First Two Saddles

[BuckhornBrand]

SmokinP- I like the latigo holder by the rear billet because I'm left handed and that way I don't have to reach under my rope to get to my latigo strap. The guy I built the second saddle for liked the looks of it so I did his the same.

ArtS- Yeah, I get that about my name quite a bit LOL.

Thanks for the comments everyone, Chuck

[JRedding]

Chuck, my suggestions with the construction would be, I can see you're struggling to make smooth cuts with a round knife, sharpen up good and don't be so nervous and deliberate when cutting your parts out the finished edges will be much nicer. Sharpen your edger also and use a little more saddle soap and elbow grease on those edges. At the cantle points where your seat comes over the binder and under the concho you don't want to leave that thick edge showing. If after the seat fitting is done and before you glue it down you'll skive that to a long taper it will lay over the binder smooth and look much nicer. The only other things I noticed are cosmetic, if you're adding rings bled into the strings use round rings not the D that's at the cantle point and the round on the front, kinda' looks like spare parts. The latigo carrier on the skirt is a common idea but I'm not a fan of sewing it on like that, I'd have to suggest either cutting it as part of the top skirt like found on a lot of ropers, or you could screw it to the bar and leave it extending below the skirt similiar to how you have it, or put it on top of the skirt and under the concho at the cantle point. The last suggestion I'd have is the shape of the seat jockey, a lot of saddles made have a similiar one to yours and it's fine, I just think a little more shape in the jockey would make a lot of difference in the overall appearance of this particular saddle, after you've fit the first side around the swell stop when you reach the top of the bar before you continue cutting and make yourself a posterboard template of how you want the jockey shape to be, this way you can shape it and look at it as much as you want until you're satisfied with the shape before you continue cutting. Well you wanted honest suggestions, hope that's not too harsh.

[BuckhornBrand]

JRedding- those suggestions are exactly what I'm looking for.

Although I've used a roundknife for a long time, I'm not satisfied with my cuts on saddles, I think I'm to hesitant, worried about messing up. On smaller tack items I don't have as much trouble. Edge burnishing has always been difficult for me. I've tried everything on the edges such as water, saddle soap, beeswax; and used wood slickers, antler slickers, and most recently canvas. It seems some things will burnish right up and others won't. Thanks for the suggestion on the seat. I think I was trying to match the curve of the skirt but it didn't come out as nice as I would have liked.

Thanks again for the help, Chuck Norris