JRedding

It might sound kinda' gross to some but blood will dye it, pure blood, it must stand for three or four days at about room temperature, too cool and it won't take, too warm and it will turn rancid too fast. If you can let it soak as long as possible before it gets too rank you'll get a nice mahogany color. I didn't invent it but I've done it, it's an old trick that used to be used by sheepcamp braiders that didn't have a lot else to work with in the middle of nowhere.

Anyone waiting for common sense to prevail in matters involving politicians is going have a damn long wait.

No one got this far West riding on air, gel, inserts, rubber, or any of the other gimmicks sold today. I've seen more sore backs and gaulds caused by scientists and engineers than I have by cowboys and wool pads.

what an outstanding piece of work, I've admired pieces like this enough to realize the time and talent it takes to craft something like this and do a good job. Sounds like it's already brought you an interesting experience while building it. This is the first piece of it's kind I've seen someone on the forum build, thanks for sharing the photo I'd like to see even more, a truly interesting project and a fine job of a difficult reproduction. Congragulations, don't let anyone talk you out of it, the shirt and the experience are irreplaceable.

Bruces, post reminds me of something I once read, it's said the old trail bosses had a saying, "five minutes for centerfire riders and smokers" supposedly it meant take five to get your saddle back in the middle of your horse or roll a smoke. I guess if you had a centerfire rig and smoked you'd have to trade saddles or give up the smokes.

Kathy, those are the ones I've usually seen in the shops in this area, I live about fifteen miles from the Ute reservation here so we used to see them often, not so much anymore though. The ones Joe did were done with the same technique, just larger and more detailed. The elk ones I've seen always had multiple scenes done on them much like you'd see on a buffalo story robe. My wife was raised on the reservation and is familiar with a lot of what they do, she says they're some form of a dream catcher, or mandella. (she thinks)

I've seen a lot of work like your describing, living next to a reservation the natives do some of this, usually done on beaver pelts stretched on willow hoops, but there is a guy near here (not a native american) who does this on full elk hides, the pictures are shaved in with grooming clippers and barber scissors in layers of different heighths to create as much dimension as possible, and the background is usually taken clear to the leather and some color added to create sunset, blue sky, etc. It's quite a knack to do it he says but I've seen some on a full elk hide sell for as high as six thousand dollars, and the small beaver ones are usually something quite simple and sell for a few hundred in the tourist shops around here. Maybe check out some of the galleries that deal in the high end native american goods and you might find a few more examples of what you're looking for.

I think I'd rather ride bareback.

Bob, what I like most is that you just do it your own way, it's tough to do your own thing and create something unique and top-notch, and you really pull it off everytime.

Very nice taps, looks like a good tap pattern and a fine job done on a not so easy piece of gear.

Jam, I'm with Bruce about the heighth of the riggin' itself and a new set of skirts is the only absolute resolution. But I'd add part of your problem is coming from those brand new looking latigos that aren't broke in real well yet, and part of it is the full stirrup leather running down the back of the fender, you could eliminate the full stirrup leather and go the other way with a single fender and an attached stirrup leather and rid yourself of a full thickness of stirrup leather that's causing part of your problem. Give it ample time to really break everything in and get situated and it will get better and maybe good enough you can live with it if you really don't want to tear it down.

"take from the rich and give it to the poor who then throw it away on lottery tickets and beer" that has to be the most belligerent statement I've ever heard anyone babble. You've just insulted everyone on this forum who's tax return doesn't categorize them as wealthy. How about this one "it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

That's one of the five dumbest things I've ever seen. The only hope for this scenario is if God really does help little children and idiots first.

It might have su^$#%ed to do but it looks great, that's one of the coolest ideas I've seen lately. Wanna do mine ?

Nice job Troy, neat and clean as always.

The reason for the stitching is it doies make the belt look nicer, and the stitch also helps to minimize any stretch that may occur Arvis

Do you want to make a belt with a clean lined back ( no attachments showing ) or are you planning on attaching the coins after the belt is completed with the attachments showing. Because if you want a clean backside it's an entirely different process that requires a different method of attaching your coins ?

I'm the opposite of Bree, I'd rather have a good speed reducer set-up than the servo. We've got them both, the speed reducer if set up right will stitch one at a time, and it actually increases the bottom end torque allowing slow starts with good control. The servo we run will start slow and accelarate slow as long as it's easy sewing, not too heavy and not too dense.But it seems to have no torque at all compared to a speed reducer. Our servo setup has seen a lot of use but it's not that old and has recently started having some heating problems, it gets hot and will not accelerate beyond a snails pace if you run it continuously so I doubt it will last much longer.

I sometimes use the foam pencil grippers like you find with the office supplies. Usually you have to tape them at the top or bottom to keep them in place with all the pounding but they work to increase the size of small shafts.

Chuck, my suggestions with the construction would be, I can see you're struggling to make smooth cuts with a round knife, sharpen up good and don't be so nervous and deliberate when cutting your parts out the finished edges will be much nicer. Sharpen your edger also and use a little more saddle soap and elbow grease on those edges. At the cantle points where your seat comes over the binder and under the concho you don't want to leave that thick edge showing. If after the seat fitting is done and before you glue it down you'll skive that to a long taper it will lay over the binder smooth and look much nicer. The only other things I noticed are cosmetic, if you're adding rings bled into the strings use round rings not the D that's at the cantle point and the round on the front, kinda' looks like spare parts. The latigo carrier on the skirt is a common idea but I'm not a fan of sewing it on like that, I'd have to suggest either cutting it as part of the top skirt like found on a lot of ropers, or you could screw it to the bar and leave it extending below the skirt similiar to how you have it, or put it on top of the skirt and under the concho at the cantle point. The last suggestion I'd have is the shape of the seat jockey, a lot of saddles made have a similiar one to yours and it's fine, I just think a little more shape in the jockey would make a lot of difference in the overall appearance of this particular saddle, after you've fit the first side around the swell stop when you reach the top of the bar before you continue cutting and make yourself a posterboard template of how you want the jockey shape to be, this way you can shape it and look at it as much as you want until you're satisfied with the shape before you continue cutting. Well you wanted honest suggestions, hope that's not too harsh.

I'm not real familiar with the food traditions in the South but coming from where I live (Utah) we definately notice the food preferences you folks have. Not to offend anyone about their favorite food but sit a bowl of grits in front of someone not raised on the stuff and it's pretty disgusting, definately an aquired taste I think. And what's with the love of gravy and the absence of ketchup, after a week of starving for something that tasted like home one time in Oklahoma I wheeled into a Dairy Queen thinking "it's a Dairy Queen, nobody would screw with a Dairy Queen" (I assumed it would be the same as the ones around here) ordered a burger and fries and was handed a bowl of gravy to eat my fries with, I asked the lady for some ketchup and she looked at me like I'd just ask her to pull her blouse over her head. I gotta' say though a week in that country and I dropped ten pounds, maybe I should go back.

Full tooling a saddle whether it's floral or geometric does make it wear better, by compacting the fibers it hardens the leather, and it does make scratches and stains harder to distinguish at a glance, even a big scratch amongst a full floral job is hard to find, but the same scratch on a smooth saddle is very obvious. There are benefits to it besides just looks. I have seen people who's tooling was a little deep and usually had a lot of lifting done to it that were a little abrasive to break in but even those tame down pretty quickly.

I glue them together before punching any holes, glue them around the edge and leave the rest floating and then punch your holes. I think you'd have to be a mathmatical genius to calculate how to do it seperately and have it come together for a perfect finish.

Apparantly I'm not the only one who's noticed the retailers would rather just ignore Halloween and Thanksgiving because they don't bring in the dollars. We just try to take each holiday one at a time and do our own thing. I hate the way it's done but I really feel sorry for the people who make the decision to do this, I'd rather be the one who has to put up with it than be the one who lives with so much greed dwelling in my soul I'd try to steal a holiday from a kid just to put another dollar in the register.