ryan

I just saw this video in a training today. I've never been a fan of Kydex holsters to begin with, but this seals the deal!! Ryan

My wife is a trainer and wants a saddle for training. I gave her my roper I built, but it's too heavy for her. She wants a saddle similar to her show saddle but without the fancy stuff. She wants a lighter saddle but wants a wood tree. I plan to use Wickett and Craig leather (roughout) but I am concerned that 10/12 oz is too light. I recently watched Cheaney's Cutting Saddle video and he uses 10/12 except for the stirrup leathers. I am curious what everyone else uses for their lighter saddles. No matter what, I will be using 13/15 for the leathers. Thanks Ryan

The more I study the photos, the more I like it! I love the deviation from the norm. The heartshaped horn, the stingray inlaid seat, the shape you used for the inlay, the lack of leaves in the tooling, the flowers you used in your tooling etc. It's very inspirational - especially the stingray seat. I have been wanting to build a wade for some time and hope to start one this summer. Do you handstitch or machine stitch your inlaid seats? Is stingray as hard to stitch as everyone says it is? Thanks for the pictures Ryan

Ian, you do nice work. What weight leather do you use for your bags. I am doing a set similar to your set on the far right with 1/2" spots.

Thanks for all the great suggestions! First of all, I don't think it was rawhide covered. It almost looks like a burlap material but could be just really old fiberglass? I haven't looked real close at the tree since I ceased all work upon noticing the crack. I won't be able to look at it until this weekend but will post again and let everyone know what I find out. I am leaning towards boxing it up and sending it to Bowden with the hopes that they may have a similar stock tree, but I might give Ray a call and see what he says too. As I said in my original post, the tree appears to be a little rotten but I won't know for sure til I strip it down. There is a maker stamp on the seat just behind the hand hole but I can't read it. Thanks Ryan

I recently received a saddle for cleaning and found that the tree had a pretty good split all the way through the bar just behind one of the stirrup leathers. I advised the customer of this and they now want to have the tree either replaced or repaired. It's doubtful the tree will be fixable as it appears the wood is getting a little punky. Has anyone sent old trees in to have duplicates made and where are some good places. I have looked at Bowden and Superior so far but just curious what others have done. Apparently price isn't much of a factor with this customer either. Ryan

When they designed these, they should have made them a different color. Being this color, it's pretty obvious what inspired the idea. Ryan

http://fisherleather.com/advertisement.htm I've tried it on a couple different computers and it works fine. Can you access my website?? www.fisherleather.com go to links and then "fake advertisement." Otherwise, it could be because I made it with Microsoft Publisher?? Ryan

A couple of days ago, I was putting together some saddle blankets (14 actually) with reflective tape on the rear corners for a local Mounted Posse outfit. I took a break and checked my e-mails and I found a humorous message in which the top picture in the following link was the punchline. The irony was enough to make me chuckle a bit but I was struck with an idea; a marketing strategy if you will. Now, before you go to the link below, I would like to state that as a Cop, I have a morbid sense of humor and some will not find this that amusing (my wife included). It is a little graphic and if you don't like seeing dead animals - don't look at it. So please, before the hate mail starts, consider the fact that you were forewarned. I couldn't post it here so I made a link on my website. It will be found under the links page titled "fake advertisement" for a couple days before I take it off. Otherwise the link below should take you there. P.S. I don't know the origin of the picture much less the jurisdiction in which it occurred therefore I don't know if the driver lived or if there were any passengers. It's doubtful the horse lived. Now that I've sparked your curiosity; enjoy. http://fisherleather.com/advertisement.htm Ryan

I tend to agree with Johanna in the fact that you should charge hourly. But, I seem to like to work on four different things at once and it's hard to keep track of how much time I have into a project. I know some keep a stop watch and that works for them. I was thinking of getting one of those timers you see people using when they're playing speed chess but I don't know what they are called! But something of that sort with a small notepad would work pretty good I would think. Ryan

I just recently read Mr. Brenner's book and I learned a lot! However, he refers a lot to the current market. In my area, I seem to be one of the only leatherworkers around. I believe you would call that a Monopoly. My question is this; I have an upcoming meeting with a guy who just started a tack shop 45 minutes North of me. In speaking with him on the phone, he seems nice and he is well known in this area as being a good businessman. He states that he's been having tons of requests for custom leather gear and repairs and seemed very excited to have some of my stuff on consignment at the shop. That's great, however, I have been having great difficulty coming up with prices for repairs. I would really like to know what you folks charge for the following; saddle cleaning, new stirrup leathers (halves and wholes), relinning skirts, rewrapping horns and other common requests I have missed. I would prefer to have a list for the shop to quote to interested customers and that may help divert some of these $75 Mexican saddles I get in here from time to time. I am not all that fond of doing a lot of repairs as it has been past experience that it's not that profitable, but I may not be charging enough either. Also, are there any concerns or bad experiences anyone has had with this type of relationship? (dealing with local tack shops) Any info would be appreciated Ryan

Just before Christmas, I was cutting out some notebooks and watching TV at the same time (Open Range which is a great movie). I was running a utility knife down a steel ruler and my finger slipped off the ruler. When I looked down, the tip of my finger, fingernail and all, was laying on the other side of my knife. It took about 2 hours to stop the bleeding. It healed better than I thought and I am just now starting to get feeling back in the tip. None of my draw gauges have bit me but it's not a matter of if but when. I can see how easy it would be to split your thumb when starting a strap. To this day, barbed wire still gets credit for most of my scars followed closely by leather knives and a distant third would be a couple good ones from hoof knives. Ryan

I have a few questions. First, do you have any sentimental attachment to the saddle? What shape is the tree in? And how much do you want to put into the saddle? I have had several saddles in my shop lately that had leather that was in good shape but the tree was rotten. If the saddle means a lot to you, then study up and you might be alright; but it's an awful lot of work and if you're willing to go through all the time and expense, it might be a better idea to build one from scratch using the old saddle as a pattern. Try posting a picture of the saddle on this forum and with a few measurements, someone will be able to point you in the right direction to getting a same or similar tree. Hope this helps Ryan

A picture or two would be great. It's funny you brought up the linoluem; I work with a gal who's husband owns a flooring store /installation business and I just spoke to him last night about getting scraps. I thought it might work for pattern material since it's a little closer to the feel of leather compared to tag board and a lot more durable. I hope to get to building a couple saddles right away this spring once I get caught up. It's great to see you found your way to this forum, I remember seeing the saddle you built for your daughter in LCSJ. Your work is very inspiring. Thanks Again Ryan

I have something similar to that, however, mine looks more like a hand planer. It's made by Stanley and is called a sureform (sp?). My local fleet supply carries extra grates. It never occurred to me to use it to rough leather for gluing. I use mine for evening the edges of two sewn pieces of leather like harness tugs etc; works great. Now I have another use for it!! Ryan

I currently live in Guthrie, MN with my wife, Candace. We both grew up in this area (about 3.5 hours North of Minneapolis - St Paul). She's a teacher and I'm a police officer and we are planning on having kids real soon. They say cops, teachers, and preachers kids are the worst! Considering I am the child of a cop and looking back on my hell raising days; I think we're doomed! We have too many horses and a spoiled border collie. I used to rodeo and she shows western pleasure although we are looking at getting into cutting horses. I am up to my ears in custom orders ranging from billfolds to saddle work so for any of you starving leather workers out there - I'd be glad to do some referals. Ryan

Andy, Let me know what you find out about the Tippmann clickers. I just ordered a bridle die and I'm hoping it will work in my hydraulic bench press. If not, I have been looking for an excuse to buy a clicker. I like the idea of using those tippmann's for embossing work too! Where do you buy your pistol dies? Thanks Ryan

Thanks for the input, I'm sure if I ever make a pair; they'll probably be wall hangers since there isn't much demand. But like you, I want to make a pair just to see if I can and how they'd turn out. Ryan

True! True! Comforting to know others have similar problems! Ryan

Steve, Thanks for the pix of the stand. I'll have to make me one. Those armitas are nice! Ever make woolies? I would like to get around to making both but there aren't much call for them. Keep up the good work. Ryan

Thank you for all the nice words. I see I have a couple spelling mistakes I need to correct. As for the price ranges; I am scared to post them because I would probably get laughed right of this forum lol. I orderd bob brenner's book the other day and I plan on reading it b4 I get a set price list posted. I will work on getting some of the pictures bigger and maybe some captions too. Thanks Again Ryan

I finally got my site posted today. Please check it out and let me know if there are any problems with pictures etc. I am not very computer savy so this was a big accomplishment for me! Also, I need more links so let me know if anyone wants to swap. Thanks Ryan www.fisherleather.com

I'm not a biker, but I see a lot of people on this forum are or do a lot of business with bikers so here's my question. Whats a good all around weight of leather for a decent size set of motorcycle bags? I would prefer 8/9 oz for a set of saddle bags but I am having a hard time finding "good" black leather in 8/9 from my normal supplier. They seem to have a lot of 7/8 oz that they advertise as "motorcylce bag leather" but that seems too light. The bags are to be about 12 inches wide by about 10-12" deep with a 5-6" gusset. These are approximations as I haven't got the measurements off of her old fake leather ripped up ones. They will be at a slight angle too. Thanks, Ryan

Those are really nice! I like the way you set them up for the pictures. Could you maybe post a picture of the stand you use? Ryan

It was -83 windchill at 2:34 AM this morning (so much for global warming). ryan