First Saddle Build

[rktaylor]

The Stohlman book would also be my first recommendation. While I find that I use Harry Adams' book more often, the Stohlman book covers more methods. I hope you continue to share your progress.

Randy

[mbnaegle]

OK, it's stripped down to the bare tree. In addition to filling all the holes and fairing the joints before rewrapping and varnishing the cheese cloth covering, the bottom ears of one of the bars were broken off. It looks like it wasn't rot or stress, but they just had too many tacks over the years and had gotten weak. One was clearly an old break as it had several long tacks and an old sewing needle driven into it to hold it on (all pulled out). I'm gluing these back together, as well as a joint in the middle of the cantle that had a little movement. There isn't really an easy way to clamp them, so I tied them into place with cotton webbing.

Here's the tree's measurements:

Front bar width = 9"

Rear bar width = 10"

Front gullet width = 3"

Rear gullet width = 2 1/2"

Bar length from back of cantle = 1 1/2"

Gullet height at swells = 5"

Cantle width = 10 3/8"

Cantle height = 2 1/2"

Seat length = 11"

Yep, it's an 11" seat. A little thing. I'm still looking through books to try and find more info on this tree, other than it has Slick Fork swells. The iron horn is nailed on and not screwed or bolted to the swell. That, it's small size, and the general light duty construction make me think this saddle was only meant to be used by small children on docile horses or pony's and was not built for any work or sport, or that it's only a display piece.

The square rings nailed to the bars I'm not seeing in my books so far. What's their purpose? Are they for the sturip leathers, or part of the rigging? The metal tabs are recessed into the bars like it was designed for them.

[rktaylor]

18 hours ago, mbnaegle said:

Are they for the sturip leathers,

Yes. Your books are likely showing stirrup leathers wrapped around the tree. These smaller saddles typically aren't made like that. The stirrup leathers go through the dees and usually have a roller buckle for adjustment. I'll try to find a picture. 

Good job putting the tree back together. Brings back some not so fond memories. 

Randy

Edited May 6, 2025 by rktaylor
Clarity

[mbnaegle]

Thanks, that makes sense. Closest I've found in the Al Stohlman book is some trees having slots cut in the bars for the sturip leathers to loop through. 

Here's tonight's progress. Most of the wood putty is done and did a little varnish to seal up some of the loose old cheese cloth. Once it's dry I'll do some sanding and touch up any holes that were missed, than more varnish and add more cheese cloth.

Edited May 7, 2025 by mbnaegle

[rktaylor]

I couldn't find the picture I wanted, but this is from a similar saddle. These stirrup leathers wrap around the bars, but they have the roller buckles I described. You will need to be careful about creating too much bulk under the seat hockey, so think about how the stirrup leathers and fenders are going to fit. 

Randy

[mbnaegle]

Thanks Randy. I'm looking through books to get an idea of patterns to follow and whatnot and It looks like the stirup strap rings and how that fits in with everything else would be the only thing unique about this saddle. Otherwise I'm planning to keep it fairly simple. If anything, I might lean a little towards an 1880's style with the squared off skirts, as the tall swells kind of remind me of one of those, but I don't plan on doing anything too extravagant.

[mbnaegle]

I dug out a "junk" youth saddle from storage (not sentimental or anything. I think my parents found it in a junk store years ago.) And while its missing the stirrup straps, it turns out it has the same stirrup leather ring arrangement and a similar shape/style of tree. The leather is all dry rot, so I might rebuild it too at a later date for practice, but for now I gives some good design, tooling, and proportion guidance. There's no makers marks that I can see so far, but it does have a couple of numbers on the back of the swells (1261), and on one of the skirts (8054). Not sure if they are serial numbers, dates, or inventory numbers. I could see economy saddles like these being from a youth camp or a dude ranch or similar commercial endeavor where they might have been numbered.

[mbnaegle]

Been a few months, but got the sanding done and got around to applying new cheese cloth.

I'm sure it's nowhere near as good as rawhide or fiberglass, but I get why companies used to use lacquer and cheesecloth for economy saddles. It's easy (and cheap)! It's kinda fun too! It's similar to laying fiberglass as it helps to lay down a layer of varnish first, but then you stick the cloth on and apply the varnish until it kinda goes clear. The cheesecloth is a lot more moldable than fiberglass though. It's easier to bend it around corners and overlap the ends, such that you really have no waste. Even if you have a little patch cut out, you can just lay it into an area that looks a little thin. I'm using a can of Polyurethane varnish that had dried out to the consistency of leather cement, but it still spreads easily and it's a "fast drying" variety which helps. If you keep on it and keep painting down any loose ends, wrinkles, or bubbles, it comes out pretty fare. My only flub so far is that there's a couple of lumps of wood putty I didn't smooth out enough, and some of the old cheesecloth painted down but formed a lump. I found that letting it dry you can shave off the high spots with a razor and then just add a few layers of varnish and cheese cloth to blend in the hole.

I'm not going to bother getting it perfectly smooth, but do want to smooth down most of the lumps, especially on the bottom, seat, and visible parts of the saddle. That way the leather has an easier time faring over the surfaces. I'm going to let this round dry, do some trimming, and do one final round of varnish and cheesecloth.

The cloth and varnish do seem to add some strength (better than bare wood or course), but it's not going to be a hard use saddle. I expect a saddle like this would have been for a kid to learn on and play with, but on a well broken and docile pony. It's like kids shoes though in that they'll grow out of it before long and need a bigger saddle anyway, which I think plays into the economy construction and likely a low price point.

 

One other thing I've been thinking about with these youth saddles, is that while they don't give good practice in designing a saddle or in making a strong and durable saddle, they should give me some practice in reproducing the elements in scale and assembling a saddle, which is one of the big things I'll be doing with the family saddles. Making a saddle of my own design would be fun and rewarding, and I'll get a little bit of that with these youth saddles, but with my goal of reversing the effects of age and deterioration on the family saddles, I'd rather have experience in reproduction than with making something new.

Thinking of it in terms of classic cars, it seems that most custom saddle making is akin to building hotrods and customs, in that you master skills to produce something that borrows from the past, but is often a new creation that combines the best of function and art, and while there are patterns and pictures to follow, the intended use and his imagination are the ultimate driving factors in how it's designed and built. These saddles I'm wanting to do would be more along the lines of restoring a classic car, reproducing parts that are correct for what it once was, regardless of if it's the best design or has the most crowd appeal. In that way making it look and work as good as it once did is more appropriate than making it better.

Edited 1 hour ago by mbnaegle