Visalia style saddle

[pete]

how did you get that BEAD around the seat carving? Did you draw it in and free hand cut it and bevel it both sides?

Beauiful work by the way

pete

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Hi Pete,

there are a couple ways of getting that beaded line. You can use a beader blade in a swivel knife and freehand it or you can use a push beader tool. The push beader has a handle like an edger and a curved metal shaft and blade. Both tools are difficult to use smoothly, but I always had better success with the push beader. I got mine from Jeremiah Watt and have gotten use to it over the years... you need to sharpen them and strop them on a regular basis. I only bevel the side of the bead that the carving is on, the other side I don't touch.

Darc

[Dan Hammons]

WOW That is a great piece of leather work. I love the tooling.

[Don]

Great job! Your tooling is very clean, I love your style, beautiful flower.

[Go2Tex]

Darc, you must buy that brown dye by the case....

But seriously, how do you get those large areas, like the seat, so even?

Also, once again for us dummies who can't remember, what size and brand/type of thread and spacing are you using on that horn and cantle?

You should be giving classes on hand stitching........

[Leather Bum]

The leather is Hermann Oak and dyed with Fiebings Pro_oil dye in a Walnut color. I usually burnish the carving when I dye a saddle, that way the recessed areas stay a little lighter while the raised areas get darker... gives it a little contrast. I probably have about 160 hours in the saddle ... I'm a bit slow compared to some guys... alot of that time is spent drawing carving patterns.

Darc

Well your saddles certainly are some of the nicest-looking saddles of which I've seen pictures. Very cool, indeed. You say you burnish the carving. . . Could you explain how that's done? In fact, I'd like to know what the entire finish process is, from beginning to end, if you don't mind; I really like that look. . .

Thanks for sharing such great work,

L'Bum

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Go2Tex,

When I die large areas of leather like a skirt or seat, I use a piece of sheepskin about 10"s x 10"s. I usually get quite a bit of dye in it so that I can get the entire piece of leather wet without having to pour more dye onto the sheepskin. If I can't get the entire surface wet the first time, I make sure that I get that sheepskin wet again and onto the leather as fast as possible. In addition, I usually get the entire surface soaked with dye. When I am dying a seat or skirt or whatever, when I am finished, there are no areas on the piece of leather that are lightening up (semi-dry). I find that if one side of the seat is drying to quickly or I only got half the seat dyed before having to re-soak my sheepskin, I end up with streaks or lines that show where the dye started and stopped.

As for the cantle binding and horn cap stitching, I use an awl blade that I got from Bob Douglas... it's the larger of the two sizes he sells. I usually sew 6 stitches to the inch and use an 8 cord linen thread that I got from a local shoe repair supply house.

L'Bum,

After I dye a piece of leather like I described above, I let it dry completely. This gives the surface of the leather a light colored, dusty appearance. I start by using a soft old t shirt rolled up into a tight ball and lightly rub the surface of the leather. It's important that your ball of t-shirt is tight so that no wrinkles form on the bottom otherwise you can make "scratches" in the leather. It doesn't really matter if you rub in circles or back and forth as long as the t-shirt doesn't have any wrinkles in it. After the entire surface has a slight shine to it, I take a spray bottle and give the tooled areas a light shot with the bottle... you don't want to wet the surface, just dampen it. I then use a soft piece of canvas to "burnish" the surface of the leather. Start lightly and build up pressure and speed to create friction and heat... this is what will turn the raised areas of the carving or stamping a darker color. A couple things to be carfeful of... if you wet the leather too much or press too hard with your canvas rag, you will flatten your carving and it will look like hell. It sometimes takes two or three times of spraying the leather and rubbing with the canvas to get a good burnish on the surface. If you are burnishing some carving and there are areas of smooth leather around it, try not to rub on the smooth areas or you will wind up scratching the smooth leather with the canvas rag; An example of this would be on a saddle seat that is carved on the cantle or jockeys and not on the area you actually sit on. That is pretty much all I know about burnishing leather... alot of it is just experimenting, just keep in mind that it's the combination of slightly damp leather and the heat and friction of rubbing that leather that actually does the burnishing.

Darc

[Leather Bum]

Wow, thank you for giving that explanation! It's a very interesting process. . . I've always liked that light shine ("satin" shine, maybe?) that you see on leather items like yours. It's an excellently-carved saddle. . .

Thanks again,

L'Bum

[old west]

Howdi

What a great work and craftsmanship...... congratulations

[Don101]

Yes great work, verry impressive

@ old west.... Hi Andy glad you made it