Chaed

Hi guys, I'm selling all my leather crafting DVDs. Saddlemaking: The Ground Seat by The Traditional Cowboy Arts Association 30$ Floral Design by Cary Schwarz 30$ Floral Carving by Cary Schwarz 30$ (buy both Cary Schwarz DVDs for 50$) The Art of Leather Carving and Floral Layout by Jeremiah Watt 130$ Cowboy Crafts by Jeremiah Watt 130$ (buy both Jeremiah Watt DVDs for 250$) The Art of Saddle Making by Dale Harwood 100$ buy everything for 380$ shipping to the US - 25$ shipping to the EU - 15$

DavidL, that's the Dennis Lane Equine Back Profiling System. I linked to the site in my post above, or you can just google it. The D9,D10, etc.. are the different back shapes and if you have a tree builder or saddlemaker who uses that system they know how those measurements fit with their trees.

II. Measuring & the Tree As with my first tree, I made use of the Dennis Lane cards to measure my horse. Speaking of, here is my horse. Meet Menthol, 19 yrs old Lippizzan mare, once again unwitting participant in her owner's saddle building adventure. We took pictures with and without the cards, with and without tapes, with and without cooperation of the horse and sent a select batch to Rod&Denise. Rod and Denise built the tree... ... and I tried it on the horse. Ready to start building!

I. Brainstorming & Design I like my western saddle, but for long trails it's too bulky. I started researching skeleton rigs, military, argentinian, peruvian, chilenean, spanish and italian working saddles. Pretty much the whole spectrum. I rallied about a hundred reference pics off of Google. Next step was sketching. I think I sketched a tree worth of paper. This was my initial design. Eventually I settled on this (stirrups and cantle slots not featured here). You see, it's heavily influenced by a McClellan, especially the rigging. I wanted a thicker fork than the original though to be more reminiscent of a peruvian model I've found. There is also going to be a lot of ornamental rawhide braiding involved, but I can't draw, much less on a computer, so we'll just leave it as a surprise. By this stage of design I also dumped the western rigging. Initially I wanted to go with a centerfire rigging, but I figured it was going to add a lot of bulk under my leg and without fenders this might prove to be a chafing issue later on. Instead I'll rig english style, still from front to back, but with a lower sitting cinch. We'll get to that eventually. And I might still change my mind a few times. Here's the pic. After knowing what my saddle was going to look like (approximately), it was time for a tree. Obviously an off-the-shelf McClellan tree wouldn't do, so back into the world of custom trees I was. I talked to Rod&Denise Nikkel and they said they'd build me one, so I went back to the drawing board to show them what I wanted. Thankfully they saw through my artistic handicaps and said they could do it in a way that would satisfy my designs, my purse and my horse. Obviously, we had a deal.

Hello Leatherworkers! Some of you may remember me from my first thread Starting First Saddle. Well, I guess it was only a matter of time until #2 would follow, so here it is. After #1 was built and thoroughly tested for a year, my appetite for saddle building returned. This time however I didn't want to build a western saddle. Being a long distance rider I always wanted a lightweight trekking saddle, so that became my goal. (Meanwhile the lightweight aspect kind of gave way to all the artsy ideas that keep popping up). I'll document my journey from start to finish again and hope that it may help people still at the beginning of saddle building and of course, hopefully some of the experts will look here from time to time and tell me what all I'm doing wrong. God knows, I only notice my mistakes once it's far too late to fix them. I already apologize for occasional back-to-back posting and the PIC HEAVYness of this thread. I'll try to keep the image size down.

UPDATE Art of Saddlemaking - SOLD Cowboy Crafts - 100$ Leather Carving - 100$

PRICE DROP Art of Saddlemaking - 280$ Cowboy Crafts - 100$ Leather Carving - 100$ All of it - 420$ Shipping: 20$ for US, CANADA, EU (1-3 DVDs)

PRICE DROP The Art of Saddle Making - 310$ The Art of Leather Carving and Floral Layout - 110$ Cowboy Crafts - 110$ All of it - 500$ Cheers, Anne

Always good to know that there are leatherworkers this side of the sea. Werde gleich mal reinschauen!

Hey Aurelie, I'm really enjoying your saddles. Some questions from a newbie. How long does it take you to build one? And seeing as you're in France, where do you get your leather from and what kind of leather do you use? (I really love HO and Wickett&Craig, but getting them shipped to Europe is a no go money wise).

Hey guys, I'm selling my Jeremiah Watt DVD collection. All DVDs are in exellent shape, only watched once. The Art of Saddle Making 3pcs DVD set, ~ 10hrs 350$ (OP 400$) The Art of Leather Carving and Floral Layout 2pcs DVD set, ~ 6hrs 150$ (OP 180$) Cowboy Crafts: Engraving, Silversmithing, Bit & Spur Making 3pcs DVD set, ~ 7hrs $150 (OP $180) or alternatively: All Of It $600 (OP: 760$) I live in Austria, Europe, but I have no problem shipping internationally. Shipping costs (insured and trackable): USA - $25 EU - $20 Enjoy, Anne

LOL, avoiding water for some time is a good one! Tell that to the clouds in the sky! And because you asked I used resolene 50/50 because I read on here that if you use it pure, you run the danger of it cracking when you bend the leather. That's why some folks use it diluted and simply brush on more coats. You think there could be my problem? As for not shipping it to France... are you sure? I'm from Europe too and know the deal with not finding neatlack, but I found a site that has no problem shipping resolene and co to Europe. Check out www.stecksstore.com. I've been satisfied with them so far, and they're the only one shipping flammable stuff. As for skidmore's, I never used that. Will it seal antique? Or do you have to use it after you put resolene etc. on?

Aurelie, I went riding in the rain with my newly built saddle. Once it was soaked through, the antique started coming off and splotching. The process I posted above was what I had done during building the saddle. My question now is why the antique came off and what I had done wrong. I thought so many layers of resolene should have been enough to make it weatherproof.

Hey guys I'm reviving this thread another time. So it happened. I went out riding, the rain caught me and six hours into the wetness my antique started to smear all over my newly built saddle and partially wash out. Here's what I did, please tell me where I went wrong. 1) 2 light coats of olive oil, let dry 24hrs in between 2) 2 light coats of resolene 50/50 with water, let dry 24hrs in between 3) fiebings antique 4) 1 light coat of tankote, dry 5) 3 light coats of resolene 50/50 with water, dry there was buffing involved after every step too. Where did I go wrong in my finish???

Dear Leatherworkers and Sewing Machine Experts, I've spent some time browsing through the sewing machine section before making this thread, but there is just so much information on here, I need some help filtering it all. As the title gives away, I'm looking for a sewing machine. What I want to sew with it will be saddles mainly, and other horse tack (headstalls, breast collars, the occasional spur strap and chap). Now what I've gathered so far is that there are machines for thick leather and ones for thin leather, but I can't get my head around as to where to draw a line between the two. Where does thin end and thick start? And would one machine manage the above items, or am I rather looking at two there? And question number #2: I live in Austria, that equals Europe and that equals immense shipping and tax costs if I import one from the US (not to mention my phone bill if I need to call up customer service). I've read about names like Singer, Adler, Pfaff... Being neighbors with Germany there are lots of those around here and quite many being sold after old saddleries and shoemakers close down. I just have no clue what to look for. Perhaps you could give me some heads up on that matter. Thanks a lot, Anne