Second saddle

[JAM]

Here's my second saddle - it's got minor problems which I'm sure experienced saddlers will find immediately: skirts were cut to my "small, round" paper pattern and then got shorter in length after blocking, so they're just a bit too short in back; the rear jockeys weren't cut quite right so they don't suck down the way I'd like... but the tree fits my horse like a glove (thanks to premier treemaker Rod Nikkel), and the seat is perfect. After my quest for information about how to build a ladies' seat in earlier posts, and at least a month of dithering, building up and carving down, sitting in with and without the seat cover on (the seat cover makes a difference in how the seat feels), I finished the saddle and rode in it - and it works!

The tooling is just swivel knife cuts. I haven't taken the time to learn and practice real tooling/carving other than basketweave yet, and really love just cutting freehand with my swivel knives (Henley, LW, Old Smoothie, Barry King...). I don't do it correctly (I cut backwards and any good leather carver would admonish me severely) but now it's my habit and personal style... it's nowhere near as good as the professional decorative cuts I've seen in other saddles, but it's okay if you don't look too closely. The best ones are in the rear cinch, which I cut last (and which will be hidden when I ride <ggg>), and in the back cinch I used modeling tools and a really narrow smooth pear shader from Barry King to add some dimension. I didn't originally intend to cut the entire seat, but it's kind of addictive and once I started I just couldn't stop.

Anyway, here's my second saddle (all critiques and advice are welcome):

[bruce johnson]

The seat profile looks great. Looks like it ought to ride. The scroll cuts in the seat look excellent too. Don't worry, you are not the first one to come up with short skirts either.

I do have a couple questions. How is the front rigging layered in there? From one picture it looks like two layers of skirting on top of the rigging. Also how are the skirts pulled up to the tree. In back I am not seeing lugs or pockets, but might be the picture angle. Finally, cool front cinch, who made it?

[jwwright]

Congrats on #2!.........I really like your decorative knife cuts. JW

[pete]

Not a saddle maker but I really like the job! Well done!!!

Your knife work is great. How about a tutorial of some kind. Maybe a pencil drawing of a piece 4-5 inches long and a few frames as to what order the cuts were made!

Still making a bunch of albums and wallets and checkbooks but a saddle......hmmmm. I still have my 1972 Paul Bear Capriolla wade.

again great work

pete

[ArtS]

Looks good. I like the swivel knife cuts and the color.

Art

[JAM]

I do have a couple questions. How is the front rigging layered in there? From one picture it looks like two layers of skirting on top of the rigging. Also how are the skirts pulled up to the tree. In back I am not seeing lugs or pockets, but might be the picture angle. Finally, cool front cinch, who made it?

Well, the skirts were done wrong and then fixed (same as on my first saddle - my teacher does flat-plate rigs, and in-skirts are very much out of his comfort zone). The skirts were initially made to ride under the tree, and when I pointed out that they needed to attach to the top of the tree, we added a top skirt. These pictures show the original (bottom) skirt, with a plug behind the rigging ring (I don't know why), and the plug along the bottom around the blocked tree bars. Then we added a top skirt to the whole thing, with a back rigging dee hung from the top skirt (like one in Al Stohlman's book) so it tugs directly down on the rear tree bar. It's a little unusual, I think, but it works. My future saddles will be on my own, and I'll have to think through how to do in-skirts the right way from the beginning <ggg>.

Yes, the front cinch is VERY cool - mane hair, from Dorothy Rogers at California Classics (www.calclassics.net - an all-vaquero shop which is my favorite). As you use it, it fills with horsehair, which makes it very comfortable for the horse, and it doesn't slip-n-slide. In fact, between the cutom-fitted tree and the mane-hair cinch, I ride with my cinch barely snug at all and never have any slippage or roll-around problems.

[JAM]

Your knife work is great. How about a tutorial of some kind. Maybe a pencil drawing of a piece 4-5 inches long and a few frames as to what order the cuts were made!

pete

Thank you, all of you - I was afraid to post the pics of the knife cuts because they are unorthodox.

I do them all freehand. Just lots of S's and C's. I do the S's (the scoll-y centerlines) first, then I go back and do C's down one side of all the S's and then do all the C's down the other side - because it takes a slightly different finger twist to do the other side (if that makes sense - you just need to try it). I do all the same kind of cut in one pass, because my fingers get the rhythm of that cut, then do all of the next kind of cut. I have trouble following drawn patterns, and I cannot yet make a decent circle at all (still need practice there). What I do absolutely incorrectly is: I start my cuts lightly near the stem of the S and finish the twist to the outside deep - which tends to make fishooks on the ends of the cuts - which is where the modeling tools and tiny narrow pear shader come in - they erase the fishooks. I really like using a 1/4" angle blade for all of these cuts, and then I go in again wherever it looks a little plain and add tiny filler cuts with a 1/8" straight blade (from LW knives). In the end, I want it to dance and flow. And the great thing about "abstract expressionist" knife cuts is that, with another cut or two, you can make any mistake into a design element! <ggg>

As you can see, I just doodle on every piece of scrap in my workshop. I've tried to emulate others' work (I very much admire what I've seen at Jeremiah Watt's and Clair Mullin's websites, and wish I was that good).

I like the color, too - it's Wickett & Craig leather, with probably three generous coats of neatsfoot oil and then tankote over all.

Julia

[clairmullin]

Julia,

I want to thank you very much for the complement to my knife cuts. I just read that today and it made my day!

Thanks again and I wish you the best of luck!

:)Clair

Thank you, all of you - I was afraid to post the pics of the knife cuts because they are unorthodox.

I do them all freehand. Just lots of S's and C's. I do the S's (the scoll-y centerlines) first, then I go back and do C's down one side of all the S's and then do all the C's down the other side - because it takes a slightly different finger twist to do the other side (if that makes sense - you just need to try it). I do all the same kind of cut in one pass, because my fingers get the rhythm of that cut, then do all of the next kind of cut. I have trouble following drawn patterns, and I cannot yet make a decent circle at all (still need practice there). What I do absolutely incorrectly is: I start my cuts lightly near the stem of the S and finish the twist to the outside deep - which tends to make fishooks on the ends of the cuts - which is where the modeling tools and tiny narrow pear shader come in - they erase the fishooks. I really like using a 1/4" angle blade for all of these cuts, and then I go in again wherever it looks a little plain and add tiny filler cuts with a 1/8" straight blade (from LW knives). In the end, I want it to dance and flow. And the great thing about "abstract expressionist" knife cuts is that, with another cut or two, you can make any mistake into a design element! <ggg>

As you can see, I just doodle on every piece of scrap in my workshop. I've tried to emulate others' work (I very much admire what I've seen at Jeremiah Watt's and Clair Mullin's websites, and wish I was that good).

I like the color, too - it's Wickett & Craig leather, with probably three generous coats of neatsfoot oil and then tankote over all.

Julia

[TrooperChuck]

Sometimes, we are our own worst critics. In my case, I've NEVER made anything that I didn't have at least one regret or disappointment. I guess that's what drives us to constantly improve.

JAM, I think your saddle is great. The swivel knife carving is something I've never thought about before. Now, I'm gonna have to give it a try! Thanks for sharing.