blue62

Thank you

Finished up a holster and gunbelt for a saa in 45 Colt. Black Hermann oak leather, 7 oz for liner and body, Jeremiah watt buckle,

The harbor freight punch set is just fine, sharpen them up and they work great for less than $10.

The reason the liner wrinkles is because it's growing as you make the fold, try it with a couple pieces of light cardboard and you'll see what I mean. Try curving the outer piece as you glue the inner layer in, it will help a bit.

If you can find 2 really nice hides that should be enough for a saddle, seems like nice hides are few and far between. 13/15 should make for a nice all around saddle, it should be fine for fenders, make sure you reference in either stohlman's or Johnson's book on laying out your patterns for the best yield. As far as plugging the skirts, yes they need the plugs, it helps the skirts hold up to abuse and keeps them from curling up. I've done plugs both ways, leaving out area under the thigh does help to reduce bulk and may give a closer to the horse feeling.

From what I can see in that picture it looks like the stirrup leather and the fender is made as one piece, so the splice would take the riders full weight, I wouldn't splice it, to much of a chance of a failure next to the splice, I'd replace the stirrup leathers and install new fenders as a separate piece., Generally one piece stirrup leather/fender is done as a cost saving measure. Also it looks like the leather has seen better days. Might be time for a upgrade.

Yes I drill holes in the horn and use a couple pop rivets and some contact adhesive to secure it in place. Here is a picture of a inner tube wrap if anyone was curious.

Should have the swell cover taken off to do it right, so the tails of the wrap can be tightened and tacked down, I just use glue, the tails should be wrapped so they tighten when the rope is dallied, so it matters if the rider is left or right handed, I rivet my filler to the top of the horn, it seems to help with stabilizing the wrap, then glue it down., Then wrap the finished horn in mulehide. On a side note a heavy layer or two of inner tube seems to work to protect the horn cover as well. I'm not sure why it seems that everyone that comes in for a saddle repair wants to be cheap, the isn't anything cheap about horses, roping or any of the associated stuff.

If it's the ones I found on ebay, probably not as nice as made to appear, probably cut from low in the hide, with a cheap Chinese buckle, made by Amish kids.

Springfield leather seems ok, I'd call your order in and ask for nice looking hides. I buy some things from Weaver but it seems like they always send me the leftovers as far as sides go.

Splitting wider straps with one of those takes alot of horsepower, a good shape blade will help, but it still may be pretty tough to pull through.

I personally like the raw/bullhide cover over the fiberglass, it seems to hold nails and screws better, the extra time is needed for drying it out after it's seen and nailed in the seat area, they are labor intensive because as the hide dries the seams need to be pounded flat and the nails set deeper due to shrinkage.

No, not at all, I have very little experience with mules, but with horses about four different shapes of bars fit most horses, most likely it's the same for mules, you could get something to fit your body type of mule. I noticed on bowdens website that none of the trees have real good descriptions of the bars, when you spoke with them did they have any suggestions for a stock tree that would possibly fit based on your measurements?

The $200 extra doesn't seem to be to bad for being able to get a tree that really fits well, $500 is pretty reasonable for a custom order tree. Seems to me most other custom trees start at $1000. For what materials cost to build a saddle I'd like to have one that fits well and is a pleasure to use.

Hard to say what it was used for without a picture.

You need to get the stiching dialed in, it looks uneven and loose, and bevel and slick up the edges, they look pretty rough, which makes the bag look rough. It's the little things that make a project really stand out.

Not unless it's all split on the first order, in your example your talking years, I like this idea, sounds like a artwork fee to me.

And if management changes and they don't buy anymore items, guess who paid for the stamp.

Artwork fee= cost of stamp plus shipping plus your time for ordering stamp.

Maybe, but a number of those people have moved onto dispensing their knowledge in a paid platform, such as live classes, website based classes and programs. Just a thought.

Mine is made from a salon chair base.

Look at tippeman boss, cowboy outlaw if you like manual machines, or a juki 441 clone of some sort, they should be able to do holsters without any issues.

This is the same as what I would recommend, but he should try the chisels so he can learn WHY they don't work well for a western saddle, as far as spi, it's whatever looks right on the saddle, big long heavy saddle, longer stiches, small petite saddle, shorter stiches, look at lots of different saddles to get a idea of what looks right. And remember the Masters have the biggest garbage cans

Nice idea, only thing at 27oz the stitch length might get kinda short, that's what happens on my 29-4.

Probably looks like a tattoo on a eighty year old.