Mochila

[oldtimer]

Today I started making templates for the mochila. I finally found a suitable material in a building material store, a roll of 1/8" plastic foam . To avoid wrinkles under the thigh area a lot of material must be removed from the center of the seat, and for that reason there is no way to avoid a center lacing of the seat.

Packing tape and plastic foam made my day! Now I´ll make some adjustments and make a final cardboard template before cutting leather. The sun is shining today!

/ Knut

[oldtimer]

After a long thought this morning, (two cups of coffee during complete silence) I put the poster board pattern on the leather, honed a knife and made the cuts. I then made a lace string, cut the holes and laced the seat part together. I chose a plain, simple lacing as I think that was the way a saddlemaker of 1830 made it, no fancy stuff, just plain, simple and functional.

Next step, tomorrow, I ´ll case the leather and shape it , adjust the front line and attach a buckle and billet in front of the horn.

/ Knut

So far, so good ! No big loss of leather !

Edited September 9, 2009 by oldtimer

[TTcustom]

Looks like a good start! I promise to take pictures of the "pony express style" tonight.

-Tim

[oldtimer]

Looks like a good start! I promise to take pictures of the "pony express style" tonight.

-Tim

Thank´s Tim, looking forward to see the pony express mochila !

[oldtimer]

Mochila finally finished !

/ Knut

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Nice job Knut! Good on you for tackling a challenging project. Is there anything you're not quite happy with or would do different the next time? Anything you learned that would make the process easier?

Here's a link to the only saddle I've ever seen with a mochilla that deep, with no lacing down the seat. http://www.chuckstormes.com/saddles/tca-2003.jpg

Darc

Edited September 11, 2009 by D.A. Kabatoff

[Traveller]

Very nice! I've attached a couple of photos of another mochilla that Yonatan, a contributor to this forum, sent me a few months ago.

[Traveller]

Very nice! I've attached a couple of photos of another mochilla that Yonatan, a contributor to this forum, sent me a few months ago.

I just want to say that Yonatan sent me the photos and not the saddle! I don't know much about it except that it looks very interesting.

[oldtimer]

Nice job Knut! Good on you for tackling a challenging project. Is there anything you're not quite happy with or would do different the next time? Anything you learned that would make the process easier?

Here's a link to the only saddle I've ever seen with a mochilla that deep, with no lacing down the seat. http://www.chuckstor...es/tca-2003.jpg

Darc

Thank´s D.A. This was quite a journey, starting from nothing, figureing out how to do it and then see the final result. Everything turned out really well and I have no hesitation of proudly presenting it it to my customer , a real Scandinavian mountain man ( www.scandinavianmountainmen.se )

The cure of my mochila headache was the plastic foam that I used to make cutting patterns, it was easy to cut and tape together, half translucent and almost like thin leather, only much cheaper. If I ever make a second mochila I´ll do exactly like I did this one.

Some things I learned from this project: Think twice ( or more) - cut once, and don´t hesitate to try to do something you have never done before.

Today I´ll start making a matching headstall, decorated with brass spots, deliver saddle and tack monday and then enjoy the sound of golden coins dripping into my cash register

/ Knut

Edited September 12, 2009 by oldtimer

[TTcustom]

Looks awesome Knut!

I sent you some pictures of my friends Mochila pony express style saddle but I added one here. He added some things and made a portmanteau to go with it.