bruce johnson

David, I think your time frame is pretty close. I redid one that has a very similar tree that dates to the 1920s. Some of the Pueblo CO saddles had that scalloped seat front too and that is a possibility it came out of Colorado.

Joanne, I want to say that "warranted" was on one of the production type saddles like Jumbo, one of the Miles City shops, or someplace like that. I just can't place which one. The tree style covers a bit of a time range. I think the seat front scalloped like that is very cool also. I don't know that it is peculiar to one maker though. The pattern looks to be wheeled on, so that tells me production too. One thing to consider is that back in the day this one was made, the production shops still competed with each other mainly on quality.

Jeremiah's edgers tend to run larger by number than most anybody else's. I would figure that a #1 would be pretty equivalent. That is the size I use the most for general work. Other than skirts and doubled reins, I mostly use the 3 and 4 for trimming rather than straight edging.

There is a link to an ebay sale of a stitching horse, and it got me thinking. I have that same Tandy model they sold several years ago. I have found it to be comfortable, the angle of the head right for me, and a good purchase that has paid back several times over. Some of you have heard me talk or write of the Irish harnessman who spent an afternoon and evening with me. A thoroughly enjoyable time, and I think about it a lot. He basically took over and straightened me out. He sharpened my "points" and the ones that didn't pass muster were turned into awl darts, a rousing game to play with Bushmills at hand. He showed me tricks of handsewing and tying in your buckles on strap ends, sewn or not. He took a horsehoeing rasp to my stitching horse's jaws to add a wee bit more taper to the top for finer stitching. He actually said it was much better to begin with than most of the pictured ones sold in America. The Tandy ones operate with the left foot. I had sat at some in other shops later that were right footers, and might as well have used some other part of my anatomy to run them after a few miles on mine. He said that traditionally the saddlers stitching horses were stood up with less cant to the jaws than mine, and were all right footers. Some had the strap to tighten the jaws, and some had a cam or other hardware on the outside of the jaws to allow deeper pieces to be sewn. The harness stitching horses had more cant, and were right or left footers, and most had the strap in the slot closure. He knew of no particular reason than that's just the way it is. Since we are pretty international and have a lot of traditionally trained workers on board here, I'd like to hear more about stitching horses and how they are ta' home, wherever that is......

Got your back, Shelley. I use a rotary knife a fair amount. I use one with my 6 foot ruler for straightening backs on up to skirting for straps. It just rolls right along. I use it to cut patterns out of chap leather. It seems to not kink up the really soft stuff going around an outside curve like my round knives do occasionally. I figure I am saving the edges of my good knives at the expense of a disposable blade. I use the pinking and scalloping blades on the rotary cutters for pinked and scalloped edges on chap and vegtan too. Now another confession. The first few chinks I did, I used a meat cleaver thinned down and sharpened enough to earnotch ants. I just set it in and rocked the blade to cut fringe. It worked out well until I dropped it and took a good sized chunk out of the middle of the blade. Now I use a round knife and the plastic straight edge. One other safety deal that hasn't been brought up about round knives too. Some people will rock them or "roll" the blade to make the cut. Some people are "pushers" only. My old pal gave me the warning several years ago about rocking. Some people will roll and make a cut from almost point to point of a round knife. If you are a rocker, never go past the most forward part of the blade (half way around) and you probably shouldn't even go that far. You are knuckled over and awkward. If you lose your grip or the knife slips or the piece slips, the opposite point of the round knife is quickly approaching your wrist. That knife is coming back towards you, and the downward and forward pressure you are putting on it will shoot that knife right back and up into your wrist. I guess nobody needs the anatomy lesson that cutting any of those things like tendons, ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels will be a bad thing, more severe than a string bleeder ever thought about doing to a guy's foot.

Joanne, I have seen "warranted" before and it is just escaping me. Don'tchajusthatethat?! They sure haven't increased any value on it with the cantle job and looks like the stitching holding the felt on is not very whippy either. Those might be fixable. The biggest detraction is the illegible makers mark. Most of the time a lesser condition with a good mark will beat out a better saddle with an illegible mark. If there is some provenance that always changes things, but I am pretty sure this saddle had some age in the 60s when he bought it. Too bad, it is a cutie.

Pete, If we were to vote on it, there would be some good company but yours would be the funniest today in my opinion.

Knut, I had a treemaker set a 115 degree bar tree on one of my horses, and it it was not really out of line. There are no absolutes and horses have really proven themselves to be pretty tolerant, so there are a few schools of thought about how to make the changes for varying widths and angles of backs. To dispense with one school of thought, some say it just doesn't matter what the measurements are, fitting is bogus and saddlemakers need not concern themselves with trends of how some horses have changed. One school of thought is that with wider profiles, we need to increase the spread of the bars and not change the angles. Another school of thought is the angle is changing, but the vertebral process is in the same place, so we need to change the angles and not the width. In other words, we still need to be a couple inches lateral to the vertebral process on top and that doesn't change because a horse is more angular or flatter. You just open up the angle to be somewhat congruent with the wither profile and keep the surface area on the horse. I think both of the latter two schools of thought have merit. They both get the surface area on the horse, and time and testing might prove if one is better than the other. Some will change spread widths and angles together. Denise and Rod can bring this up again, but I think the difference in angles with the same spread between 90 and 93 degree bars is pretty small - makes for something like 3/16" at the bottom. It is not a huge number. The deeper the bar pattern the wider this should be, and their patterns are pretty deep. Also treemakers can determine how they measure this angle differently. Comparing a 90 degree bar from one treemaker to another may not even be the same finished angle, so it really needs to be compared within the same maker.

I'll admit I am not a Star Trek fan, Gunsmoke and Lone Ranger were more my speed. About all I know is one classmate in school had a Tshirt that said "He's dead, Jim" on one side and "Absolutely I will not interfere" on the other. Those are my Trekkie quotes. That said, Harvey asked me to post his pictures. So with the cyber-lost leading the cyber-blind, we'll give it a go. Here they are (or should be).

I got mine today too. I am figuring Santa must be in on the delivery for everyone to get them this close together, I can't see the postal service being that efficient. Usually my magazines show up about a week after most everybody else. I have subscribed for several years. In that time he has moved a few times and had some good and bad employees. He just moved again. I see he is in Maine now, was in Virginia last I think. Pretty much a one man show, and is a pretty decent source of information and advertising. One thing I notice is that there is no real pattern to getting them. I have gotten two separate month's issues in the same week, and gone almost two months with nothing.

I would pull it and fix it too. Feed as much excess into the dish as you can and then compress it with rubsticks or bouncers. I go for compression rather than stretching and beating into the cantle or gullets whenever I can. They just stay tighter for me and what I use. As it dries and shrinks back, it will stay tight instead of tenting up. If it is pulling away now, the glue is probably gone and you need to reglue if nothing else. Also some weight in the dish as it is drying will help too.

I would recut the whole topline of the skirts including the point that goes up into the handhole. That will raise the whole skirt front to back and keep the bottoms even, then reblock them. There are some barrel racing mother hubbard rigs that are frogged at the back, but what I see as the difference is they are shorter skirts almost tight to the bar points, and the good ones flare up across the middles. I am still more comfortable with lacing, but that may just be me.

My thoughts would be to cut a new topline on the skirts and raise them up and lace. If the gap is 3/4", then if you fix them, it would take 3/8" on each side. Unless you have a pretty small shallow pattern to start with, that 3/8" shouldn't matter much. Cut a topline, reblock them to account for the raise, and go right on. My thoughts with a frog is that you might have problems with the stitching coming loose or tearing through. There is some flex on the skirts that is not there on the jockeys. How's everything else going with it? No apologies necessary for going back to an old post either, in fact our collective thanks are in order. Having a topic all in one thread just makes it much more searchable. It is easier to have everyting in one place for future reference and new folks joining. We encourage everyone new or old to go back and add to old threads as necessary.

"I was going to get a chimp for the extra hands but then I heard about what happened with that chimp in New York, so I decided I'll get married next year." That may be as good a reason to get married as any. Just remember you were warned. I would not ask the new bride to hold the piece while you sew with the box attachment, or it will be couchville.

Yeah, you push them just like a Tandy. Barry King and Ron Edmonds make similar ones too, and old ones were made by a few companies. Unlike the Tandy, these sharpen and strop very easily, will do pretty tight inside curves, won't chatter as much, and will cut a rounded corner rather than a flat bevel.

Brent, I am not sure our guy wasn't a crook either. There is one bright spot in this deal. Theoretically he can only be paid by PayPal, his money will be held until he gets good feedback, and he can't leave bad feedback for the buyer. Isn't the braintrust of Ebay brilliant??

Brent, We have had that happen too. I took a saddle in and sold it on ebay. A while later my same pictures and description showed up with someone else as seller. The guy who made the saddle called me and reported it to Ebay and the listing came off. I had the maker's website in the listing for reference. A while later, same deal - same seller. Again reported and came off. The third time it happened I emailed the seller directly. I told him that he was copying my listing and pictures, and I knew that saddle was being used and not sold. He sent me back a deal that he was a volume seller and had something set up to automatically generate and repeat his stock listings monthly. Somehow the listings got crossed up and was generating my pics and description. He removed that one from his "program". We haven't seen it since.

My experience with it is that you need a good trained chimpanzee to help you. It takes two hands to really hold and steady the work. Unfortunately the Boss requires your third arm to run it. You need to keep the piece really shoved up in there, since the stitching motion tends to push it down and away, and you then sew off the corner. You talk nicely to the help and explain the procedure, then you get a little tenser, and about the third wreck you say something you shouldn't. I can run a two man post hole auger with my wife just fine, but the box attachment was not good. Since my wife wouldn't let me get the chimp, in the interest of marital harmony I got rid of the box attachment for the Boss and went back to handsewing those corners.

Skip, A few other things from training myself, a kid, and two wives. Don't treat it like a hammer, just let it fall. No swinging of the arm to start with at least. Keep the handle crosswise to your forearm axis and kind of twist your wrist and let it rock. As you get the aim down, then you can add a little more force if necessary for a bigger stamp. After a while you will have a couple weights of mauls if you use a lot of different stamps. Keep your elbow in closer to your body. Some people can rest their elbow on a surface, I have to keep it by my side. This became especially important after I messed up my right rotator cuff. Set your stool or chair to the most comfortable height for the bench, nothing will mess my aim up more and make me miss than the shorter stool and then not hitting the stamp flush. I also fatigue a lot faster. For really severe cases and as the staff knows during times of computer server issues here, I have a tin foil union suit - that seems to help too.

Yeah, I like them. I have since made a narrow "single toe" model to get down into the cantle corners. I still laugh thinking about him sewing a cantle and burying the jerk needle barb through it and into his finger on the bottom. That had to be some good watching, and he seemed to have sense of humor about it. You know those stories that always start out, "You'll never believe what happened to ol'........". I ought to get him to join here, he even had the foresight to have pictures taken.

Ken, I like the NC too. Easy to handle, heavy enough to do the job. I guess these guys like the new aluminum base anvils, but I expect this one will outlive me. You can get the rivet sets directly from Bob Douglas (307-737-2222) or from his daughter Vandy at Sheridan Leather Outfitters (307-834-8279). You can buy the three piece set, or the head domer individually.

Right now they have the 1245 on special for $1695. The 84 is a lightweight chap and wallet machine for $1200. No question the 1245 is the better machine for your application. I have done what you want to do with my 1245 without a cough. I have had exceptional service from Ferdco, and sure wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 1245. I've had mine a couple years.

Carver, Realize that I have no loyalty to many things. There are Ford, Chevy, and a Dodge pickup in our driveway at night. I had one of the Professional Tandy splitters - first or second one I got. It needed some machining to be right, and rebeveling the blade to a lower angle, and I sold it. I bought the American crank splitter and a Landis crank skiver from an old friend. They both were fine. If I was just dealing with veg-tan or harness leather, I'd have been happy with the American. I also split some latigo, chap, mulehide, and other softer leathers. I got my first Chase pattern pull through, and it would do them all, without chopping a strap like some of the Osborne designs. I started off with an 8" CS Osborne Chase. Traded for a 10" CSO Chase later on. Kind of nice - leave one set at 8 oz, and the other set to whatever else I needed. On a trip I got an 10" HF Osborne Chase because it was such a different and simple design and very cool. I had used a Krebs before and really wanted one. Last fall I bought one, and ended up and got another in a deal two weeks later along with a 12" Hanson Chase pattern. The guy I bought the 12" from then found a flush mount 12" early Chase style, and I got that one also for no other reason than to have a spare 12" blade. Some of my splitters are for sure over 100 years old, and they all could be. The bevel on these old blades is shallower, the steel is good, and they all work fine for me, although I just have the Randall Krebs, 10" CSO Chase and 12" Hanson Chase mounted. I leveled a 11-1/2" wide swell cover through the 12" Hanson last week. Some splitters I have sold as I traded up. It really depends on what you need one to split. If I was doing vegtan straps, wanted to process scraps easier, and 6 inches wide was adeqaute, the handcrank is the ticket. Softer leather splits better pulled. The Osborne 86 pull throughs can have the strap ride up the bevel or flip up and chop. The exposed blade on the 86 is just asking to make you bleed at some point. The hold-down bar on the 84 and clones help to prevent that some, but can still happen. The upper roller on the Krebs eliminates it. The dial setting on the Krebs makes it very repeatable. The upper and lower rollers on the Chase pattern or Krebs means the leather has no place to go but into the blade. I like that, and they haven't seemed to make one with that design for about 80 years. For a pull through, if I had it all to do over - I'd get a Krebs first and then a Chase pattern to back it up.

I am Bruce, and I am a splitteraholic. I had an American. My experiences with it. For a crank splitter it is pretty good. It feeds from the back, which is a plus I'll get to. They are a 6" width so a little limited. It does firm leather fine. Softer leather like some latigo will wad up between the feedwheel and blade if the blade starts to get dull or the leather hits a soft spot. Smething specific to the American - the platform that the blade sits on can have a hairline crack. It is from a casting deal with a slight bow in the face, so when you tighten the bolts that hold it on the frame it puts tension on the platform. No big deal, the bolts hold both sides of the blade, and the blade splints the platform. Apparently fairly common from talking to some guys who have them. It sure didn't hurt the resale on mine when I decided to sell it. The downside of the American and crank splitters in general is they are TEDIOUS. I can pull two stirrup leathers through a pull through in the time it takes to crank one, and be a lot less bored and tired. They are handy for splitting smaller pieces that would would require pulling from both sides of a pull splitter though. The upside of feeding from the back is that I could take a latigo, get it started, let go of the handle and pull it through and let the handle free wheel. I have cranked some Landis ones, and they are good too. Greg Gomersall might still have one for sale.

Another mechanical thing to consider is that drilling will scorch or at least heat the holes up enough to harden the edges of the holes. Those hard corners will fray thread as you pull them through. You can avoid this to some degree by drilling slow, and allowing the bit to cool between holes, but still happens. Also the drill holes have to be large enough to allow the passage of the needle, and like has been already pointed out, won't close back up to any degree. There won't be as much binding on the threads to help keep them in place or to keep grunge from collecting in the larger holes and degrading thread faster. The awl holes will allow passage of a needle and then the next stitch if properly placed at an angle will help to close the slit up due to pressure from the flat side of the blade opening up and then the thread in the next hole. All this said it still comes down to technique. Some guys can drill small holes, use smaller needles and make thinner waxed ends and look alright. It looks better than the guy who shoves a larger awl to the hilt and makes a hole you could throw the needle through with a doubled up loop of binder twine.