Denise

Rod looked at this and said yeah, you want that dark stuff off, and it has to slip with your ash/lime/whatever. Yes, you can scrape it off if you have to but then you risk damaging the good layer underneath.

Yes, you do want that very top layer of the epidermis to come off. It is the dead outer skin layer and if left on, it does nasty things to your rawhide when it dries. The live layer of the dermis is what makes the grain layer and it will stay put unless you damage it.

Rod prefers a bunch of flesh, etc. left on the hide. It means they haven't nicked it underneath in most cases like they do if they are trying to help you by getting it clean. And you have to go over it anyway with the draw knife. Sometimes it is a lot easier to take off a lot of junk than just that little bit that they leave on that needs to come off. Just sharpen your draw knife really well!

Welcome to LW.net, Andy. Glad to have you here. I would think in your travels you would see leatherwork from different cultures that most of us don't get get a chance to see. If so, take pictures and post them for us. We're curious!

We've had hides come in from bulls looking like they have been kept in feedlot conditions in the spring. (Is there a stinky emoticon anywhere?) Like Mike says, the stuff with the hair goes away anyway. I'd be more concerned about dirt on the flesh side if they skinned it really cleanly and then it got dirt on it. That stuff sticks and shows through so it needs to be pretty clean on that side. Rod likes to dehair before he fleshes, otherwise you are fleshing something that isn't laying totally flat and you are more apt to miss spots and, worse, cut the hide when you hit a high spot.

No wonder they call them road trains. They look just like train cars! I'm surprised there isn't more room between the trucks in the pictures where they look like they are driving just in case someone has to stop for wildlife - or wild cows as the case may be! I have heard that when they get rolling, those trucks move at a pretty fast clip. Is that true?

Hi JuliaGreetings from Virginia, the great one ...... here we find many international leather craftsmen. My daughter is also called Julia, is born in the U.S. .... we are from Swabia and .... a long time in Virginia All the best to Malaysia from Virginia ..... Now, once we get at the bacon and solid losgenaeht, let's see what it alls to see you there ..... the great culture in Malaysia will certainly influence one up in your leather work >>>?! Greetings Translation supplied by Google

Post pictures! We all like pictures!

Very nice work. Very nice...

Krikwood, Here is a tutorial on how to post pictures on LW. Hope it helps so we can see your saddle. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15122

Herb and Nadine Bork 541-276-5207 They are lovely people.

Welcome to the forum, Greg. Glad to have you here. We have a number of suppliers who are members here and who share their expertise with us. If you haven't taken a look at the directory yet, that is a great place to advertise, not only to the members here but to others who Google for your product. We are a pretty friendly bunch looking to learn more. Glad you can contribute to the knowledge base!

Very nice work! Thanks for posting. The other thing I notice is how different the heads on the horses look compared to most of the Quarter Horse or QH cross horses we see around here. What breed of horses are most common over there?

:rofl: :rofl: Actually, I was hoping for a real answer because we have a couple scratches in our dark brown couch too. But Luke, you made me laugh!!

rmr, Here is an old thread where some pretty good makers discuss how they make sure they have the riggings in straight. I know it starts off talking about how to determine where to set the riggings, but besides all that good information, it also has information on your question if you read the whole thread. Enjoy! http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1719

We have the technology...

Nice job, Billy. Any chance of getting pictures with the kids sitting in the saddles? I know it is often difficult to get kid's saddles looking proportioned because of the short fenders, and I didn't even realize how small your kids were till you posted your son's age, so you did a really good job there! These will be heirlooms for the grandkids!

Interesting site, Farmer's Daughter. Their first "Ancient Asian saddle" picture here: http://www.antiques-arms.com/catalog/images/suc175c.jpg is almost identical to the one I posted above. Both the "fork" and the cantle are much wider than the one Mike posted, but it is interesting the similarities between the North American one I posted and the one Mike posted that looks like the Circassian one. Saddle history is interesting!!

Here are Troy's comments on how to set up your stand so it sets your tree the same as it would be sitting on a horse.

Neat site, Oldtimer. But I don't think it is Mongolian - at least not the same style. I am attaching a picture of a tree that some people who travelled to the far east brought back with them. They said it was a Mongolian saddle tree. And this picture further down the list on the site you link to shows the front of the tree looking more like the picture I posted rather than the one Mike Craw posted. http://www.travelblo...g/Photos/477317 It looks somewhat like a picture I have of a Native American saddle tree. I'm sorry, but I don't know where I found those pictures on the net anymore, and I don't think they did leatherwork like this. So I sure can't help in figuring out where it came from either.

Try Caledon Leather Sales in Calgary. http://www.caledonleather.ca/ They have been around a long time and are well respected in the business. I don't know how much business they do off their website. Best is to phone them. I know they have lots of stuff that isn't on their site. Ken is the guy there to talk to. If he doesn't have it, he'll know where to get it or who to send you to.

Thanks for the clarification, Jeff. It is always good to hear from someone who uses it.

Very nice job for a "first" saddle, Elsa. I noticed the horse head before you final post and really like what you have done with that. Lots of talent in your hands! Looking forward to pictures of your next project. Keep up the good work.

The posts where silverdollarmagic showed the condition of the tree when she got it must have been posted during the 12 hours lost with the server switch over. It was a wood/rawhide tree and it was obviously broken. The seller refunded her the money for the saddle. I hope she will repost the pictures so we can see what she did when it came to her. Saddlebag, when you look at the angle of the rim of the cantle itself it slants upwards toward the right while the fork is straight or even slanting slightly downwards towards the right. However, the angle at which pictures are taken can really distort how things appear to be. Even when looking at something with our own eyes, there is so much optical illusion that we often don't "see straight". So it is pretty tough to make final decisions based on pictures. Seeing the real thing often makes things very obvious, as in this case.

At least once a winter a moose comes through our yard and "prunes" our apple and crabapple trees and some of our garden shrubs. I am NOT a happy camper when that happens. Tough to get new trees started up here anyway without indiscriminate trimming mid-winter.