bruce johnson

Pella, That is a pretty cute little 8 button saddle. Who made it? If the tree feels solid when you push on it form the different directions, you are probably alright. Not sure what others see, but I find those older trees generally to be more solid with the rawhide compromised or worn than the ones that came along later. I wouldn't trust it to pull a truck, but if it fits the horse decently should be a down the road kind of saddle. I worry about the riggings and leathers more than anything on therse oldies. Some of them have screws that have worked around enough and the wood has shrunk away from them. Make sure they aren't loose and the cut tacks aren't all backed out. Check the leathers for strength, if they look original, I'd replace them just because. Laced leathers or Al-Ray buckles?

One of the finest tributes I have ever read.

If you have a drill or drill press, chuck the punch. Turn it on slow and slide the stone against it. You can strop the same way.

Tim The slick forks are the easiest to cover because you don't have much slack to work out. The split you see in the handhole is the result of getting the cover over the horn and not having a big hole at the neck. If the horn cap is big or it necks down a lot, you have to split it to get it over. On some horns if you do a tradtional one piece cap and wings and cover the horn first, you might need to split one that wouldn't need it on the bare horn.

Timbo, I don't much care for cutouts in skirts. They mights tear out if you get in wreck, although I'd hope the tug would break first. The strap and dees can also, but usually they are an easier fix. Most of the saddles I have seen the slots on have them positioned lower than I like to set my breast collar dees also. Echo, That stirrup leather through the fender deal was used in the past. You still see some guys who will bring the leather out through a slot in the fenders down low. The fender leg then makes the inside layer for the stirrup pin to rest on. Interesting look and a little different. Some old fenders had two slots and just slid on the leathers too. I guess it was fairly common on some dude ranch model saddles at one time. I can't think that riveting and sewing a fender to the skirt and then running the leather through it would have any advantage for anything.

Always a pleasure to see pics of your work. I get something out of it everytime. Note to self - more "over and unders" and crossing stems. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far. The links deal is in the hands of someone with with way more savvy than me, as this whole deal has been. The colors and gradients are displaying differently on some screens and browsers too. All part of the tweaking process. Thanks for everything, and keep it coming.

My local sewing machine guy has been in the household business for a quite a while. I see those 99s in the antique stores a lot too. I asked him about them, and he said to find a 66. Ummm, my wife has her sewing machine (66-16) in the living room her mother bought the year my wife was born. I threaded it up the other day and it didn't balk on two layers of 4 oz chap. I was looking for one to do wallet interiors and little stuff. While I was in the store he showed me a new Singer CG 550 (?). He had some pretty hard old dried up pieces - skirting weight and some chrome tan. It didn't even cough sewing a stitch at a time. I was pretty impressed. It was priced at about $400 last time I was in there. I wouldn't go to war with it, but it did impress me for what it did. It might be worth checking around. I got prices $100 different locally (one had it on a weekly special), and it seems to be one of those things not many list an internet price - call them for info deal.

Like peas and carrots, biscuits and honey, and kids and mud. There are some very well done tame roses and Sheridan style scrolls that have been done. Someone who has the King of the Western Saddle book about Don King and the Sheridan Style Carving book handy can point you to an example or two. I heard Lloyd Davis (?) did some good ones too. Some guys will put oak leaves and acorns on the same stem as flowers and beech leaves. I think we had a Sheridan scrolls and skulls example here a while back. Anything goes.

I would like to invite you to check out my website and see what you think. This has been much like an elephant pregnancy. It has been about two years in the idea and acting on it, and now it is time to trumpet . Criticisms, critiques, and complaints will be borne on my shoulders. Any compliments and congratulations will be heaped upon the site designer and developer . Here's the link - Visit My Website - brucejohnsonleather Feel free to sign the guestbook too.

It kind of looks like the things that are interfering with what you want to do have more to do with the maker than the tree. At least they are things the maker can help out a bunch. The width across the middle that makes you sit wide. - Wider midseats are a plus for a calf roper to stand out there and not be leaning into the center. That is about the only place a wide seat is much of a benefit to me. One of those function vs. comfort factor things. Otherwise I wouldn't ride mine to the road (50 ft). The groundseat makes a lot of difference in how wide a saddle sits. You can build one up higher with narrow build ups and the rider will swear they are sitting closer than a broad across the middle model. My first flat seat was a Billy Cook board. It about split me in half, and I was young and limber then. The seat on that one was right down on the bars, and I'd wager those bars were not real thick. As far as getting your feet up into the flats. You can do that probably the easiest on a 14" wide association tree with a 5/8 EZ dee setup. The rigging style and frender and leather shapes probably limit more stirrup swing than swells. For a general using saddle that you want a little swell in front of you there are several options. I like something I can kind of lean up into. I use some Dee Picketts, Nikkels' High Country is a good tree, Olin Youngs, the land of Bowmans, etc. I am not a fan of low TMs personally as a user. That leg cut is just asking to bruise you when you hit it, and they put it on a lot of them. It really sounds to me like a narrow seat with a plate rigging to allow some forward swing will be pretty close to what you are looking for.

CW, The ones I use the most are 1/4, 3/8, and 3/4. I use the 1/4 to gouge channels for folds. I use the 3/8 the most probably for sharper tapering. I don't use the 3/4 much except to skive riggings where they go up around the swells.

Some of you on another leather list have no doubt read about this. A guy was using a jerk needle and ran it through into his waiting finger on the bottom side. He had to call some friends to get him unhooked from the saddle, and then to emergency to have the jerk needle removed from his finger. I had sent this guy one of my cantle binding helper things a few years ago. He usually used it, but didn't here. I am attaching pics of this deal. I never really liked beating up a tickler pushing a binding up, broke the awl tip occasionally on the small hammer handle, and tacks caught thread and were a pain. I made this deal up out of scrap LDPE cutting board. I cut it with a jig saw and shaped it and rounded over edges with a benchtop belt sander and a Dremel. The bottom is angled to really push up into the crease. The slot gives a place for the awl to come through without embedding into something. They really don't take long to make - 10 minutes maybe. I've done about a dozen and mostly given them away to guys who asked what "that" was on the wall. One guy has added a wrist loop to just drop it to pull thread, and flip it up into his hand to use it. Saves time picking it up.

Elton, Interesting way to mount the rounder alright. However, I am not seeing one item in your shop that should be a necessity. Where is the CD player to play the Kandace Kalona CD???

JW, I have some with pretty thin blades with very little angle, and others with more meat and a relatively steeper bevel. None of these have much bevel though, at least the way I like them. I got some of my first french edgers and read the Stohlman book. At the risk of sounding like a heretic, I don't think his method is correct for all situations. He recommended keeping the bottom flat (I'll agree with that). His method of removing material was to use a stone on top between the channels. Looking at any of my favorite french edgers, it personally would be hard for me to maintain that same bevel angle as original and work a stone back and forth across the width of the blade. I would be making a steeper angle with the stone. With a thicker blade and steeper bevel, maybe it would work Ok for me. I now have better luck maintaining the bevel by doing my material removal from the bottom. It is a lot easier for me to keep the bottom flat and work it on a stone or piece of wet-dry than maintain the angle on top. I will make a few passes on top to make a burr, but the material has been mostly taken off the bottom. I mostly use wet-dry now and very little time on stones unless they have a chip or pit to get past. I was taught this by an old guy who asked me why I had stone marks on top of my french edgers. This would be have been right after I told him I didn't like french edgers much. On the thinner blades I do put a slightly steeper secondary bevel with a stone on top. This is to help keep from rolling the edge. On the meatier blades I don't. I power strop with a soft wheel and am good to go. As I sharpen some, the toes start to get longer as the material is taken off the bottom. Once in a while I will knock those toes back with a grinder. As an aside Herb French has a pretty good little book on sharpening leather tools. Costs about 10 bucks or so from him, or Vandy at Sheridan Leather Outfitters sells it also.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you who are fighting this or supporting someone who is. I have a grandmother who was a 55 year survivor, an special aunt who is, my mother will be on chemo for the rest of here life, but is holding her own. A special prayer for everyone who has lost someone to this. I look forward to the day when a guy doesn't go home and stamp out the guest book for his wife's funeral. There's a reason for a lot of pink shirts at our house. Big AlC, To follow up on your suggestion and drop a challenge to everyone. We could have a raffle here easy enough. However you have planted a seed to have a bigger vision. What if each one of us made something and donated it to a local or regional cancer fundraiser? We could multiply a single fundraising effort 3000 or more times. Think of the impact there.

Bree, Now to accessorize it.... I have machines from a different supplier, but I shop Artisan for a few things. Their buck apiece thread snips work well for me. I buy a strip every so often. Stick a cow magnet on the machine somewhere and the thread snips to the magnet. I like their halogen gooseneck lamps pretty well too. Better than an incandescent and less heat. At the show this spring I bought two of their magnetic base LED lights for my machines. They mount facing down on the bottom of the head around the needle bar opening. They have 7 LED lights in an L shape. They are the ticket for lighting up the sewing area. I rarely turn on the goosenecks anymore. If they didn't give you one with the machine, call them up and beg for one.

Clay, Hope you are having a good birthday. Rundi and I are singing in your honor.

JW, Another good one, and the use of that stamp. You run that stamp about as well as anyone I have seen, and I'm glad you are doing it, not me. It was always a tough one in my hands. Steve, Thanks for the drawing. I have a large bruise on my head form hitting it when I saw how simple that was. Great tip, got my money's worth today.

I got into the museum Oakdale Cowboy Museum and got a few pictures. Primary is the bareback rigging made by one of our newer members - Peter John Hennessy. It belonged to one of my good friends - John MacDonald (aka "Hotdog"). He went to the finals a few times in the late 70s. Two days before he died in an accident we made a 24 hour run to southern California to pick up a horse. His mom gave me his gear bag after he died, and his chaps, rigging, and PRCA card. It is all the museum, but the gear bag is mine. I have also attached pics of some other saddles we have. The bronc saddle is made by Allan Pursley (Broken Arrow). The trophy saddles are all world champion saddles. Two are from Keyston from 1945 and 1947. The black one is made by Garcia from 1936. The others are two from Ryons - 1975, one couldn't find the maker from 1969. My favorite is the Chester Hape made saddle from 1977. The cool thing is that all of the stuff in our cowboy musuem has come from local cowboys. We're pretty deep in rodeo history - All of our displays have come from people who have lived here. As an aside, a couple things I am looking for for this display area - flank straps. I'd like to get a bull flank and a bronc flank. If anyone has a line on one that has some use on it, I'd appreciate it. It doen't have to be real functional - display pieces to show exactly what they are, how they fit, and "No Virginaia, they don't have spikes in them".

Ray, Vernon Weaver has always been a pretty good guy no matter what machine I have talked to him about. About the only thing I have from Weavers right now is the dye box. When I was trading up from the Boss, he was a pretty decent source of info and recommendations for good used machines, and he wasn't selling any of them. I wasn't really well connected, internet forums didn't exist to any degree, and he was kind of my sounding board for what the guys selling them were telling me.

Ray, I would call Weaver's (1-800-932-8371) and ask to talk to Vernon. He is one of the real bright spots of the outfit, and has a real sense of humor. He ought to be able to help you out.

Dale, Good point. I was doing these for a wholesale account. They had been stocking some that were just glued down. Two factors - one was that the other suppliers were using plastic plates and the glue would sometimes let go on the edges and curl over time. They were getting customer complaints and returns about that. Also the plastic plates plus just the leather on the front were sometimes too thick for the switches to flip properly or the plugs to pull out flush depending on the electrical installation to start with. That is why I suggested the metal plates to thin them down. The glues I was using wouldn't reliably bond to metal in use without the sandwiching to hold it.

Russ, I haven't done any for several years, but used a Boss when I did. I used the metal switch plates and outlet covers so they were thinner and stronger to start with. It relieved some of the thickness the leather added. I made my patterns so they overlapped about 1/2" all the way around for a sewing lip. I probably used mostly 3-4 oz on the front to tool on. I used 2 oz stiff vegtan (Siegel's commercial oak) on the backside. I had patterns made up so they just overlapped the edges about a scant 1/2" inside the back of the plate. After the fronts were stamped and still cased I just kind of pressed them to the plate to mold them and established the edge impressions on the back side and then let them dry. I oiled them up and let it even out. I used Barge to stick them to the front of the plates, and had the edge markings already pressed into the back side to align them. Slather a little glue on the lining piece and stuck them on. I used a deer spike to press the two pieces together and sandwich the plate. A bone folder or tickler run around the edge of the plate impression will establish a tight sew line. I used a right toe foot and sewed away. I really don't recall any issues sewing them. I might have used a stirrup plate to raise them up and angle the plate down and away slightly to get the center needle guide right in the channel. I don't remember that for sure. After they were sewn, I trimmed the excess off an even distance away from the stitch line and edged and slicked them.

Andrew, Thanks for the timely review. We just got a copy sent to the museum for a review, and I was planning on looking at it today.