Saddlemaking, Leather Stamping, and Design
Here is a glimpse of the process and some of the elements basic to making a custom saddle. To learn more about this subject, visit Resources. If you would like to have a conversation about this subject, visit Gearmaker’s Forum.
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Photos by Adam Jahiel –
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The Tree
Saddlers say the SADDLE TREE is the most important part of a saddle. It is the rawhide covered wooden form over which the saddle is built and determines the saddle's "look." Building a tree requires complex three-dimensional math skills with solid woodworking expertise. Three parts are essential to the tree: the bars, the cantle, and the swells or forks. The horn is either metal and attached or carved as an integral part of the forks. Opinion among makers regarding the best woods for building trees vary, but most prefer to use a straight-grained, knot-free, softwood with tight growth rings such as pine, spruce, or poplar. Its heavy rawhide covering, often obtained from a mature bull, provides the strength of the tree, especially in the critical horn area.
There are dozens of distinct tree styles and variations within them. Most saddlers purchase their trees from independent manufacturers, although a few build their own. The number of production tree companies has declined in past years, but custom shops have proliferated.
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All photos by Meg Glaser –
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The Hide
It takes at least two sides of processed leather cowhide, preferably matched left and right, to build a saddle. The saddle parts are taken from various sections of the hide; some parts require thick, heavy leather, and others thinner sections. Saddlers order their oak tanned leather from large tanneries.
The Stamping Process
The steps of leather stamping include transferring a design to the leather, cutting the design with a swivel knife, and stamping the different elements with the proper tools to create the finished image.
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Harwood at workbench stamping, Photo by Meg Glaser –
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Watch a short film of saddlemaker Dale Harwood creating a leather stamp design by selecting your type of internet connection below:
See examples of leather stamping in the Western Folklife Center's Collection
Design Transfer
TAP-OFFS are leather templates (flowers, leaves, etc.) used to transfer patterns to a piece of damp leather prior to carving and stamping. Saddlers make their own tap-offs, and each is as unique as a fingerprint. The dried leather tap-off is placed on the moist leather, design down, and tapped lightly with a mallet. After transferring the flowers and leaves, the carver uses a swivel knife to cut around the patterns and outline vines and stems surrounding the flower. Some saddlers prefer to draw an entire design onto a piece of drafting mylar, then trace the design from this to the leather. This practice produces designs that can be repeated many times. Only when the design is big and bold does a leather carver work freehand, without the aid of transfers or tap-offs.
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Copper Rose Pattern, Drawing by Harwood –
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Making a PAPER RUBBING is a common method of transferring a stamp pattern from leather to paper. Rubbings are useful for archiving designs for future use, or "borrowing" someone else's patterns.
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Photo by Meg Glaser –
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Stamping
The stamping process is tedious and time-consuming work and the saddler has a whole set of tools for that specific purpose. Leather to be stamped must be damp, but not too wet; when just moist enough it is "in case." The stamper must work quickly and finish stamping while the leather is moist.
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Photo by Jeremiah Watt –
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The Art of Flower Stamping
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Photo by Adam Jahiel –
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Some points to consider in viewing or judging stamped work are:
- Smooth, graceful layout of elements
- Even distribution of background area
- Skilled use of tools in executing the design
- Consistency of depth in cutting and stamping
- Burnished tool impressions indicating proper moisture content of leather
- Suitability as saddle decoration
- Originality in both design and execution.
A Saddler’s Tools
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Photo by Meg Glaser –
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Many saddlemakers spend a lifetime collecting exceptional tools. Some tools required to build saddles have not been commercially manufactured since the mid-1930s and are difficult to find. The old tools show classic lines and often incorporate the best tool steel, beautiful hardwood handles, and brass ferrules.
Most of the thirty or more types of tools needed to make a saddle come in different sizes, so the number of tools on a saddlemaker's bench can be staggering. Most bench tools are cutting tools of one form or another: cutters, skivers, trimmers, edgers, or splitters. Some tools, such as stitch markers, leave marks on the leather to guide work, while others gouge recessed grooves in which to sew.
