new swell fork

[jonwatsabaugh]

Here's a post horn swell fork rig I finished up recently. All critique welcome and much appreciated!

Jon

[TomSwede]

Wow, that is a beautifully crafted saddle. That leather looks so nice and rich in colour. I really like the way you have layed out the tooling designs wich sometimes even though very cool can be a bit too much. You found a great balance and harmony between intense floral designs and open surfaces, nice touch with the texture tools.

Tom (who can't distiguish a horse from a zebra;-)

[steveh]

Unique tree, with the wood post horn, on a swell fork. Really has neat look to it.Your tooling looks alive , very refined. the blending of the tooling, ruffout, and rawhide, gives this saddle a great style.

[bruce johnson]

Jon,

Good looking saddle. I especially like how you made the back string button the center of that swirl in the tooling. It makes it look like that button just belongs there.

Bruce

[greg gomersall]

Jon smooth claasy rig. the only thing that jumps out at me is the rear billets. your flow is growing downwards whille on your choker it's growing up. An old visalia hand told me a couple years ago that flowers grow from the ground up and so should your carving. Once again great rig. Greg

[Steve Brewer]

Jon,Nice job.The thing that pops out is the horn could be carved,over all real good job.

Steve

[jonwatsabaugh]

Greg,

It had never occured to me to flow everything from the bottom up. Makes perfect sense to do just that! I guarentee everything will be growing up on my saddles from here on out. Thanks much Greg for your seasoned observation!

Jon

[rickybobby]

Here's a post horn swell fork rig I finished up recently. All critique welcome and much appreciated!

Jon

Jon,

Nice work! The saddle is beautiful! I have not seen a round style horn in my area (Az.) . Is it more common in other parts of the country?

I am courious, what leather did you use and what is the finish? It has a very "rich" tone of color that is hard to get with some leathers and finish products.

Thanks for sharing a very nice piece of work,

Rick J.

[RyanCope]

That's a good looking rig Jon.

Ryan Cope

[Elwood Turner]

Jon,Great looking saddle, nice clean lines.

Elwood Turner

[ArtS]

Just awesome Jon!

I really like that breast collar too.

Just a fantastic rig!

ArtS

[steve mason]

Howdy Jon;

very nice rig, good clean lines, everything is very smooth, great carve job and design, great workmanship.

The only thing I see is using rawhide for your horn and cantle bind etc, my reason for this is many years ago when I apprenticed at King's I saw the results of using rawhide horn and cantle binds. King's had used rawhide binds for quite a few years on the majority of the saddles that they were making at the time, when I showed up a lot of the saddles were coming back with wore out horn binds mainly and a few cantle binds also, so I got lots of experience putting leather binds back on saddles, but it was not so good for the saddle shop having to replace so many horn binds, they stopped using rawhide binds while I was there, not sure what they do now since all the saddle maker I knew there are dead and gone.

I have seen a lot of saddles with leather horn binds instead of rawhide that have been roped out of for many years and the leather will not wear out, yet if they are covered with rawhide it seems that they will wear out quite quickly. I have seen this many times over the years, but this is just one mans opinion as many top saddle makers still use rawhide horn binds. But on my saddles I will solve the problem before it is created by not putting rawhide binds on my own rigs.

A little side note with these binds, a local cowboy has been after me to build him a saddle for close to 15 years, the only thing stopping the order is that I will not build him a saddle with rawhide binds and he only wants a saddle with rawhide binds, so we have been having a Mexican standoff for the last 15 years, every time I see him he asks if I will take his order yet, I always tell that I will as soon as he drops the idea of rawhide binds I will, so no saddle order from him yet.

[mulefool]

That is just real pleasing. I sure like the combination of roughout with the carving, all the negative space really sets off the carving. the carving just looks so nice and clean. When I look at it I think, well, I sure couldn't think of any suggestions to make. But one thing I like about reading these comments is things like what Greg said, seems like a tiny thing, but the kind of thing that gets you thinking about detail, just all the little things that go into making something a work of art.

[jonwatsabaugh]

Steve,

I know what you mean concerning those rawhide binds. Besides the fact that they are very time consuming and tedious to install, the wear factor that you detailed is the major consideration. All of my saddles I build with rawhide bindings are ones I do for another company. They just give me the order and I fill it. I am definately at the point where turning down orders with rawhide trim is going to have to be considered. In my part of the country though, most of the time I take the orders I can get. Again Steve, thanks for your seasoned advise!

Rick J.,

The finish is achieved by first applying two light coats of Tan Kote, then antiquing with Tandy's Hi-Lite coffee brown ,then a final light coat of Tan Kote. Allow the first two coats of Tan Kote to dry for a whole day so the antique doesn't stain the initial finish. I prefer not to even use anything but neatsfoot oil, but alot of customers like that initial "flash" of color and contrast.

Jon

[TroyWest]

Jon,

Since you asked for a critique, Heres my .02. I love the tree, great shape on everything, swell, horn, cantle.

Personally, I wouldn't have put a welt on that swell, but I know a lot of guys would and there is certainly nothing wrong with it. The welt you did looks excellent, flawless, and just purdy.Your tooling around that welt is also nice and clean, and all your tooling flows well. I think the horn should be tooled also but I have recently done the same thing on a smaller horn. Your cheyenne roll looks just beautiful.

The only negative thing I see is a little bit of space showing between the back edge of the right housing and the skirt.

I know it's nit-picky but you're too good for me not to be nit-picky.

Overall it's a really nice rig.