008, 10:11 AM' post='72050'] It appears that the overwhelming favorite combo is Neatsfoot Oil & Tan-Kote. Would someone please tell me the downside of Neat-Lac on a carved saddle....just for my personal info...?

Thank you to each and every one of them. Greg

Sorry I didn't notice you had photos. The thinga mabob if you are refering to the round lecer on the right side front is your stich lenght and reverse lever you turn it and move it up and down to adjust stitch length if you push it completely up and hold you are now in reverse at the same stitch lenght as when down. The single toe and double toe feet on the top row are the outside feet you will want to use the center foot you want will be realitvley flat with just small feed ridges. Greg

138 on top 92 or 99 on bottom, 120 or 130 needle, I oil mine once a week more if i am running it hard. any sewing machine oil will be fine. I am not sure what the thingyamabob is can you post a pic with some thing pointing to it. Also without seeing the feet it is hard to guess but they are probabley welting feet. Feet are easy to get and inexpensive if you need different ones. Mike I can copy my manual for you PM me your address again. Greg