Members festus Posted February 10, 2011 Members Report Posted February 10, 2011 I have a old saddle I am rebuilding that has a wade style tree. I need to raise the cantle height 2 inches. can anyone tell me how I would do that? Thanks for any help or experience anyone would be willing to share. Quote
Members ct701996 Posted March 2, 2011 Members Report Posted March 2, 2011 if you try to make the cantle too much taller without the tree right there it will probably get floppy on the top, if you are completely rebuilding the saddle with a new seat cantle back and cantle filler you can just run those things up higher than you normally would, but remeber the taller you make the leather go up the more the leather will want to bend at the top of the cantle, Quote Bill
Members spur2009 Posted March 3, 2011 Members Report Posted March 3, 2011 I agree, you cannot make the cantle much higher without increasing the height of the cantle on the tree. This is no problem. After removing leather build up the cantle on tree with bondo. After this hardens you can file and sand to proper shape and thickness. Quote "Roll a brown paper cigarette"
Members JRedding Posted March 4, 2011 Members Report Posted March 4, 2011 I agree, you cannot make the cantle much higher without increasing the height of the cantle on the tree. This is no problem. After removing leather build up the cantle on tree with bondo. After this hardens you can file and sand to proper shape and thickness. How do you intend to adhere the bondo portion of this to the narrow top edge of the cantle and not have it separate ? Quote
Members spur2009 Posted March 4, 2011 Members Report Posted March 4, 2011 How do you intend to adhere the bondo portion of this to the narrow top edge of the cantle and not have it separate ? This is simply done. The Bondo is formed from the seat and cantle back up past the cantle edge that you want to increase the height of. The areas where the bondo is placed in the seat section of the tree and on the bottom edge of the cantle back should be sanded to a feather edge. Quote "Roll a brown paper cigarette"
Members JRedding Posted March 9, 2011 Members Report Posted March 9, 2011 This is simply done. The Bondo is formed from the seat and cantle back up past the cantle edge that you want to increase the height of. The areas where the bondo is placed in the seat section of the tree and on the bottom edge of the cantle back should be sanded to a feather edge. I guess I need to rephrase my question, what attaches the bondo portion of this undertaking to the original saddle tree, it seems it would snap off fairly easy and be a floating loose piece of bondo hovering on top of the original cantle held in place only by the leather of the seat and cantle back.??? Quote
Members Norwegian Posted March 9, 2011 Members Report Posted March 9, 2011 I guess I need to rephrase my question, what attaches the bondo portion of this undertaking to the original saddle tree, it seems it would snap off fairly easy and be a floating loose piece of bondo hovering on top of the original cantle held in place only by the leather of the seat and cantle back.??? It stays there, just like on a car.. Mix it right, put it on, shape it, let it dry, and sand it.. This is a tree that was "rebuilt/changed".. It was originally covered with rawhide, but ended up re-covered in "plastic".. It's now used as a hobby/trail saddle.. Hope this helps some.. Rik Quote
Members oldtimer Posted March 9, 2011 Members Report Posted March 9, 2011 I guess I need to rephrase my question, what attaches the bondo portion of this undertaking to the original saddle tree, it seems it would snap off fairly easy and be a floating loose piece of bondo hovering on top of the original cantle held in place only by the leather of the seat and cantle back.??? You could put in screws on the edge of the cantle to form a kind of "reebars" for the bondo. That would keep the bondo from gcoming loose. I did that on a Ralide tree many years ago and it is still tight. Quote "The gun fight at the O.K. corral was actually started by two saddlemakers sitting around a bottle of whiskey talking about saddle fitting"...
Members JRedding Posted March 11, 2011 Members Report Posted March 11, 2011 Thanks for all the effort it took to explain this to me, I've never worked the stuff and was interested how it was done and what the lasting results would be of a modification like this. Thanks again Quote
Members AndyKnight Posted March 11, 2011 Members Report Posted March 11, 2011 It would be very difficult to make a cantle taller, do the leather work necessary and keep it economically viable. new cantle cover, new seat, new cantle binding Probably new ground work. Better off to start from scratch. IMHO Whoever built that tree in the pics. wasn't shy about using knotty wood. Quote Andy knight Visit My Website
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