AndyKnight

Thanks for your compliments. I will try and post some more picsAndy

definately mexican quality rating .... imho 1-10 would be 1-2

here is a wade that I thought some of you may like to see.

The other guys have it right.... from Mexico and Very poor quality.

I would make my frog leather and crupper 'D' all one piece. It will look cleaner and lay flatter. Also if when you do your ground seat and hand hole you can leave some ground seat leather on the back of the fork to get a nicer look. These are my preferences, not what is right or wrong. over all looks good. I will try an attach a pic to show what I mean. The other point I may look at is . cutting the front of the skirt a little higher at the front where it meets the gullet. Maybe 1/2". That is also personal preference. But look at other wades and you may see that. Andy

sandpaper works for giving the glue a little roughness to grab to. You are wanting to rough up the finish not the actual rawhide. If I drill for strings The drill bit size may vary 5/16 - 3/8. If you are using heavy strings go bigger. I drill when everything is fitted and in place temperally so that I drill my skirts before they are lined. There are as many ways to do this as there are saddlemakers!! Barge will work although I use regular contact cement.

to my way of thinking the function of the sheep skin on the skirts is to help hold the blankets/pads. I have built lots of saddles with foam covered with rough out chap leather. They work very well until the sweat starts to cause the leather to slick off. Then the pads want to spit out the back. Sand paper helps some. I have had it in mind to try one with smoothout glove tan type leather. however there would need to be away to attach the pads similar to an english saddle. ( velcro)The advantage is that you don't get crap sticking to your wool .eg. pine needles and twigs. Bottom line is that I still recommend Sheepskin for longevity unless you get the bugs! Small skirts will work well. Bare rawhide is especially slick which may explain having trouble keeping a pad under them. I will quit rambling...

the wood work on the tree takes longer rawhiding takes longer covering the fork takes longer fitting the seat takes longer We should charge more for swept back swell forks!! I have made quite a few where I take a typical swell fork and just add 3/4" sweep back on each swell . I usually do it to a 12" , 12 1/2 or 13" fork. have done a couple with a wood horn. They look good as I keep them low as well.

The boots look great.!! I have made a few pair and came to the conclusion that I had better stick to saddles!! You obviously know what you are doing.

I also cut mine when the ground seat is complete. same reason as Greg.

Thanks,, I am working in there this week. It is working well although will take a little getting used to!!

higher resolution

Thought some of you may want to see a couple of pics of my new shop . I have been setting it up the past few days. Still have to move the clicker. I have been building the house and shop for the past 16 months between saddles.. My tree shop still needs lots of organizing. The tree shop is 22x 24 and the saddle shop is the same size. Just a dividing wall between them. The shop is heated with radiant heat in the floors. 10' 6" ceilings. I have to put in an air exchanger yet. I finally have a cutting table that I can walk all around. I just built the small work tool station on casters so that I can have it right at the saddle that I am working on. It is between the saddle stands. I am wanting to buy new cutting surfaces for the benches as well as the cutting table.The benches all have 1" thick plywood so they are solid!!

I do the same as Greg. On rare occasion I will fit the seat before the fork cover with a slick fork saddle. Gullet, ground seat, Block skirts, install riggings, remove skirts stamp or carve then put fork cover on, fit cantle. tack skirts back on and fit seat. I like to have my skirts blocked in place before i fit and install the riggings so that I get the lines that I want. although I could get by without doing that sometimes. Different strokes for different folks!!! Being self taught for the most part it pays to sometimes question why I do things the way that I do.

This one looks good (IMHO) although in the pic it appears to me that it is too high on the horse or the main bodyy straps are a little short. I am thinking that it may be tough for the horse to to get his head low enough to drink comfortably. These style of breast collar /martingale are a lot more size sensitive from horse to horse. I vary the length of the main body straps drom 16" to 25" depending on the size of the horse.

I build saddles for short persons quite regularly .I usually suggest an inskirt rigging . the fenders are cut to the needed . length with buckle set short to ensure that it will be below the rigging. The rigging is usually set as high as possible. I also suggest 1 /2 stirrup leathers. Also using light weight leather helps .a picture link

I would expect around the 2500.00 range for that, in our area. It is hard to say as priced can very a huge amount even from store to store.

The connector strap goes between the front and rear Dees. It then prevents the stirrup leather s from hanging up on the front rigging. It can be made from a one inch wide strap either laced in or riveted in. look here

I am not familiar with Wyeth saddles. Howcevr a saddle with aluminum dees and a low cantle like that I would think late 50's to early 60'S. That is a guess. I would classify it as a cheaper saddle in its day( partially coverd tree and aluminun dees) and therefore not worth much now. Prices ( appraised value) for saddles are very subjective and different geographical locations will fetch different prices. In my shop I would give it $300-400 price. By the way it needs a connector strap between the front an back rigging

looks good Bob, I still need to trade you out of one of those sting rayS!!

Textan closed the the calgary factory around 1973 -74 ,not sure of the exact year. Textan -Kenway were textan saddles made in Canada. Not to be confused with Kenway saddles made prior to Textan 's acquisition of Kenways The Calgary factory (textan) made saddles out of the American catalog from Textan Yoakum. All the patterns and dies etc. came from the yoakum plant. The year that I worked for them they were realy struggling with quality. which may have been part of the reason that they closed the factory. Nylon laced trees are inferior to rawhide laced trees. Once nylon wears through in one place it tends to un ravel. This takes me back a few years!!

The kenway one would have been made in Calgary Alberta. sometime between 1968 and 1973 ( my guesstimation. Textan bought out Kenways in Calgary arounnd that time. The adjustable tree that the one made in Yoakaum texas has is one of the worst inovations in the evoltion of modernTrees.( My opinion.) I know they were in the catalog when I worked for textan Kenways around 1972.

when I started I used the "how to build a western saddle" by Lee Rice. in the back of the old braiding book.. Now with modern adhesives I only stretch (spike) the first "strainer" piece fasten front and back first leaving about an inch gap at the center. A heavy piece of neck leather is perfect for this. I love it when it has a little rawhide in the center! I can't over emphasize the fact that it has to be tight.

There is no way I have enough time to give a " how Andy does ground seats" i n a typed format. I will give a couple of points. I use stirrup leather plugs so the end product has a tunnel for leathers. Use a heavy piece as the main "strainer "part. You may use a couple of fillers either side of the plug if you want. I generally don't. Stretch it in with spikes. The end can go under the Mantle. >make sure it is very tight all directions. Cut the hand hole after it is complete. If it is done right an all leather ground seat will be as firm as one with a tin plate for the life of the saddle. I am not sure how Stolman did his ground seats . My shop is only an hour or so away from where Stolmans used to live so I was privileged to be invited over there a few times.