Denise

Yup. Double checked with Rod and it is a 55 lb bag.

You have to go to a chemical supply company. We use Brenntag and get it in the flaked form. We get it in a 40 lb? bag. Someone else on here will probably know where to get it in smaller amounts.

Looks like latigo isn't a great choice primarily because it will bleed its color at time. Here's a few threads I found that talked about this: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=11856&st=0&p=1577&hl=+latigo%20+bleed&fromsearch=1entry1577 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1832&st=0&p=36718&hl=+latigo%20+bleed&fromsearch=1entry36718

Beautiful work as always, Bobocat. Neat idea!!

Thanks for taking the time to do this, Megabit. It really is appreciated!

A lot of saddleries are named just with the maker's name - Joe Blow Saddlery. That isn't common in a lot of other industries, but it is in the custom saddle world where you are the one actually building the saddles. That way if you end up moving, nothing changes. It is your name that gets the recognition too, and in Google world that can help in advertising. The disadvantage would be that when the time comes to sell the business the name pretty much has to change, but then the maker has changed too so that isn't surprising. On the other hand, if you are having employees build saddles for you, that may affect whether you want to use your name or not. I know some makers who have done that, but they generally have two stamps that are slightly different in wording so people can tell if they made the saddle or if it was just made under their direction. Just my two cents worth.

Yes. Not a problem there. Good chance the internet was down on January 7th. That happens here not uncommonly. I will keep the back ups current and I know it is time to blow out the computer again, so will put that on the list. Thanks again for your help, everyone!

Yes, it goes to the English website directly when I click, and all the pages stay in English as I click around.

Hivemind, It hasn't made a clicking sound since that day, but it seems to be running a little louder than it did before, and not just because a fan is running. I know that noise. I did what you said. Not a lot of red Xs, but a few. None from the day the clicking happened. Lots if Information lines and some yellow warnings. Red Xs Dcom three times of which twice were today, (Interesting, at one point today my keyboard quit connecting to the computer. I turned it off and on again and things worked. This has happened before. Connect to this????) WPDMTP Driver twice, Service Control Manager twice W32Time 22 times, all on the 7th of January over a 5 1/2 hour period. I don't recall problems with the computer that day. Warnings - Looks like close to 1/2 of the 2163 events are a warning reading disk all on December 31 at 4:47:55 pm. Considering we were away over that time period and not only was the computer off, but unplugged, I have no idea why that is like that. 15 other warnings - 6 of which are disk, 8 are Tcpip, one (December 31, 4:47:56) is ntfs. Thanks to everyone who has answered. I do have good backups done but haven't sprung for the image creation - yet...

Here is a topic on this forum where saddle makers are discussing Billy Cook history. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3128&st It won't help you see a picture of your model number but may give you some hints as to the time period and possible value. It you get it, please post pictures!

Kids who grow up bi or multi lingual have an advantage I don't know if they ever appreciate. Those of us who have to learn second languages later in life find it so much more difficult. And for those of us who live in cultures that are basically uni-lingual, we often don't see the need to learn other languages the way those of you who are surrounded by them do. I am familiar with your name and have obviously read your posts before but didn't realize until I checked your website that you were not from North America. This must mean your English is pretty good!!

Marcel, Since I am in the middle of redoing our website, I know how much work it is!! The site looks really nice, easy to get around and nothing glaring to hurt my eyes. I found when I opened the page to the cue cases just a blank page. I eventually figured out I needed to click on the sub-navigation bar to get to see the pictures. Maybe just putting a statement on that page to that effect would help. What appears to be a blank page kind of throws me and I might easily have clicked back rather than look farther. A litle thing is that the emoticon at the end of your second blog post shows up as a red box. Are you aiming primarily at the German market or hoping to g get orders from England and North America? I realize that English is not your primary language and I am amazed at how many Europeans speak multiple languages so well. But the English, especially on your home page, is awkward in places, and that may affect how some people react to your site. If you have a native English speaking friend who would be willing to help you re-word it more naturally, I know some people would respond better to it. Also, if you are aiming at a US market, not just a British one, you may want to put a US flag up in the corner. It can click through to the same place as the UK flag, but people tend to go for their own country's flag, and some people in the US may not even know what the British flag looks like! Just some ideas.

What is the tree made from? If it is a covered wood tree, you can't really change it without affecting the integrity of the tree itself. If it is a synthetic tree of some nature, you may be able to rasp it down to what you think you would want. However, problems with saddle fit are rarely just due to one small area. If you can change that one, I expect you will either find problems somewhere else or possibly create problems somewhere else. What makes you think it looks OK without a pad and yet doesn't work with a pad? Did you determine the first by looking and the second by riding it? There are a lot of factors involved under that saddle that you can't see, and maybe it isn't "too narrow" but something else is off that is causing the problems, in which case rasping to make it wider won't fix the problem. Just some thoughts...

Rob, There are a number of saddle makers who may teach someone how to make a saddle and yet not run a school as such. You may want to look around the forum, see whose work you admire, contact them and ask if they would be willing to teach you. I would also recommend you ask if they have taught someone before and check with that person to see how it went. Some people can do but not teach. If they don't want to teach you, ask who they learned from and see if that guy would be willing to teach you. Some will. Some won't. Some will depending on who you are and who recommended you. The individual instruction from a solid maker is worth a lot. Since there are no regulations on who sets up a saddle making school or even offers one on one instruction, you want to be pretty careful about who you go see, I would say. Look at their work and look at their student's work (are there any making saddles as a profession?) to help make your choice. All that said, maybe you want to check out Jesse Smith in Colorado. http://www.cowboyshowcase.com/JesseSmith.htm He is a well respected saddle maker (Al Stohlman award winner) who has been teaching saddle making for decades. He also builds his own trees so has a better grasp than a lot of saddle makers on that aspect of saddle function. The price of his course looks more than worth it for the knowledge you will gain and you get a saleable saddle at the end of it too to recoup some of your investment. Worth a call, I'd say!

Stewart, I searched for "wood grain" and here are a few topics I found: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=21127&st=0&p=136115&hl="wood%20grain"&fromsearch=1entry136115 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=6516&st=0&p=73917&hl="wood%20grain"&fromsearch=1entry73917 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=22612&st=0&p=144739&hl="wood%20grain"&fromsearch=1entry144739 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3163&st=15 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3087&st=0&p=48135&hl="wood%20grain"&fromsearch=1entry48135 I can't give you pointers myself, but it looks like there are a few good ones in these threads. And remember - post pictures when you are done! Always good to see pictures!

Lookin' good everyone! It is great to see so many designs and ways of doing them. Keep 'em comin'!!

Mike, Here is a link to how to upload pictures to LW. It should work for you. If not, I'll have to refer you to someone who isn't "computer impaired" as I am. http://leatherworker...showtopic=15122

Mike, Here is a link to how to upload pictures to LW. It should work for you. If not, I'll have to refer you to someone who isn't "computer impaired" as I am. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15122

Tim, He does take care of us, doesn't He? Glad you are all OK and thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Welcome, scraft! There are other from your section of the globe on here as well. Your coasters are pretty neat. You should put a picture or two in the Coaster Challenge thread!

Wow. Amazing the creativity on here!

So you store your information online with them?

I back up "my documents" but that doesn't back up my Outlook Express e-mail address book. Where do I go to find that? (I know I have been told before but I don't remember.) Also, if I have to replace the hard drive, that means all the programs are gone too, right? How do I back up the programs? We have an external hard drive that looks to have more capacity than our computer so do I just copy "My computer" to the external hard drive?

I was thinking it was more of what I would think of as a hard drive noise. At least it sounded like something that would tick as something was spinning and there was nothing in the CD drive. But it has stopped now. Why would it stop just with shifting the machine? Better make sure I have good backups done anyway I assume...