Hidemechanic

JohnD, Welcome, You couldn't have picked a better day and loction to set up your picture. Great composition. Leather work is fine too.GH

Mr. West, welcome to the board. I've been watching your work for quite a few years and it truley has been an inspiration. Yours as with Mr.s Bean, Watt, Storms, Harwood and many others, I try to keep near me for reference. I have mentioned( and will continue) how frustating design can be and trying to break out of the cookie cutter copy cat syndrome many of us get stuck in. Having fine examples to ponder helps to raise the bar and keep trudging on and muddling through the practice work that it takes to improve. Thanks for sharing. We have many new up and comers here to that can make good use of examples such as yours. GH

I have basic pats. You'll probably have to mess with them to get them to size.GH

Outstanding!! Can we see the inside? GH

KK, I'd have to agree with Bob, though I was going to give him a hard time and say that he's just old and probably not waring his Roy Orbasin sunglasses like I do. But I do think that it would add an air of professionalism to your site if you at least gave it an off white or subdude background (how about a background of natural hide?). Us old farts don't want to have to squint tooo much when we look at your fine work. But otherwise you done well with your pics. Keep at it younging, just kiddin, I don't git to use that old guy talk much. Heyeh heyeh heyeh GH

Elton Joorisity's Bright green chaps inspired me to dig out the pics of my first rodeo chaps. Thank goodness they were for High School Rodeo.GH

EJ, I applaud your attention to detail. Rolling your edges, and scroll work even in the back, very pro. Your friend shouldn't have any trouble getting good rides cause the rough stock wont know which way to turn with those things popping up from either side. Well done. Busted, only you would notice a flying eyeball, I didn't see it til you mentioned it. Shows what side of my brain I don't think with. Guess that's why I'm a frustrated arteesta. Steveb, buckels are on the outside of the thigh, no complaints. Zippers would bust with the action these guys give them, my 2cents GH

Brett, are you going to leave it natural. Most I've seen are black or Dk Brn.My have to do with who's showing where. Either way I would first give it a coat of neatsfoot. After dry, use Tan-Kote or equivelant. Others will share more. GH

Cool idea for the maul Frog, nice design compilation too. I've been wanting to do one of those,(not much need for traveling tools lately) but I really have needed to do a set of blocks for the drawrs in my tooling desk. Problem is I haven't a drill press. Now you have me wanting to check around the neighborhood. I hadn't thought of lam blocks, got hard wood stuck in my head. Thanks for showing your stuff.GH

The term 'HOT' always makes me nervous, so for those new to leather, anything near warm is suficiant for almost every leather job. If it's too hot for me it's too hot for leather. I like the casing route that Bills mentioned, then no worries. GH

ArtS, I have made plaster casts of backs for problem horses, mostly. I send them to the tree maker and he does the rest(w/notes,photos, and conversation). I too Jon, Have thought about fiberglass but I haven't gotten around the issue of time to set(keeping the horse still, and sometimes the heat). Plaster gets warm and relaxes the horse usually but we are only talking a few minutes before you can gently remove the cast and allow it to cure. Fiberglass on the other hand I would imagine we'd want to use a large plastic drape to protect the horse Jon maybe you weren't talking about taking a fiberglass back map from the horse.(?) In any of the ideas I've pondered on this subjet they all seem to involve a lot of labor. Such as casting off the horse's back then flip it over and make another cast(fiberglass) from the underside of the first cast which would be a more true to shape(static), but definately micro fit(how close does it really have to be). Maybe too extreem unless I want to build a saddle stand more like a horse's back(maybe if I had a body shop in my back yard). I've never used the equifit type but only heard that they were too short for western and some have tried to add a piece to the rear to compensate but was a pain to do so. These are just things I have done and thought about just to through into the pot. And Jon, your communication skills are just fine, as David was saying we sometimes get so focused on a thing that we miss the forest for the trees, that's why we listen to new ideas and try new things. GH

Freak, that's what I wanted to know, dumb ass doesn't deserve a bike. TM, I not sure who'd get the last laugh. If she had to do any wiping, I'm sure she wouldn't be gentile... Are you married?

Well that wa my first thought , if you don't want regular chinks, make up what you do want. Let us see it when you giterdone. GH

RDB, I went back and looked again after craftsman's ? and may I suggest on your guitar straps that you either use a shorter punch or a wider strap to fill the slot as much as you can? Maybe just wide enough that the strap can slip for adjustment but not so much that the strap slips off to one side of the slot. Just a thought. You're making me want to stamp out some belts now. GH

RDB,I guess 2 centavos is all I can offer, I sympathize with the delema of pricing for target groups. Frankly I forget what the fair guys were asking for their cranked out belts, I'm thinking under $30. maybe around $20. The stores are getting over $30. But the issue is are you competing with the crankers? If you are doing hand stamping then your labor and quatity costs go up. Question is, will the street fair folk see the dif between your hand work and the crankers and be willing to shell out more for the quality? Some projects we make, we can quantify our expences(as with Tonyc has x-hrs for x- belts, x- feet of hide= x$ per belt) others we have to justify our price, usually by time,+materials+art. The art is probably what most have trouble justifying. But again the bottom line is can you sell your quality(convince buyer it's worth it) which sometimes means lower sales volume v.s. pricing to sell for higher sales volume? Usually it's a trial and error thing, testing the market. One of queations is desiding if your reputation will suffer for the high volume sales of quality items. Will folks expect you to do quality work on everything at street fair prices? All I can say about that is that I make sure my customers know the difference in quality and labor. It helps to have an example of the crank work on hand to compare with your hand work and ask them if they would rather pay a little more for nicer work. Ca-ching, there's 2cents.Good luck my man, GH

TM, you talking about Armitas? Those are the only step in chinks I know of. Anything else is pretty much a shotgun or stove pipe. I guess you could cut them off shoter to make the chink length. I have plenty of chap pats and many chink pats, but no step through chinks. The armitas have a lace up each side to adjust tightness, maybe someone else knows something I don't (big leap huh?)GH

Wolv, that was the one I'd been looking for. Awhile back when I was checking to where my youngest boy had been going on the net I saw this Skidboot the Dog in the history but I couldn't open it. Always wondered whwat the heck it was. I just watched it, pretty fantastic what an annimal can do sometimes. After it was over it showed the next vid, Skidboot has left us. I started to watch but stopped. I know this sounds horible to many but I've (to put it nicely) had to put down many animals for many different reasons and usally it's just something that has to be done and you move on. You're gonna think I'm nuts, but among the hardest was a bore hog, one of my youngest's prize does(goat) and the German Shepard I grew up with. I always appreciate the heck out of folks that have such a close connection and working relationship with an animal. In fairness(my little disclaimer) I have also worked to bring back from the brink puppies, kittens, piglets, goat kids, and a foal. I must say, that feeling is a hellofalot better than the other feeling. Thanks for sharing Wolv.. GH p.s. now I gotta go do sumthin macho..

Darc, I always know that though I take a long time to get something said others will fill in what I was getting at. I do want to clarify that the highest majorety of working coweboys I know, know how to ride and if any ever had an issue with bulk it was that he was a stringbean that need bulk in his thigh muscles. Darc, you also said what I was thinking about styles. Again a motorcycle analogy, but when you go from a dirt bike to a cruiser you have to re-adjust your entire style of balence, but given a few miles you get the hang of it. :horse: GH

I may get a flamin here but there are times when issues are brought up when they really are not the issue. I'm not implying that is happening here with you guys but this is one of those subjects( bulk v.s. close contact, forward swing ect..) that gets talked about by horse people and the focus strays away from any solutions. When I hear the subject of bulk come up I have to ask why it is an issue for them.( sometimes it almost turns into more of a psycological issue, because they think it , therefore it must be) I think Jordan said it well in the motorcycle post about seat comfort and it applies with saddle comfort too. How a person sits the seat, the length of the stirrup leathers, the geometry between the joints from the toes to the pelvis,including the length of the femur and the tibia. The width of the seat in relation to the spacing between the thigh bones at the pelvis. The difference between these things determine how the leg 'hangs' from the seat to the stirrups. A person with a short femur will be more likely to have issues with feeling bulk because their knee is positioned near the front rig,(rigging placement also being a factor) especially if they use a knot in the latago rather than a tongue chincha. I know many may get tiered of hearing me bring this up but a rider's posture and proper adjustment of the stirrup leathers will change the leg position usually moving the knee away from any bulk that would normally be detected with a different adjustment. My point here is that for many people proper adjustment is uncomfortable at first and we change things for comfort sake but actually cause more discomfort. Many of us learn bad habbuts but think the are right, then blame the saddle design. Does that make sence? Some folks ride with their toes pointing out away from the horse which forces the knees into the saddle putting more presure in the femur area. This is made worse if they sit on their pockets,this usually forces them to shove their feet into the stirrups to keep from losing them because weight has been transfered too high up the leg. Lets say instead that the rider rolls his pelvis forward so it is upright, adjusts his stirrups to a point where the back edge of the stirrup is just behind the ball of the foot and the angle of the foot is maybe just a hair below level, the knee with a slight bend. If I have explained this correctly what we have is a balenced proprtion of weight and suspention from the toe(ankle and knee) to the hips with the fulcrum at the toe. (kind of like the Springer suspention on the old motorcycles) How this relates to the bulk issue is that this set up in most cases alleviates any significant presure between the femur, knee and the saddle 'bulk' in a properly built saddle,and as such will make irrelevant what rigging you used. I am talking in generallities here, an avarage person with an average horse. As to preferrence I too like building the plate rig. Respectfully GH

This isn't exactly what you are going for but I wanted to add that I made a flatbed extention to add to my cylender mechine for doing the kind of projects you are talking about. Though it is still limited at doing fine stiching, it does give me the option to do more jobs on my big stitcher by changing to smaller needle and thread. Comes in handy for other big jobs to like saddle bags, saddle pads, skirts, whatever I want to sew on a flat surface. Cheers,GH

Awsome paint job on the fryer.GH

TomS and Spiser, you guys talking about staps to hold down your chaps so you don't look like some Rodeo Drive Divas with pedal pushers?? :pirate2:

Is tha BORG skull?? "Resistance is Futile!!' Great bat cover. GH P.S. Speeking of batteries, I thought it was time to charge mine yesterday, couldn't resist a ride, 31* but who cares? It got me out of my funk.

Don, where did you get your tree? What other resourses did you use for technique on fitting parts? GH

I'm sure I wont make the Idaho forum, hope to be starting a new job then, but Jim, thanks for the offer, I may take you up on the PM. Yaklady, that's some good info. Doug, your kids are doing quite well. To be truthful I think I'm conserned about the really young ones, because of me more than them. I'm getting cranky in this time of my life. I don't want to turn out like the other guy. Thanks all for your thoughts. I may be contacting one or some of you if I decide to take the step.' I'd rather be a visitor then a leader,but we'll see. GH