The elongated square block with a dowel
is used to force the jaws open.
Notice the shaping of the flat board for comfort.
It's a commercial product, but there is nothing patent-able or special about it. Hence I don't feel bad sharing with you its dimensions in order to make your own, for personal use, not commercial reproduction. It is a traditional design in uses for more than a century.
In use you sit on a flat board, resting on a chair, to secure the saddle and that bring the work up to a good height to stitch.
Hence feel free to tweak the dimension to suit you. Use my dimension as a starting point and feel free to shape the "flat" board to suit your comfort.
That one being their "Deluxe" model, featured a pivoting head. I think that should make it even more versatile
So at the request of one of my reader, here are the dimension and construction details of the stitching saddle. I rounded up the dimensions because they gave me weird numbers. Must be metric :-)
Overall dimensions
The leather covered jaws are about one inch thick at their ends and taper down to 1/2 inch for the sides. No need to waste lots of wood, laminating wood would be just fine.
How the jaw opening block fit inside
The jaw head can be rotated and lock by a 4 inch long 3/8 bolt with a washer and wing nut.
Similarly the jaws are tighten by a another 4 inch 3/8 hex head bolt, washer and wing nut.
The hex head is buried in the bottom board to prevent rotation
The sides of the jaws are secured by four recessed screws on each sides.
I would round over the long edges of the flat board, I find it a bit hard.
Personal preferences, make it comfortable for you to sit on.
I think that should be enough information for you to make your own.
If you need more details just ask
How to use, from Tandy leather
There are many variations on this tool, some regionals.
A simpler French version, simply called the clamp, is basically just the leather covered jaws, the whole thing held between your legs sideways
How to build it
How to use it
Instead of sitting on a board, sit on a bench and you have a saddle horse
Sit across the board and you have a saddle pony Adam Savage version
And finally a more articulated version of mine
There you go Mike, enjoy
Bob, about to go back to work on the garden gate project.
Yesterday Jean found a welder to make us new brackets and in my travel yesterday with my son, found another box of 100 screws.
Thanks Bob. I'll get to this shortly. I believe my woodwork going to the son-in-law, will net a couple leather card scraper wallets coming my way (sent him links to Brian Eve's post on them).
ReplyDeleteMike
;o)
DeleteYou're welcome Mike.
ReplyDeleteI think I would use maple for mine. The commercial one used some sort of softer Asian woods of some sort??
Clueless as to what a stitching saddle is Bob?
ReplyDeleteI'll add a video link shorthly of how it is used. Basically you sit on it and the leather jaw clamp your working piece of leather to stitch using needle at a comfortable height in front of you leaving both hands free
ReplyDeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteRalph beat me to it, but then I looked at the video links and confirmed what I suspected, that it is a shave horse for leather workers.
Speaking of which, I expect once the trash can is finished I'll make a new shave horse based on some of the ideas from Elza Bizzarri last post. My old one works well but is a PITA to break down and put back together.
If anyone wants or needs a shave horse I've a free one if you speak up before it is firewood.
ken