STPENNER

That's just what I've been looking for, but where do you get the black oxide hardware. The stainless stuff is easy to find, but I'm not having any luck finding the black oxide stuff. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have the 2 DVD set of Dale Harwood's saddle making instruction. The dvds have been viewed, but are in like new condition, in the original case. $300 including shipping. Contact me psaddles at shaw.ca

This is not a saddle that I made, he came to me to see if I could figure out the problem and build a saddle that would fit his horses better. I do beleive that part of the problem is that he positions his saddle too far forward as David mentioned. I will see if he will let me drop the skirts and have a look at the tree in the saddle he is using, and if he does I will post some pics here. Thanks, Scott

David, Thanks for your insight. According to my customer he does not ride with a tight breast collar to keep his saddle in place. Measurements across the withers were as follows. 1 was s6, two were s7, two were d5 and one was d7. There was not much rock on any of the horses, all measuring closest to r6. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thanks Bruce, Now I'm really confused. Seriously though, thanks for the input. When trying his saddle on several of his horses, The bars did not appear(as best as I could tell) too wide, or too narrow, so this is why I thought about the underside being too round. The horses are all in pretty good shape as he rides pens at a feedlot, and also trains some, so they are not just lawn ornaments. I have Dennis Lanes cards and measured 6 of his horses, I could provide this info here if that would help at all? Thanks again Bruce, I'll have to look into some of your suggestions and see if they get me closer to a solution.

I have a couple of questions regarding fitting trees for a customer. This guys horses seemed to me to have really muscled shoulders, not much of a wither pocket, and this is where he is having problems with fit. He is having dry spots and is getting sores at the point where the front pads of the bars are sitting on the horse. I have not been building saddles for very long, so perhaps this is a silly question, but the way I see things here is that the problem is the saddles he is using have too much crown in the bottom side of the bar. Is this a common problem? I guess what I'm trying to find out is am I on the right track here or is there something I'm missing. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

OK, first off I don't mean to sound like a whiner, but this really sucks. I got into a wreck a couple weeks ago and broke my left wrist. After getting xrays done the doc said that it had been fractured for well over a year (news to me) and when I landed on it, it broke clean in two. So I had to have a bone graft done and screws put in. They have it cast from my elbow right down to the tip of my thumb. Now I'm right handed and all, but do you have any idea how hard it is to do ANY kind of leather work with one hand. Oh, and of course, now that I can't do anything it seems like the phone won't stop ringing for people calling wanting this that or something else done. I know, it could be alot worse, and I apologize for whining, I just needed to vent.

I recently had a lady ask about making a couple of trick saddles for her two daughters. Has anyone here ever made one? Know who makes the trees? Any info would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Beautiful work Troy. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I've seen pictures of this saddle in the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal. And as far as being computer illiterate, you are definately not the only one on here with that problem. But I guess that's why we work with leather , not puters right. Welcome to the site.

I have never done anything to test a trees strength, intentionally. However, I spent a summer many moons ago wrangling for a hunting outfit in the Yukon Territories, and have a couple of stories. I had a 4 yr old black mare in my string that had not been ridden much. I saddled her up and led her out of camp. Up until this point everything had gone fine. As I threw a leg over, she decided not to co-operate anymore. I stayed in the middle long enough for her to turn around and head back to camp at a high rate of speed. As I hung on contemplating my immediate future I noticed she was heading straight for the washline.( a half inch rope strung between two large trees) I quickly realized that I no longer wanted to ride her that badly and checked out, hitting one of the trees in mid air. She proceeded to run under the wash line which caught the horn and ripped the rigging clean out of the tree and the saddle from her back. On another occasion the same mare reared on me, and being somewhat stubborn I was reluctant to let her win in this manner. Well, she was apparrently more stubborn than I was because she went right over on me. I kicked out just in time, landed on my back and rolled, she landed right square on her back on top of the saddle. Surprisingly, nothing broke that time. I've spent a fair number of hours in the saddle, and roped the odd cow , but that mare going under the washline was the only time I ever saw a tree break, and it was a sight to see, I'm just glad I gave up my front row seat for that one.

Well I tried to get some bigger pics, but I'm not very computer savvy. I'll have to get some help and try again later.

So I finally got this picture thing figured out, with some help from my wife of course. So I thought I'd post a couple of pics of some of my latest stuff. Comments are always appreciated.

OK This is my first attempt at posting pics here, I hope this works. I just finished this saddle for a cowboy gathering here in town this weekend. It's built on a 58 wade tree. As long as the pictures work I guess they will speak for themselves. Let me know what you think. Scott

Hey Steve, glad to see you made it here. I'm sure you'll find a lot of useful info. Scott

Anyone ever make a tooled or carved golf bag? Had a request from a customer for one. Looking for some help, patterns? suggestions? anything.

I was doing a project with a serious deadline, and broke the only awl haft I had. I had to improvise and wasn't sure what to do. I went to the hardware store, looking for ANYTHING that might work. I ended up buying a replacement chuck for a speed drill. Slide the blade in , tighten it up and away I went. Fits nicely in the palm , and I've been using it ever since. Scott

I have a bunch of these old magazines that my mother-in-law left me. I think I remember seeing the article on the stohlman work bench in one of them. I'll dig them out and have a look.

I can't believe it took me this long to find this forum, but I,m glad that I did. A little bit about myself, I'm from Strathmore,Alberta. I got into leatherwork about 10 years ago out of neccessity. Riding pens at the feedlot don't pay enough for repairs, never mind custom gear, so I started doing my own, then everyone elses. Anyway after doing alot of chaps and tack, and a ton of repairs I went to a saddle school in Montana 3 years ago, and things have been progressively ( but slowly) getting busier. I recently made a fully tooled saddle for a local gal, and brought it to Sheridan for the leather debut ( it's in the pics clay took, the roper with the oak leaf, acorn pattern) That was a real experience. Well I just wanted to introduce myself, and say what a great site I think this is. Adios for now. Scott