Second saddle

[blue62]

This is the second saddle I've built, it's a 12" seat for a 10 year old girl.

  I'm looking for constructive criticism, I know there are a few design issues, any feedback is appreciated.

Thank you

[Billy H]

Blue62,

For  your Second Saddle it looks great! One thing you might try  (if you want seat jockey to lay flat against fender and skirt) .  When you  first start putting Seat Jockey in -- try and bring leather from sides into the center of your seat.

Lay your leather in the saddle --  bring up some leather from sides and make a little hump in center of seat with this leather.           Start compressing leather fibers in center until it starts to lay flat again. Repeat that process 3 maybe 4 times. By doing so--- the leather on sides of seat jockey will lay tighter against sides.  Just a thought.      Regards Billy

That 10 yr Girl is pretty lucky

[blue62]

Billy H, thank you for the input, the small seat was difficult to shape, not much material and it needed to go a lot of different places.  I will try you method on my next one.

Here is a better picture of this one.

Thanks again

[Billy H]

Really nice little saddle--

I have found that time in the saddle with a little heat and sweat tend to make that leather lay down over time. Great Job!! Billy

[rktaylor]

Thanks for sharing. I'll bet she is loving the new saddle. I am far from an expert so you can take my comments with a grain of salt. I would have placed the rear rigging a little higher so the rivets are covered by the rear jockey. This would also place the strap connecting the dees up on the skirt. It looks like your front rigging position is about 3/4 or maybe closer to centerfire. I think that will make the smaller saddle more stable. I built one about this size and the customer wanted a 7/8 flat plate (small ranch saddle). It looks great, but without the rear cinch the saddle bounced too much. Since the tree was so small, I don't think there was enough bar on the front to pull against.

It's a really nice looking saddle. Congratulations on a great job and thanks for sharing.

Randy

[blue62]

Thanks Randy,

I knew the rear rear rigging looks a little weird, the patterns I made for the rigging work well with that tree, I should have ordered some different Dee's but I got kinda lazy, yes it's rigged 3/4, seems to work well with the short seat.

Here is a picture of the first one I built, I didn't like how the rear housing looked, I used the same rigging patterns for the second one, I was happy how the rear housing turned out but I should have redesigned the rigging a bit.

John