David Genadek

Sounds like you need a trip to the doctor. Here is a link to some info on Carpul Tunnel. At Mayo they seem to view it as more of a symptom of some thing else than a thing in itself. They down play the repetitive motion part of it there. They do not encourage the surgery or the injectons either. I have severe Carpul Tunnel in both hands so I was expecting them to tell me I needed surgery instead they have me doing excercises and made me attend a class on how to use my body better. Big thing they stressed is wear gloves. Rubberized gloves when you do things that you need to grip so you don't have to grip as hard and padded goves when you do things that vibrate. Wearing braces at night has helped me a lot but Mayo made them custom for me. When I was talking to the hand doctor and playing with the model of the hand I said I thought the braces I saw in the store were all wrong and the doctor said yes they are terrible so if you go cheap and get those you need bend the metel plate so it is straight. I also had the brace maker make me a special brace that I use when I am cutting so the round knife doesn't push on the carpal tunnel. David Genadek

I don't see that as the same although I understand what your saying. The artist makes the tool the tool does not make the artists. When I was learning all these tool makers were not around and it was common knowledge that you had to do some metel work if your were going to be a leather artist. The thing that people who do this as a hobby do not understand is just how taxing this profession is on your body. Will a good swivel knife make you a better carver? Not in itself. Will it make your life easier if you know what your doing? yes Will a good tool help someone that is learning get better faster? yes Will not haveing a good tool prevent some one with a burning desire to learn from getting better? no If the tool is not being used as an excuse for other issues a person is facing it will help. David Genadek

I have attached a picture of the tool Bob Brown sold to carve with. Personally he used a sharpened screwdriver with some black tape wrapped around it. It worked for him but that was a different time. For me if I'm looking for at a pile of saddles that need to get carved I'm reaching for one of those high end swival knives. David Genadek

I'm not real familier with the Fiebings product so it would be hard for me to compare. I doubt you will be able to get less than a quart and will probable need to get a gallon. That is the down side of dealing with companies that are used to deaing with manufacturers. I generaly order five gallons of everything. You would have to ask Carlos the question because I'm not sure which products are which any more. I used to take the shoe finishing paint color cote and mix it with the edge cote base to create any color I wanted. The shoe paint is availabe in smaller amounts. So I would check into getting a gallon of neutral and ask what colors are compatible. I work primarily with veg tanned leathers and I prefer to dye the edge then rub it and finish with polycote which is a product designed for creating a patent leather look in shoe refinishing.That product goes a long ways.There are a lot of edge finishes and companies like LCI are used to custom formulating to a manufacturers needs. David Genadek

Yep here is a link to the story. Dyo fire I talked to John a few weeks after the fire. No one got hurt but it was a total loss. He was able to recover the hard drive that had the formulas though and LCI has all that info now. David Genadek

It all depends on what type and what volumn of work you are doing. I have 14 knives I use on a regular basis some are cheap tandy knives that I have set up with edge guides and they work fine for that. Generaly I reach for my high end swival knives. If you do a lot of carving (beyond what most hobbists can imagine) the ball bearings do come it to play. In the end though it all ends up being a matter of your artistic vision more than a matter of what tool you use. Bob Brown did some pretty amazing work with a sharpend screwdriver David Genadek

Ed, I was national sales director for Dyo so I'm very familier with the products. Dyo is one of the oldest names in shoe refinishing. They have always targeted the shoe market and the manufacturing market. The products are professional level and are way better than what is available at Tandy. I went to work for them to so we could create consumer packageing to get the quaility products to the individual craftsman. Bob Beard, Rob Barr, Bill Gomer, Kat Kuzak and others helped me in this effort but Tandy would not take a look at it. The guy that started Dyo sold to John Mills. The chemist that worked for Dyo did not get along with Mills so he quit and started Leather Coatings Inc. It was a very unfriendly relationship. In time the chemist died and LCI is now run by a very reasonable person. The lines are very similer. When Dyo blew up Mills went to LCI and licensed the Dyo name to keep it alive. It is my understanding that Mills has now just sold the name to LCI. I just got about 20 gals of dye and finish from LCi and am pleased with the product. Their water based dye blows the other products on the market out of the water. The finishes are so much better than products you have available on a retail basis it isn't even funny. David Genadek

Marble is quieter to stamp on, granite gives off kind of ping. I have cracked several marble stones but never a granite one. I use one peace that is 54" by 8" thick it was a bench that one hunk had broken on. I got that big peace and a bunch of smaller hunks for around $300.00 at a tombstone place. I used to go to St Cloud MN where they mine the granite and get the and the scraps they piled in the Mississippi river. That was 30years ago so I don't know if that is still an option. A friend just brought me a 1.25" peace of granite that was a sink cut out and I use that for laying my trees up. I think it needs to be at least 2 inches thick to hold up to hard core stamping. David Genadek

Stain no paint yes.

Wow where can I get some head s??? I recently had to get a head to shoot some of my daughters creations and all I could find was a crummy styrofoam head. No wonder it's still single. David Genadek

Acetone will work but the deglazing fluids will be easier on the leather. Whatever you use wear a mask and do it in a well ventilated area. It is nasty stuff and flammable. David Genadek

Yep that is the one. I thought it was a city owned thing but it sounded to me like it was a bit under used so I thought maybe they were changing the plan for it. I will e-mail you the contact information David Genadek

Speed is accuracy. Let the tool bounce into position. This is hard to learn on a real piece of work so try it on some scrap. Just relax and find the rythym the rythym will create the accuracy. The tools are designed to be their own guide but you have to trust the tool and yourself. Try to soften your eyes so you can see where you are going not just the stamp. It is like aiming high in steering when you drive. You will botch up some but if you can let go you will be amazed at what happens. Everyone I have taught to stamp has had the problem in the beginning. You will get it for short periods at first and then you will learn to hold the proper focus for longer periods until it becomes second nature. David Genadek

Tammy, Is that the little building right on the beach in West Seattle? If so I have a friend in that niehborhood who is a prominant north westcoastal artist that I could hook you up with. He used to own a gallery in town so he is very familier with the art scene in Seattle. David Genadek

Here is a another link that has info relevant to the topic http://esiforum.mywowbb.com/forum1/197.html

You may find this information helpful. http://equinestudies.org/knowledge_base/built_to_ride.html

Wonderful design. I would do black then paint a few flowers in red like the leather. Of course you may need to get more stools and try it each way to keep peace in the family. In the end they would all look great. David Genadek

My daughter goes to Reed and she has begun to show an interest. She stamped a few saddles for me over Christmas break and is now working on getting a grant to do leather art hats over the summer. If you do get some folks together I would like to let her know, pretty hard to learn from Dad . Who do you have for suppliers in the area? David Genadek

Because you are using a crome tanned leather you won't be able to rub it and to get the effect you want. So I see your only option with those materials would be a self polishing edge paint. Here is a link to a company that would have the product you need. This is a professional level product Fiebings would also have a version of it. LCI has a $100.00 minnimum order but you might be able to have them sample you what you need or they might be able to give you a name of a Jobber. They just purchased Dyo, after their plant blew up, so they are pretty busy right now. David Genadek

If you take your hands on both sides of the neck and stroke down you will find spot that widens out and that is area we are looking for. Would you ever do anything different to the ground seat to level out the feel for the rider? You have two ways you can compensate. One the ground work which will allow you to get a level base for the pelvis but will not address the forces being applied to the horses body. Two you increase the spread of the rear of the saddle or narropw the spread inteh front so the back of the saddle will drop to create the level paltform for the pelvis. In short you are orienting the saddle exactly opposite the horses orientation which adds up to a level seat which will releave the pressure on the horse and put the rider is a balanced position. One caution here though is that some horses are so down hill that you would go past the bottom limit of the bar ( which is where the ribs appear from the body). What about using a slightly built up pad in the front to level the tree? If done correctly and correctly would depend on where the tree was designed to sit. In any case you would want to gradually taper the the pad so you don't create an edge or hollow spot. I make a shim for this purpose and we have used it on thousands of horses very effectively. Down hill is a reality that is not going away. For twenty years I have worked with a leading expert on conformation, I live with multi licensed judge and some one that is internationaly repected for her work with conformation as it pertains to gait. If you ask either of these two how to buy horse you will be told to look the horse in the eye and if you fall in love with it buy it. Should you consider the conformation as it pertains to your goals? Sure you should but in end it is about learning to support whatever conformation you may come across. Mules have a problamatic shape for cinching. If you cut them in half and look at the cross section their ribs they are onion shaped. If you look at them from the top they look like a pear. Their underline curves up quickly toward the front. As rule their top lines are fairly strait so the top is pretty easy to fit. The problem is that the cinches want to move that is why the packers used X shaped cinches. Try it you'll like it. You can take two mohair cinches and just cross them if you would like to give it a go with out needing to buy anything. David Genadek

Here is on one thing I have done. I often just by gloves and cut the fingers off too. David Genadek

Kevin, This horse shows no indication of a sway back. How you would tell would be to look at line A and compare it to the top line. In this case you can see they are nearly parralel indicating that the spine itself is where it should be. This horse is down hill though. I have attached her papers so you can get an idea of her breeding. This horse has had a very successful show career and has won in open shows in Western Pleasure, English Pleasure , side saddle pleasure and halter classes under well known judges like Don Burt and Karl Yensen. She is a tremendouse cow horse. At twenty she is still sound with no navicular or ring bone in site because she has been properly supported. We have no problem fitting her with a saddle. David Genadek

The commonly accepted method amongst experts in the area of conformation and equine locomotion to determine if a horse is down hill or not is to draw a line from the point of the hip to the base of the neck. This line is tells you how level the horse is. This is line A in the attached drawing. It is an old wives tale that you use the croup and whither as in line B. If you use the proper well established method for determining if the horse is down hill or not you will be hard pressed to find a QH that is not down hill. The second picture is of a Tennesee Walker which is just slightly down hill. David Genadek