gtwister09

Great wood and nice presentation of the knife. Regards, Ben

Welcome aboard Robin! Always good to see more saddle makers here. Regards, Ben

Tim, No I haven't but I have seen some done. Check out these by Jerry Tucker. Jerry Tucker Bracelets Regards, Ben

Very nice! Great attention to detail, carving and coloring. Definitely a great item to Show Off. Regards, Ben

Elton, Any miniature, jewelry or machining site should have some. Here are a couple that I located. Progress Tool This one is jewelry and machining both. I have bought some from them before and they are fairly good to deal with. Shore International This one has lots of choices to choose from. JemCo This one also has several choices. That ought to help you get started. Regards, Ben

Paul Burnett has many stamping designs that are a wonderful to start your creativity if you want to do that type of stamping work. Many of them are for belts but he also shows many coloring techniques as well. They can be purchased from the various leather suppliers and he has a web site as well. Paul Burnett - Painted Cow Website Regards, Ben

Several requests have been made for this topic offline so I am going to break it out and include the text here. Here's the link to the topic after the crash. Link to Post after the crash Duke/Bruce, I don't have the old post.... It had a lot more examples and such. I gave several examples like wrongfully purchasing the longest Chuck Smith that I could find since I thought large hands needed large swivel knives. I have since cut down the Chuck Smith knife on the lathe. Anyhow...... In a nutshell here are the quick and dirty guidelines to consider for ergonomic fitting of swivel knives. One of the first things that you must determine is the diameter of knife that is comfortable for you. I know from experience that I need a much smaller diameter knife. I have done lots of drafting work and was quite used to rolling a smaller sized diameter pencil which also translates into a smaller pen and swivel knife. One quick way is to look at what size pen you use on a regular basis that feels comfortable for you. Some like them big and some like them rather small. As to the length take your hand and put you thumb and second finger (one after the index finger) together. This will be the end that you would put near the bottom of the swivel knife. Take your index finger and see where your index finger is relaxed. Now slowly move your index finger up and away from the thumb and second finger that are together. When you start to feel a little pain or stretch in your index finger move it back towards the thumb and second finger about 1/4 - 3/8 of an inch. This is the length from the bottom of the barrel to the bottom of the yoke. This is a good ergonomic position to start from that will allow you to carve with your swivel knife longer. With your thumb and second finger roll them like you would a drafting pencil...thereby giving you greater control. You are trying to select one that will allow you to operate longer and with less cramping. Hope this helps. Regards, Ben

Very familiar with the "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" program but what me chuckle is that it takes a "pink" cancer campaign to make men wear pink. Rodeos aren't the only events that have a designated "pink" night. Regards, Ben

As Luke mentioned the square hole is called the hardy hole. It is used for swages, chisels, fullers, hold downs and other tools. Here's the first page that I googled...... Information for Hardy Hole Regards, Ben

Any news on Billy? Regards, Ben

No worries..... We all do things differently! Acquiring different techniques is what this forum is about. We call this benchmarking or stealing shamelessly. Thsi place makes it much easier than it was 20-30 years ago to acquire information that can impact our work. Regards, Ben

Elton, Agree wholeheartedly with the skiving of the strap to prevent leg tear out. The 3M contact spray works extremely well just like it does with upholstery leather. As far as the finish of the straps.....that's just my preference just like a rounded corner. You can take it for what it's worth - someone else's opinion. Dink, I will certainly take a look at your site. With all my negative comments I still liked your designs a lot. Great idea for detail and productionizing the belts with the fold over design with the color strip on top! On that note I will likewise shut up since I sounded like a know-it-all. Sorry! Regards, Ben

Dink, Elton's comment on "TOUGH ENOUGH TO WEAR PINK" made me chuckle. Overall these are nice designs and a couple of nice variations on your yoke designs in breaking them up into panels . I like the tri-panel designs on the yokes. I also like the clicked cross panels for the bleed knots. I've seen those before and you have made a good pair of theme chaps with them. The majority of the stitching looks great. Double stitching even around the areas that aren't filigreed or overlaid is a nice touch. It appears as though the back portion of the belt was lined. The pink one definitely looked like that, Is that correct? I liked the contrasting stripes on the back belts as well......nice. You are definitely doing some good work on these. Here's a couple of suggesions for possible consideration. Some of these suggestions are rather slight. On the cross chaps it appears as though the sweep for the crotch is squared off but that may be the picture itself. Symmetry I fret greatly over overlays when they are used on chaps, boots or anything else. Most likely I go overboard on the details of these overlays. When you look for symmetrical lines and offsets you see that some of the inside curves on the overlays are not free flowing. Some of them are abrupt in that you notice a transition (a small straight portion). French curves are the best examples that I can think of for free flowing curves and scrollwork. A couple of places the 2nd overlay isn't a perfect offset of the bottom overlay curve. The overlay of the cross at the bottom appears to be slightly lop-sided. Strap Work The one thing that struck me was the strap work. The edges need to be finished and dyed. I couldn't tell if you were using an oval punch for the buckle holes but that would also be nice. The billet tips could benefit from the use of a punch to standardize them and also so that you could quickly make them. It appears as though you were going for something near an English point. Using a single edge creaser could further refine the strap work. My personal preference on rivets is not to use the "star" rivets. They always appear to be less finished or lower quality. A rivet that appears finished on both sides would be a better choice in my opinion. For the same reason that saddlemakers fret over polishing and doming copper rivets. That last little attention to detail goes a long ways in the perception of quality of the product. I really like the rounded bottom corners for chaps especially when you use fringe and overlays because the transition of the side to bottom fringe is more gradually and less abrupt than the square bottoms.....just my personal preference. Keep up the good work. Regards, Ben

Johanna, All I can say to what you just wrote is YES and AMEN! This is exactly the same thing that I have been trying to get across to others in the consulting fields and also to some people in construction, wood working and decorative concrete world as well. I know that I will be making some additions to the proposal over time but, Darc has been one of the few that offered some additional suggestions for "finer" details that could command higher prices for saddles based on his experience of an above average education and appreciation of the finer points of saddle making. I do have many of his past eBay saddles saved off as well as some of his articles, comments and pictures from other forums. As he stated he believes that the greater detail in his pictures (along with the number of hi-res photos) help sell his saddles at a higher price. Just having verbiage without the photos does not do justice to the straw man that I put together. It took some time to also put the PDF together. A couple of people have requested it off line already. The detailed photos are not exhaustive but a guideline for saddle makers to consider. Likewise the whole proposal was one that I hoped would stir up some marketing juices in the ranks. Even if they did not use it for the web it still could greatly enhance their diary of past work (which is what some of them have used to sell additional work - a customer thumbs through their past work). However I did not want to get the site in trouble with having others' pictures embedded in the forum. Therefore I took the time to create one that only had links and not the actual photos in the post to the forum. The PDF is obviously more impacting with the pictures included. The intent is to benchmark others examples and incorporate them into your own marketing and photo gallery strategy. I was only trying to establish a framework from which to work with. I can continue to forward the PDF as others request it so that it keeps the site out of hot water. Likewise sending it upon request gauges the actual interest as well. I then can use these interested parties to continue to refine the process/proposal going forward. Regards, Ben

Judy, I like the color contrast on the saddle. I agree with Bruce on the length, color and edges of the strings. Bruce mentioned using angles for basket stamping due to the forgiveness of the angles. This is true because it is easy to see a mistake with the stamp either being plumb or level. One of the things to remember with using angles is to make sure that you continue a stamping line between various components like the fender, jockeys, etc. An easy way to do this is to take a straight edge from one component to another to continue the stamping line. Regards, Ben

Duke/Bruce, I don't have the old post.... It had a lot more examples and such. I gave several examples like wrongfully purchasing the longest Chuck Smith that I could find since I thought large hands needed large swivel knives. I have since cut down the Chuck Smith knife on the lathe. Anyhow...... In a nutshell here are the quick and dirty guidelines to consider for ergonomic fitting of swivel knives. One of the first things that you must determine is the diameter of knife that is comfortable for you. I know from experience that I need a much smaller diameter knife. I have done lots of drafting work and was quite used to rolling a smaller sized diameter pencil which also translates into a smaller pen and swivel knife. One quick way is to look at what size pen you use on a regular basis that feels comfortable for you. Some like them big and some like them rather small. As to the length take your hand and put you thumb and second finger (one after the index finger) together. This will be the end that you would put near the bottom of the swivel knife. Take your index finger and see where your index finger is relaxed. Now slowly move your index finger up and away from the thumb and second finger that are together. When you start to feel a little pain or stretch in your index finger move it back towards the thumb and second finger about 1/4 - 3/8 of an inch. This is the length from the bottom of the barrel to the bottom of the yoke. This is a good ergonomic position to start from that will allow you to carve with your swivel knife longer. With your thumb and second finger roll them like you would a drafting pencil...thereby giving you greater control. You are trying to select one that will allow you to operate longer and with less cramping. Hope this helps. Regards, Ben

Bill, From an engineering and machinist standpoint you are correct that these bearings are generally not set up for side thrust. However the amount of thrust is nothing like what we would consider if you put an end mill in the drill press and faced off a piece of steel or aluminum. These are performing slicking and not cutting operations. Cutting metal generally has the cutter climbing. We have used these in a smaller 12" drill press (conservatively about 100-125 hours of slicking) as well as using it to drill more holes than I care to remember over the past fourteen years (metal and wood drilling). The drill press is still being used today by one of our friends. We upgraded after 14 years to a 16" Rigid. Regards, Ben

Darc, I have several of your eBay listings saved and yes I agree with all that you said about the reason for commanding the higher price due to education, descriptions and photos. This was the reason for throwing this proposal out. FYI - The list of close-ups was not exhaustive. It was only meant to stimulate some thoughts and inspiration for items just like you said. ie... the ears, jockeys and stitching are a couple of them to add. The next thing as you alluded to is to take the photos and then put descriptions with them that would assist in marketing the artistic abilities of the saddlemaker and the craftsmanship in the saddles. I would love for more to comment on the proposal. It is only a straw man even though it took a few hours to work out the links and then the PDF. Take care and will add your comments. Regards, Ben

We have used a couple of cocobolo ones for years that we made. We used a 3/8" X 3" lag bolt for the neck and cut the head off so that it could be turned on the lathe and later chucked into the drill press. Using the lag bolt fixed the issue with the neck getting chewed up by the jaws. It also provided a means to turn the slicker true. Regards, Ben

If you select one of the heavier granite surface plates (we have one) then I would strongly suggest a "ledged" surface plate so that you can get your fingers under the ledge to pick it up and move it around. Regards, Ben

Marketing Proposal for Showcasing Photos for Saddlework In admiring the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association website, numerous saddlemaker’s websites and various forums, I noticed that there are some that provide good overall shots and great detail shots of the saddles. Some are limited to one overall shot. I have also looked at several saddlemakers’ scrapbooks whose desire was to detail their saddle work. Unfortunately many of the scrapbooks and websites don’t show enough detail to show off their work. Likewise many times on our forum members ask for additional photos for details. This got me to thinking about the saddlemaker scrapbooks and websites. Specifically how could a standard process or presentation format with detailed pictures help saddlemakers showcase past work and ultimately help them increase their sales or profit on their saddles. The purpose of this proposed format is to utilize overall and close-up photos to document each saddle to most effectively capture their artistic talents, inspiration and hard work. For each saddle I would suggest the following approach. Pictures for each saddle would be broken into two categories, overalls and close-ups. See examples at the end of the document/post arranged according to the two categories below. (1) A set of overall pictures Left - Complete left side Right - Complete right side (use one side only if they are identical –left side is standard ptoto) Back - One from behind showing cantle and back jockey Front - One from the front showing horn and fork Top - One from the top showing horn, fork, seat, cantle and back jockey (2) Close-ups Silver work like horn caps, Andy’s hummingbirds, conchos, inlaid seats, tapaderos and special shots like riggings, cinchas, side view minus fenders, seat to horn, horn to seat, seat to jockey and various details of tooling, stamping and other details that a saddlemaker would want to showcase such as combination shots. I would also suggest not including the surrounding workshop and such in your photos. You are trying to showcase your saddles. Look at discussion on how to photograph saddles (http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=295 ). A specific example of how to perform this is in post #13. Click on this link . Saddle Photography Discussion See clean photos from Ryan’s saddle below, There are also other examples throughout most of the pictures and links. Use these for inspiration and examples. All pictures are the property of their respective owners. These are unedited photos from their respective sites and forums and are only intended to convey the intent of the proposal. This format would also be great to use for showing off your saddles on the forum as well. I have also compiled this into a PDF with the examples included. If you would like a copy of this then send me a personal message and I will forward it to you. Left Side View Examples Ryan Cope Jon Watsabaugh Steve Mason Troy West Troy West Back View Examples Jeremiah Watt Jeremiah Watt Front View Examples Jeremiah Watt Jeremiah Watt Top View Examples Ryan Cope Troy West Jeremiah Watt Jeremiah Watt Close-up Examples Silverwork Horn caps, hummingbirds, stirrups, hobbles and conchos Andy Knight's Hummingbirds Cary Schwarz - Silverwork – Horn cap, rope strap and conchos Cary Schwarz - Silverwork and stirrup Cary Schwarz - Silverwork and carving detail Steve Mecum - Silverwork - Horn Cap, Buckle and Conchos Troy West - Silverwork and back Jockey to Horn Detail Chuck Stormes - Horn Cap - Dragonfly John Visser - Cantle Silver John Visser - Silverwork Conchos and Bucking Roll John Visser - Monel Stirrup Combination Photo Examples Jeremiah Watt Jeremiah Watt Jeremiah Watt Back Jockey Examples John Visser - Back Jockey Rick Bean - Back cantle, jockey, Cheyenne roll and silverwork Rick Bean - Back Jockey and Cantle Back Jockey to Horn Example Jon Watsabaugh Side View Minus Fenders Example Ryan Cope Tapaderos Example Steve Mecum Horn to Seat Example Jeremiah Watt Seat to jockey Example Jeremiah Watt Rigging Detail Example Steve Mason Back Cinch Loop Detail Example Steve Mason - Back Cinch Loop Detail Saddle Bag Detail Example Rick Bean Fender Detail Example Rick Bean Regards, Ben

Welcome aboard Tim. Regards, Ben

Rob, Granite is a much better choice than marble. Marble will flake some when you hammer on it over time. Look at wikipedia to see the difference between marble and granite. Granite is much more durable than marble. Regards, Ben

Andy, Great work! Great clean looking saddle. Lots of nice touches from the partial tooling/stamping to the billets, hummingbirds and matching ostrich inlays/bucking rolls. Many others have stated all the great details. Tutorials from you would be a great thing. I would throw my hat in to encourage tutorials out of you as well. Regards, Ben

Steve. I was looking at some duck material like the ones King Ranch used, but I agree that I like your apron split much more. Are these lined? Great looks as always! Regards, Ben