The most important tool in the shop
We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.
So what’s the most important piece of equipment in the shop? Is it the Big Band Saw, that makes those oh-so-important cuts on the bars?
Or the jointer/planer that makes the wood smooth enough to laminate and gives us the correct stock thickness for every tree?
Or the belt sander that shapes and smooths things so well?
Or even the grinders that get so much use to shape all parts of the tree?
Nope. In my opinion, it is none of the above. The thing that is often most vital in the shop to keep things moving along smoothly is (drum roll please!)…
The red pen!!!
Yes, you read that correctly. A little, lowly red Bic pen really is that important. Why?
Well, it keeps us from making major errors that means we have to redo things or even start from scratch. Here’s an order with a moderate amount of red pen on it. Anything that is out of the ordinary gets written or circled in red pen, so we take note of it and don’t just do “ordinary” when it isn’t.
Here’s another order. Obviously, this one took a while to finally get settled. Lots of red pen here…
And it doesn’t stop there. When I mark out the wood for Rod, the red pen is used again to say “THIS IS DIFFERENT. DON’T DO NORMAL!!!” For example, in this case Rod needs to use a different set of jigs than normal for both the cantle and the fork. If he doesn’t, the cuts won’t match the other pieces and they won’t fit together to set the tree up properly..
Same thing on the fork. This is a stood up fork, and if he doesn’t change the angle he cuts the bottom at, it won’t fit on the bars. If he gets that right but doesn’t change the top cut angle, it will look really silly, and really silly isn’t quite our signature style…
The cantle, too, gets marked to ensure things are correct. When I was explaining how to mark out everything to one of our students, I could almost see the thinking going on. “Do they really make that many mistakes? How hard can it be to keep it straight?” He learned…
So the red pen keeps us from wasting a lot of time and wood, which is why I say it is the most important piece of equipment in the shop
Closely followed by the “I use it for everything so don’t you dare sharpen it!” chisel…
Or MY screwdriver…
