sidesaddle queen

COOL!

the fireplace in the house was huge.. took a 40" log. he grew up with wood fires for cooking and heat.. never had a issue with fire.. the only thing he ever burned up were steaks on his bbq..lol!! i am careful with my fireplace.. lol!! i plan to burn those fire ants up was soon as this cold front passes.. going from 82 to 38 crazy even for east texas.. pouring rain right now,,, so i am doing leather work.

lots of small pieces.. lol!! 100s of small branches,, it is full now,, fire ants got me so i had to come in but it is ready for the morning!!! lol! yeah ,, fire is fire i guess but i love wood burning.. i remember coming home from college , as i turned down the road i could tell daddy was home.. flames were shooting 6 ft out of the fireplace chimney lol! he loved big fires..

i have lots of good books on learning the how to.. i love history, so i already have lots of old books on blacksmithing, so i am sure i will love this one,, No local blacksmiths near me.. the closest is 100 miles, 1 1/2 hr drive and he has the same dead oaks as i do.. my brother lost 100s of them. i lost 3 that are over 200 yrs old.. one is covered in burls.. i am hoping to get some of them cut off and debarked. it is a shame.. more down wood the we can ever use.. i do have a fireplace and use it there but it is 80 degrees here right now. lol!! i will have fun with the burn barrel and clean up my place at the same time.. i was looking for a reason to put metal in burning wood.. i love wood fires.. lol!!

thanks thomas!! i just put that book in my amazon cart!!! frosty.. the gullet piece will fit i check it before i asked.. i was planning to leave the old ashes , i can't get them out.. they are a hard brick.. i have tons of oak and pecan branches on the ground everywhere.. the record breaking freeze last winter killed most of our southern white oaks and damaged the pecans.. the recent high winds dropped more wood than i will ever need.. most is going into a big burn pile.. i hate to burn like that but there is just so much!! thanks again!! i am learning so much on this site!!!

frosty, what about using an old burn barrel instead of a bbq. i have one that is about 1/3 full of ash.. one side has a hole in it ,,about 10"x 8" . could i put the charcoal in there ??

they master tree makers had jigs and patterns ..the wood tree is made first and then the metal was shaped and riveted.. some by hand, some by hydraulics i think, i found a machine press company that made the original press for the 1830s.. !!!! here in the states!! the owner contacted when he found out what i was doing lol!! they still make a spin press that would work for me . for 10k..lol!!! i have one book on knife making, an old one,, i try to buy the oldest i can find on things.. i found some good hints.. i keep the original holes in the metal and drill the one hole in the wood first .. the one where the shape has changed the least.. then i clamp everything with torque vise grips and drill the new holes in the wood then without undoing the vise grips i set the rivets.. the metal has to make tight contact with the wood on both sides, it is kinda a rush when it works!!! lol!! there is no one in the states anymore that remembers how to do it and only 2 or 3 in the uk .. it is a lost art.. it is challenging and i bet you would really find it interesting .. there are so many nuances that have to be dealt with ..it is like a complex puzzle you can ride at the end.. !! lol!!

i have been heating it up in the spots i wasn't to move but the result shifts of the rest of the metal has created issues.. lol!!! i understand the metal but can't find the correct process to make it happen i can tweak the ends no problem, i can move them cold or heat with a hand torch..but the center and first 2 bends are 1/4 thick.. it will not bend cold , the twists and turns of the piece do not really show in the photos.. i need to get a torch but though i would see if i could do it with my forge.. by annealing the whole thing i can reshape it to the new wood shape.. tweaking 1/4" thick 1 1/4" wide piece like this needs heat to do it right.. the rider's safety depends on it

frosty!! thank you, good idea! i will see if i and find and bbq around here.. the holes are the original rivet holes.. i am having to reshape the metal and make the holes line up with hole in wood and the piece of iron on the other side..lol!! shaping thin metal with different widths and thicknesses is very hard.. it really will make you think about what great talent they had doing this say and day.. some of the trees are pure works of art in wood and metal i can move the metal fine when i make repairs from scratch.. usually thinning the 1"to 1 1/2"wide metal from 11g to 18 g and curving it to fit.. i didn't want to replace this piece.. it is so well made..and i figured i would learn a lot from making work..lol!! i have 2 books on body and fender repair.. that was the only place i could find the skill set i needed to do this.. plus my son rebuilds cars so i use some of his tools too but he is new school and i need old school skills.. mild steel is a term i use because people know what i am talking about now.. sidesaddle tree ironworks are rarely made from cast iron i have one western one that has a cast front with pommel and cantle support and i have the us patent on it.. it was not popular. this is the only existing example any of us in the sidesaddle world have seen.. i have never see one with wrought iron but mine only go back to the 1830s.. the ones i seen in photos of saddles older than 1830s did not have the metal support.. just thicker wood..

lol! sober might be better,, hehehe, i proofread it , i promise.. i am always sober now days.. maybe some wine would help.... thanks for the info.. i have read and studied but hearing it in simple terms is nice.. i only have a small gas forge.. i can heat all but 4" of the long point , but i do not need to reshape the part much so i figured it would be okay.. i wish had a torch, i know how to a torch for all kinds of things.. .. i used mine in sculpting but i gave it to an old boyfriend and never got it back.. lol!! the money from this saddle repair will buy me an new one i bought a larger gas forge but don't have it set up yet..

the forging is the original work.. i am trying to rework it.. working small areas is not the way to go.. it is moving where i don't want it to .. not much but enough there is tiny areas of daylight i can't have that.. so i am thinking annealing all of it and making the whole thing sober will be easier to reform it.. if i anneal it to make it easier to work.. what color to heat it to? Burning it in to the wood to fit is what caused part of the damage to begin with, so that is not a choice,..

the rebuilt wood tree front.. with gullet iron in place, the metal goes from 1/4" in the middle tapering to 18 g at the points with curves everywhere.. lol!! you can see the forge marks near my fingers..

HI!! thanks, for the quick response!! I am working with a gullet piece from a late 1890s saddle that is forged ..thick center to thin ends ..it is driving me crazy trying to reshape.. I was thinking about just annealing the whole piece and then reshaping it.. what color should I take it to?? When I repaired the tree I made it wider to fit a modern horse.. lol! not thinking about the gullet steel.. it is a biomorphic Form and the changes I need are small, but, that makes it harder.. hehehehe. it is above my skill range .. for the moment.. so I can weld a piece of modern mild steel to the old stuff for repair?? that would help a lot.. save me some time too. I have been rebuilding the whole piece if part of it was missing. I am doing great!! lots of saddle work getting done, starting to work some horses , even rode a couple... and finishing halter breaking my foals so I can sell them... it is warm here so I am playing outside as much as possible,, how are you..?? getting any forging done?? want to see a photo??

I work a lot with older mild steel on my sidesaddles.. I was wondering about the changes in composition and if there are things should or should not be done to the old metal.. do they anneal the same way?? can I weld them together ??

that answers a question i had too.. thanks!!!