Chuck

Hi. My name is Chuck Weidlein, from the state of Iowa. I am a Viet Nam Purple Heart winner and proud of this Great Country. I retired about a year ago and decided to get back into leather work. Being a collector by heart lots of new tools were in order to do some of the tooling I wanted learn. I built some saddles for friends and family members about 20 years ago that were stout and built to last a lifetime of use, but lacked finish and eye that I wanted. So, for the last year I have been collecting books, tools miniature hide trees to build some 8 inch saddles. I started out learning the art of Sheridan carving and tooling in half scale. My goal is to build replica saddles in miniature from the 1890's to the present. I have 5 miniature trees collected wade wood post, old time a fork highback, modern roper, to mention a few. I have been working on tooling and saddle patterns for these trees, with the goal of keeping the toolng and leathe work to scale as best possible. I have used up about 3 sides of leather cuting out miniature saddle patterns and tooling them, fun way to learn. I just love retirement. Thanks for your time, and with my goals I am sure I will need the help of a lot of you. Must add that it is coming along very well. Chuck

This is my first time on the Leatherwoekers.net. I have both Hackbarth and Barry King bargrounders that I don't use anymore, don't want to sell though. The reason I bought a set of Barry Kings round and half round backgrounders and like there ease of use and the results are as good or better. Every one who has tried mine says the are a must in their tool budget. Price is $30 apiece, but you only have to buy two. If I need to make fine point I use a simple fine seed the same size. The round grounders as Barry calls them come in three sizes. Barry can be reached at 307-672-5657. Delivery has been in less than 5 days to my house. Anybody else using these round grounders, what are your thoughts