AdamTill

You timed your order well. Just went in to Caledon yesterday and he said he's closing up shop. VERY sad day...not to mention I needed an extra side of leather. May end up having to order out of the states until another Cdn supplier comes up (Ken said they were talking to another company in Calgary). Nice build BTW, good job.

If you knead leather by rolling it back on itself, it gets softer, but that's breaking down the fibres a little bit. Flexion breeds flexibility, as does lots of repeated oilings. English folks have forgotten this - they all want soft leather, but for it to be durable. Since it doesn't work like that, makers have taken to covering synthetic straps with useless but soft leather to get that "customer appeal."

Thanks for letting us be a fly on the wall gents, very much appreciated!

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=40636

Thanks much for the history and construction tips, that will come in handy. Much obliged! Too true on all, though getting sick of one saddle is just an excuse to make another! I may have just read too many stories, but given that I'm not a good enough roper to use an unrawhided tree as a work saddle anyway, I don't think it'll be a problem. Not getting rid of the other Wade any time soon. Mainly just an itch that has to be scratched, that's all.

They're not the easiest to fit with a western tree, that's for sure. Here's a little graphic I made up for another Icelandic owner (I think) that wanted to order a tree from the Nikkels, using their photo and mine to show what's required compared to a more "normal" tree: It was a great learning experience lol I'd like to try my hand at tree making again sometime, but for now I'm going to leave it to the experts! Thanks much, same to you!

Hi folks, I'm getting started with my first big saddlemaking project, and was going to use this thread to keep track of things and hopefully get some feedback as things go along. The tree is an exposed black walnut one that the Nikkels did for me almost a couple of years ago now, with the project delayed by getting married, building a house etc. As such, the horse it was made for seems to have changed shape as he's matured and muscled up, and I've added some shimming wood to make up the difference. Shouldn't affect the strength at all, and I've done similar things before with leather with no issues. It's really gorgeous, and my thanks to them for all the hard work. Link here: http://www.rodnikkel...to-that-part-2/ I've always liked the old vaquero single rigs, so that's my choice here. I borrowed what I think was a 3/4 rigged saddle from Richard Caldwell for a clinic, and combined with an older style wide cinch it worked pretty well. I have some similar cinch buckles on order from Bork's and will make a couple up when they come. As much as I'd like a lighter saddle, I've always really liked this one: http://www.willghorm...1890saddle.html So, something similar is in the plan, though with a nice set of taps too. Question - has anyone who's lived with an 8 string seat regretted the extra concho or saddle string? Seems like it might get under the leg and be a little in the way. Will probably go with a plate rig, something in the order of this: I know that the standard is to have the cinch vertically under the rigging point and that it's the tree fit that determines where the saddle ends up, but on any saddle I put on him it always seems to end up at the angle above. It makes sense, given that it's perpendicular to the curve of his belly there. Here's my normal rig, for example, and the cinch is really happiest at this angle: Anyway, that's the plan right now. I'm going with the HSBT navaho diamond stamp as a stamping pattern, and as that's on it's way soon hopefully I'm busy working on strainer plates and such. Will post photos when there's something to show. Cheers, Adam

There's a thread about 5 rows down from this one with a pdf link to an english saddle making book. You could greatly simplify that (no panels etc) and just go for the overall look. Great looking project BTW

Bootmaking tool? For doing decorative stitches?

Inspiring work!

I'd say that was a good first effort! In terms of the buckle placement, the english world says that ideally the cheek buckle is roughly in line with the horse's eye. As such, your buckles are quite high. That said, practically, as long as they're not pressing into one of facial crest ridges, you should be fine. Here's a photo of one I made for my two-rein horse earlier this year.

Really like that pattern, well done!

This might be of interest: http://www.equinestudies.org/whos_built_best_2008/whos_built_best_2008_pdf1.pdf

If you ignore the laughably delusional prices quoted, this should give you an idea: http://style-1234.blogspot.ca/2009/08/july-shops-festival-love_10.html Found out about them when I was out and about with my lady and one of her friends. They saw something similar in the store window and both wanted one, so I figure it's a safe bet.

If you can get it under budget for time, a leather blanket holder would be nice for coolers. Those are the ones which use a leather spine, then straps which contain the blanket itself.

Not a worry! Not much info out there, so I was happy to find this one.

Hi folks, Since I know there aren't many resources in this area, I thought I'd offer this link to a downloadable book on making english saddles: http://www.hct.ac.uk/Downloads/cp_saddle.html Link is dead, scroll down to find file attached to this thread. It's an older style of construction, but the concepts still seem to be largely the same. Cheers, Adam

I was facing a similar challenge in order to get crescent bridle pieces made up for a dressage bridle, and I know the parts you're speaking of because I believe they are on the same page as the shanks you will have seen (from Abbey Saddlery). I emailed around to a bunch of machine shops, and eventually found Lasemann Cuts Ltd up here in Alberta. The did a set of crescent pieces, engraved with the name of the person and horse who I was getting them made for, out of stainless for $23 . They were just blanks, however, with rough edges from the laser, but if you're willing to invest the 6-odd hours of polishing that I did it's a choice. This were a present for someone special, so the shape and engraving were more important to me then economy. Cheers, Adam

I commissioned a bridle for my girlfriend a few months ago, and because I was curious asked the same questions you did. Answers were: Main body: English bridle leather about 10-11oz Lining: sheepskin or calfskin padding, chrome tanned with a slightly shiny finish, 2oz Padding: neoprene (1/8" for thick, 1/16" for thin) Would love to learn english bridlework at some point, but the tooling is expensive and I'm not sure I'd do enough of it just yet.

I'm sure I read in a harness making book that they do keepers with die-pressed patterns on them, and they stay pretty well. No personal experience though.

Never tried it myself, but when I was looking at harness leather the fellow who was showing it too me said you can case in warm/hot water, which will soften the wax and allow some stamping/embossing.

You're in great hands with Keith, obviously, but I just thought I'd caution you that you may need more rock and shoulder flare then is commonly available in most Wade trees on the commercial market. I have a friend who brought a very nice Andy over from Spain a few years ago: ...and her horse fit saddles that fit my Icelandic quite well. Those were made extremely wide (Andy Knight said I would never have found something off the shelf to fit my Icelandic). She was riding in a treeless for a long time until she found a saddle that fit (a dressage saddle, eventually). Like you said though, lots of variation in the breed. Good luck! Adam

Hi Dennis, The arena is a private boarding stable in Alberta that caters mainly to dressage riders. VERY nice place to ride, I feel lucky to be able to keep my horse there. Cheers, Adam

These are stainless, just not the oval style: http://store.artcords.com/___hardware___-c12.aspx

Another vote for Lunarpages. Great service, no problems, at least 5 years.