My First Saddle... The Hard Way

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

My first thought was "what part of the hide did you cut the binding from?"  I always cut from the center of the belly, about as low as I can go and still have relatively solid hide on the front of the binding. If you cut from too solid of a part of the hide, you may have to cut another binding. Also, 6-7 oz has been split down from heavier leather and may have had much of the stretch already removed from it, which will make it much more difficult to mold to the shape of the roll.  The lightest weight skirting you can get that has not been split down will probably work better.  Then you skive down where you need to. I think many people starting out underestimate the amount of skiving needed.  The shape of the roll at the spots you're having trouble with will also determine somewhat the difficulty of getting the binding shaped. The wider the roll at that spot, the harder it will be to form.  You also might be leaving all the slack to get rid of to that spot.  When putting on a binding, I work on the corners before I do very much with the rest. It's a lot easier to get rid of that slack if you work some of it further up the cantle. If you form the easy part first, you have too much slack left at the trouble spot. I built my first saddle in '99, and never had the advantage of having anyone close who could help me and show me in person how to do things.  It's only the last couple years that I feel I've really been able to get my bindings on nicely and been happy with the way they look when finished. Hopefully, someone that has a better knack for explaining things than I do will chime in with additional advice. Best of luck to you.

Edited November 27, 2016 by Big Sioux Saddlery