David Genadek

I use Dyo top cote 3305. It dries and gives the leather a waxy hand. I smear leather balm on areas where the saddle would squek. David Genadek

I did the naked ones in Sedona so every one was pretty open to it for scientific purposes. David Genadek

I certainly agree that you shouldn't need to always do the but molds I haven't done one in years because the shape is set in my mind now. However, I would urge anyone getting started to go through the process. Once you get it done set it on a tree. Then go read that other thread and you will know who gets it and who doesn't. If your still a little fuzzy then read JRedding's post. "The only way to narrow a ground seat is to build upward" You will see this when you make the mold. You will also see that narrowing the bar does nothing but create dead airspace, My bars are almost 5"wide under the seat. There is a common perception that getting your rear closer to the back creates close contact. I worked for years trying to set people right on the spine. I was building a lot riening saddles at the time and the rieners were telling me they wanted close contact and a nice deep seat. They kept telling me to get them closser to the spine. I got frustrated one day and built up under the strainer and to my surprise they sat in it and said Yessss. I've been doing it that way ever since. I didn't fully inderstand it until a I did the butt molds though. Everyone is talking narrow here but the mold will show you that you need to think wide to narrow not just narrow. A womens seat needs to be wider in the rear or the shape will get between the seat bones and pry them apart. It feels to them like it is to wide but the problem is caused because it is too narrow. Seat bones are wider on females to allow for child birth. The hip socket is placed further back on the pelvis and the leg exits the body at more of a forward angle for the same reason. What that means to the ground work is that it needs to be wider in the back and then needs to narrow more quickly. Women need to ride with more bend to their leg than a man or they will wreck thier back. Your sitting on all the answers you will ever need about ground word. David Genadek

Yes when I did custom work I molded everyone that ordered a saddle. For orders they had thier pants on. I only striped them down for research purposes as I wanted to get clear impression of the seat bones. I knew the females would be wider but I wanted to know how much. Here is a picture of a few they are old and well traveled. David Genadek

Well I had studied female anatomy since my youth so it seemed a natural progression. Here is a link to help you on your new found profession. David Genadek

Can I still deduct the entire glue cost for that year? Yes but you have to do it that way all the time. I call those things supplies and I do supplies on a cash basis. Those things that I view as assets I treat as inventory but they have to be worthe enough for me to take the time to count them all the time. If it costs more to track than it is worthe, treat it on a cash basis. If not then treat it on an accrual basis. I am speaking from the stand point of a corperation so it may be different on a different bussiness structure. You really should talk to an accountant and have them set you up it is worthe the money but find some one you can trust. This is really an important step! David Genadek

Ed, It all depends on what you want to inventory. You can lump a bunch of things into a supplies catagory. Things like dye and glue is pretty hard to keep an accurate count on and really as a percentage of the COGS is pretty small so you can exspense that when you buy it. The leather on the other hand would be worth counting as inventory because it will give you a better idea of where your assets are. In the end you can do it however you want as long as your consistant so the real question becomes what information do you need to run your business? The IRS just wants to know how much money you made which boils down to how much did you bring in and what did it cost you to do it. They don't care how you slice that up but they want you to slice it the same way all the time. David Genadek

This is really a matter of undestanding what shape it has to be which is pretty tough to put into words so I will tell you what I did to get a handle on it. First you need to read this article . Since this is for you the job is pretty simple you can add leather to the groiund work and carve it out and sit in it and adjust it until it meets your needs or you can make a mold of your behind. To do that get yourself a hunk of fairly soft foam and some molding material like the fiberglass casting material they use for casts or plaster kind will work too. Make a sheet of the material large enough to capture your rear and legs. Stick the foam on the horse followed by the sheet of casting material which that by then you have wet. Cut a couple of holes in a garbage bag and slip it on. You can do this in the nude(which is better for being able to find the seat bones) or you can do it over your jeans. Sit on the horse in the position you want to be in on top of the foam and casting material until it sets. Get off and then you have a mold that you can shape the seat too keeping in mind you will be adding several more layers of thickness after the ground work. David Genadek

My vote would be for make your own. Patern making is not hard and is really what makes it fun. You just have to trust that you can adn realize that there is some trial and error involved. David Genadek

I use a chiropracter but I would be very skeptical of one that said a pinched nerve in the neck causes carpal Tunnel syndrome. I have a herniated disc and a due to that the nerve that comes out there is in a precariouse position. When they did the test ,that Leatheroo does for living, they tested it and it was not effecting my hands. So a choiproprater could say that a pinched nerve in the neck can cause similer symptoms but that is very different than actually having Carpal Tunnel. What leatherroo does is really amazing and incredible objective. It blew me away to see how specific they could be with things. In addition to that test I also had MRIs done so they could actually look at my spine and nerves to see if there was a problem. My nuearologist was very clear with me about not going to chiropracter because one wrong move and I will have a serouse issue. I am going to a physical therapist which has helped my neck issue a lot. It can be really tough to get a proper diagnoses. I'm fortunate in that my local clinic is Mayo but most of their paitents come from all around the world so if any one is feeling like they are getting the run around get a referral to Mayo. They have translaters on staff for nearly every language. David Genadek

I'm no expert just a guy trying get my hands to work again. What my hand doctor at Mayo told me was that there is no evidence either way that if you don't get the operation that the carpal tunnel will get any worse or better. You do know if you get the operation you will loose strength. In my case the median nerve is about shot but I still have above normal hand strength. I guess in some cases the nerve that goes through the carpal tunnel snakes over and uses the other nerve to by pass the carpal tunnel which is what they figure has happened in my body. It is hard to know what to do but I will say my hands are doing a lot better since I have made some changes and I'm still hoping to avoid the surgery. David Genadek

Yes but never loose the drawing technique just use the added thickness to whatever advantage that you can. If you have a 1/8 inch stem over a leaf it makes no sense to cut it 1/4" deeep and bevel it to the max when all you need to do is establish a seperate visual plane in fact it will make it look clunky. The one place it really helps is on background, then creating deeply pronounced visual plane does add to the design. I guess I like to think in terms of visual planes and try to establish as many distinct visual planes as I can. On thinner leathers you can add a lot of depth with your under cut bevelers. I think the important thing to keep in mind is you are trying to create an illusion no matter what thickness the leather is. David Genadek

Cecil, Any drawing book would introduce you to the concepts. I would also say that Stohlman covers it in his books but it is interwoven in all the instruction. Take another look and you might see it now that you are looking for it. Peter Main and and Paul Burnett also have it inter woven in all their instruction. Go to Peters site and look at his work a lot of which is done on thin leathers. The big thing is to let go of your preconceptions and emotional attachments and just see what is actually there. Do the cuts vary in thickness or are they the same thickness through out? Do the lines radiate from a point or are they helter skelter? What is happening with the pear shadeing is it a single hit or does it start big and gradually taper down? Is the beveling all the same widthe or does it widen and narrow depending on where it is on line. Is anything on top of anything else? When things come together is it beveled so it looks like the beveling keeps going or does it abruptly stop? Just a few questions to ask. David Genadek

Formerly Herford by Products Tejas Industries PO Box 2257 Hereford TX 79045-2257 866 660 2830 toll fre 806 350 5540 confer@tejasindustries.com David Genadek

How fun!! David Genadek

Ed, I have used them for years for fabrics and webbing and have always found them great to work with. I just found out last year that they did leather stuff. They are good folks! David Genadek

Alan, Don't you think that rig is a bit of an over kill for that trailer? David Genadek

Hilly, I think you may want to get a straight bottom french edger. I have found I can get people skiving well faster with this tool than a round knife. You still want to learn the round knife but you will have fewer mistakes to begin with using this tool. This is also a better tool to thin down a large area. I like the black handles skivers for ground work but other than than that I never use them. Be careful replacing blades , I took a finger tip off once when I slipped. If you talking about the silver handled ones I have never been able to get one of those to work. David Genadek

Hilly, In the US there are currently over 110 different breeds represented. Each of these breeds has its own sense of fashion. Within each of the breeds there are many disciplines reining, cutting, and jumping and so on. Each discipline within each breed will have a different concept of what the saddle should do. In addition you will find different philosophies of riding in each of these disciplines. The philosophies stem from two major schools from the past. One is called Jineta or what is referred today as balanced seat where the rider sits with their ear shoulder hip and heel in alignment. The other is Brida which was born in the jousting arena here the rider sites rigid with his legs stuck out in front. In time a third seat evolved which was a compromise of the other two which was once called the bastard seat but is more commonly referred to as Estradiota. You will see all three of these seats in each of the breeds and each of the disciplines. There is also a debate about where on the back a rider should sit. Anatomically this question is easily answered however there is disagreement, creating even more possible designs. If that is not enough variation for you we also have a debate of rigid trees or flexible trees, which some call treeless saddles. English saddles have evolved from Jousting saddles and western saddles evolved from Jineta saddles. So how many combinations are there? It is not infinite but darn close. David Genadek

Depth is an illussion created by the lines and how you shade them. If you can let go of the notion that you have to carve deep and focus on createing the illusion you will find thinner leathers offer a wonderful opportunity to create depth just in a different way. However,this same concept should also be used when carving heavy leathers. David Genadek

The bottom stitiches never look as nice when sewing with a single needle machine. That has always been one of the arguments for staying with needle and awl machines. The needle makes a nicer hole on the top than the bottom. In all likely hood your customer will never notice. David Genadek

Adobe acrobat is one of my most used programs. To me it is the one program that really makes your computer a commmunication center. The ability to easily bring together content from multiple formats into a single format make it indespensilbe in my book. For those that don't know PDF stand for Portable documant format. They now have a version that can PDF 3d documents and the most recent version of reader will allow anyone to see 3d work too. David Genadek

Ed, They will be building the colors from a set of pigments you would want to ask for one of each of thier base colors. Theoretically You would need Blue, Yellow, Green and Red along with Black and White. When you are dealing with paint you are opperating in subtractive color system. In other words the paint is absorbing all colors you don't see and reflecting the ones you do. Realistically you will need more colors than that. Do a search for Wilhelm Ostwald color theory to learn more. David Genadek

The butt is a B

I found the one line distracting so I pulled ot out and added a few other t