Denise

Thanks for the information Knut! When I was at a conference in Red Deer Alberta in January, I heard Dr. Hilary Clayton speak about her tests with the pressure pad testing saddle fit, etc. She said that sheepskin (wool) had tested the best as far as padding went but "there were studies done in Europe that showed reindeer hair worked just as well". So - modern testing shows old methods worked!

Tina, did they give any description of where it came from? I too am curious if anyone knows where and when it might have originated. Here are some pictures of a Mongolian tree a friend of ours picked up when in China. I don't think either of these were designed with horse comfort in mind. Might work better on a donkey or mule?

Caledon supplies the leather for I would say the majority of saddle makers in Western Canada, plus a lot of hardware, etc. Ken is great to deal with and if he doesn't have something, he will either tell you where to get it or look for it for you. They ship all over by bus or mail so getting it to you isn't a problem.

Pauline, His name has come up here before. Here is a thread where he is discussed. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...d+Harsant\ The link from Barra doesn't seem to be working at the moment, but maybe others have more information about him.

Art, What classes did they have there this year? Did you hear much about them?

Hey, it is 11C here (over 50 F) today!! Too bad if I saw a few snow flakes coming down earlier in the day... And Ray, we are moving, hopefully within the month. And it will be warmer where we are going. For the last few months I have been looking out my kitchen window into what will be my kitchen window. It is almost finished now and since it will have a fancy wood stove in it, I'll be toasty!! (To forstall any further teasing, the wood stove is NOT to cook with. We do have electricity and natural gas up here!) Johanna, I can't recall snow in June, July or August in all the years we've lived here, and I'm not sure about May and September. The rest - yeah, we have has at least had a quick look at the white stuff then. But hey, you can grow apples and plums and cherries and peaches up here (select kinds, of course) and even grapes! And I know people who have had lemon trees, though thosse were inside, of course... But despite your teasing, you are welcome up here anything. I'll be watching for you next time a helicopter goes over. I'm kind of wondering about our Swedish contingent. They are even north of where we live, though they are closer to the ocean. What's the weather like there these days? Tom? Knut?

You generally have to look for hardwood supply stores. Your general lumber store won't have stuff like that. In Canada Windsor Plywood is the most common place I know of, but I don't know if they are in the States or not. Lee Valley carries some ( http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=...cat=1,250,43217 ) but I don't know the size you want. If you do work with these woods, be careful and use a mask. The dust from a lot of these woods is pretty nasty, and I'm not just talking unpleasant. They can hurt you.

Try Caledon Leather Sales in Calgary. http://www.caledonleather.ca/hardware.html

It started out this morning at -25C (-15 F), but the wind blew and by this afternoon it got to + 10!!! (50 F). Not a lot of melting as the sun wasn't out, but, there may be hope yet. And to all who have the 70 - 80 F weather now, enjoy. That will be our summer - when you're all inside with the air conditioning going full blast!

What a pretty garden. GREEN!! with a stream through it. And I like your orange and white garden ornament in the middle too. Gives me hope...

This is what we woke up to a couple of mornings ago – another 6 inches of the white stuff, and we haven't lost much of the original stuff yet. It also has been in the -20s Celsius (about -10 to 0 F) for the past couple days. So, knowing that spring comes from the south (in the northern hemisphere at least) – is there any hope it will actually arrive this year? What is the weather like where you are? PS. UKRay - the truck is a 1996 Ford F150. Nothing special so I didn't put it in the truck thread, but since it made it into the picture anyway...

Chris, Glad it worked for you. But how come the picture is of a horse and not a mule????

I have moved the posts about the Gordon's drawdown stand to this thread in General Saddlery Construction http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15263 to make it easier for people doing searches to find. Thanks for the extra info, Gordon. I am sure it will be helpful to many.

There was a discussion about saddle kits in a previous topic here: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...&hl=maxwell Hope this helps till the pros chime in.

We went to the Agricultural show in Grande Prairie this past weekend. I thought about taking a picture for Ray of the parking lot. Hundreds of vehicles, 80% plus being trucks. I didn't for two reasons. One was I didn't remember where the camera was. The second was I didn't want to give Ray apoplexy. Just thinking of your health, Ray!

Thanks for the picture, Gypsum. Is it possible to repost it in a larger size? I can see this one being studied for the detail of how things were done "back then". Very interesting.

I too am curious about the Brazil saddle. Does it have stirrups on it? What is the ring up front used for? Who rides these - just for pleasure riding or do people work cattle with these saddles? And how do you protect the top of the horse's spine from being rubbed? Do you have a picture with one on a horse? This is totally different than what I am used to and I would like to learn more.

A couple other people have had the same problem. Not sure why. To go back to the way it used to be, go to the Options button at the top right of the current topic. Click on Switch to Standard second from the bottom. That should put it back to "normal".

Please note that some of the instructions in the early part of this thread are for a previous version of the Forum's software. But this is still useful and helpful information. More current info is in the latter posts. Being one of the computer impaired, I thought I would let the rest of our clan know how I post pictures. There may be a shorter way, but this works for me. You do it all on Leatherworker - no need for posting on another site. To start with, you need to be in the "Reply" section, not just the "Fast Reply". Then, as you are typing in the white box, look down and to your left. There is an empty long white box. Then there is a button that says Browse and one that says Clear Selection. Below that is a grey box saying "Attach this File". These are what you will use to post the pictures. First, you need to find the picture on your computer. Click on Browse. A window pops up that says "Choose file" that lists all of what is on your computer. Go through it like you usually do to find the picture you want to upload. Click on the picture to highlight it, then click the Open button on the bottom right of that window. When you do that, the window will disappear, but remember that empty white box? It isn't empty anymore. In it is the address of the picture you just clicked on. If it isn't the one you want, hit Clear Selection now to remove it. If it is, you still don't have it in your post. You must click the "Attach This File" button. When you do, you are uploading the picture to LW.net. For those of you on high speed, it is probably a blink. For those of us on dial up... well, it does finish after a while. When it is uploaded it will appear in its own light blue line abover the Browse button line. You can do this a number of times to get more than one picture in a post. Then you will have a list of your possible attachments above the Browse button. On the right hand side there is an option to Add to Post or to Delete. Wherever your cursor is when you click Add to Post, that is where the picture will appear. If you don't Add to Post, it won't show up. And that is all there is to it! Troubleshooting tips: There is a limit on the total size of pictures that can go up on one post. If you try to put too many pictures or pictures that are too big into one post, the system won't take it. Best is to compress your pictures to a max of 250kb if you can. It fits more pictures into a post and then people still on dial up can look at them too. Most picture programs have a spot to compress pictures. That needs to be done before you upload them.

I played with it here (never really clicked that button before) and whatever you are on is in italics and just says Standard or Outline. If it says Switch to in front of it, it is in something else. Luke, are you saying that you clicked on "switch to Standard" and now it says Standard in italics without the "switch to" and it still has the tree format? If so.... Johanna HELP!!!

Ben, I hope I am not that hard to understand! My original intention was just what you thought - that we end up with a kind of a list of countries people have signed up with. But it makes sense that the Admin people hear could pull up that info more easily. However, this is very interesting. I sure don't want it to turn political, but it is fun to see how people see themselves. While we associate ourselves with our countries first, we then take things further. We as people like to be part of a big thing, but also a smaller one. I describe myself to people outside Canada as a Canadian. Within Canada I think of myself as a Western Canadian. Within Western Canada I am an Alberta and within Alberta I am a Northern Albertan. And that is not just a geographic location. It is a cultural thing too. Seeing how people are posting here tells me not just what country they are from, but how they see themselves within that country. Fun!! Kate, I am really looking forward to that list of countries.

Just curious how many different countries are represented by the membership here. If your country isn't mentioned yet, please tell us where you are from. Canada Denise

Des, your situation reminds me of the old quote "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." You can either sell your tools and eat your daily "fish", or see them as a boat and tackle and go fishing. You have options. While it is unfortunate that you have lost your job, it is very fortunate that you have tools and a side of leather. It is very fortunate that you have the time now to practice and do leatherwork. It is very fortunate that with your physical limitations you can still do leatherwork while you get in better shape. And it is extremely fortunate that you have the best group of people in the world here who can give you solid advice on how to improve your work when you post it. Most people who are happy and successful in life are not that way because good stuff has happened to them, but because they did good stuff with what happened to them. Billy P and BubbleDragon, you are an encouragement and inspiration in your positive outlook and action even in difficult circumstances. Thanks for sharing with us.

I used the search function at the top right. I put "leather bra" in quotation marks so it looked for the phrase and the only two threads that came up were this one and the one I posted. I am no expert in searching for things on the net, but this search function works pretty well for me.

Now, for more serious suggestions... Here is a thread with lots of discussion on the topic. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...t=0&start=0