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 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 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.