kseidel

I've been meaning to post on this topic, but just haven't goten much computer time with Christmas coming and all.... I have been using neat lac on saddles for decades and have great results with it. I antique almost all of my saddles and they mostly get used hard and need re-conditioned from time to time. I prefer olive oil when new and have found it to penetrate neat lac as well as tan kote. Both products take a while for oil to penetrate. Neat lac can be stripped with acetone if necessary, where tan kote is very difficult to remove. Tan kote will water spot and stain over antique, and neat lac is more stain resistant, and does not water spot. Neat lac if sprayed on makes a very thick and plastic like finish. But when applied with sheepskin and worked into the leather like oil, it makes a satin, mellow finish like tan kote and accepts oiling much better. This is just what works for me and may not yield the same results for others. The finest neatsfoot oil that I have found is from Texas Refining. It is very pure and has no additives that solidify or collect on the surface. Leaves a lighter color than most others. Keith

Overall very nice work on the organizer. One thing that stands out to me is that you did not do any tooling or decoration on the closure flap. With everything else decorated so nicely, and the snap covered, I feel that the flap looks unfinished. Why did you leave the edges of the inside pockets natural and not dyed? Perhaps the edges are rolled where there is stitching? Nice finish with the creaser on the card pockets. There is a pretty defined track from the edge of your stitcher foot; can you explain? Your overall design has good balance and is tastefully done. You have a unique tooling design. Keith

The cheapest place to get 100% Isopropyl Alcohol is the veterinary supply. About $10 gallon. It is perfect for reducing dyes and de-glazing.

Acetone

We used a lot of Dextrene (a byproduct of sugar beets) since there are a lot of beets grown around here. It doesn't have a very long life before crystalizing and coming loose. It works fairly well on rigid things like swell covers, but anywhere that flexed released fairly quickly. Keith

I use contact cement. I was also "taught" to use rubber cemnt for ease of replacement, but I have had to replace too many because they came loose and tore or wrinkled. Since using contact cement, I have not had to replace a single one.... over 15 years. Keith

The curved blade and off set handles are for shaping the edge of the sole in the arch area without cutting the boot or shoe. The offset handle allows one to cut close to the boot or shoe. Keith

Tim, It is your treemakers responsibility to deliver a tree finished to your specs. He will need to adjust for extra thickness in seat length as well as gullet height and width, space between bars, cantle height, horn cap width, etc, etc. That is a lot of insurance, but as Bruce said, replacing a tree is very costly, and rarely fits as well as the original. Depending on who you chose as treemaker, there are other considerations in tree construction to make it stronger. Better wood, laminated bars, dovetailed attachment of front and cantle.... not all treemakers make the same quality of trees. I used to have to replace quite a few broken trees prior to switching to better made handbuilt trees. I have not had to replace one in over 15 years. I do not mean to impune factory made trees, but the construction methods used to facilitate volume do not allow for some of the features in handbuilt trees that make them stronger. Keith

This has been my slowest fall in over 15 years in current retail store! Year to date sales are down about 30%. I have a fairly large backlog and should be able to weather the slow down, but have had a few cancelations. Many more could cause a problem. The store is responsible for a lot of my income. Tourist sales were soft this summer, and the trafic was down about half. I am making adjustments to spending and cutting back on smaller shows that probably won't pay expenses. This could be a long cold winter here. Keith

Keith Pommer 112 W 1st st. box 323 Worthing, SD 57077 605-372-4523 for those of you who are interested

Troy, You did an inlaid seat with full cantle padding. Can you show a picture of the cantle ear and explain how you constructed the padded seat? This is done very well and does not show an awkward cantle ear transition. How did you tie it all together? Keith

The reason for the breast collar dees to be hung higher is to keep the collar above the point of the shoulder. If you use a dropped front rigging, it is too low to attach a breast collar. The collar will fall off of the horses shoulder and wear off the hair during regular riding. It will hold ok during hard climbs, but will affect the movement of the horses leg and shoulder, and jerk your saddle uncomfortably. A properly fitting tree will not require the breast collar to hold the saddle in place nearly as much as an ill fitting one. I seldom use a collar anymore, even when riding in the steep mountains of Wyoming. I only use one for all day roping like at a branding or ranch roping. My rigging is hung low and my breast collar is Y shaped and attaches to dees hung higher on the saddle. Tying the stirrup leathers together at the tpo of the fender and below the tree in any way, whether riveting or with a loop, will severly restrict forward movement. The only way that this would work is to attach both stirrup leather and fender together and attach on a pivot point on the top side of the bar. Visalia had an attachment like this in the 20,s and 30's. The tail was longer at the bottom of the fender and cut up into the bottom of the fender to allow for adjustment... much like Fallis Balanced Ride saddles. Fallis balanced ride saddles Keith

Rear cinchas are certainly not required, even for most roping. The stability of the saddle is more dependant on how the front rigging is hung, and not having a tight rear cinch. If the saddle does not fit the horse well, the rear cinch won't help. As for resale... having a rear rigging is certainly more popular and may make the difference to a prospective buyer. You can have the saddle made with a rear rigging and either not make the rear cinch and billets, or remove them. I make a lot of saddles with reverse loops on the billets as opposed to lace for easy removal. Keith

Troy, Very nice saddle. Balance and proportion are excellent! Great color too! No critique for any visible flaws. Personal preferance point... borders around front and cantle conchos and rear and swell conchos over tooling. Not wrong, just something I notice on a lot of great saddles that seems out of place to me. Is there a rope strap? If so, how did you do it? Do you put any wrap over your horn before rubber for roping? My compliments on a great saddle. Thanks for posting the pics. Keith

All the above mentioned suggestions are important. Another item to check is the shape of the seat in the saddle. Some saddlemakers, even experienced ones, have a tendancy to shape more curve into one side of the seat and straighter on the other. this causes the rider to sit out of center, and feels like one stirrup is longer than the other, when it may not be. In any case, riding crooked will not warp the tree. But a warped tree can make one ride crooked. Keith

Ed, Just grind the end of the larger needles into a square and you can make them fit into any awl handle. Keith

Hi Ed, It is easy to order, Just send Money! I have a black and silver set in stock, and build the gold mounted sets to order. Most of these are made to order to the customers preference. Each one is designed specifically for each individual. They don't have to be complete sets, you can have just one piece. I make some with totally different silver and gold trim styles. Keith

For pull thru style splitters, I prefer the "chase" splitters. They have two rollers... one on top and one on the bottom. The blade is thinner and has a long hollow ground bevel. Kept sharp and polished smooth they will pull full width easily. I have a 10 inch and a 14 inch. Kings in Sheridan is selling splitters that Don had collected. There are dozens of them, chase, osborn, krebbs and others, in various stages of condition. Priced right if you have the ability to restore them to using condition. Bob Douglas has some that have been re-conditioned and are ready to use. Keith

This is a similar style of briefcase that I made for Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger. I have made three for him like this... different colors and one tooled. Keith

One of the shops I worked for used latigo for linings and used a non-stretch fabric like kevlar in between to solve the stretch problem. Latigo certainly has a propensity for stretch. Bleeding color is certainly a factor, but it is un-seen unless one lifts the rigging and looks under. Thinner leather both top and bottom is functional for thinner riggings, so long as you are carefull of the quality of leather used. The thinner the leather, the better the leather must be. JW, a splitter is one of the best and most used tools you can have. I would be unable to do the work that I do without one. They are worth the investment! Keith

JAM, A lip knife is a knife popular with shoe and bootmakers. It has a squared off tip and the tip is curved tp the right or left at about a 90 degree angle. The "lip" is not sharpened, and the length of the blade is only sharpened on the outside creating a curved blade. The curve allows the blade to cut only curved lines. Thus the right and left knives. I believe that Panhandle leather stocks them. http://www.panhandleleather.com/ They are fairly in-expensive. Keith

Bruce, On an all leather ground seat, I too cut dry and finished. However, on a seat with a metal strainer, I rough cut as I go. I use right and left handed lip knives for this job. It is much easier to cut the curves. Keith

I have made a reverse of the cards and with careful measurements and proper placement of the cards, you can profile a bare tree or a finished saddle for the type of horse it will fit. It is not as easy as measuring the horse, but it does work fairly well. Mr. Bowden was quite interested in the system and was planing to return from Sheridan and try to implement the shstem into his existing patterns. Keith

Depending on the color of the chap leather and the amount of oil in the stain, the corn starch has worked very sucessfully for me in the past. You can also wash the chaps in a wash machine and they will come out like new. There are always exceptions: Tooled yokes don't wash well. I have printed instructions for machine washing chaps if you would like. I will have to post them from the shop computer tomorrow. Keith

About 6 feet!