Mulesaw

@bsshog40 I think it could be a deliberate choice to not have a "like" button. An old horse forum in Denmark pretty much died within a month or two after adding "like / dislike" buttons. Suddenly nobody commented on threads anymore, all the discussion was lost and that sort of took the charm out of the forum. So I tend to do like @chuck123wapati simply just reply a short remark that you like the content :-) Brgds Jonas

Looks really good. The sewing looks very consistent, and also the buckle fits very nicely in regards to colour, size and shape. Admittedly I have zero experience with western type headstalls, so there might be a reason, but considering your quality of hand sewing, I think you should have stitched the buckle in place instead of using that type of rivets (can't remember their English name). Brgds Jonas

@Mr. Jay Welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your find, those are great sewing machines. It looks like it is in a very fine state. I have a similar model (can't remember from the top of my head the number of it), but also one with the shorter arm like yours. When you get to the cleaning/oiling job, please remember to grease/oil the pivot bearings for the foot plate and for the main shaft with the flywheel. Since they are under the table it is very easy to forget those 🙂 Brgds Jonas

@Einherj Welcome top the forum 🙂 Cool machine, sadly I haven't got any direct information about it. My suggestion would be to contact Sieck in Germany (www.sieck.de), and ask if they have any information about a machine like that. I would think that any manual regarding an eylet setting machine would be helpful, I would guess that the working principle is the same for those machines. Brgds Jonas

That's one mean looking snake! Really good job!

It is a nice touch to use reflective material for the edge roll. And yes, straight lines are difficult - It can help to mark a line using a very soft pencil, that gives your eye something to follow, But if you have an edge guide that is probably even better (I haven't got one on my sewing machines). Another option that I use often is to let the side of the presser foot follow the side of whatever I am sewing. Brgds Jonas

Looking good, and good looking dog too! Is it a Great Dane? It looks very stoical and majestic. Brgds Jonas (Newfoundland dog owner)

@beijinho There are some videos on Youtube with a saddlemaker from Pakistan or India, that makes an English style saddle from scratch. I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but I am pretty sure that I just searched for saddle making" and scrolled till I found them. It isn't exactly an instructional video, but it still shows the processes and that is pretty much what I would need. The link I provided is for this site (leatherworker.net), and it is a good book despite it isn't the most modern. If you read that and look at some videos you are pretty well off I'd say. I don't know where you live, but if you can get your hands on an old saddle, you can learn a lot about how they are constructed by taking one apart. I got two worn out pony saddles a couple of years back that I intended on copying, but I haven't found the time so far. What type of saddle are you planning on building? Dressage, jumping or combination? Brgds Jonas

@beijinho The book " making a saddle" can be found here 🙂 The first link is dead, but the moderator Northmount has fixed it, so the second last comment has got a pdf for the book. Brgds Jonas

@Ledhep Welcome to the forum. I can follow you completely in wanting to take your skills to the next level. In your profile information you write that you are interested in learning about hand tooling, sewing and finer work. Perhaps set yourself a challenge of making for example: 3 tooled belts this year. It could be a floral design or something completely different, as long as it is something you like. After each belt examine them closely and be honest with yourself in your own critique. Was the stitching consistent, well laid out pattern etc. that'll give you something to work on for the next belt. Afdter that, you again look at it, and compare it to the first one. Did you do better on the focus points etc. That way you can monitor your own progress. The reason I suggested belts is that they allow for a lot of practise with a not too high investment in materials. and you can always give them away as birthday gifts when you don't need anymore yourself. Also if you work really focused, you can see the result in e.g. a weeks work with a couple of hours here and there. I think the most important thing is to do something you enjoy from the start, and it needs to be something where you can see a progress. Because there is just something comforting in being able to see that you are actually moving forward. Brgds Jonas

I had made a pair of chaps for one of Gustavs friends. I had been asked to make them exactly the same size, so I did.. The first time he tried them on he realized they were too small around the waist, and the legs should have been 4" longer. It is a guy who has helped Gustav a lot, and Gustav wanted to give them to him as a gift, and since he is the only western rider I know of in Denmark, I had promised to make them. But still it kind of bugged me that they didn't fit the first time, so I started making a chaps measuring belt. I have seen a video on Youtube with a shop where they have a belt like that. So techjnically it is a set of yokes, an adjustable backbels and an adjustable front belt. That way it will be possible to find the correct size and get the yokes to sit nice on each of the hips. That will also give something to use for measuring the height of the chaps so they will fit. At least that is the idea. In order to make it a little bit interesting for me, and also to show people the limited skills I have in carving, I decided to make one of the yokes with traditional basket weave, and the other with a norse inspired dragon/snake that coils around itself - in case someone wants to order a set of biker chaps (those people in Denmark at least seem to be more into snakes/dragons than basket weave). Looking at the finished carving I can see that I still need to work a lot on making the dragon more fluent and coily, but for a first attempt it is OK I think. So far the biggest mess up is that I forgot to leave room for the end of the front belt, so that will cover the head of the dragon/snake, but it was pretty fun to do the carving and trying to get by with my 4 stamps that are not for basket weave. I have made a back belt and a front belt, but I didn't have time to mount them before going out to sea again. Tandy pattern yoke with basket weave. (before beveling the edges) Norse inspired dragon/snake, 1st attempt both in design and execution.

Really interesting video. The way the sewing ends on the straps is new to me. I have never seen it done with a small "return stitch" for a lack of better description. Visible on several straps around the 0:47 mark in the video. But then I haven't got much experinece in military draft tack. Brgds Jonas

The sliding reins ended up really nice. I polished the edges and gave them, a solid amount of my own leather grease (ox lard and neatsfoot oil), I found myself just sitting and running them through my fingers when I sat in the sofa in the evening, so I decided they were a success even before Gustav started using them 🙂 I have a bad conscience.. I had promised to write a tutorial in here about changing zippers. Bu I still haven't pulled myself around to do it. Glad to hear that you managed to fix those boots. Once in a while I get some boots too that are so heavily over oiled that the leather feels kind of tacky. But it is like you describe: Impossible to get anything to hold, whether contact glue or tape. That really doesn't help with the project. I haven't done any with a curved zipper on the outside, it sounds terrible! The worst kinds I think are tall dressage boots with the zipper in the front. They are just a pain in the neck to do, it is so hard to make it look decent at bottom. Repairing zippers isn't the most economically sound thing to do for our little business. We charge a fixed amount for a zipper, and it doesn't give a lot per hour if I try to calculate it that way. But it is really generating a huge customer base once word gets around that you can do it. Plus when I am home I really try to do it within a day or two. People really appreciate that since the normal lead time can be a couple of weeks as far as I have been told. Brgds Jonas

@Gezzer @Samalan Thanks for the nice comments, It worked like a charm. I forgot to write that I cut the straps a smidge wider than the 5/16", so that they would end up being the correct width after stretching. Brgds Jonas

I had repaired a set of sliding reins for the stables where Gustav works, and I got inspired to make a set of sliding reins myself. The reins measured 2.5 m each (about 8' 4"), and they are basically just a strap of 5/16" leather with a carabin hook in one end and a buckle in the other end. So a very doable project. The hechte that I had was only 7' 4" long, so I needed to stretch it a bit to be able to get the desired length including bends around the carabin hook and the buckle. I soaked the straps in water for about an hour or so and left them in a plastic bag for casing during the rest of the day. In the evening I made a setup that allowed me to stretch the strapos uniformly. I clamped a small G clamp (woodworking clamp) on each end of the strap. I put small pieces of wood between the jaws to protect the leather a bit. The clamps on one end were tied to a post in the workshop, and the clamp on the other end was attached to a truck type lashing strap which was connected to another post. This gave me the opportunity to stretch the straps by slowly tightening the lashing straps. I alternated between the two straps, and occasionally I would release and reposition the lashing strap. Once I had reached the correct length, I stopped and let it sit over night. The next morning the leather had stretched and dried, so I could make the sliding reins (I forgot to take pictures of those)