Hidemechanic

I drill for working saddles but if I think there will be an issue of degrading wod I will use epoxy or resin to coat the holes before stringing. An old muleskinner taught me that when modifying sawbucks(to run latteral straps under crossbucks), he got the sawbuck maker to either make the relief cuts and paint them or to send him a small can of paint with the tree so he could paint the relief cuts. Things went from there as I did mor repairs using resins for reenforcments.Made sense to coat string holes too.G.Hackett

I agree that you may be too thin of feather and too wet.( I watch how much of the top grain I am getting into as to feathering.) I also choke on the dry. However I start by wrapping the first wing right to left using lasting pliers if needed to snug it if I have room,(also working by hand to get it to lay right)tack the tail in place with tension on it then wrap the left wing around to the right and wrap the chinaman on it. Often times before using the chinaman I will work the wing around by hand trying to work some stretch out of it to get a prelimanary fit before choking down(gets things going in the right direction). I never do this in an ABC fashion. I will repeat the process to make sure things are laying where they should. I come back later to check it and have had situations where I have had to run the chinaman over it again, usually though this is more for burnishing. I also will let the chinaman losen up enough to slip(near the end of the process) allows me to control the blending of the wings as well as burnishing. By this time the chinaman has also begun to dry out.Good Luck. G.Hackett

Hi fellas(in this case), my first time posting here. I also belong to a motorcycle board and rarely get time to post there either, but I thought I'd chime in on this one, No particular reason. I learned saddle making from a guy who learned from some of our recent 'old timeres'(Don King,now gone, Bob Marrs, Franklin, Sevier and Hamley) Consiquently I found that a lot of things that were passed on to me were based on 'tradisional techniques. They all had a reason for being, but some also can be updated. Placement of shearling may be one. As short as possible here is what I was taught. Run your flat hand back and forth across the nap to get a feeling for the direction as in my experience sheeps wool doesn't only run from front to back. More like straight out but it tends to go more one way then another thus the nedd to double check. As mentioned the direction is significant because if the nap tends to run to the rear on your skirts, a Navaho will work back. I've seen then even turn around, by a fleece with a diagonal run nap. Point here is that a forward facing nap will act like 'velcro' keeping a navaho in place. Now the question is, how many folks are using a single folded Navao blanket these days? With many of the dencer blankets on the market now I think the issue almost becomes mute. However, I will still place the nap running forward just because that's how I do it. As to the top of the skirt being towards the spine or towards the belly, I was taught to keep it towards the belly because of any thinning of the nap would be less apparent. I can see the wisdom however in placing the dencer nap in the area where there is more weight baring taking place, which is at the bars. As I look at the restoations I have done ant the oldtimers I have seen it is obvious where the majorety of the ware is. With the jumbo hides we have today there probably isn't much need to scrimp by putting the top of the skirt to the belly. This is a fun site and I like seeing knowledge fro all experiences being shared. G.Hackett