Ground seat construction

[ccpowell]

I have another need to be educated- sure are a lot of them! What are your preferences between using a seat strainer vs an all leather ground seat? Anyone with long-term experience making and riding all leather ground seats? Do they stretch and sink over time? How do they hold up? I have always used seat strainers (now have built about a dozen saddles) but am interested in what others think now that I saw in an old thread that mentioned the all leather ground seat. Please enlighten me,

Chuck

[mulefool]

I learned to build saddles using a strainer plate but about 10 years ago I tried an all leather ground seat and that's all I 've done since. It seemed like it came together better and it was easier to get the shape I like. That first saddle gets rode alot and seems to be holding up fine. Chris

[ccpowell]

Thank you for the reply- would you mind elaborating on how you choose your piece of leather and how you apply it? Does it change how many pieces you use in your ground seat construction? I am curious to give it a try if you don't mind helping me out some,

Chuck

I learned to build saddles using a strainer plate but about 10 years ago I tried an all leather ground seat and that's all I 've done since. It seemed like it came together better and it was easier to get the shape I like. That first saddle gets rode alot and seems to be holding up fine. Chris

[Tosch]

Chuck,

you might want to try the search button - meanwhile this link might be of some help http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=4178

Tosch

Edited April 29, 2009 by Tosch

[ccpowell]

Thank you for the link- I do use the search button, quite a lot in fact, was just looking for as much info as possible. As I mentioned in the other post regarding "bulk", I had done quite a lot of research on the issue- Denise asked me to post it, and I did. I don't want to rehash things or waste anyone's time, just like to learn as much as possible,

Chuck

Chuck,

you might want to try the search button - meanwhile this link might be of some help http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=4178

Tosch

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

I started out making my ground seats all leather, and have never had anything but, satisfactory results. To my way of thinking, a strainer is just a short cut. I hate shortcuts, if you take one, you miss a lot of good stuff along the way. The folks that have my saddles, all comment on how comfortable they are. I attribute that to making the ground seat all leather and being able to mold and skive it so it fits the person's posterior. I have saddles out there that have thousands of hours use in them, and there has been no detrimental sinking, or what ever.

Happy Trails,

Bondo Bob

[Tosch]

Chuck,

I did not intent to hint anything - just trying to help out a bit.

Tosch

[AZThunderPony]

That link really helped me alot. However, I have a newbie question regarding leather strainers and thickness of ground seat. How many pieces of leather would be average to build up a 1/2 seat ground seat and how would you stretch the leather strainer for a 1/2 seat?

Thanks guys!

;)S

Edited April 30, 2009 by AZThunderPony

[ccpowell]

I'm not sore, just didn't want you to think I was wasting your time- I appreciate the help,

Chuck

Chuck,

you might want to try the search button - meanwhile this link might be of some help http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=4178

Tosch

[Echo4V]

I have actually been searching this topic since I joined the sight. I would love to see a tutorial from a bare tree to a complete ground seat. There have been several discussions on ground seats but if we could get a tutorial that shows how to cut the peices and where to cut them from on the hide it would be invaluable. That is the part that is generally skipped over in the other discussions, although they do a good job of explaining about casing and stretching the leather and about skiving it to make a seat pocket, they don't really mention beginning the ground seat at all.

david