bruce johnson

I am looking forward to hearing how Troy does it too. I try to go with no welts whenever I can. I can do most all of the modified Associations and Associations without welts now too. I had a couple that beat me last year and I had to go with welts, but that was leather tannage issue. I pick my cover from the low belly in the middle with the back of the cover to the bottom of the side. I soak it and leave it sweat for maybe a half hour and air for 15-30 minutes. I was shown to run it over the horn and start to lay it over the swells. I just sort of use my hands to form over the swell points but not to pull on the edges to stretch it over. That pulling stretches the edges and makes for more to gather up later. I kind of push it around into I have the top third or so of the swells pretty formed by hand. It is more of push and compress deal. I figure where to make my handhole cuts. Then I pull it off and go to the kitchen sink. I give it a good shot of running warm water until the cover feels warm, but not hot. I lay it back on and start to form more of it. I kind of divide the slack into one third/two thirds and tack the middle of the of the fork below the swell-bar joint. One third is from the nail around to the front, two thirds from the nail back to the handhole. I work the front first and compress as much as I can with my hands and some straight and concave slickers. I start at the top and work down. I divide the bubble in half and tack that. Then I work each bubble like before and tack. Usually that is enough for the front. I do the other front and then start on the backs same way. The back side should be a little spongier leather and compress easier. I divide the slack evenly, tack and work that down. On those bubbles I might divide them into thirds and end up with 6 bubbles total on the back to work. As the leather dries it gets a little more moldable, so I don't panic if it doesn't lay right in when wet. An hour and or more later that bubble I have been chasing for 3 or 4 minutes will lay right down. If it dries too much, I will sponge on warm water again. When It almost dry and normal color I pull my nails and take the cover up. I slather on the glue to the leather and swells and set it back again. It reforms pretty easy this time. I work it back down with the slickers, shoe hammer on a piece of scrap skirting, and lower with the heel of the shoe hammer to bond it.

I use the packing tape like Casey also for the backs of my things. For my contact/permanent cement I use Renia. It is made in Germany, so it might be more available over there than Barge. It has a little more fume than Barge, but seems stronger to me and tacks up faster.

Here's kind of how it was explained to me, using some examples that might go to the exteme to illustrate the point. If you have two mating/matching/"nesting" surfaces, it does in fact raise it up more in front due to the difference of the vertical angle going through a steeper angle in front vs. a flatter angle behind. The rub is in the top surface. if the gullet is too wide, and you add more padding you are getting closer but not to the point of raising the front at all. The flatter surface in the back is raising. The analogy given to me was using a set of bowls as an example. Turn over two nesting bowls. If you stretch a sockhat over them, they will raise up more than the thickness of the sock because they are being lifted by the vertical component of the thickness of the sockhat at the angle where the bowls would touch. Next, take a nesting set of bowls and for argument's sake, take one smaller and one two sizes up (or three sizes up to really illustrate the point). The smaller bowl is the horse, the larger bowl is a saddle with the width too wide. This would be the extreme example of the saddle resting on the withers and no bar contact. Stretch a sockhat over the smaller bowl and set the big bowl over it. It is still too wide/big for contact and the bowl is not raised. The only place it gets closer is at the top of the bowl. and to translate this to narrow horse - on top of the spine and not further out where the bar pads would be. (Another assumption at this point is that with most thick pads of 1" there is some sort of wither relief over the spine so there is no raising up there if the bar pads don't contact). As you add more padding (another sockhat) it begins to fill in starting at the top and eventually you get some contact further and further down the sides, which is now start to correspond to where the bars are making contact with the horse in real life. But in the meantime, most horses are flatter where the back bar pads are contacting, and that area has been raised everytime the padding has been added. Does this make sense?

I am listing more tools tonight on my website. Someone asked last time about a Rose knife. I have a nice Shapleigh that is new on there too. Lots of creasers and ticklers this time, a few edgers, and 14-1/2" collar awl. here's the link - Bruce Johnson Leather Tools for sale Thanks,

Just using a 1" pad will not necessarily raise the front up and level the saddle. Because of the flatter bar angles behind and steeper angles in front, the tree will raise up relatively more behind and be even more downhill. If I was younger and geometry/trigonomtry was closer to the top of the brain cells, I could figure how much. It isn't raised up much more behind, but is some. Some people favor shims and if they work for someone great. I am not sure I could really figure out where to put them and how much, and then not get an edge lump with some systems I have seen. You hear some anecdotal stuff about them concentrating forces more than dissapating force. The pad I have had the best luck with has been a wedge pad with a 3/4 tapering insert between the layers - fuller at the front and tapers to the back. Rick Ricotti developed them and Toklat is selling them under that name. They worked pretty well under my wider saddles for younger and narrower horses. They will raise the front some, less side to side roll, and not raise the back.

Luke, I have done them a couple ways. On some I have cut a slot for the loops and then riveted a strap to run through the loopback on the bottom and then it has a button hole/slit in it. The rivet is placed so the concho covers it. The other way is to make a "mushroom" from firm leather. The "stem" is the width of the loop. The cap is wider and holds it in place. The button hole is at the bottom end of the stem.

Nothing to say but

I usually use a 30 or 32, but my horses eat for a living rather than work for a living. I prefer a latigo on both sides too. A wise old man told me you want to have the width of about two hands and two thumbs separating the ring and rig. I still lay my hands on one. I just had to measure my hands and it is a 9-1/4" gap.

My shop is a 12x24 single car garage with a common wall with the house. That helps with heating and cooling a lot. I also have a small window AC through the wall, and run quartz space heaters in the winter. Listen to what everyone has said so far about power. I have 4 outlets at each box and that has eliminated power strips. Also I have 5 overhead shop lights on switched ceiling outlets. At least one of the lights has a pull cord for on/off. I don't think I've pulled it more than twice, it just stays on. I have put horse stall mats on the floor in all of the work space except in front of the back door for no apparent reason other than I haven't got around to getting one for there yet. Those mats help with comfort and more importantly repel knives and edge tools from ever falling to the floor. In the past when it was bare concrete every so often a knife would fall on the floor. They always fell blade down and remained vertical to bounce at least three times on the edge to really ding themselves up before falling over. The stall mats have some sort of invisible ray the prevents knives from falling, none have since they went in. I also agree about the bench height being a standing height and then getting a good chair too. I have some chairs that go really high and make life comfortable. I raised my cutting table to match the height of my stamping bench. I thought it was pretty good before. I was wrong, it is way better now. If you have to use chemicals within the shop - good ventilation is a must. I have a covered patio out the back sliding door of the shop so I can glue out there in poorer weather. In decent weather I can open the garage door and slider for cross ventilation. My leather stores on a rack and is sorted by type and size. The colored leathers are sorted abd stored in concrete form tubes on that rack. Amazingly the rack is 4 feet long and so are the tubes. I am a little slow on the uptake and realized about three months ago that the leather is also shipped in square boxes that happen to be 4 feet long. They are free at that point and would work well too. This is about the 3rd floorplan I had and this works the best for me. Everything is against the walls except for the cutting table and stamping bench. They sit in the middle and I can get around all 4 sides of the cutting table. That is good for me. The only creature comforts I need is a CD player and cordless phone within reach. The kitchen is right through the door. The garage door is nice to bring buly things in and out. The downside is to get into the shop you either go through the house or big garage door. The dogs protect the back sliding door. I don't have a lot of foot traffic, but would like to one day put in an entry door directly from the outside.

Kristina, This topic is a couple years old, and I still like my Ferdco 2000. I bought the saddlers package and later on got the case/boot foot. It does everything I want it to. I bought it before the sewing machine price wars started, but I still would buy it again. It has been trouble free. FWIW, I have a Ferdco 1245 also. I have had it a few years and am waiting for it to skip the first stitch.

Boomer, I am wondering if they didn't come out with the EZ dees about the same time as they got the original deal for the Committee saddles. I have a Hamley to restore with the paperwork from the late 20s and it has them also. We are not going to make the show in St Louis, too much other travel this year with family stuff. Next year we are hoping to make it to Albuquerque.

fudge wheel

Those EZ dees are on most bronc saddles. I've got my great grandfather's saddle from the early 30s at the latest and it has EZ dees. I kind of think they originated in Pendleton at Hamleys but I am not sure on that. In a Hamley catalog reprint I have from 1942 they show them on bronc saddles as well as on a few using saddles. I keep a set on hand, and maybe use them every other year. I'll attach pictures of a dee off and then on a saddle. You can see on one view how they shaped them to a slight curve to not sidesore as much.

A high end show saddle that cost some $$$$ should not have plated silver on it. It should be solid or overlay, especially if the saddlemaker did the silverwork too. Sterling can tarnish black, but should polish back. That said, there are some pretty high dollar catalog show saddles that have plated silver and are charging overlay prices or better. There sure are different qualities of plating too. The base metal plated over varies too. The maker needs to see this.

Ben, WHERE'S THE BLOOD?! THERE HAS TO BE BLOOD TO BE A GOOD STORY!! Good point about the rotation direction and safety aspect though. I have flung a knife or two also. In every case it was from not paying attention the where the rear edge of the blade was. I would be merrily buffing along and catch the back edge of what ever I was working on. The back edge would get up into the wheel and it would grab and throw. The tips of round knives are particularly easy to catch if you are not paying attention.

I have a Fortuna bottom feed. With the roller presser feet I can feed about any vegtan I need to.

About the only saddle related thing I do with mine is to thin mulehide horn wraps. I use it for a lot of smaller projects, but not for saddles.

Randy, I really don't have a particular like for mountain oysters but here goes. You have a better product to start with if you are getting calf fries locally. dip in milk, sprinkle with seasoning mix (Art's secret mix looks good), flour up and fry. Never take an odd number off the tray, they came in pairs and need to travel together. Because our local Testicle Festival is a public event and serves several hundred, we have to use testicles from a USDA inspected facility - that means butcher bulls, old rank butcher bulls. They are boxed and frozen. They are allowed to thaw to the point of being firm. That way you can halve them and just peel each half out of the membrane. They tried skipping the skinning one year - not good. They are diced into about 1" slices/cubes and run through a tenderizer. They are marinated overnight in red wine and fresh garlic. Next day they are breaded and fried that morning in batches and then transferred to steam trays. That is when they seem to be the best. At the big event they are reheated in the steam trays covered with foil and ladled out.

The last couple sides of HO I got were pretty crusty on the back side too. I am not sure if it is a tannery issue or a splitting problem. Most all of my stuff is lined so the appearance isn't a big deal. It was kind of hard cutting too.

"Maul poor", I like that. That is a very cool maul. Ed outdid himself yet again.

I have added quite a few tools for sale to my website. Instead of listing them all here, I'll just post a link - Bruce Johnson's leather tools for sale . There are some round knives ranging from unmarked to good oldies to good newer ones. I have some good overstitchers and some in unusual sizes too. I am also selling some Gomph round bottom edgers.

I use rope borders quite a lot. I run mine with just an outside guideline. I try to run at about a 45 degree angle. I bevel the rope, and have made bevelers from cheap Tandy stamps to match the curve of the different rope stamps I have. Just take a round stone on a Dremel and grind a curve in the toe of the stamp to match. I am attaching a few examples. One is the 90 degree corner, and how I tip to get the corner. The next is a Celtic pattern I did for a stamping deal we had here a few years ago. The only Celtic thing I have done, it was kind of fun. I forget who but someone asked me off forum a year or two ago for some help with tight curves with the rope border. I knocked one out pretty quick as an example of how I do those on a sample bridle cheek. In a nutshell I stamp a full impression on the outside of the curve and tip the stamp to do a partial and shorten up the inside. It is a little tricky to keep the angle right, but after a while you kind of get a feel for it.

Spot setters work well too, and will dome up the center.

Thinking a little inside the box here. At one of the Reno leahter shows a few years ago there was a stamp company who made embossing dies. It was a hard plastic type 8-1/2 x 11 sheet. They would do s many of a single impression or several impressions that would fit that sheet for one price. You could cut them out, attach them to a hardwood block and they got good results with a small arbor press from Harbor Freight. If a guy is taking these kinds of orders, factor the cost of the press into the intial pricing of the order to the customer. I used an arbor press for small dies for a few years. I sized up and sold it. I use some delrin and metal press plates a fair amount. A $200 shop press does that job. For the people that don't have one of these or the room for one, I would bet a little asking around will find someone you know who does. Other options are book presses or woodworkers vices.

Hello Janet, I use oil like JW too. The roughout is more porous and will absorb the oil a lot faster than the grain side. A little goes a long way. Where most people get into trouble is they apply the oil and it sucks right in. To them it is an obvious sign the leather is too dry and they add more. I use a sheepskin too, and mostly squueze it out and lightly run it over the leather. It will pull right in instead of spread like on the grain side if you have a lot on the patch. I usually use a light coating of a paste after a day or two. I have tried several, but keep going back to the RM Williams.