Oak Leaf Pattern

[rktaylor]

I'm looking for feedback on this oak leaf design. It's for the rigging plate on a saddle. Red is the background and the green points will be copper rivets. All critiques and comments are welcome. Thanks,

Randy

[cowboycolonel]

Nothing wrong at all, but I'd allow room for a stitch line all around and probably a tick line as well.  My guess is that the swirls and acorns above the cut out are a waste of time, as the jockeys will doubtless cover that area.

[alpha2]

The empty acorn is at a right angle to the ones with the nut still in...doesn't look right. Other than that...looks good to me.

[rktaylor]

Thanks for the comments. I'm too close to the stitch love on the bottom, but have plenty of room on the top. The jockeys will cover a lot of this, but I didn't like the empty space above the cutout. I don't know why.

I copied the empty acorn from another pattern, but haven't really warmed up to it. I'll probably replace it with a full acorn.

Thanks again for the comments and suggestions. I'll post the final product when it's tooled.

Randy

[alpha2]

Think about all the inside-the-waistband holsters you see on here with fancy tooling, etc....don't worry about what will or will not be seen in use. It's all about what is seen between uses!

[Goldshot Ron]

Randy,

I applaud your attempt here.  It sounds funny, but filling a blank space like you are considering, allows you to practice your tooling.  At the same time adding an artistic touch to your work.  Now to the acorns, the empty shell adds flavor to the work.  However, the sample you showed does look like an old innertube.  Just draw 3 acorns, and erase the nut, then make a cut where the shell would be on the back side of the nut.  One other consideration would be to make your leaves slightly larger so that they cover the convergence of the stems.  This allows the viewer to use their imagination as to how the design flows.  I've added a doodle that kinda shows what I'm suggesting.

Ron

[rktaylor]

Ron,

Thanks for the tips. I modified the pattern some, but here's my practice piece. As noted by cowboycolonel I need more space along the edges. It was tooled and sewn too wet so it's not great. I'll draw a new version this week and maybe get it tooled next week. Thanks again.

Randy

[Rolandranch]

Tooling looks awesome! It has great depth to it! One thing you could do is take your beveler and go over the ridge made by the beveler the first time around to give it a smoother look (not a huge deal). The marks left by the pressure foot; was that because the leather was still wet or there was too much pressure from the foot or both?

 Don't mean to be picky here but did you miss beveling here? (No one would ever notice it anyways)

Please post pics of the completed saddle! I'd love to see it! I'm going to build a saddle one of these days. Keep up the fantastic work!

Respectively,

-Ryan

 

[rktaylor]

Ryan,

Good catch. I did miss that area. The bevel marks are exaggerated because the leather was too wet. Normally I would go back over them, but I was in a hurry. In the past I have drawn really nice patterns that I felt were difficult to tool. By just practicing on this and the comments here, I found a few things that needed changing.

The presser foot marks are primarily due to wet leather, but I have since reduced the pressure. I'm about as low as I can go now. 

I'll post pictures of the finished piece here and the saddle in the saddle gallery section. 

Thanks for the comments.

Randy

[rktaylor]

Here's the final product. Not the saddle, just this piece. Still room for improvement, but not too bad. I tried to get the rivets in gaps.

Randy

[oltoot]

Here's my 2 cents worth, or maybe 1 1/2. I like the larger than normal cutout above the rigging plate. I'm sure that you can critique the tooling as well as anyone and that you have your own list of goals to achieve. Now to some observations that come from ~50 years of building, repairing and using saddles. I am very much opposed to doming copper rivits any place that they will be subject to strap wear as eventually, the top will wear through. I prefer to set the rivits where the entire face will be below the surface of the leather. I achieve that by running a small french edger around the edge of the hole resulting in a slightly cone shaped depression to set the rivit in. I freely admit that the result is not as attractive but it has been my experience that homely girls get more work done than prom queens (though I followed a different line of reasoning when I was picking a wife and allocating some of my meager earnings to silver bits, spurs etc). Next, I put breast collar dees on rigging plates or skirt corners for years but probably about 30 years ago I looked at how horse anatomy, breast collar function stirrup leather travel work together and moved my breast collar dees up to between the front concho and the rigging plate or tree surface, depending on the construction being employed ( the attachment looks like a minature flank rig on a full double dee ring rigged saddle and is secured to the tree by the saddle strings and #8 screws.) I use either a 1" 1 1/4" dee ring and leather for the Attachment. I experimented with metal but abandonded it for leather for the simple reason that metal would make an annoying squeaking sound some time when just riding along without weight on the collar. Among the desirable (IMHO) results is that there is no contact with stirrup leathers and the supporting pull when a dee ring type breast collar ( with a snug tie down from BC dee ring to cinch dee ring between the front legs) is employed is more nearly straight from point of attachment on the saddle to the main pressure bearing region of the BC. now, in closing, let me say that you are doing great on your journey as a budding and then blooming saddlemaker.       

[Rolandranch]

Looking great! The stitching looks superb! What weight/kind of thread did you use? I can't wait to see the complete saddle! Keep us posted. Thanks for sharing,   -Ryan

[rktaylor]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement. I'll post pictures in the gallery when it's complete.

Oltoot, Can you share a picture of your breast collar dee? I know you don't like domed rivets, but I feel like trading some durability for appearance is acceptable. Maybe if I was fixing them, I would change my mind.

Randy

[oltoot]

[rktaylor]

Thanks. 

Randy