D.A. Kabatoff

Thought I'd post a link to a Cyclone video clip... can't say for sure but it appears to be at Campbell-Bosworth and I think that's Randy (one of their techs) operating it. Keep an eye on the machines internals when the camera is showing the back side of the machine... gives some idea how fast that thing is moving. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...ideoID=26369134 Darc

Beans, if the other posts don't help create the look you want, you could sand the leather. I usually order sanded flesh side hides from Hermann Oak if I have a roughout saddle to make, but once in a while I'll have extra leather from another side that needs to be sanded to match... the are my observations when I need to do this: It can be messy and time consuming depending on how big a piece of leather and how stringy it is. Firmer leather from the top of a hide near the spine will sand nicer than belly leather. Start with about 200 grit and work your way to something very fine. Sand lightly back and forth to get rid of the stringy stuff and then in a single direction with the grain of the leather as the surface gets smoother. Don't use much pressure as this can keep pulling up new strings instead of sanding off the existing ones. hope it helps, Darc

Hi Kevin, I don't think it's been mentioned anywhere on this board yet but the best awl blades going come from Bob Douglas. As for the edges, the only thing you missed was elbow grease. Darc

Here's a couple of photos of some sewing I did the other day that turned out pretty good. The cantle binding and inlaid seat were both handsewn in the first photo, the second photo shows a handsewn horncap. People sometimes ask if I sew saddles with a dremel drill... personally, I find it insulting but I guess it's people who just don't know any better. D.

Nice work Brent... they just keep getting better! Love the horn. Darc

Hi Steve, every time you post something your carving looks better than the last time (and the first ones looked great!). I really like the carving and layout... great job. Darc

Steve, great work! Love those 8 string, slickforks... beautiful carve job. Darc

Hi Bruce, I've posted another photo that was taken a second or two before the 2nd photo in my above post. I would say it is safe to assume that Traveller was standing completely square in both photos. The left side (near side)lump definitly was more noticably prominent than the right side (off side), this I am sure; I think my wifes finger hides this fact a little in this photo. While the ground in the barn seemed as level as could be, neither myself or my wife remember Traveller being as downhill as he appears in the first photo. This isn't to say he wasn't downhill at all, but that photo sure seems to overemphasize the notion. Perhaps Joanne could give a more realistic view on that as I have only seen the horse once. I don't have any knowledge as to the history of the lumps although it seems to me she mentioned that she didn't believe they were caused by any sort of trauma. Darc

Hi Greg, The ground was quite level where the photos were taken and although I can't say i'm 100 percent sure about the horse being square, Joanne was squaring him up for photos so there's a pretty good chance he was standing square in all the above photos. Darc

I was out to visit Joanne at the beginning of March this year and try a few trees on Traveller's back to see what kind of fitting issues might be present. With Joanne's permission I am posting some photos I took at the time. The first photo shows where there is a significant difference over a typical back. I have used a yellow circle to show for lack of better terminology the "lump" present on both sides of the withers. The vertical yellow line gives an estimation of where the bar tips of various trees were digging into the lumps. The lumps are approximately 7"s in diameter at the base and protrude outwards over an inch at the center. As seen from the photo taken from behind the horse, the lump on the left is more prominent than the one on the right side. I tried three different trees I happened to have on hand that came from three different makers. All three were deemed 90 degree bars with 4" handhole widths by their makers and I believe two of them would have been appropriate for this horse had the tip of the bars not been pressing into the lumps. As you can see from the photos, all three were digging in at roughly the same point and in my estimation would cause discomfort to the horse. I have never seen such a problem and would be curious if anyone else has and what possible options Joanne might have for fitting this horse. As she stated above, she likes this horse for various reasons and doesn't necessarily want to pass the fitting issues off to someone else. Short of finding something used that might work, an obvious concern would be, in the future, spending the money on a handmade tree and custom saddle, only to be disappointed with the results. Darc

JW, Greg, thanks for the ideas... I've only ever done crossover type straps and I usually do like you described Greg trying to skive the end down as well as narrowing it a little. Think I'll try those dimensions JW and maybe make him an extra one a little stouter just in case. Darc

thought i'd quit the hi-jacking of Elton's saddle thread and start a new one for anyone wanting to comment on gear designed to fail under certain stress. Ben, you mentioned making rope straps that would break if there was too much stress on them. Were you making those 3/4"s wide? I understand the concept of how to make a rope strap that goes over the horn but am trying to figure out how to make it strong enough to not break too easily if a rope is lightly caught on tree branches but weak enough that it will break if a rider was hung up or the rope snagged something with no give. You mentioned making the slit as close to a 1/4" to the end of the strap... do you think that is practical or would it be worth going maybe 3/8 - 1/2" away? I might have to make a few and go test them. thanks, Darc

I've got a saddle on the go right now where the customer asked for a rope strap that's a first for me. He doesn't want any kind of buckle to attach the strap to. Instead he wants the end of the rope strap to have a slit down the middle of it, long enough that when opened up, can be pulled over the horn to hold the rope up. He had a wreck a few years back where he got shot straight up in the air about six feet, double bounced, hung up in his rope by his foot and neither the rope strap or the buckle holding the strap broke until the end of his 8 seconds... could've been a lot worse for him then it was but now he'll never use anything other than what I described above. Darc

I have a 16" Warren Wright tree for sale. Has the medium flare (4" handhole) to fit the widest variety of horses. Round cantle is about 4 1/4"s tall x 12"s wide and is quite stood up. Horn is 3"s tall with a 4 1/4" round cap. Price is $495.00 U.S. + shipping. Darc

May end up being like Sasquatch... few blurry photos and some good stories... Darc

I was talking to Connie at Campbell-Bosworth this morning about some parts to get my Randall going and he mentioned a machine so rare that he hasn't even seen one. Anyone ever heard of or better yet seen a Bosworth machine? He said it would look similar to a Cyclone (not exactly the same) and has a needle and awl as well as a closed eye needle. Not sure how all that would work together but would sure be interesting to see one. Darc

Hi Troy, I wish I could answer which I like better but I don't have the Randall running yet. I got it in a deal when I bought one of my Landis 3s... drove all the way to Minnesota to pick it up and when I got there the guy offered me the Randall for $700s... just couldn't refuse that. The needle bar is tight and the machine looks almost complete but needs a spring above the thread tube and a table and motor as well. I'm not sure if you are familar with the action of the machine but maybe you could answer this question... When I hand crank my Landis 3, it turns over very smoothly with the weight of the wheel. When I handcrank the Randall, it goes about 3/4s of the way around and then tension increases and feels like it's going over a hill and then releases. The tension increases at the point that the awl moves the material and releases when the awl starts to rise upwards. I'm curious if this tension is normal for this kind of machine or if I have some adjustments that need to be made. The only time i've actually seen one of these machines running is at a booth Campbell-Bosworth had in Sheridan and their machine was of course hooked up to a motor. I've attached a couple of photos of the two machines I got in Minnesota. Darc

Thanks everyone... Finally got around to posting these photos... nothing especially fancy about this saddle as it was made for a customer. Congratualations is in order to Ryan Cope as well for having a really nice looking full floral carved slick fork at the show... I think it could have gone either way in our category and I hope you post a few photos of that saddle as well Ryan. Darc

5shot thanks for the link about the different machines...very informative! Greg is correct about the Randall being an awl feed machine... I have one in front of me and it's definitly the awl that moves the material. Darc

Hi Scott, I'll third the motion that they are the best DVD's out there... he really makes the effort to explain what he is doing and why. Darc

That photo is kind of small to tell for sure but I don't think there is any dye on that saddle. It appears to have simply be oiled with neatsfoot oil and perhaps a top coat of Tan Kote. Usually after a few days of drying, neats foot oil will even itself out; buffing with a piece of sheepskin will give it a bit of a shine afterwards. The Tan Kote if used will mellow out the shine and give it a softer appearance. Instead of Tan Kote, I use R.M. Williams on my saddles and after applying it, buff it lightly... gives a similar appearance and conditions the leather. Sunlight will also add a bit of color to skirting leather as well... too much sunlight and the leather will turn more "orange" than what you see in that photo. Darc

Here's one I use once and a while that has a nice old timey look about it. Darc

Hi Bob, those knives came from Ellis Barnes... not sure who was making them for him but they are the best knives I've seen. I actually had one of his older ones and thought I'd get a set of three from him before they were no longer available... the new ones were different than the old ones but I actually like them better. Incidentally, last time I asked Ellis about the knives he said they are no longer being made but he still had a few on hand. Darc

I was fitting a cantle back today and took some photos of how I skive the bottom edges.. The first photo shows the leather about 3/4's cased... it's not soaking wet but it still has a few hours before it starts to return to it's original color. The leather is roughly 12oz skirting leather. The second photo shows how sharp your knife should be; if you can't shave the hair off your arm, it's not as sharp as it should be. I've used a pair of calipers to scribe the line I want to skive to, in this case it's about one and a quarter inches. You can see in the next photo that my knife is angled with two fingers on top of the blade to stabilize it. If I wasn't holding the camera, my other hand would normally be to the left and behind the direction of the knife. In the fifth photo you can see that I'm not trying to skive the whole one and a quarter inches... I'll make a second pass and a third pass if the skive is a really deep one on thick leather. I use the left side of my blade as described in my first post and about one and a half inches of the blade draws through the leather starting from near the center of my blade and finishing near the point of the blade... this motion goes hand in hand with the direction of skiving from right to left. In the sixth photo you can see I have completed my first pass and taken off one long piece about 2/3rds of the depth of the skive. On my first pass, if I had been using the center of my knife and pushing straight towards the edge of the leather, I would have wound up with the bunch of small bits of leather that are seen in the seventh photo. This is the technique I use on the second pass to clean up the skive and take it to the line I originally scribed. The last photo shows the completed skive. If you have tight corners on the line that you are skiving (like the ones on the center tab of my cantle back), you may not be able to get a round knife into them. The two little corners of the center tab were skived around with a french edger and then blended into the length of the skive with a round knife. Hope this helps some, Darc

A couple other things to keep in mind when skiving... leather from different parts of the hide will be easier and more difficult to skive depending on the density of the grain. Leather with a loose grain, such as that from the belly, will be easier to skive than tight grain leather from near the spine. Your technique can change depending on the grains density as well. If you are skiving loose grain leather, you may be able to angle your knife and push it straight through to the edge of the leather with the center of the knife doing the cutting. You might also be able to start with a wide skive. If the leather is tight grained you will be better off starting with a narrower skive, removing the edge (maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch) and then make a few passes until your skive is the width you want it. You will also need to use one side of the blade and work in a sideways motion using more of the edge of the blade. To explain that better, imagine cutting a tomato with a knife; you could push your knife straight down through the tomato or you could draw the blade across the tomato. Drawing the knife will give you a cleaner cut on a tomato... The effect is similar on leather. Generally, skiving is much easier on leather that has some moisture content. Depending on what you are making it helps to either soak the leather or case it. An example, when I'm fitting a gullet cover on a saddle I will soak my piece of leather and let it sit over night... in the morning I will skive it and then fit it to the tree. If I need to carve it, I let it case in some sheepskin for the rest of the day and by then it will be ready for carving. Depending on what you are making you need to plan ahead on how you will work the piece of leather. hope that helps... as mentioned before, keep that knife razor sharp and your fingers out of the way. Darc