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

Thanks all for your comments, they really made my day! Northmount - I fear I have no clue about cameras other than turning them on and pressing the button to make a picture, but as soon as I'll decipher your tip I'll try making a new picture! And Saddle #2 is already in the mental planning stages.

Guys, it's finished. Check it out here.

Hey guys. Some of you might know me from my other thread in Saddle Construction, Starting First Saddle Well, I guess that start has now found its end. I just finished. It's really late over here, so I'll leave you with some pics and post all the facts tomorrow. PS. Please give me your honest opinions, critisms and such! I have a list of things that I know need improvement but as a complete leathernewbie I'm proud that I've completed this! Here you go!

... and I apparently reached the maximum amount of pictures per post. So sorry for the double post. But here goes. So. I put the jockeys on. The skirts are not attached here, but you can definitely see that the jockeys are off big time. BIG TIME. I could pull, push, and basically do all I wanted, they wouldn't look prettier. The line between the front and back is just so off, it was frustrating. They fit before. I don't know what happened or if the evil leather ghost jinxed them to death, but they just looked horrible. The second pic shows what I want them to look like. There was a big internal argument then... and I decided to redo the whole thing if I ever wanted to look at this saddle and be fine with the results. Again, skirts are not attached and jockeys aren't pulled down, but this is just... much better. And it only cost me two additional days. Oh yeah. And I stamped the fork meanwhile too. In all the cheyenne roll and jockey frustration I just forgot to take pics of the process, sorry! Next, and - I barely dare say it - LAST is the back cinch and then this baby goes through some heavy oiling, dyeing and antiquing.

Hey guys! It's been awhile since the last update, but I've been eagerly working. Here's some stirrup twisting for you. I looked up turkshead braiding and will go with that once I do the final assembly. Here's some closeup on a stirrup carving. Next is the seat. I followed Harry Adams' book for this one and although the seat has been my biggest fear it turned out to be managable. Next came the cheyenne roll. A lot of bad language was involved. If I had to rank what step I hated most about this project, places 1, 2 and 3 all go to the cheyenne roll. It turned out bad, the carving faded once I put it on for good and any good saddle maker will go blind if he sees the stitching on the back side! (which I'll spare you pictures of, because it looks like a 5-year old did a poor job at it) And then it seemed as if it was all ready for assembly...

Thanks so much to all of you for posting on this thread! With christmas holidays, there's been some time to work. Here's the horn. I'm going with the cap'n wrap style, just waiting for the latigo strap to come in the mail, so I can finish it. It'll get a concho in the middle eventually. I'm waiting for the right inspiration there. If anyone of you knows custom concho makers, give me a shout. This is the cantle back. It'll get something like a maker plate in the ellipse there. My hands sure hurt after doing the fenders. I needed about three days for each. Hardcore workout for my fingers. These are the stirrups to go along with. I'm not entirely happy with them, but I have yet to figure out what exactly it is I don't like. Next on the list are the jockeys and twisting the fenders Nevada style. I read somewhere that instead of just wrapping latigo around them, you could braid something a la turkshead or pineapple knot. I haven't seen a picture of this method, but it sure sounds interesting. I've never braided before, but then again this is a project of many firsts. Cheers from Austria, Anne

Thanks for stopping by Tom. I didn't get far this weekend (pre-Christmas chaos), but I put some work into edging all I got so far, and doing some stamping on a stirrup.

Oh my, I neglected this thread... not so much the saddle building though. It's been slow progress, but that's better than no progress at all. Here's some stamping of the skirts. And here they are drying after blocking. And this is with the shearling on. Here is my first ever floral carving on the rigging. And this is a do-it-yourself stirrup leather stretcher (<-- very proud of the invention). And that's about it for now! Cheers from Austria, Anne

I hope Aurelie doesn't mind me reviving this thread for another question. I've been browsing the forum for an answer and pretty much found it. Only problem is that this answer is not compatible with my possibilities: I'm planning on antiquing my first saddle when it's finished and read pretty much everywhere that you need to seal it first so the antique will work. Unquestioned #1 for this is NeatLac. I can't get NeatLac in Europe. It's not sold here due to some chemical restrictions (at least that's what they told me) and they won't ship it overseas for me because it's flammable. I made some scrap experiments with TanKote, but it's not water-resistant. I'd get a heart attack on my first ride in the rain. I found following possibilities that are shipable: - Acrylic Resolene - Saddle Lac - Leather Sheen - (Balm w/ Atom Wax <-- although I heard this is not water resistant?) I want to avoid that uber shiny, plastic-like look and feel at the end. What do you saddle makers prefer if you desperately want to antique and are out of NeatLac/ClearLac/Wyosheene, or whatever name it goes by these days?

Hey thenrie, would you mind putting on some other pictures of different "stages" of the saddle as you dissected it? I would be very interested to see what it looked like. And are you going to rebuild what you stripped off or leave it at that? -Anne