St8LineGunsmith

I am partal to the one pounder, the two pounder wears my arm out.

Striga mort just trying to keep you from postponing the inevitable cause once you try one of the little one pound mauls it will be all over at that point but seriously a maul will give you the most consistancy in your stamping not only with the depth of the impression but the placement accuracy is increased with less stress on the hand. so ya although pricey buying a maul will be a beneficial addition to your leatherworking tool collection

I know what the OP said and I dont think your comment was called for I tried adding weight to a mallet and it dont work very well thus the reason for my comment Like I should have to write an explaination for my comment in the first place

I was going to sat it looks like a covered McClellan.

I would say just get the small BK Maul from Springfield

that little press right there has a lot of uses in leatherworking. you will have to make/modify your own arbors. a stitching awl is probably the fastest method for making a saddle stitch you will want to use a stitching horse/pony/clam in conjunction with the awl the stitching clamp leaves your hands free to make the hole then applying the stitch to the project. look for Nigel Armatiges stitching tutorials here or on youtube.

Samarya it was cascity there's no doubt in my mind that you are a true master of the art of leatherwork.

FREAKIN WOW!!

AWESOME SAMAR! I have seen a lot of your work at leatherpros (or maybe it was CASCity?) all of your work is AWESOME!

Very Cool!

I have been thinking about one of these enclosed on a crush and run gravel floor. you can get a lot of useable square footage pretty. cheaply

that is it in a nut shell, shop around. fortunately for me I found some of the nicest veg tan leather at really good prices called sho tan leather from american saddlery but they also sell on line and take phone orders too. might want to give them a shout

Well first off go to Springfield leather and submit your gold club membership to get your stamps for 5 dollars a piece and their start rite stamps sets are very good quality so get what you can of those. unfortunately as leather prices go up leather workers have to raise prices of their work as well.

Ya they dont even make chrome tanned leather in the thickness you would need saddle skirting is 12-15 oz to where you would do good to find 7-8 oz chrome tan not to mention chrome tan has no rigidity to it at all. Good luck with your search for the right leather.

chrome tanned leather is for garments, upholstrey, bags, chaps ect. but is not for saddles except for maybe the seat pad I would not advise trying to make a saddle out of Chrome tanned leather.

Dwight Actually the tree has not shipped yet. EDIT: just got a shipped confirmation... YE HAAAAA! Ya I am planning on taking photos of my progresI I can tell you it will be a drawn out project because money is too tight around here to put into leather and hardware all in one purchase. I will just work on a piece at a time. American Saddlery is just down the road and they sell top notch Sho Tan Leather and hardware. I plan on going down there next week to see how much I can expect to spend on skirting and hardware I also saw a Mcclellan saddle tree which I really would like to build one of those also.

Well several people have inspired me to build a saddle after thirty year hiatus I got a good deal on a tree or at least I think it is a good deal what you old pros think? got it for 38 bucks shipped the seller says it is unused but it has been in storage for a few years

Proleptic shop talk is another publication you might want to look at http://issuu.com/kateink/docs/feb_issuu www.proleptic.net

as long as it is Veg tanned Drum dyed leather can be tooled and molded just as well as natural veg tan leather latigo leather is veg tan and can be tooled and formed as well.

Works rather well, everything is right there in one neat place easy to locate the tool I need

Thanks for the compliments Pawpaw been building and flying R/C nearly as long as I have been doing leather work. might as well throw my garage gunsmithing experience in there too. Ya I used to fly nitro and balsa but found that electric and foam is much cheaper and usually easier to repair when lawn darting a plane wheels down always except for when I am flying belly landers

Perry I noticed you like these things... This is a electric foamieCorsair Night Fighter I built

not that good of a detail pic i know but this piece of 2"x6" with a 1/2" plywood base pretty much holds my whole set of leatherworking hand tools with room for more stamps and room to modify if needed (Add More Holes= modify). probably cost a total of 5 bucks if I were to purchase the materials and screws Heres a pic of my little work area dedicated to strictly leatherworking. you might get some ideas of how you want to set up your work space with these pics.