pavilionpony

Does anyone know of any tutorials or information on making more fancy bridles other than the plain ones or simply stamped ones? How about proper measurements? Yikes. Cindy

Victor, that is simply gorgeous! How in the world did you do that??

Oh boy. A customer has brought this saddle to me with a ripped off horn. I have to tell you, this saddle is CHEAP, I mean chinsy cheap. But, none the less, they want it filled and covered where the horn was. Any ideas on what to fill it with? I thought about resin, but I don't want anything that has any weight to it, as the swell is completley hallow. I also thought about putting a piece of wood in there to take up some of the space other than whatever I use for filling. Suggestions? Cindy

Hi everyone! I am sooooo excited to be here, you have no idea! I'll try to keep this as short as possible - My best friend and 'grandpa' Charlie taught me about leather work. He did it for fifty years and was an amazing and very talented man. He even made elephant harnesses for the elephants at the Detroit zoo....! I spent alot of time with him in his saddle shop making bridles, repairing saddles, carving and doing other leather things (plus of course taking time out for playing cribbage for a quarter a game, lol) during the past four years, but I have known him most of my life. Charlie passed away this past January at the age of 82; and I have been totally devasted and completley lost without him. Not just about leather - but he was my best friend. I have all of Charlies tools and have taken over his saddle and tack shop. I finally got cement poured in the back of my pole building for a shop and just started going through boxes. There is so much stuff. All kinds of weights of leather, buckles, snaps, mallets, etc. I am so fortunate to have gotten his leather things. But there are soooo many questions I have to ask, but cannot ask him anymore. Some questions may seem quite simple (or silly to many that have done this for a long time) - I just cannot remember everything he told me. I wish I would have written stuff down. I just know he;s up there doing this when I do some things. I was surfing the web yesterday and couldn't believe that I found this site. This is the best thing ever! I already have questions, so please if you could help me out on some stuff I would really, really appreciate it. Thank you all in advance! Cindy p.s. the picture is of Charlie when he was around 45 yrs. old. I have it and have hung it up out in the shop. I'll post pics of the stuff I have (still going through stuff) later.