bruce johnson

That is one of the coolest cans I have seen. Great job on the design. I'd love to get an order for one like that some day. Keep them coming.

Here's another rope can from the last batch. This one is a little more undersatated than some, but it fits the style of a lot of my customers. She got a goat string can last year for her birthday. This year she added breakaway roping to her events, and we made this can to match her goat string can. I am hoping she tries team roping next year and needs a rope bag.

Doug, Hansen's sell wholesale. If you don't have a number, they are right across town and I can pick up whatever you need.

I have only run into this requirement (along with guaranteed minimum annual orders) for wholesale pricing on finished products from a couple suppliers. It was for cinches, finished halters, bags, and things along those lines that I would directly compete with other retailers. As far as getting anyone to waive it, only in a limited way from one supplier. I was able to buy one product in a minimum number for each order at dealer price, since no other local dealers of their products were buying these in any quantity. They sold to another company and that deal went away with the new management. Most suppliers of materials only require a business license and/or a resale number for wholesale pricing.

The only splitter Osborne has made for a while and stocks parts for is the model 86 in a 6" width.

MY thoughts are that all these guys are "fitting" on some level, whether they choose to call it that or not. Everyone does. The difference is that very few of us are doing what somebody has termed "microfitting". Most of us aren't doing back molds to fit every nook and cranny. We order a tree with a gullet/handhole width and bar pattern that we think will fit what our customer rides. We do that at minimum. That has to be considered part of "fitting". I don't know of many customers who comes in to many of us and says, "I want a 6-1/4" gullet, 90 degree, northest bar tree" that doesn't have some background. Some or most of the time, they don't know what to ask for. Either we have to guess based on their pictures, descriptions, and our own experiences that tree maker X's 6-1/2 90 degree fits most of them like that I see and from tree maker Y I need a 4" handhole 93 degree tree. Not everybody's bottom patterns are the same either, and the bulgy horses might not go as well in a crowned up bottom that the narrower back would. These guys aren't just calling up a tree maker and saying "send me a 15-1/2" low Assoc". They are calling someone they have experience with, know what has worked for most of the past ones, and at least telling them some basic width measurement and ordering that. It might well be the same each time, or it could be "He rodes big blocky horses, ropes calves, and uses 1" pads with a Navajo and orders a 6-3/4" and the next guy rides mostly colts and narrower horses and he orders a 6-1/4 for him". THAT is fitting on a basic level to me. If we don't do that, we are about the same level of competance as the kid at the feedstore. Horses are pretty tolerant, and there is a range of what works and what doesn't. If we are within that, we are doing alright. How big that range is what the question is. A whole block got left out, so here it is. If we don't want to guess at what they ride, pictures, or whatever. we do have the card fitting system from Dennis Lane. That can give us an idea of a few dimensions and give us a better idea of the general profile of the back.

Phillip, I have never seen any pattern packs with them. What I have done in the past is trace off one the guy already has or likes. Kind of like most breast collars, somne guys prefer different shapes and different amounts of drop and drop in the center.

Even though I prestretch,work, and set my stirrup leathers on stretcher, I like mine better after a few rides have set them and the back and forth movement has freed up a bit.

Another vote for Jeremiah Watt's DVD. I always bought bucking rolls before. The inserts he sells are alright too. There is a bit of a learning curve, even with the DVD for a few of us. I would fully expect to not have the first set come out as well as you might want. After that - cake. A few things to watch for - welts tend to wander over the insert a bit. If you stuff your own, not some much of an issue. Be sure to trim the back side of the welts close and then pound them down pretty flat. Another issue is making sure the insert is perfectly lined up in the body. I have had a couple want to tweak to one side or the other. Aftyer you get comfortable with these and learn some of the finesse things, it is not that big a step to tweak sizes and stuff your own.

Paul, Great coloring and it looks pretty handy to use too. See you in a couple weeks!

I am extremely happy with cellular internet from Verizon - portable and good service. We can't get DSL at home, and the satellite deal wsn't as good as Verizon. Had it two years on one, and just got another modem and account for my wife's computer. She was still on dial-up and it was t-i-m-e.

Butch, I just do leather on the tops. Several years ago I had a wholesale order for one that had some tooled patches on the sides, kind of like leg shields on chaps. They went between the latches and sort of looked cool.

I just finished this rope can and strap up for a nice young breakaway roper from NV. She came up with the design, and I am really liking her idea of the star overlaying the border partially. I haven't done much barbwire for a while, and that was kind of fun. I did some others too, but they are gifts for birthdays that haven't happened yet.

A second to Steve's recommendation to call Melanie Machine. Great people to deal with. As far as which splitter you need, it kind of depends on what you are splitting, how often you'd use it, and how much skiving. I am not a particular fan of the Osborne 86. No blade guard, not impossible to skive with, but not very handy. If I was buying new today, I'd get one of the Keystones from Campbell-Randall. Otherwise if you buy used, the Osborne 84 is tried and true. There are some other splitters I like better, and each has their strong points. There are a few threads on splitters and skivers on the forum, and a lot of information in those.

Buddy, On some of the hair-on they use a backing leather and may just glue the hide on the nosepiece and stitch it. Others will inlay, pretty much like you said, except cut the "window" for the inlay first. As far as what weight of leather, there are several on here who make the decorative bronc halters and I have seen weights that go from 9-10 oz combined up to 14 oz or a little more. I don't do many of the decorative bronc halters, but do some for saddle bronc riders occasionally. With those I use a doubled skirting, so they are about 26 oz or so. I am attaching a pic of one I did with a hair-on inlay that we ran the guy's brand into the hair.

Will, to date things back a little further than my earlier post, I have part of an old Schoellkopf catalog, and they list swivel knives (called swivel top cutters then) in what I have. The source of the reprint has one from 1924 and one from 1935. Not sure which I have, but I would suspect it is the maybe the 1924. I am basing this on the Landis 3 being the latest sewing machine listed. I thought the 16 came in the early 30s, but someone who has more machine history will know more on that.

Will, In a class I took from Chuck Smith last month he talked about some of the history of tools. His mention was that the oldest he knew of was an FK Russell. I can't remember what year. The knife was given to Don King for his museum. I have an old Hinkley-Tandy catalog from the 40s, and they have one in there, but no identified maker.

Ntex, Williams is a soft paste conditioner from Australia. In previous threads we have tried to find a wholesale supplier for the single man shop. No go there that I recall. Most of us buy it from someone who buys in case quantities and retails. I usually get mine from Tip's in Winnemucca, Capriola's in Elko probably have it, got some from Big Bend in Alpine once or twice.

My random thoughts here. The arena roping saddles have gone through a change to shorter seats, just as the cutting boards have gone to longer seats. Both of these were taken to extremes, and seem to be drifting back again. Fat guys cramming into 14" seat ropers doesn't work much better than skinnys sloshing in 17 inch boards. Most of what I see in the ropers is the shorter seat brings you up over the stirrup slots more. Push on your feet and you are there. It can be a factor of the cantle being forward and the slots in the same place, the slots back a little more than normal, or the groundwork built so the leathers are at the back dedge of the slots. Your feet are under or even slightly behind you. Good to brace yourself coming out and get up and forward. You tend not to slap back down on a big lunge. The lower front to the seat helps with that too. The lower TM swells don't get in the way until your horse scotches and your thigh slams into that square edge of a leg cut you could never use anyway. I don't think Tod Slone was the first guy to revolutionize the shorter seats, but he sure made them popular. A couple things to watch for. Some of these saddles have really wide bar spreads in the front. That can make the fork sit lower on the horse and the horn lower. You can get that "2 finger clearance" that was pounded into our heads. Sometimes it comes at the expense of the tree sittng downhill-forward on the horse though, and that can bring its own set of problems. Some of the extreme flat seats can contact the back of the withers on some horse depending on how far forward the saddle is set and if the breast collar in cinching it in place. I don't kow about other guys, but before these saddles got a little more common, I would get some requests to put reverse binds on the stirrup leathers to keep them back some. For a while Smith Bros and some of the other suppliers sold a little pad thing that fit into the dish of the cantle and laced in place at the corners. It shortened the seats up some. Kind of the problems are that these short seats and the stirrups under or behind is limiting. Down hill riding or a colt taking a jump with you will put your feet behind you. On the other hand getting up over the front and the wider seat holding you out there instead of shading to the middle give you advantage roping. As far as trees, a lot of these are made on fiberglassed trees, but it isn't the same glassing process used 20 years ago by most makers either. Most of them have the groundseat glassed in place with the tree, and that is supposed to bind things better and strengthen the tree. They get more strength in the seat with less thickness than a leather or strainer seat, so the buildup can be lower. Some use glass reinforced and rawhided trees, and some are full rawhide, somebody probably still will do a double rawhide cover too.

Bobby, Another great looking belt. I am guessing from the lining initials, it might be yours?

My cast iron one didn't have the graphics on the faceplate of the head that the aluminum ones I see have.

I just finished this belt up for my son. It is a hair-on hide inlay. The basket is one that Barry King made up for me with my son's brand on it.

JW, I had an old guy tell me about it, and just kind of stuck with the two lines. I oil up my plugs and skirts before I sew them. I was using Barge, and that didn't always bond the oiled leather all that well. I would set the "curve" to the skirts, then went to stick my wool down and my plugs would sometimes shift and the skirts would flatten out when I pressed down the wool. Try to re-establish the curve and the plugs moved and the wool would get a bubble in it. Bad words said, etc... If I sew the plugs in first, they are there for good. Another thing that is my impression (and told to me by an old guy) is that if the plugs are sewn in, they don't shift or shrink as much at the edge over time. Bob Brenner referred to it in another thread today about having to replace plugs on nearly every reline job because the plugs shrink back and the needle holes aren't true anymore. Granted you shouldn't have to reline one maybe once or twice in its useful lifetime, but on the double sewn ones I haven't had to replug any. I have done several oldies that the plugs came right off with the wool too. I do soak my plugs and work the stretch out a little. I am sure a lot of the curled skirts and shrunken plugs were never wet when they were made, just pulled out of the scrap and cut, skived, and stuck. It is kind of a cosmetic thing too. One line of stitching looks a little cleaner. I rubber cement the woolskins too. I am using another glue right now for the leather, and it is bonds better than Barge. I think I could glue the plugs and feel pretty confident with this glue now.

I bought some of those "$99 HO specials" sides from another supplier this summer and fall, and the ones I got then were better than any medium wt. HO I had tried in the past. We both kind of wondered why they were in that pile. I am sure mine were picked out, because the rep left and last ones weren't as good. Usable for the most part, but not the same as the others for sure. Kevin at Springfield has the rep for service. I am sure if you tell him what you need it for, he'll do his best to get the right one for you.

My best luck for getting that old petrified stuff out is Dawn, warm water (plenty of it), and a natural sponge. That will get the majority of the stuff off for me, and the detail work with the toothbrush and picks is a lot less.