Reg Marek

I've made a few leather bits for a horse trainer and her clients in our area. I used Hermann Oak skirting (13-15 oz). The piece was 3/4'' wide and 17 3/4'' long and folded so it was three layers thick. It was sewn and of course had rings in each end. Then was edged with a #4 edger. Apparently they last a lot longer than what we would think. As far as the chemicals in the leather, I have my doubts if that little amount would hurt the horse. I'm a saddle maker and handle it all the time every day and if it was that dangerous it would certainly get through your skin and do some damage. Anyway, hope this info helps you a little.

Hi Julia I cut my stirrup leathers and wet them good and do up the edges nice and then take out some stretch with a glass slicker. Then I let them dry. I tool my fenders and let them dry. Then I assemble them (I usually use half-leathers also). Then I wet the entire fenders and stirrup leathers....I don't completely soak them but they're pretty wet. Then I put them on a bare tree and twist and weight them down with heavy shot bags that sit on a stick that's through the stirrups. I don't think that this method damages stamping or carving. I hope Keith Seidel replies to this as I always respect his opinion. (I respect lots of other's opinion also) Reg

Thanks lots to you all for the information. Reg

I bought a new Ferdco Pro 2000 about 20 years ago and it was a Juki manual that came with it too. Can anybody tell me what happened to Ferdco? Where can we get parts and service for this machine now? I was buying Dacron Polyester thread from them (346 and 277) in a tan color that looks good on saddlery. Does anybody know where I can get this thread now? Thanks. Reg

You should learn to cut your leather off the edge of the bench. I was taught that many years ago by a good saddlemaker and my round knife edge hasn't touched anything but leather since. It takes a little practice but you'll soon teach yourself how to do it. Leave what you're cutting hanging over the edge. Your knife will stay sharper for so much longer and believe me, you'll soon shudder at the sight of someone using a razor sharp round knife to cut into their bench, poundo board, or anything else.

I was getting the ''Forbidden'' thing too and just kept clicking on the Leatherworker.net and it would finally work for me. It started to do this immediately after my friend cleaned up my computer and he said it was probably caused from him deleting the cookies. I don't know, I am as computer illiterate as you can get. The exact words that were displayed were: ''403 Forbidden Forbidden You don't have permission to access/forum/index.php on this server Additionally, a 404 not found error was encountered while trying to use an Error Document to handle the request.'' This is all foreign language to me but maybe one of you people know what it means.

When you're cutting leather with a round knife you shouldn't be cutting into anything but your leather. When cutting out saddle parts (or anything else) I hang the leather over the side of my bench and absolutely never let my round knife touch the bench. I was taught this many years ago by a good saddlemaker and now I can't imagine taking a good sharp knife and cutting into any surface other than the leather itself. It does take a little practice whenever you change from one method to another but I promise you that once you start doing this you will cringe at the thought of cutting into any type of surface with your knives again.

I have had a Landis #1 for 25 years although I haven't used it since I bought my Juki Pro 2000 about 10 years ago. A Landis #1 is a good machine for harness and saddlemaking. I don't think you'll ever find a modern machine that will make as nice of a bottom stitch as the Landis or a Pearson. I never used my treadle as it seemed too clumsy so I just handcranked it. The bad part about that is that you then only have one hand to guide your work. The good part though is that you have more control when you are handcranking....you can go slowly one stitch at a time. I never had any problems with mine not doing a good job.