This week in the shop
We are no longer building saddle trees. We have two saddle fit videos available on our westernsaddlefit.com website. Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, aimed at riders, is available either on DVD or streaming on Vimeo while the six hour series Well Beyond the Basics, aimed more for professionals but understandable by anyone, is available by streaming on Vimeo. (We left this website up because we have had many requests to keep the information available.)
Rod putting the finishing touches on a wood post Bowman fork.
Still no frost! The grass is green and the flowers are blooming and it is still warm enough to be working outside - albeit with a jacket on. In the summer Rod does as much wood working outside as possible for a couple of reasons. One is that he just prefers to be outside, and the hotter the better! The other is the dust. Despite our great dust collection system, he still needs to wear a dust mask for all the carving he does with the grinder in the "dirty room". Outside, the wind blows it away and it is much nicer, not to mention healthier.
Here, Rod is installing the horn on a Martha Jose barrel saddle. He has already checked it up, down and sideways to get the horn lined up straight, marked and routered out the fork so it sits down well, and added the horn cap. Now it is just a case of predrilling before screwing it on. He angles all the screws so they seat into the hardwood core of the fork. They aren't going anywhere!
The Martha Jose is going to the eastern US, along with the Wade made the day before. Both trees are waiting for their first of three coats of varnish before they get rawhided later in the week.