8 string saddle

[mikesh]

Just finished a saddle for my wife.  Tried to make it as lightweight as possible, cut down skirts, fenders, ect.  Also my first try at a inlayed seat, pencil roll on cantle, and antiquing, so tell me what you think.  Thanks, Mike

[AZNightwolf]

That looks great!

[battlemunky]

That is a thing of sentiment and beauty!

[rktaylor]

Mike,

Nice looking saddle. I like the dragonfly and cattails. Kudos for trying some new things like the inlaid seat. I haven't worked up the courage to have exposed stitches on cantle binding, but I will have to tackle it at some point.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[cjartist]

Beautiful

[mikesh]

Thanks everyone, trying the pencil roll was scary, I glued up a piece about the same thickness and practiced alot before trying, but still had a few stitches that didn't come out as nice as wanted.

[Squilchuck]

I did a standard cantle binding on the first saddle I made and worried to death about the look of the backside stitches. So, I decided to use the hidden back stitch technique in Stohlman's book.  It looks great and made stitching much easier not finessing the back stitch. I'm making a third saddle now and suppose I should buck up and take the challenge of an exposed stitch line, hmmm.  -- John

[rdl123]

Nice job Mike - Ground seat shape looks good!

[Josh Ashman]

Nice job Mike! How much did it end up weighing? 

All the best! 

Josh

[mikesh]

Thanks, everyone.  I don't have a scale at home and haven't taken it anywhere to weigh it yet, but I'll let you know when I do.  Mike