Working on an exposed wood post horn cap
We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.
Rod was working on this exposed wood post horn on a Modified Association tree last week. The wood is Padauk, which is an African hardwood. Our horn caps are all hardwood anyway - maple or Baltic Birch plywood - so working on hardwood isn't an issue. But finishing them so they are "real purdy" takes a lot of time.
Here's the line up that he uses after the grinder, sander, rasp and 80 grit sandpaper he normally uses on everything. (The 80 grit is the small piece in the background with the arrow to it.)
The first wheel is a Flap Sanding Wheel from Lee Valley Tools. This one has 80 grit sand paper it. The next one has 120 grit. Using the drill with these makes this level of sanding so much faster.
Then comes the hand sanding, going from 220 grit, to 400 grit to, finally, 600 grit paper.
But the buffing wheel is what really starts to get a shine on it.
And here's some pictures of what it looks like after the buffing.
And this is just sanded with no finish on it yet! Rod got this tree rawhided on Tuesday so it is drying now. I'll try to post pictures of it when it is completely finished.
