Randy Cornelius

I use 1/8" or 3/16 that you can get at the hardware stores for the smaller projects and 1/4 inch for the larger ones. But you have to go to a plastics company to get that. And it is quite pricy. Most plastic companies will have a scrap bin that you can get some good sized pieces out of. Just look in your yellow pages in any major city under plastics and you should be able to find a supplier. They also should carry the HDP cutting board material for your cutting tables too. Randy

When they closed the slaughter plants the horse market dropped to the lowest level I have seen in my 50 years of life. It used to be that an unwanted or untrained or untrainable horse would bring a decent price for killer. But now those horses are being turned loose with the "wild Horse Herds" out west. Here in the mid west we see horses just turned loose on the roads for law enforcement to deal with. At one local horse sale you have to leave a 250.00 depost with a horse you drop off to sell just in case it does not sell so that you will come back and get it. The tree huggers and the animal rights people have ruined the horse market. Now all those unwanted horses that used to go to the killers are now being turned loose for someone to find a home for. Would I eat horse meat? No but that does not mean that I look down on someone who does. Just my thoughts. Randy

I get the same stuff, I have a moto, "ANYTHING FOR A BUCK!" As long as it pays the bills and doesn't go against personal taste I will do it. Turned down the g-string for the male stripper though! Randy

My son Riley and I will be there, teaching a class on making cases. Randy

As someone who carries a pocket watch all the time I will tell you that if you have quarts watch (one that takes a battery) it will not harm it. But do not use a magnetic closure on one of the old wind up watches. If the internal workings get magnitized it will effect the watch. I have had to take my old 1898 railroad Wathum and have it de-magnitised. I would suggest a different closure to the customer unless it's a quarts watch. Randy

To do a surface clean and oil I charge 50.00. But really to do it right a saddle should be torn down, all the stirrup leathers removed, the rear jockies removed and the front jockies pulled up ect. sometimes I even remove the skirts and replace all the saddle strings for a complete job. That runs 125.00 Randy

Doing repairs and charging what it is worth is somethimes a double edged sword. If you do it right and fix it so it don't look coppled up you have more time and materials in it that you should have just made a new one from scratch. I have a minum that I charge a flat rate just to do a simple repair as that repair took me away from something else that would make me more money. If they don't want to pay a flat 10.00 to sew up something they can buy thier own sewing machine or needle and thread and do it thierselves. I also hate to just slap something together to make a repair as it will look coppled up. They you have people telling everyone you did the repair and that gives you a bad name as it looks coppled up to someone who may be willing to pay the price to fix it the right way.. Just my thoughts. Randy

Yes, I replaced the leathers with new, just as the orginal were. Randy

The reason I did not go with wood heat is that I did not want my leather smelling like wood smoke. The open flame with a wall gas heater is an issue, I just turn it off when I get the glue out. I have not had any problems. Randy

My wife Debbie and I are headed to Custer State Park, SD to spend 10 days. I have a 4 horse trailer with sleeping quarters. We are taking 2 horses and my Goldwing Motorcycle. Plan on riding horses during the mornings/afternoons and the motorcycle during the evenings and at least 3 full days. Will take lots of Pictures and post some if anyone is interested. Randy

I have a wall mounted 100% effecent ventless propane furnace. It does a very nice job heating my 20 X 30 work shop. Even during the coldest times here in Kansas I never turned it up above the #2 setting. For around 200.00 I am very pleased with it. I have some ceiling fans to move the air around and could not ask for more. Randy

I thought I would post some pictures of a Monte Forman Ballanced Ride saddle that came in for repair. You don't see too many of these anymore, they came out in about 1954 and started in the Falls Saddle shop but several saddle makers and saddle companies produced them under the Monte Forman name for several years. They became very popular in the 70's and 80's as I recall. I had one for a time but traded it many years ago. I am not sure if they are still made or not, maybe someone else has more info on them. Anyway they are kinda different so I thought I would post some pictures for those who may have never seen one. This way you can ID one if you come across one. The main thing is these saddles have a swivel, two piece stirrup leather. You can see by the photo the swivel just under the front jocky. Then there is another short stirrup leather that goes over the tree and then is secured by a small metal "L" shaped bracket or hardware piece. When pulled tight this bracket prevents the leather from coming out of the tree and is what is used to adjust the stirrup length along with the leather coming from the swivel. The main thing that these saddles do that most will not is they have a great amount of stirrup movement. You can touch the neck all the way back to the tail on a horse with your boot and never take it from the stirrup. Be glad to answer any questions I can. Randy Sorry about posting this twice, don't know what happened.

I never have given much thought to carring a holster on my thigh, but I supose you could modify it for that. But you would have to hook it to your garder belt to keep it from falling down unless your knees are larger than your thights. Possibly you could add a strap to tighten it up so it would not fall. but gravity works good and you would still have to have something to keep it from falling. Randy

Try Ohio Travel Bag

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personaly I am okay with the saddle soap but that is where I stop. I do not oil with neatsfoot any more because of the inconsistancy of the several manufactures of so called neetsfoot oil . I use only Wesson 100% pure vegatable oil now. Oil real good and let it set where it's warm for 24-48 hours it will return to the natural color, then come back with a coat of Fieblengs leather conditioner, rub in good with a scrap of sheeps wool and it will bring out a good shine. Also may want to follow up with a coat of Tan Kote. It will buff to a good shine if not satisfied with the other. Randy

Also consider plexiglass, I use it on a lot of different projects to stiffen.

Sounds like your cable is broke. Call Tipman.

Can you post his contact info in case we would like to order one. Randy

I have gotten hooked on the round bottom edgers made by Ron's Tools, he also makes a Montana edger for light weight leathers. I would suggest a # 2 and #3 in the round edgers to start. Randy

I broke up your questions and answered each. Hope this helps Randy

I have done some research on Flowers saddles in the past when I had one come in for repairs. All of the silver pieces are attached with one copper split rivit soddered to the back. Most of these Flowers saddles are all over 20 years old. They were sewn with linen thread and the fact is that over that amount of time linen will rot. When making repairs there is just no place to stop as you will keep finding places that need the stitches fixed and it goes on and on. I know of one person that does total rebuilds of these old Flowers saddles. Some my know Dusty Johnson who lives in Colorado. The name of his shop is Pleasant Valley Saddle Shop. He has a web site with his phone number and he is a wealth of information and loves to talk about these old saddles. I suggest you give him a call. He helped me out on the one that I worked on. Randy

I would not do the name on the customers item as just in chance you mess it up you will have to buy him a new one. If you make one and say you mess up a letter it's just the leather for one side. You also have no way of knowing what kind of leather the Billy Cook one is made out of and if it will tool the way you are used to. And 5 days thats not acceptable. BAD PLANNING ON HIS PART DOES NOT CONSTITUE AN EMERGENCY ON YOUR PART. I always require 2 weeks on custom orders. If he just wants the name stamped with the Tandy letters that may be the way to go on short notice. I think I would just center the first name on one side and the last name on the other side. It's hard to see both sides of the horse at the same time. lol Randy

Clay and Clay, I am planning on stopping by and saying hi that weekend. My wife and I will be in Custer with the horses and motorcycle riding the hills and the roads on vaction cannot wait to see both of you again. Randy PS I need directions to the store, I am coming in from the south from Custer, SD

I used a recycled product that is HDPE but is recycled and is about 1/2 the price. I bought 4 x10 foot sheets from a manufacturer in Missouri called Coons Manufacturing. don't know where else to get it.