Members Newfman Posted January 27, 2009 Author Members Report Posted January 27, 2009 Thanks, I'm looking into purchasing the series right now. Studying them will give me something positive to do while waiting for work to pick back up. I met with a client of my wife's yesterday, as he has been dabling in leather work for awhile. He has a saddle kit that he bought from Tandy a few years ago. It is perfect for someone that interested in , just as a one time hobby kind of thing, or a parent/kid sort of project. I'm not sure I would put it on my horse though. I was not real impressed with the plastic tree. I'm sure that a Bowden or jjmaxwell kit is better, but I will take your advice and start from scratch. I don't want a fancy rig. Even if I had $3500 to buy a saddle right now, I would just buy a plain rough-out wade, no decorations. After I make my first saddle, I can practice tooling on the scraps. I then would like to make a second wade with some simple border decoration and maybe a few embellishments, assuming I learn to do them nice enough, but nothing major. I will be concentrating on improving my techniques from building the first saddle. Plus, I need to be able to make sure my borders land on the saddle where they were intended to go, once the leather is stretched, fit and glued. Then, see where things go from there. Does that sound about right? Thanks folks for the guidance. D Quote With enough leather and rope, you could probably make your horse cut a deck of cards. . .but you'll never make him deal 'em with a smile on his face!
Members Newfman Posted January 28, 2009 Author Members Report Posted January 28, 2009 I just bought Al Stohlmans encylopedia vol 1 and 2 on ebay. Vol 3 had just sold before I could get it. I also watched some great Videos on www.cowboysaddlery.com The amount of info is overwhelming. Thanks folks for pointing me in a good direction. Cheers Dennis Quote With enough leather and rope, you could probably make your horse cut a deck of cards. . .but you'll never make him deal 'em with a smile on his face!
Members Go2Tex Posted January 28, 2009 Members Report Posted January 28, 2009 Another real handy book is the Stohlman book on all your leather tools. Tells you how to sharpen and use them. Also has lots of tips and little extras. One of my favorites to have around the shop. The vol 1 and 2 are really the most informative and useful. The 3rd vol just gives a couple more variations of style. So, you're all set there. Quote Brent Tubre email: BCL@ziplinkmail.com
Members TrooperChuck Posted January 29, 2009 Members Report Posted January 29, 2009 Great advice, Brent. I forgot about Stohlman's tool book. I own a copy of it, and when I was first starting out in leathercrafting I didn't have anyone to teach me, so that book was invaluable! Dennis... The book's full title is "Leathercraft Tools, How to Use Them, How to Sharpen Them". Fortunately, it's nowhere near as expensive as the saddlemaking books! Quote "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." (John Wayne)
Members mulefool Posted January 29, 2009 Members Report Posted January 29, 2009 (edited) I was going to suggest seeing if you couldn't find an old saddle that's wore out to pick up cheap and then rebuild it. I was lucky to find an old Hamley for my first project of that sort. I was lucky to find something well made, if it's not you could get some bad ideas. Chris Edited January 29, 2009 by mulefool Quote www.horseandmulegear.com
Members Newfman Posted January 30, 2009 Author Members Report Posted January 30, 2009 Thank you for the help. I will read the books and gather what infor I can from here and where ever else I can. I'm not exactly in the middle of Western Saddle making country. Getting live help may be out of the question. I like the used saddle rebuild idea, except, again I am in the wrong part of the world and finding one of good original quality is difficult or impossible. I have a lot to learn before I get to that point anyhow. Thanks again, Dennis Quote With enough leather and rope, you could probably make your horse cut a deck of cards. . .but you'll never make him deal 'em with a smile on his face!
Members Blake Posted January 30, 2009 Members Report Posted January 30, 2009 Hello Dennis Watching this topic closely and reviewing your options especially after looking at the Maxwell kit I'm inclined to think that that might be a good way to start since video instruction is included and a lot of the skiving and fitting is already done. It would give you a chance to inspect and give analysis to how things fit together so that you would know if Saddle making is something that you might want to expand on. I would imagine that you could recover most if not all of your investment by selling the finished saddle if you did a good and neat job. You would also see areas that you might want to do differently the next round. Why not ask for the names or numbers for a couple of customers that bought the kit and contact them for their input? As someone suggested, Rebuilding a quality used saddle would also give you a tremendous amount of insight and you could more than likely recover your investment on that too. I certainly do agree that the best way would be from personal instruction from a competent Saddle maker. Either way, You have found a forum that has a few Saddle makers that would be more than willing to help you out with answers to any problems that you might encounter. There is always a cost of some kind associated with education and in our chosen field it is usually time and materials during the learning curve. Kind Regards Blake Quote
Members Newfman Posted January 31, 2009 Author Members Report Posted January 31, 2009 (edited) Thanks Blake, Getting customer input on the Maxwell kit sound like a good idea. We built this from a couple books, so my confidence may be out running my talent. If the Maxwell Kit turns out to be of decent quality, I should have to consider it. [img=http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp172/Newfman/Buffys%20Barn/AnofferingtothetimbergodsWelldone.jpg] Edited January 31, 2009 by Newfman Quote With enough leather and rope, you could probably make your horse cut a deck of cards. . .but you'll never make him deal 'em with a smile on his face!
Members Newfman Posted February 6, 2009 Author Members Report Posted February 6, 2009 WOOHOO! Books are in! I like how Al writes. It is like he is in the room talking to you. Would have liked to have met him. Thanks for recommending these books to start with. D. Quote With enough leather and rope, you could probably make your horse cut a deck of cards. . .but you'll never make him deal 'em with a smile on his face!
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