Tips On Fitting Seat

[rktaylor]

Here's the status on my barrel saddle. There are certainly some mistakes, but most (as far as I know)seem fairly minor at this stage.

I plan to fit the seat over the Thanksgiving break and welcome any input. I struggled with this on my first saddle and ended up doing it twice. So I am looking for some improvement. I think I fully understand the procedures of Jeremiah Watt and Harry Adams. However both of them are fitting on a Wade tree. Any tips for fitting around these swells?

I really feel like my skirts were blocked good, but the top side of the bars are still more visible than I want. I am not sure I can do anything about this now, but tips for future efforts would be valuable.

The seat will be rough out. Once the seat is fit and the cantle binding stitched, I plan to tool the swells and add the meandering cross border on the cantle binding. Then I will antique the swells, cantle binding and skirts. Once the skirts are finished, I can lace and install them.

I like the way this saddle is coming together. It's been much easy than the first which makes it more fun and hobbies are supposed to be fun and relaxing.

Any and all suggestions are welcome (even if I am not smart enough to use them).

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone,

Randy

[kseidel]

Randy, your saddle is really looking good. Before fitting your seat, your skirts need to be blocked and screwed to the swell above the bar. This will eliminate the "hole" between the seat and skirts above the concho. This also is critical to the strength of an Inskirt rigging, as it prevents the skirts from trying to slide off of the tree.

Tips for fitting your seat: if you will be making a padded seat, put a couple of nails in the dish, one on either side of the strainer, for reference. The seat well be removed several times during fitting, and this makes it easier to always return to the same position. Make good firm removable seat plugs to prevent the seat from caving into the depression between the tree and skirts. Fit the cantle and cut the ears first. Making a single cut from the front of your ground seat to the front edge of the seat leaves you the most options for the shape of the seat front. When making your first cut at the swell, cut from the horn down the center of the swell. Use caution not to cut too far! Once cutting past the widest past of the swell, the seat will drop fast. Stop your cut at least 1½"above the intersection of the swell and bar. Cut a circle out at the bottom of this cut. Four your swell, this circle should be about 1"diameter. DO NOT CUT THE CIRCLE BELOW THE END OF THE FIRST CUT! You will end up with a button hole shaped cut from the horn down the center of the swell. You can now begin widening the hole to the back into the seat. Do cut deeper! Enlarge the hole back into the seat and up toward the hand hole until it fits nicely around the bottom rear corner of the swell. Do all this on one side of the swell only. You should be able to press the seat tight around the back and bottom of the swell. The intersection of the swell and bar should be about an inch below the seat edge. Punch a hole for a screw about 3/8"behind the welt line. Place a spike into the hole and putting the tip of the spike in the intersection of the swell, bar, and welt, stretch seat down and forward around swell. You should stretch across the seat diagonally from right rear to left front. not Do stretch straight from rear to front. You want to keep the curve for your rider's leg in the center.

[kseidel]

Once you have your seat spiked into position on one side, remove the seat and mark the other side. Do not cut until returning the seat to the saddle and checking the marks against the tree. There may be some discrepancy in the swell that you may need to make allowance for. When making the cut on the other side, stop your cut about 1/4" high. This is necessary to allow for the fold and thickness of leather. You can always cut more... Repeat the process of cutting and spiking the seat on the second side of the swell. Now you can finish the cut around the front of the swell and fit and cut the final shape to the skirts. Good luck! Happy Thanksgiving! Keith

[rktaylor]

Keith,

Thanks for the tips. Your description of fitting around the swells makes perfect sense.

The heck with Black Friday, this is the task for the day.

Randy