Lisa was packing a big revolver, and we do sometimes.
I don't think the horses ever saw it.
Cut, bend, twist, smooth, glue, tack, stitch
Class teaches meticulous craft of saddle making
By Paul Bourgeois
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - The reasons people make saddles are as varied as the people making them.
Ken Tatro, 63, a farm-equipment design draftsman from Hutchinson, Kan., wants to learn a trade to keep him busy in retirement.
Closer to home, Greg Sellers, a 15-year-old headed into the 10th grade at Brewer High in White Settlement, hopes to sell the saddle he's making and buy a car. He has a '72 Nova in his sights.
In the world of leather craft, making a saddle is akin to climbing Mount Everest.
"You're not a leather crafter until you've built a saddle," said Harry Smith, an accountant in Tacoma, Wash., who has been a leather crafter for more than a decade. "I thought I knew something until I came here to build a saddle."
David Smith, a conveyor-belt salesman from Mansfield, said: "There's a tremendous amount of satisfaction in this. There's something about building your own saddle, putting it on your own horse and riding off."
It's the cowboy way.
Tatro, Sellers, Harry Smith and David Smith are in a saddle-making class of nine under way this week at Hide Crafter, a leather-craft store on Camp Bowie Boulevard.
It's a labor-intensive, physically demanding and sometimes blood-letting experience. Some students proudly wear their battle scars covered in bandages.
Pushing and pulling razor-sharp implements through quarter-inch tanned hide that doesn't want to be cut is fraught with danger.
But overall, it's been a safe and friendly class, said Bill Gomer, a master saddle maker and teacher from Leavenworth, Kan.
The class started a week ago with a "tree," the basic wooden frame, and two sides of leather. Working 10 or 12 hours a day for nine days, they are to be finished Sunday.
There are more than 30 steps to making a basic Western saddle, and the students have needed nearly every waking moment this week to cut, bend, twist, smooth, glue, tack and stitch everything from the horn to the cantle and down to the fenders, skirts and stirrups.
Gomer has been a saddle maker for 55 of his 64 years and has the hands to show for it. His grip is like a vise.
But unlike many other old-time saddle makers, he said he's not interested in holding onto his saddle-making secrets.
Gomer said he's more interested in passing on an American art form to another generation.
"If we don't start sharing what we know about this, it will die," said Gomer, who travels the country teaching saddle making when he isn't working in his shop.
He said many saddle makers have tight grips on their secrets.
Gomer said that many of the factory- and foreign-made saddles "are junk" and that he wants to show anyone interested how it's supposed to be done.
"I believe if you share what you know, it comes back to you 10 times," Gomer said.
The class costs $1,500, including all the materials and all the expertise.
Depending on how closely they've been paying attention, Gomer said his students will walk out Sunday with saddles worth $2,500 to $3,000.
IN THE KNOW
Making saddles
Hide Crafter holds two or three saddle-making classes a year. More information at (817) 878-5797 and www.hidecrafter.com.