Saddle silver

[Brian Hochstrat]

Here is a project I have been working on over the summer, when I had time from my other engraving work. I only have time to build a couple of saddles a year now, so I rarely do any saddle silver anymore and when I do, it's usually pretty standard stuff. But this is a bit different, along with the antiqued bright cut work, I did some multi color flush inlay. I thought it turned out kinda cool, certainly different.



Inlaid Horn cap

Cantle concho

the saddle

 

[TyG]

Punchy looking rig Brian!

 

[BrianPowley]

Yep---that's a pretty good looking saddle!

 

[thughes]

I'll say cool! That's way cool.

 

[didyoung]

nice!

 

[Marrinan]

Your work (and work on your web site) are always an inspiration and great pleasure to see. Fred

 

[GTJC460]

Great looking engraving and saddle.

 

[Denny]

Brian - Just like everything that comes off your bench, both the engraving and leather work are beautiful. I would sure appreciate learning more about your experience doing the inlay into silver. What problems or issues did you have to overcome?

 

[silverchip]

I saw this right after you posted it but didn't have time to write back at the moment.It's great to see that you are working on other things then "just engraving knives " all of the time.I have suffered burnout before but turned to fly fishing for a distraction that turned into another obsession!!! Looks beautiful and the inlay is a great idea too. :clapping::banana::bow:

 

[Doc Mark]

It will have to be a hell of a horse to deserve that saddle! :clapping:

 

[Dulltool]

Really nicely done Brian, I do totally agree with Mark....... this saddle needs a very special horse.

 

[ddushane]

That's beautiful Brian! I love your work, I visit your website fairly often.

Dwayne

 

[bronc]

Very nice Brian!

Stewart

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Your work is always a real pleasure to the eye Brian.

It's wonderful to see leatherwork, silver and engraving come together as they compliment each other beautifully.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Brian Hochstrat]

You would think the quality of the saddle and the horse would run in parallel, but its pretty common to have a $5000 saddle on a $500 horse, especially around here.

Denny, no real trick to it, you can move your silver and you can move your inlay metal. So you just need to get you edges to meet. It helps to cut your inlay piece at an angle so the bottom edge can dove tail under the silver you have moved. I guess the one key is the better the fit of the inlay piece the easier it is to set. Play around with it a little, I'm sure you won't have much problems with it.

Dave, exactly the reason I did the project. I've been 95% knives for the last few years, and although they are my favorite canvas for the type of engraving I do on them. I started feeling a bit stale a while back, so I started a saddle project. After all the saddle work started me into engraving in the first place, so even though I not always felt like getting out to the saddle shop after a day of engraving, I'd force myself into it and always with in a few minutes I'd be engrossed into what ever I reluctantly started in on. Before I new it, I had a saddle finished. I gotta start another after school project now that the saddle is done, I do have another saddle tree in the shop, but I also have a spade bit half finished that has not been touched in a while.......decisions, decisions

Thanks all for the kind words and thanks for taking a look. B.

 

[Haraga.com]

Nice work Brian. It's not good to have a 5000$ horse and a 500$ saddle either. The one thing that seems pretty common is the horse and the saddle get tooled around in 150K$ rig and the owners can't catch their _ss with both their hands.

 

[Titian]

Charming work.....

 

[Brian Hochstrat]

Nice work Brian. It's not good to have a 5000$ horse and a 500$ saddle either. The one thing that seems pretty common is the horse and the saddle get tooled around in 150K$ rig and the owners can't catch their _ss with both their hands.

Yep, but they are the guys that pay the way for the guys that can catch. Plus they keep companies like NRS in business. Kind of like the engraving suppliers, the hobbyists keep them going, I don't think they would make it if they had to rely on professional engravers.

 

[rod]

The forums are the richer from your posts, Brian,

You have real dirt on your boots, your feet well grounded, my guess is your inspiration is somewhere up in the starry worlds, and your hand skills keep it all connected.

Great work, as always!

Rod

 

[Peter_M]

I like this!

Very nice Brian.

Peter