Which way for Shearling?

[barra]

Which way does everyone place their shearling. Sheeps neck facing forward in the direction of the horses travel or facing to the rear. I know of the various schools of thought but am just interested in everyones ideas/opinions.

Barra

[bruce johnson]

Barra,

This is another one of "those" questions. One guy I talked about this with had an interesting point. We put all the back to front on one side, the front-to-front folks on the other and have a tug of war. Neither side would end up in the mud, the sides would be equal and we would quit and get a beer after 5 minutes.

What I do right now. This is all subject to change because I have dang sure rethought and changed some of what I do based on this forum's discussions (like I will probably not use AZ bars except under duress, etc.).

I put the back end of the skirts toward the neck of the sheep. I put the top edge of the skirts (bar area) in the middle of the woolskin.

Reason for the latter - I used to put the bottom edge of the skirts together in the middle of the woolskin. Sat in a round-table and one guy offered that he put the tops in the middle. The wool is slightly denser in the middle, and the bar area receives more pressure than the skirt edges. Just lasts a while longer and makes more sense to me now.

Reason for putting the rear of the skirts to the front of the woolskin. The wool lays to the back. If it is facing forward, it keeps the saddle blankets from sliding back. I was taught to saddle a horse by my grandfather. We put the saddle on further forward than we want it, and slide it back into place. This will (1) lay down wrinkles in the saddle blanket (2) slide the saddle back into the place it naturally wants to stay (3) lay the wool down, because the saddlemakers always put the wool on so they lay down when you slide them back, it bunches and clumps when you slide it forward (4) never argue with your grandfather.

So does it matter after two months when the wool is more mashed down. What about the guys who use the wool on synthetic backing on synthetic fleece? Either should be non-directional. Does it matter if you use pads instead blankets? Not to hijack this thread, but we might as well include the other elephant in the living room we haven't discussed - Barge them on or rubber cement??

Edited August 6, 2007 by bruce johnson

[barra]

Pardon the ignorance Bruce but is Barge a contact adhesive and I assume what you are calling rubber cement I am calling latex.

Barra

[greg gomersall]

I put mine on the front of the skirts at the butt of the woolskin with the bar area to the center, I also use rubber cement and direct naughty words at people who use barge( this isn't much of a problem anymore as I don't do repair work unless its something I made). Chuck Stormes told me it doesn't matter which way you place the wool as long as you have each side going the same direction ( if you were to take the woolskin going sideways accross the hide to get the wool laying the same you would need to have the skirts facing opposite directions on the hide). As for artificle fleece " A man that would rent a pig wouldn't stop at anything and we don't rent pigs." Greg

[mulefool]

I always learned "bottoms to center, butt to back" since that was such an easy saying to remember that's how I've done it. I'm open minded though, Bruce's point about the wool being thicker in the middle is a good one so I just might rethink my way of doing it. I'm not open minded about the barge though............NEVER.

[BruceGibson]

I'm gonna stay outta this one!!

[Billsotx]

" A man that would rent a pig wouldn't stop at anything and we don't rent pigs." Greg

Greg? ... Sounds more like Gus ... lol!

[Alan Bell]

I asked Dale this as I had recieve adamant instructions to do it one way by one fellow and the opposite way by another fellow and both for the same reason! VERY confusing to a bear of very little brains! Dale said it didn't really matter and that he had even spliced them together running in different directions before! As Bruce pointed out after they are mashed in place by a couple of rides it becomes negligible. I think the wool on the shearling against the wool of the blanket or pad creates enough friction to keep them both in place and in my tiny bit of experience if your saddle has blanket showing both in front and in back then it is pretty hard to get them to wriggle out from underneath the saddle. If however you only have a teeny tiny bit of blanket showing to the front then it is fairly easy to get it to wriggle out the back no matter what direction your shearling is facing.

Vaya Con Dios, Alan Bell

Greg, I think I have all the tapes I took of Dale and Steve onto my computer and I can save them as files on a CD that you can view with Windows Media Player. I'll try when I get home and will let you know how it works!

All around in my hometown, they are trying to track me down. They say they want to bring me in guilty for the life of the deputy

Bob Marley

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Hey Alan,

not sure if you got my email from a month ago, but any chance you could burn me a copy of those tapes as well?

thanks,

Darc

[Alan Bell]

Darc, I sure will.

Vaya Con Dios, Alan Bell

Things are not the way they used to be; one and all we got to face reality now.

Bob Marley