gtwister09

Ed, They did make a half unit as well.. As I said before the work looks great. These pictures show a little more detail than what I originally saw. Regards, Ben

Here's the web site. Shop Talk Web Site Regards, Ben

Ryan, It has been quite a while...Welcome Back! That is a great looking saddle. Regards, Ben

Kevin, Here's some threads that have already discussed weights and such. Thread #1 Thread #2 Hope these give you some more information. Regards, Ben

I have been all over the board in the last 17 years. I have had tools stored in saddlemakers rolls, toolboxes, racks with numbers, plastic pipe/tubes, envelopes, separated and combined. One of the better ideas for single holed tools was an old Leather Craftsman article on using a Sears Craftsman toolbox. You can see it in the background of "The From Montage". The only problem is that it was outgrown as you can see. I also made a large block that had single holes that ran across my entire workstation but you had to move tools around all the time as you added them. It was a lot like Kings-X design and had an individual project design that was like Dale's design that Kings X shared above. In fact on another forum many years ago I asked members how many tools were normally used on each project and it was between 10-15 tools used for over 95% of the people polled. So I made my individual one with 15 slanted tool positions (this presented the tools much like a saddlemakers tool roll) as well as a place for a pencil to lay and a swivel knife on each end. I even went so far as one time to build a modular rack of various exotic woods (about 25 or 30 various woods) that had a mahogany base where you could swap the modular tool holder around. Each one of the individual holders were made in similar sizes so that you could arrange them in a modular fashion (1/2", ¾" and 1" squares). I can't find a picture of it and have since given it away. It held about 500 tools and took up a fairly significant amount of real estate (it covered a large portion of my workstation's width – it was about 16" wide by 50" long)) but it was a different idea that allowed you to rearrange as you gathered new tools and still have the groups as you saw fit. However as I said it was big and cumbersome and really not one of my better ideas. The right-left shift with a lot of tools is a never-ending task with new purchases. Like Bruce said the cup or large hole versus right-left shift thing is a big positive. So I went on a mission to consolidate and immediately thought of saddlemakers rolls in being able to keep the tools together yet viewable and reduce the amount of real estate. I had started making some pine ones from 6 X 6's that were cut at an angle so that you could see the heads of the tools. I also used a number of larger holes rather than individual tool holes and then I saw an idea that another forum shared. So I expanded upon it. Likewise one of the major requirements was that the rack(s) had to be put up and out of the way since the workstation was in the living room. So a carrying option had to be planned for. Now I use four racks that hold my stamping tools and swivel knifes. These four fit perfectly on a shelf in my tooling workstation. Most of them are arranged by groups but I do have ones that I use the most in one in a specific rack. I also have one rack that was mainly Craft tool duplicates that we put together for my son (You will notice in "The To Montage" that there is a smaller rack on the far right…This was the leftover of making the 4 racks so we made a smaller version for him). You will notice that these can be toted quite easily and they are tiltable so that you can see the heads of the tool. It has two different settings for the tilt as well as the carrying or upright position. I also placed tools like punches, edgers, stitching wheels, overstitching wheels, mauls, awls and such on pegboard so that they can also slide in/out on my workstation. The one major caveat is that these were taken about 7 years ago and like any good tool-a-holic there have been many additions to them. Enjoy…. Here are some other threads on the subject. Thread #1 Thread #2 Regards, Ben

Bob, Saw this on some of the other places as well. The pattern that you shared was great and the tooling does it justice for sure. Regards, Ben

Dwight, Here's one such device... Pro Concho Turner Regards, Ben

Elton, As others have said that is a nice set of holsters. So what was your final count for additional work after last weekend? Regards, Ben

John, Ditto to the additional pictures. Would love to see some more of your work. Some additional information on the silver and such would be nice as well. Regards, Ben

Knipper, As I mentioned here's something similar to what you are talking about in these chisels. There are a few different sizes of straight and curved chisels. Check it out here. Look for CH and CHC Filigree Chisels (CH - straight and CHC - curved) Filigree Chisels Look forward to seeing what you come up with. Regards, Ben

Knipper, Along with the standard complement of scalpel and blades there are also punches/chisels and the filigree swivel knife blade. Round punches can be used to remove certain portions. Bob Beard offers some straight and curved filigree chisels in various sizes. There also used to be a filigree punch set. Here's an example of shapes offered in it. As far as leather thickness it can vary greatly but generally 2-8 oz material is used. However I have seen a couple of pieces done with 10-12 oz leather. It just depends on the weight required for the item but thinner material is obviously easier to manipulate. Hope that helps. Regards, Ben

Ed, Interesting handle on the scratch awl. The Peroba Rosa is a different colored wood. Nice contrast against the black maul material. Yes...we have seen Beary's mauls. Take care. Regards, Ben

Casey, I have done them in the past mainly with the outside perimeter being sewn last but like I said it leaves the yoke to cover transition with those exposed stitches as they go over the edge. I don't really like the fact that it does that.... it detracts from quality of the overall stitching look to me (just my opinion). In talking with a some of the others they do it the same way and a couple of them agree that it does detract from the finished stitching somewhat, A couple of makers say they never do yokes like this for this very reason and some others believe the look to be fine. So there was a varied response and discussions prior to me putting up the request for what other makers do. Some do use 3 pieces and some do one piece for the main cover. A couple of the makers just say it depends on how they feel and what leather they have at the time which way they go. Regards, Ben

Ferg, I appreciate your response. I was mainly looking for the stitching process and to see what people find acceptable from a professional quality standpoint. So you are in the camp of Option B where you find it acceptable to have the stitches over the edge of the yoke transitioning to the main covers due to stitching the outside perimeter. Thanks. Regards, Ben

These are questions for all the makers that add yokes to the spine of their portfolios or other items. I have a question concerning techniques on adding and stitching a yoke. I have included three screen shots. One shows the overall side view of (in this case) a portfolio, an Option A and an Option B blowup of the circled area on the side view of the portfolio. Assume that the portfolio is lined with thin material and the yoke is added to the spine of the portfolio (main cover). I have had this discussion with a few makers and we have kicked back many different scenarios, issues and concerns but I would like to hear how others attack this from a process standpoint as well as what you would deem acceptable from a quality standpoint. You may have a different idea than what has been shown here in Option's A and B or discussed in the other option. One of the biggest questions that has come up is in Option B with the transition from the edge of the yoke to the main cover. Is it acceptable to have the stitching overlap the small area of the yoke as it transitions to the main cover? Obviously this will leave stitching that can wear quite easily at this transition point. Would you stitch the vertical aspect of this first to the main cover or do it after stitching all the way around the main cover? Would you leave a small gap on the vertical portion so that it didn't completely meet the stitching around outside of the main cover? In Option A the stitching follows the yoke but there is a small section between the yoke and the main cover that lacks a stitch. Is that acceptable? Even if you stitched all the way up to the edge of the yoke there would still be the small distance between the yoke intersection and the edge of the yoke on the inside that would not have a stitch. Is that acceptable? Or would you do a diffent process? For instance would you mark the four points of intersection of the yoke onto the main cover and stitch from top right intersection to bottom right intersection. Then stitch from the bottom left intersection to the upper left intersection. Next add the yoke and stitch all the way around the yoke. Of course this would leave the vertical stitch marks of the yoke on the inner lining. Is this acceptable? How would you handle this if you didn't want an overlapping stitch on the transition from the yoke to the main cover, no missing stitches between the transition from the yoke to the main cover and no vertical stitching on the lining that would show the yoke stitching pattern on the inside? Please comment on what technique/process you would do. Please also comment on the idea if the various stitch issues are acceptable to you and if so why? Would you ever do one where all three of the stitch issues would not be present? If so how would you do it and would it just be too cumersome to try to do? I would like to hear any and all ideas of what you would and would not attempt as well. Regards, Ben

Beary, Welcome aboard. Ed mentioned that you would be showing up soon. Glad to see you here. Regards, Ben

There are a bunch of things that can affect viewing in IE. For instance privacy, security levels, filtering, pop-up blockers, smartscreen filter, compatability filters, etc are some of them. Likewise there are a number of things in Firefox that can impact it as well. With both of them the Java library version can have an impact on the viewing as well. Just some places to look for possible fixes for the problem. Regards, Ben

Tried this with IE 8 and 9 as well as Firefox 4 and 5. All of them show up with the hover function where Terry has his prices. Terry, The knives look very nice. That's a unique draw gauge blade. Good idea. Glad to see another one producing knifes for the leatherworker. Regards, Ben

It is the most informative web site and information available today on making trees bar none. Of course I may be a little biased as well. Great work and information. An educated buyer is ALWAYS a good thing. Regards, Ben

Darcy, My vote is for Steve's Swade as an official name... I guess if they are going to feud about the name of their saddle tree then you could call one a Hatfield and the next one a McCoy. Then start over. Regards, Ben

Ralph, Ditto to what Bruce said...send some pictures. Regards, Ben

Darcy, Great to see you back. The saddle as Steve and Troy have already mentioned looks great. It is always great to see your posts because you share so many views of the saddle and so much detail. Glad that you are catching your breath. Regards, Ben

Wyoming Slick, I am fortunate over the years to gather up several different makers brands of tools (all these mentioned as well as some others like Hackbarth, Wootres, Smith and others) including hand made ones from nails that were made by Ray Pohja for Bob Dellis. Anyhow a couple of statements in this thread piqued my interest. (1) Question from you concerning someone's inference of McMillan tools and (2) Answers to Bruce's questions below that ties to answering #1. " Is there any real definite ways to tell let's say an Eberle from an unmarked McMillen from some of the other makers? You hear about knurling, ends, shank length, shank diameter, and the the old "once you have seen a few, then you know". Any thoughts?" My Eberle's have two different markings on them and another one of them has no marking whatsoever but I know this unmarked one came from him because Bob Dellis showed me his receipts for them. So I would certainly love to hear just like I know Bruce would what you consider to be Eberle characteristics, McMillan characteristics and so forth. Any additional thoughts on it as well would be appreciated. It helps to know all viewpoints on these while you are hunting [collecting] tools. Thanks in advance for your time. Regards, Ben

Bob, He's one of a few that does it all. He's a very talented man for sure and an inspiration to many. Wouldn't you have liked to be one of their roommates when they started out together.? It would have been interesting to say the least. Regards, Ben

Eddie, Unfortunately Jeremiah's Western Folklife blog hasn't been updated in more than 3 years. There are other saddlemakers on here that make their own trees and some that also do engraving. Regards, Ben