Thor

@kseidel no worries Keith, ever since I found my way to the fb groups I haven't been checking in here so often myself. Thanks for feedback and clarification!!!

And by doing so, you might have just ruined a great horse. It takes way more than just buying tools and reading a book to make a saddle. If the rigging is just slightly misplaced the saddle sits not right. Many will not even understand how to order the tree, what rigging will work for their needs and so on. At the end of the day one will have to build several saddles before one will actually really work. Talk to an equine body worker and you'll understand how much one will be spending on a horse, if the saddle doesn't fit. I'm pretty sure that most of the master saddle makers will agree with me, that it's nothing one can just go at.

My only thought on this is: It doesn't fit the horse now and will not fit in the future. Return it if possible and have a wooden tree one custom made.

To be honest I doubt you'll find a long time saddle maker, being willing to work for free, cause this is pretty much of what you're asking here. A lighter saddle, but working heavy duty doesn't work unless you're considering about 25 pounds light. Let me break that down for you. A good quality tree is anywhere between $200 to $600 + shipping to the maker. The leather will be around $300 - 400 depending on quality. Hardware will be anywhere between $30 to way over your budget. Haven't even considered the whole week of work that goes into this and not even mentioning designing the saddle. So on what is the saddle maker going to live on?

@kseidel thank you. I got that with area on the hide, just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. So if I get that right you would suggest to cut the left parts of a saddle from one side and the right side parts of the saddle from the other skirt side. Is that about right?

So @bruce johnson and @kseidel would you say that the tensile strength on a left and right side works in different directions, or how can I understand that?

Hadlock and Fox is where I got mine http://www.hadlockfox.com/ and I'm happy with it.

@TinkerTailor this is common practice in the saddle making business. At least it is with the good ones. Different areas stretch different or are thicker and stronger. Some areas are really just good for fillers and so on. However, this is limited to areas of a hide and they will not pull into a certain direction and definitely not to a point where a saddle would become unsymmetrical. There may be a good reason for using a right and a left side, but I'm not aware of it and I have never heard about. On the other hand I'm into leatherworking for only 2 1/2 years now.

Where did you get that info from John?

Actually that light will also come on if you change tires and the circumference isn't the same as before and it will not do that right away but after several hundred Miles.

@YinTx since I got a prototype for testing mine is this one http://oldmillleathercrafts.thewesternsource.com/review-for-headround-knife-of-einhorn-llc/ Ross uses a thinner blade now, which is better and the model doesn't have a hole in the blade. The hole was made just for me cause I like using it for a pulling cut as well. The current model Ross makes and sells is this one http://www.einhorncustom.com/product-page/80ff7a0f-f04e-1cd9-797b-17093704c646. With only $150 for the quality he makes well worth it. I'm using it for all sorts of cuts. Cuts just like a charm and since I learned a different cutting method with the round knife during the saddle making course with @gmace99 I'm even cutting heavy skirting leather with it now.

Thanks Floyd

If you want to make your life a little easier. There's a 4-in-1 punch made by Ivan Leather and sold by Tandy. This will speed up your process.

Thanks for your inputs @rktaylor @Big Sioux Saddlery and @brmax. Spacing between the holes is one inch and I'm planning to ad a few adjustment holes to the draw-down strap system. Haven't done that yet. For the next one I'm actually looking for a ready made ratchet system. For some silly reason I seam to be unable to locate an old barber's chair here in Germany. If I can't find anything I guess I'll have to make something myself. However, that will be left to some time down the road as I'm currently prepping my master patterns and planning the design of the 3 first western saddles I'm wanting to build. After those I'm thinking of making another English dressage saddle.

I'm loving the knife @Rossr made for me. It really holds an edge. Actually I haven't sharpened it since I got it, but stropped it only. Only got it blunt on a side of stingray leather. Contact him, he's a really nice guy and I'm sure you'll be happy with his service as well as his knife.

This one is done. Just have to make the draw-down strap etc. and I'll be ready to start my first western saddle.

Andy you you should be very proud of yourself. This is looking very good for a first saddle. Both thumbs up from my end here.

The oil still has to dry and I will ad some padding to the top, but other than that this should work. Not all too bad for a first. I identified a few things to make better and different for my second one. I'll be making another one not as tall as this one.

Exactly and keep an eye on eBay. Chances are it's someone who "knows" you if they only took your tools.

This is looking really nice!

True and thanks for the compliment. Can't always stay in the basement though. Guess one day I'll have to build a shop in the yard. One with lots of daylight, customer area and shop. Maybe a coffee lounge at least LOL

Really jealous on your shop Brian

Sorry can't take the credit. The pattern was by Roq.

So I'm getting prepared building my first western saddle, after having built my first English dressage saddle at a course with George MacEachran in Scotland. While a drawdown stand isn't necessary building an English style saddle it seems to be absolutely necessary building a western saddle. I'm having a few sketches and drawings on various stands. Due to time and space I want to stick to a simple model for now. There are a few things I would like to know before I'm finishing my own drawings. It looks like most stands are at an average height of 36". Now I'm not the tallest person with 5' 8" so I wonder if the ideal height of that stand can be found in a certain way. Further, the head of the stand leaves me with questions. Obviously it should be covered, but what materials do work best for you? Once I got these things figured out I'll be building my stand and post some pictures on here. Thank you for all your help.

True and still, using a square and a sharp knife will be a lot faster. Placing the straps aside each other and square on top, run the knife along the edge and you're done. Faster than placing it into a machine, pulling a lever and so on. However, I'm sure there are uses for this. I would prolly have a chisel withe a square angle made up if I needed to. I'm just not a friend of too many machines in my shop as they take up a lot of space and I'm pretty limited on that.