gtwister09

I had to chuckle a little here as to the tricks that older saddlemakers/carvers used. The more things change the more they stay the same. Many of them used the exact same methods, techniques and formulas. They had already figured out what was working. I was given a "No More Tears" Quick Casing Formula many years ago (25 +) that I thought was very good for carving and cutting. I modified the formula some and also added some Listerine to it to keep mold away (or so the thought was). No More Tears Quick Casing Formula 1/2 Cup Lexol 1-1/2 Cups Distilled Water or Filtered Water 1 Tablespoon Johnson's No More Tears Baby Shampoo 1 Tablespoon Listerine Regards, Ben

Here's some things to look at....I was looking around the site some more. All of these have to do with blast penetration. Interesting to say the least. Line-X Blast Test Line-X Air Force Blast Test Installed at Pentagon Army Protection Soldier Line-X National Geographic -Terrorists Regards, Ben

From Line-X's website ... " Line-X provides the highest tear strength, tensile strength and abrasion resistance." There are NO specific values for that "highest" designation (likewise is it just for the tear strength or for all three traits listed). It lists tear and tensile strength but not torsional. It would be interesting to see what the stress-strain curve looks like and some valuable numbers like modulus of elasticity. One of the things that you have to account for engineering wise is flex life from repeated flex and strain and the long term strength associated with that. Will it fail from repeated flexing and strain? Hmmmmm. All the applications that they presently list are topical. Are there any others that are used like rawhide? Just some questions that I have thinking out loud. Regards, Ben

Greg, Really glad to see you back after a long time. Missed you on the other site! Welcome aboard. Regards, Ben

A couple of hints here for making these... (1) Make sure the heel of the tool is carried a long way out .. in other words it doesn't end abruptly as if you just ground the steep angle. This greatly reduces the marks left behind outside the edge of the petal/leaf or whatever else you are lifting. Consider at least 1/2 to 2/3 the same distance of the angled cut for the increase on the heel from the edge of the angled cut. (2) Polish, polish, polish (3) Those engraver handles are "handy" to show where the sole of the tool is. An additional benefit is that you can push the tool in flatter. Thereby allowing you to go farther into the material. Consider at least a little flat on your tool handle to aid in this manner. (4) Get it heat treated....It cuts down on the amount of time resharpening and stropping it Regards, Ben

I checked on his website and there were not any references to his modeling tool for sale. Here's his email so that you can ask him personally... Regards, Ben

Pete, Great tool! Certainly worth the money. Only place that you can get it is from Peter directly. I don't know how much he is charging now. Mine is more than 10 years old so my $$$ probably wouldn't be a good indicator. Regards, Ben

Ryan, Bought mine MANY years ago from Harry. His daughter is selling it now. The format has changed from what I bought. Here's her email address. bettike@comcast.net Phone number is 801.222.9161. Regards, Ben

Ryan, I have all three of these. Pete's pattern book is fairly good to give you basics on creating designs. He covers space and other issues fairly well with a few examples. It will certainly get you started in creating your own patterns. The How to Establish Prices for the Leatherworker is very good. Since I have worked and costed projects in various industries (road construction/manufacturing/information technology), I found that his costing methods were quite good and the feedback with actuals to constantly update these to be quite good. He also covers a little economics and the future of saddlemaking with baby-boomers foing away (his opinion of course) as well as throwing in the arguments of a saddlemaking certification as a means to "command" decent wages. Overall a great book for costing that utilizes standard disciplined methodologies that are used in other industries. Harry's saddlemaking book has a lot of comments on it in the Saddle section. It is a good one. Hope that helps. Regards, Ben

This one gives a Page Not Found message.... This one is for a H.Brown knife, inlayed in Tejus lizard http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e359/DCK...pg?t=1200753741 Regards, Ben

Dave, I assume that you are talking about his round cut edgers and not the Montana ones. Correct? Regards, Ben

Thank you. Sorry. I only made this as a replacement for the one that I sent to my Dad. There isn't enough time for all my projects much less making these for sale especially with work lately. Regards, Ben

Steve, One of the other good uses that I found for fake sheepskin was in casing skirts, fenders and such. It helped even the casing out more and the fake sheepskin was washable (to keep mold off). An older saddlemaker used this trick rather than trash bags. Regards, Ben

Speaking of burnishers... Here's one that we made recently out of cocobolo. It has a metal shaft so that it doesn't get chewed up when chucked in the drill press. It certainly helps speed things up. The tip also works great for burnishing punched holes. Regards, Ben

Steve, Try Goliger or Siegels. Hidehouse may be another but I have never used them yet. Goliger Leather Siegel HideHouse Regards, Ben

Ditto! Some unique styles and combinations with the exotics. Regards, Ben

Tiffany, I have all three of these manuals. There is a TON of information in these (detailed and specific - lots of why). However I will have to warn you that Francis is a little sparse on examples especially in Manual One. There is a lot of written information on techniques and costing. Manuals 2 and 3 definitely have more figures than manual one. These are serious manuals on construction techniques. At least for me these manuals were read and reread. I would suggest the PDF option. I would have bought them in that format if they were available when I got them. I purchased them when he only had one. He is now working on manual number four. Francis will keep you in the loop and every now and then will send out little additional tidbits in emails (Of course he also uses it to market updates and new manuals). Regards, Ben

That would be plumb and level.... :D Regards, Ben

This is generally standard operating procedures for forums to allow guests to see the text but not the pictures. I know a couple of knife forums, a bit and spur forum and others operate in the same fashion. Get Johanna to confirm this. Regards, Ben

Already used the tool. Works fairly well. Regards, Ben

You may have the old ones in your cache. A possible fix (if you are using Windows) is to open a Command Prompt (usually in Accesories) and type in the following: ipconfig /flushdns This will flush the dns cache and should correct possible issues with any dual DNS entries. Regards, Ben

I was transplanted to Texas for a job. I grew up in New Mexico. Lesson there is be careful when you say that you won't live soemewhere. I wound up living where I said I wouldn't. The older hands gave us lots of life lessons and yes I have been on my head and walking more times than I would ever care to admit. They also taught you about hard work, how to work, how to stay alive and also how to be safe. Your right about luxury in horses. My Dad bought several horses from rodeo stock and those were some of the main horses that we rode and learned on from 4 or 5 until I left home. Of course others came and left as they were traded around as well. Regards, Ben

Darc, Your mileage may vary but here's something that I have seen firsthand. While I was working on a ranch we had one of the older hands decide that he wanted to feel the horse better and he wanted to be closer to his horse, so he removed the connecting strap. His statement was that he had been riding for 30+ years and noticed that the connecting strap didn't do a d_mned thing (his words). I moved on a year later but I went back 3 years later to help with gathering. He had another saddle by this maker and three other people I know also used saddles by this maker. The point that I am trying to establish is that the saddles were well made and that there were no rigging issues on the other four saddles. Some of them had even been used longer than this one that was modified. Three years later here's what I saw. His front dee rigging appeared as though the outside edges were rolled up on both sides. It appeared as though the dee was torquing at the outside edges and made the leather wrinkle/wear and roll up at the edges. Since the other saddles did not have this connector strap removed and they were all made closely the same way and by the same maker, I would have to derive that the connector strap removed created the wrinkles/wear in the front dee rigging. I might be wrong but that was what effect I saw from the removal of the connecting strap. It may be coincidence but the only one I have seen with it removed had this issue of wrinkles/wear on the front dee rigging after three years of use. Regards, Ben

Sage advice. Get it all! Benchmark everywhere. Regards, Ben

**** 3 in one answer **** Dave, No one's fault! I assumed that I had not properly conveyed what I was trying to say (typical of email and forums). I was just trying to make a correlation about art and function. Ideally the function would be perfect and the art portion would be be icing on the cake... IMHO. ============================= Jason, I would have loved to have been able to go to some sort of saddle school but that wasn't in the cards. Likewise I am a DIY kind of person. Maybe one of the reasons that I pursue a library is so that I can gather many different techniques/methods and then apply the best possible one for the job or function. In fact we can also utilize methods that are used in English and Aussie saddles if we understand the why of that function/technique/method. However, I would have to say that ideally you would need some foundational information before going to a saddle school to make you a lot more effective. Not an absolute but I believe you would get so much more from it if you had some saddle knowledge (experience/time in a saddle or information gleaned from books/videos). With that being said there is a "gotcha" by only going to one school. You don't have those other means/methods of creating something different than the way it was done at school at your disposal. There are almost always other ways to do things. In fact most of the older saddlemakers would go from shop to shop gleaning information as they apprenticed. I know that Dave G. mentioned that in some of his threads that he "made the rounds". I have also heard it from people like Bob Dellis, Billy Wootres and others. This can surely be overcome by following their method of apprenticeship or by studying others work in the form of books/videos. Follow their example and gather multiple methods and then create your own style of work. I personally don't have any experience with any of the schools so I cannot comment on them. ============================== Ryan, No Wades will knock a bunch of books/videos out like Jeremiah's, Dales, Bill's and Harry's book. Now I have to say that you can still get some very valuable information from them on the why something is done that way . Bruce Cheaney has three videos (roping, cutting and buckaroo). They are good. They cover the basic tools and equipment needed. You will be surprised to see his drawdown stand...a LEGO contraption at best. It is a conglomeration of pipe, nipples and other fittings. He uses his pocket knife A BUNCH! If you were considering Bruce and looking at building ropers, then I would just start off with that one. I will have to warn you that his tapes are about 93-98% the same from tape to tape. Regards, Ben