St8LineGunsmith

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.

heres a diagram and a pic of my stitching mule it is pretty simple to build. I used a forsner bit with a drill press and a wood chisel to slot the 2x.6's heres a pic of the one I have now and it is the best one I have used IMO here is the original design

http://bighousedaddy.com/

Welcome to leatherworker.net from one Georgia Boy to another I am in the north west part of the state, where are you located? congrats on the gator hope to see something you made out of it soon.

I am sorry but I don't really care how good a burnisher works when it is way over priced. I can get a good burnished edge with a wooden spool chucked into a drill press.

use 8-9 oz veg tanned leather for a shoulder rig thinner straps will conform to the curvature of the body better than wide straps if you want a wide strap you will have to contour the strap for it to fit around the curve of the shoulder and back correctly otherwise you will get bulges and pooches in the strap. narrow width straps just wear better than wide straps.

I use a safety beveler, a skiving knife and a sander for skiving. the trick to using the safety beveler is to dampen the the side of the leather that is to be skived do not saturate the leather just damp enough that the leather becomes damp at the surface if you need to skive off more leather you may want to spray a little more water on the project the blades stay sharper longer by using water also a french edger works wonderfully for skiving and beveling edges also.