AndyKnight

I have used mahy differrent brands and the solvent based ones have all worked quite well. They are all flexible . Weldwood and Lepages as well have worked as well as some store branded. With the water based glues i prefer the white ones as the blue or green tend to show up if there is any extra glue.getting where you don't want it. If you are not sure just buy a quart container first. OWith some glues I will double coat to get a good bond. Andy, Thanks for the reply. By local building supply, i am asuming that the brand is probably something along the line of Weldwood? I am always a little suspect of the "true"differences in glues as i was about epoxies until I learned that most of them are derivitives of the same Shell product. With that being said, have you seen much difference in performance compared to traditional shoe type glues? I imagine not or you wouldn't use it. Also, any performance differences in water based vs. solvent based? I'm always interested in saving what few brain cells I have left. Switched over to water bourne wood finishes years ago building casework. Can you reveal your brand? Thanks, Mike in Rome

I use contact cement from the building supply. both the water based as well as the solvent base. The water base will stick the waxy or oiled latigos/chap leathers. the down side is that it takes longer to dry. I havn't used barge since my boot repairing days ...about 15 years.

Looking Good Darcy, Was that one of Jon's rawhide or his epoxy /fiberglass trees.??

That is the best condition Great wWest saddle that I have seen in a long time. I am not up on values however It would be a good find for a collector I would think made in th e1920 's . there again that is a guess. As far as using it be aware that those trees were typically quite narrow with very convex bars so you may have saddle fit issues. From a collector point of view I wouldn't reline it.

never had a need for them myself but the ones that we made back in the 70's were all sheep lined.

I almost always build my trees with 1 1/4 and figure on them finishing around +-1" The slope of the cantle will also have a bearing on this and I generally like a cantle with good slope. ( not too vertical as the rim of the cantle can bight) Most of my customers want to sit with their feet underneath them and tend to ride long. . I have found that-the rider Sitting back into a deep dish seat in a vertical riding position will be susceptible to having the corners of the cantle rubbing the back of the thighs and then the rim of the cantle will be more prone to biting there spine. .and if you set them ahead of the points of the cantle the deep dish is redundant. the main purpose of the cantle is to keep them from blowing out the back. Now if you are riding broncs and want to stick your feet out front to spur the shoulders then the deep dish is an advantage.. eg. rodeo association. ( IMHO) This is what works for me. Andy

Sheepskin lining helps holds the pads in place and usually does it fairly well for a long time. I have lined some saddles with roughout chap leather over the last 16 + years. Some customers will have nothing but leather lining and others prefer the more traditional sheepskin. I find the biggest disadvantage with the leather is that the roughout tends to get slick and may allow pad slippage. but on the other side it doesn't attract pine needles and burrs etc, Also the mites aren't interested in it. Look on the bottom of english saddles and you won't see sheepskin. The padding attribute in sheepskin is not a contributing factor as we use padding /blankets for that purpose. Still a plump, thick sheepskin is darn nice.....

just like shooting a bow..... after a while you just know where that arrow will go... I also fling arrows. www.knightssaddlery.com has my ph. number Andy

I get my awls from Sheridan outfitters. ( douglas tools) I make a stitch groove on the under side so that I have a very specific target for the awl to come out....then it is all about aim . This will take practice.......usually more than one. I see you build boats also....My spare time project is a 19' strip built westpointer . It kind of clutters up the tree shop.

I don't know of any professional saddle makers that mess with any thing like that.( but maybe I am out of the loop . Al stolman told me he only made it because Anne had a tough time getting riggings even. Even the gauge is only as accurate as the tree ....which in a lot of case I would question. Andy.

Steve is 100 % correct. that was what I wanted to say... Knotty wood... wood with knots in it which will compromise the strength of the tree.

It would be very difficult to make a cantle taller, do the leather work necessary and keep it economically viable. new cantle cover, new seat, new cantle binding Probably new ground work. Better off to start from scratch. IMHO Whoever built that tree in the pics. wasn't shy about using knotty wood.

Keith Thanks for your shameless self promotion!! It is inspirational to see work and craftmanship of this quality. Keep sharing Andy

the bottom line of square skirts is not straight . generally it will be about an inch high under the fenders. cut them oversize and figure the lines out when they are blocked on the tree

Janneman, looks cool. Andy

Hi Justin, The saddle looks good. You obviosly have the talent required to becoming a saddlemaker. For saddle # 4 it is exceptional. I would not want to see my 4th saddle:) A couple of things to watch in your next one would be : the front edge of your fork cover , cut and fold it so that it comes ahead of the gullet evenly all the way around. :either the rear jockeys aren't pulled down enough at the back or the skirts arn't blocked up enough. ( see the middle pic ) I would also put a little more set in the twist of the stirrup leathers My preference on a smaller ladies saddles is 2 1/2" stirrup leathers ans almost always do 1/2 leathers.. That is a lot of leather all wrapped up around the stirrups. Keep up the good work Andy

I bleed 5 tugs through the skirt , 2 in front and 3 in the rear. Technically, I usually run one screw through the string itself but then either side of the string usually through the larger button or latigo hanger etc . run a couple more. The important thing is that in a wreck you want the string to fail and not rip everything out and causing an expensive repair.

Not a right or a wrong...Just different ways of doing things. I am with Steve on this one... unless a customer insists. I also use 5 bleeders on each skirt. I sell alot of working rigs and I have found my strings to be plenty strong. I pre drill all my screws and use a min of 2 per string.

Steve, beautiful clean work.. I also like the swade... I usually call trees like that when I do them an "andy knight special" Thanks for sharing. Andy

Measure twice (or more) and cut once There is no room for screw up doing that. It is fairly self explanatory by deciding what yo want it to look like when you are done,

Nice work!! Looks like a low seat.. who built your tree??

Thanks for the compliments, Yes stamping swell forks is a bugger, it doesn't help that the leather is pretty compressed after putting it on. ..... Darc, not sure about Kamloops at this point ,I will have to see what is coming off the bench closer to that time..

this is a swell fork that after I read the posts about covering without welts a couple of weeks agoI thought I should do it that way.. It had been a while for some reason was in the habit of stitching welts in.... so thanks for the inspiration to get out of my rut also a light wade shortened up for a Arab. > 30lbs

Steve's pricing is right on. My link these will show wickett and craig colours of skirting, Not sure which your saddle was made out of. The saddle maker will be able to tell you exactly which . My gut feeling would be not to put another $1000,00 into that saddle. Is there a demand for this saddlemakers saddles.?? if so you may be better off selling it if you think the deficiencies are such that you can't use it. It may be just right for someone else. Just my thoughts. Andy