Timbo

Wow that looks great.......excellent job!!!!!! Where are you getting your doghouse stirrups?? Tim

Horse hide is great stuff......If I could buy it in the same sizes and weights as cow.....I would never buy cow again. The edges are so easy to burnish and look great. It is denser and will outlast cowhide by a long shot. It is a little harder to mold and tool. If you will rub some saddle soap on it before you start tooling you'll find that your swivel knife will glide right over it. When stamping the images burnish better than cow too. If given a choice between hard rolled and soft rolled (Seigel has both) choose the soft rolled. Use the hard rolled for strap goods and soft for everything else. Several years ago I got some 8-9 oz horse and they were pretty long pieces too. I made myself a belt and will probably never have to make myself another. Tim

They make bicycle seats similar to that for men.........the purpose is to lessen pressure on the prostate. Its possible that could be the reasoning behind this funky seat.

I never really thought about it........but Peter Sherayko liked it and said it looked like a Mother Hubbard............I guess he's right. It does look like a Mother Hubbard. So what does everybody else think......Mother Hubbard, Santa Fe, Mountain Man????????

No I don't have any pics of the rigging. I was too excited getting it together and forgot to take any pics without the mochilla. Its pretty simple. Just a strap going around the swell with a ring at the ends, tied off with latigo. Then there are 2 straps, one on each side that runs back to a piece behind the cantle, tied to it with latigo. The saddle strings, front and rear, come up thru the bars and thru the rigging. I couldn't believe how solid the rigging was once it was all tied in and the strings snugged up. It doesn't move around at all. The rigging leather was all in good shape when I got it, so I left it figuring that at least all the stretch was taken out of it so why start over. The corner pieces on the rigging were put on to correct the curl it already had and to keep it from curling in the future. Sadly though most of the curl people complain about in saddle skirts is done due to the way they store the saddles. This was the case in this saddle. But, yeah I think they came out nice. Just a simple swivel knife only design. I repeated it throughout as usually thats how they did a lot of the old stuff I have seen. Pick a design and stick with it everywhere. Thanks for the compliments. I'm glad you understand the saddle. Some people don't. Tim

Thanks for the compliments. And yes it is pretty light too. I know your saddle very well. I studied the pics at length. It and one oher on the web is about all I could find. Just not a lot of them out there. After lugging around a 45lb TexTan all one summer I am hell bent on building light weight saddles. Thanks again!!! Tim

Okay, heres the story on the saddle. In the first pic you can see the saddle as I bought it from a used sporting goods store. You can't see the cheap plastic stirrups but they weren't even covered. As a whole the tree and the leather were in really good shape. The down side was it needed cleaned and oiled. Under the mochilla I found one piece of skirting nailed to the tree as a ground seat and it was sunk down between the bars. It was like sitting on a couple 2x4's spaced 3" apart. The sad thing is you can tell it had been ridden quite a bit like that. As for skirts.......it had none, just a couple of pieces of skived skirting nailed and glued to the bottom of the bars to make a channel for the stirrup leathers. So I stripped it all down to the bare tree. The tree and rawhide were in good shape but the rawhide in the cantle hand holds had shrunk pretty good and was pretty ugly. That was when I decided I needed to cover the cantle and do it the way I did. Anyway you can see what I did from there. the corner panels on the mochilla were to correct some curling and keep it from happening and they are horse butt. The cantle bind is also horse. I wanted it to have a sort of old Santa Fe/Spanish feel and thought that flower would work. It was originally found by Will Ghormley and he gave permission to use it as he said it wasn't his he had found it on an old unmarked holster. So I expanded the flower a bit from the original and used it all over the saddle. The stirrups are from Weavers. They are their military style stirrups. The stirrup leathers are twisted and laced. The swell cover......well I knew I wanted it covered but wanted it to come off with the mochilla. So I came up with that design. The bottom of the horn cover is keyed to a piece of leather sewn under the bottom of the swell cover to keep it from moving around. All the strings and conchos are also horse butt. The skirts are small and pocketed and don't move around at all, just pockets and strings.........I will probably put in a screw or nail in them in the gullet though. Under the mochilla it is pretty much just a skeleton rig, with the front rigging going around the swells. Pretty simple design that was in excellent shape so I didn't change it. Oh yeah, It has a full leather half seat ground seat. It actually looks pretty good without the mochilla. Once it was done it is very comfy to sit in and am sure I could sit in it all day without a problem. There sure aren't many Santa Fe style saddles on the net to look at. Googling santa fe or mochilla doesn't yield very much, so I abandoned authentic for what I pictured in my head. I did however antique it so it looks old. Tim

Love the color!!!!!!

I've never seen one like it before, but I like it a lot!!!! That is similar to what I am building. It looks very comfortable and I'm guessing could have been built for endurance riding, but it is a bit heavy for that. I would have guessed it weighed a lot less than 35 lbs. Are there any makers marks on it at all??? I really like it!!! Tim

I think its an excellent idea.....just make double sure the tree is sound before wasting any effort or materials on a worthless tree. But then again there is knowledge to be gained from tearing saddles apart. One thing to keep in mind is that alot of the leather on a saddle has been stretched to fit then trimmed once it is stretched and glued into place. So alot of the leather you will be pulling off and using for patterns will only wind up being a loose guideline. For instance the swell cover will be alot smaller when you pull it off than what you want to start with. If you cut a new swell cover the same size as the old.....you'll never get it to work. But then again you might, it will just be more work. I have learned to never say never .......and I will also never say anything to discourage anybody from wanting to build saddles. I've ran into too many obstacles in my quest to be one for somebody else. You can achieve anything if you set your mind to it. And when you hit a brick wall........well, thats what this forum is here for. There is a wealth of knowledge on here and these saddle makers will not hesitate to share it!!!!!!! Tim

Wow, sorry guys, didn't know I had questions to answer......sorry. Keeping the awl blade sharp is done on a whet stone.....pretty fine one too. then I buff it to make sure it is smooth and polished. Then I strop it on my leather strop and do that off and on while using it too. The key to an awl is sharp but mainly smooth. As for using it for bowhunting......I would probably just made 2 short straps with snaps on them and snap it on my belt.......or make a longer strap and sling it across my chest. The custom canteens I sell for 130.

I'll agree with the flanky leather.....but it looks like the flesh side is shrinking up more than the grain side causing the wrinkles. Tim

If it were mine.....I'd ride it the way it is and if it gets worse eventually, replace the seat. Other wise the only real way I see to do anything is replace the seat. You need to weigh the price of tearing it down and repairing it against what you gave for it too. Tim

Darcy.......just so you know.......thats how I feel when I look at your work!!!!!!! Tim

I'm curious if the rigging is the same on the off side or is it done differently?? Can't tell from the pics. I find the rigging interesting as the plate is forward and the latigo is behind it. Yes the plate is pretty far forward but with the lat being tied behind it so when the cinch is done up it will fall in between these 2 points which negates the plate being so far forward. Very interesting. Never seen this before. Thanks. Tim

I really like the Leather Therapy line of products especially for this sort of cleanup and restore. Here is the web address:http://www.leathertherapy.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&type=equestrian

There is no "could be" collectible to it..............it IS collectable. HH Heiser is a very big name in the saddlery world. Very much sought after, especially in useable, rideable condition. I would love to have one even in poor shape just for display, let alone in the condition yours is in. Take very good care of it......it will only increase in value especially if you can maintain its condition. The condition could be improved though. Please be careful with how much neatsfoot oil you are using on it as you can over oil it. Personally I would take it apart and give it all a good cleaning. There are several very good products available to clean and restore the leather to a more natural state and renew the ph balance of the leather. Which in the long run will increase its life. If you don't feel comfortable doing this please find someone who can....'cause when you sell it you will definitely get your money back and then some!!!! Great find.......wish you the best of luck!!!! You own a piece of saddlery history. Tim

LOOKS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Timbo

Welcome to the forum from another Coloradoan. Don't be bashful just jump in with both feet. As far as scallop tools most everybody I know has made there own. Made 'em the same way as you. And by the way....the perfect reuben sandwich is in Pueblo West. It's not traditional but it sure is good!!! (and no it doesn't have green chile in it) ((about the only thing in this town that doesn't though)) Tim

Welcome another member from Colorado and also a CSMA member as well. Saddle looks great. And when you figure out the mechanism for the stitcher let me know as I need to make one too. Timbo

Yup, I love the old style saddles and it is what I aspire to build. My second saddle will be a half seat Sam Stagg rigged saddle. Timbo

Ok, that makes sense. I'm building a hard seat, but I've already got my ground seat in but didn't go all the way up the cantle. I've seen it done before but I guess I'll need to go ahead and put in a piece up the cantle and blend it into the ground seat that is already in place.

When putting in the ground seat, do you all cover the whole front of the cantle face?? Or do you just go part of the way up with the first layer of ground seat?? So you ever put the saddle seat itself to the rawhide of the cantle face?? How important is it to cover all the nails in the rawhide of the cantle face with ground seat leather?? Ok so it was actually 4 questions. Timbo

I'm pretty close to the above mix, but I use 3 parts saddle tan to 1 part mahogany. Its also a very rich color. Timbo

To me the lack of standardization is one of the things that is appealing about saddle making and lets face it, if it hasn't happened yet, it's probably not going to. There are loose standards within the trade and it seems to me they have to be loose. It is an art form and like any other art form it is subjective. The saddle makers and the tree makers are both artists blending there two skills together. Every artist has there own slant or spin they put on there portion of the completed piece. Order the same exact custom saddle from different makers and each one will be different. Same goes for the trees. There is a finite amount of shoe sizes in the world but there are no two feet that are identical. When I try on shoes I know what size to start with but that is just a start. I go with what feels good. (...and I have shoes from 8EE to 9.5D and they all fit well and are comfortable) It's hard to find brands of shoes whose sizes are identical to other brands. Same goes for horses and saddles and saddle makers. Too many variables to be able to put it in a box. I understand what you would like to see happen, but I just don't see how it can be more standardized than it already is. Each artist has there own standard. Just my .02 on the subject ymmv Timbo