Jeremiah Watt's web blog

[D.A. Kabatoff]

With all the talk about trees and fitting, I thought someone might find Jeremiah Watt's web blog interesting. He recently had three treemaking Aussies visit him and they got talking trees and some of the standardization problems that people have been mentioning here. Sounds like most of their ideas are quite informal at this time, but it might just be the kind of B.s session that sparks the fire.

here's the link... you have to scroll down the page a little ways.

http://www.westernfolklife.org/weblogs/artists/watt/

Darc

[barra]

Hi Darc. Great link, not just for the tree story. I just thought I would post a couple of pics of saddles made with the 2 styles of trees. The first tree would be used for a saddle similar to the first picture and the rawhide covered tree would be used for picture 2 . The metal bar protruding from the pommel area on the rawhide tree is to suspend the stirrup leather. This is so that in the event of being thrown then there is a chance the leather (fender) will come off, freeing the rider. Traditionally the panel (padding for the horse) is lined in woollen serge and stuffed with a mix of hair and wool to allow the horses back to breathe and wick away moisture. This allows the panel to eventually pack down hard to the shape of the horses back. The saddle should then have a second layer sewn over the 1st and more stuffing added (known as counterlining). It is this 2nd layer that is repaired/replaced for the rest of the saddles life.

For the rider the seat is made over a layer of webbing that is sort of like a hammock so that the riders seat bones are not in contact with the hard tree bars.The wing shaped protrusions are called either poley pads or knee pads. As the traditonal saddle developed originally had the knee pads down near the riders knees. As the saddle developed over the years the pads got higher and higher but the term knee pads stuck. On the rawhide type tree the pads would be sewn to the flap (fender) and are leather covered heavy sole leather or made similar to your bucking rolls and are stuffed with flock. I just thought I would try and explain what those weird looking trees were for.

Thanks again Darc