Stamping Saddle Swells

[stef73433]

Would love to hear tips and tricks for stamping saddle swells once its stretched and fitted to tree. How do you get a nice even stamping pattern? Thats my thought of the day

[Bob Blea]

I would love to know how you do this too. I've marvelled at the quality of stamping I've seen on some swells, especially when they use tools like the crazy legs that I have trouble doing on a flat square surface. I would love to know if there are some tricks to this.

Bob

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

I can't say that I am the best at it ..yet! , but; like you guys I like to see the tooling on the swells deep and prominent, without being stretched to hell and gone. So what I do is case, form, fit and glue the cover in place. Then I do the tooling. I have a tree stand similar to "Old George" in the Stohlman books, except that I have modified mine to use a trailer ball and pipe clamp, so that I can place your tree in almost any position desired, so it makes it a lot easier to position the area that you are tooling on, and get it done . Here are a couple of pics of how it looks when I am done. I am sure others have other ways of doing it, but; this is what works for me.

Bob

[stef73433]

Very nice work!

[stef73433]

What is the trick to stamping patterns so that every thing lines up like it should? And how do you use a flat stamp on a curved surface?

[mikesmith648]

bowling ball???