Old saddle, wanted to make sure it would be ok to tear into.

[maggielj]

Hi all,

I picked up this saddle nearly free today, and was going too tear into it and attempted to make it a learning opportunity. Tree is cracked, and im pretty sure it’s a kids saddle? Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t about to tear apart a collectors item or something. I see no makers mark, latigo holder is gone, and no other identifying marks. Tree looks pretty odd from what i can see, and looks to have some 2x4 stuck in the front, but some pretty tooling 

[Mulesaw]

On 8/25/2024 at 1:32 AM, maggielj said:

I picked up this saddle nearly free today, and was going too tear into it and attempted to make it a learning opportunity. Tree is cracked, and im pretty sure it’s a kids saddle? Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t about to tear apart a collectors item or something. I see no makers mark, latigo holder is gone, and no other identifying marks. Tree looks pretty odd from what i can see, and looks to have some 2x4 stuck in the front, but some pretty tooling 

I don't know anything about the saddle, but if you can't find a makers mark on it, I guess it would be OK to go on and learn something from it. 
It is always kind of scary to do those things with antiques because like you say you don't want to ruin a collectors item.
But once in a while it helps to look at it with a different set of eyes: you bought it, so you decide what should happen with it. If you take it apart and learn something from it - it serves a good purpose. 

I'd say go ahead :-)

Brgds and good luck with the learning

Jonas

[rktaylor]

With so many great saddle making resources available, I would caution against trying to learn much from tearing one apart. Actually, this caution is mentioned in the Stohlman books. I have had the chance to work a few production saddles that left me scratching my head over their methods. 

Randy