TroyWest

Most saddlemakers use 277 on top, 207 on bottom in their machines. You would use the same to reline. If you're hand sewing, just use 277.

I've never seen deer hide in a veg tan. I'm sure it has happened, I've just never seen it. Deer is an extremely tough hide, often used in rawhide strings to lace rawhide trees with.

I have used galvanized #3 nails in the gullet for years. They hold well, will not rust, and can be pulled out if needed. Ring shanks hold well, but you will rip the leather over the head before it lets go....I guess you already know that.

Needs someone to do saddle repairs, put together belts (they have someone now who carves them) and other custom leather goods. They asked me to put this on here. PM me if you are interested. Thanks, Troy West

Fantastic Darcy! Congratulations!

You should put a mark on your makers mark so when you stamp it on the mark faces you. If it is a dark stamp use a dot of white paint or finger nail polish. You could file a line, punch a dot, anything so that you can tell you are putting it on correctly. I suppose it's possible it already has such a mark and you put it on correctly, just had the project upside down.

Bar grounders make a darker background and they pick up antique better than a checkered background, if you choose to antique. Checkered background tools are easier to use and much faster. Bar grounders take more time to master. They usually come 3 to 5 in a set, and vary a great deal in diameter of the dots. The larger sizes typically are used on larger type flowers on saddles. Smaller ones on smaller type flowers.

Thanks for the kind words, and thanks to Ben for posting these. He's far more computer literate than I am. This started out as a pretty dirty garage on a slab. I worked on it for 5 months. I hired the cheapest guy I could find to do this (me), so I didn't have a real carpenter except for a couple of weeks.A friend of mine (Micheal Stapleton), came and spent 2 weeks helping me. He builds houses for a living. He was a wealth of knowledge in construction and his 2 weeks helping me was invaluable. I made the comment that I thought a ceramic tile floor would be good in a saddle shop. He said let's do it! He lays a lot of tile floors and wanted to do something special on mine. He made several suggestions and one was a Texas star. I said that would be fine. He went out there with a calculator and a pencil and drew that on the floor. He cut out the star parts all by hand. I thought it turned out nice. I wanted OSB on the walls (oriented strand board) for those who don't know. That way I would have wooden walls to hang heavy items on. I didn't want the look of OSB so I taped and mudded and textured it to look like sheet rock. Then painted it. Found some inexpensive crown molding on line near me. I put a wall of windows to have natural light on my tooling and engraving bench and painted the shop a light color to keep it things bright. Now that the walls are so pretty I hate to hang stuff. Ben didn't show the whole blockout table but I had skirting leather under it. I can put a whole roll of skirting under it. Currently my chap leather, latigo, and woolskins are in the room next door. I still have more stuff to put in the shop. I have already hung more stuff on the walls since Ben took these photos. My tree shop isn't near this nice and and It really won't be. But it will be pretty nice. I'll be working on it as money and time allow, but it is functional. Thanks for taking a look, Troy

Looks good Steve!

I have used a Landis 3 for years. Few years ago i won a Toro 3000 at Wichita Falls. Sewed flawlessly. Never had any trouble with it at all. Was really pleasantly surprised at how well it sewed. Knew a couple of other well known makers who got one and both said theirs wanted to push what they were sewing to the side. If I said their names you would know them. Still, mine made a nice tight stitch and performed very well. Now I have a Cobra 4000 in addition to my 3. The 4000 has performed without a flaw. The stands are great. Wheels that lock. Adjustable height, servo motor. I can adjust it to where the stitch is nice and tight. Sews saddle skirts fine. For the money it's tough to beat. The deep throat is a nice plus too. My brother has Landis 16s and a Ferdinand Bull. His Ferdinand has sewn many saddles and repairs and continues to sew very well. Never really had a problem with it. He loves his Landis 16s and now has 2 of them. Dale Harwood sews on a 16. They are great old needle and awl machines. Like JHayek, if money were no object the Campbell/Randall is the machine I would buy. They are simply a great machine. Needle and awl machines take a little time to adjust to, but with enough use you can learn to tune them. A Landis 3 is a comparable machine with a slightly deeper throat, (about 2" deeper). The 3 is not quite as versatile as the Campbell . It sews best on heavier material and the Campbell sews heavy and lighter material well. The two machines look almost identical. The Campbell only has a 9" throat.. My 2 cents, Troy

Very nice saddle Darcy. She should be very happy.

Ecapone,....beautiful work.

Great job Bob. Beautiful.

There is no problem using flat plate hardware in an inskirt rigging. It works fine. It is strong and it looks good.

Very nice saddle Darcy. Jon's trees are exceptional. I think a nice tree really shows in a nice saddle. Nice silver also. Love the skirt rigging. Nice little concho on the rope strap. Excellent work. Why do you not tool the binder? Again, very nice.

Yep, Jay Lynn is cheap. But he is brilliant. I use to call him McGyver, cause he could blow up a city block with a sweetgum ball. Just make something out of nothing. Full of clever ideas. Real nice box you have.

My standard is 1 1/4" also. Same reasons as Andy.

Joel, The slots are typically cut at the discretion of the tree maker. Usually they will not ask what weight leather you will be using. Troy

The most common weight is 13/15 oz. Typically the stirrup leather is made from the same weight leather as the saddle is built of. The lightest weight of leather I have used to build a western saddle is 10/12 oz.. The heaviest is 14/16 oz.

www.riteonscrew.com

I just read Bob's post and have to say I do the same thing. I tend to cut a pattern with the Henley and do decorative cuts with the LW. I also very much prefer the coarser knurling on these knives. I cannot decide which I prefer the most. They are both excellent quality. I didn't think the light weight of the LW would matter to me but I find that I do like it as it seems to be a little less fatigue. I also had Paul make me a thin blade for it. I have Chuck Smiths, very high quality knife but the knurling isn't as coarse so I tend not to use it as much. My $.02. Troy

Take a spike, or a sharp flat head screwdriver and strike the washer to the left of the burr, then to the right of the burr. you may have to do this a couple of times but the copper washer will fold up, grab it with some nippers and pull it off. You can then nip the burred end of the rivet off with the nippers and now drive the rivet back out with a spike or punch over the piece of metal with the hole drilled in it. This is very fast and effective.

We've found that a product from Bee Natural leather Care called Rudy's is very effective at removing mold and mildew from saddles. We use it all the time.

That's very interesting. I know of 2 other ways to do this and get the same pattern. Similar of course to JW. Make sure you have a strong piece of lace, beveled on both sides. I stroke mine on a piece of moist sponge and than glycerin saddle soap. Makes it slick. You can use dubbin it just makes it a little greasy to grab w/o pliers or somethng. I go through the bottom 2 holes and out the back in equal lengths. Then up through the top hole, one at a time.Then one goes through the left bottom hole, and one on the right. At this time your lace is on the bottom back side of the billet. You can take leather pliers or horn pliers and gently twist the leather around in the hole so the top side can now come around the outer edge and then back through the hole, each time pulling the lace as tightly as possible without breaking. ( If you break it, try not to curse or weep profusely. It won't do any good. You usually will only break it if you're in a hurry or someone is watching.) If you see pictures of Harwood saddles he brings this piece around with the bottom side showing so he doesn't twist the lace. Now you have finished the pattern but I like to take the 2 ends and run them up through the lace that goes from the bottom hole to the top, crossing each other in the middle. Trim the lace off, then I hold a piece of steel behind the billet and hammer the lace job with a French hammer. Same result as JW, just a little different way to chase that rabbit.

Hahaha, I laughed when I saw the title. We appreciate your shameless self promotion. Not enough saddle pics posted these days. Excellent work. Beautiful in every aspect. Great job on the swell, great job on the seat, on the inlay, on the roll, stitching, edges, color, really immaculate work. A pleasure to look at. Thanks for sharing it with us. Troy