Squirrelly66

I do mine with a 2 or 3 pass Spanish ring not.

JayInOz, laughed my ass off at that story. Got a few new agers around here kinda like them. The entertainment value on neighbors like these is never ending. Like that Idea about Brumby Leather, Matt S. I've got a deer I put on my stretcher back in early April, stretched with the hair on. I stretched hard and tight, I scraped the hair off in early May and put it back in the holding shed still on the stretcher. I pulled it out last week and cut a continuous 40 mm strip till the hide was gone. I did not have to split much off the skin side to get a nice 2oz thickness. This is gonna plait Purdy nice when I'm done. Not sure which projects to use it on yet. I am doing a couple riata's this weekend, got the strips dehaired and split, cut to width and beveled, got it all coiled up in a wet towel in a cooler waiting for Saturday morning.

My grandfather got these clamps from a tannery up around Chicago, Illinois back in the early 50's. The Horween tannery is still in business, I believe it's over 100 yrs old. I have over 400 of the buggars and have used them all a time or two. Hell I've let me neighbor's borrow a few when they have a hide to stretch. They always return them in a timely fashion, too. which is nice. Yeah, I'm not thrilled about the people who hoard things just so nobody else has them. Those people get my briskets to burnin.

I use steel tarp clamps about every 5 inches and stretch it out tight as a drum because I have been known leave the hair on and scrape it after stretching, I have some customer's who will not buy rawhide that has had the hair slipped with lime even after using the vinegar. Not my first rodeo, I've done this once or twice. I usually end up with anywhere from 30 to 50 deer hides every fall that get done up for rawhide lace. I get a few elk hides once in awhile. I got plenty of cow for now 22 hides in the shed. Just brain tanned 10 hide for making chaps , chinks and other assorted stuff. I seem to get by. The clamps do well cause I got tired of poking holes and running string many, many moons ago. Now I just run the rope thru the eye on the clamp.

I get fresh cow hides from a couple guys that butcher meat for people, also from the occasional rancher around here that has one dead in the field. If I'm gonna stretch a whole hide I slip the hair like JayInOz , then put on my stretcher and stretch it good and let it dry, Hides I do this way I use for strings for fancy projects, If I'm doing a reata I take the fresh hide and cut it in one continuous strand approximately 1" wide till it's all used up, then I stretch it on the fence, after it is dry I go out and scrape the hair and any excess tissue off with a good knife.

Nice looking Yin. might try an 1/8 inch blade in your swivel knife, might help with seeing it better

I've used Horse leather (Horween) lace for making whips and other lacing projects. I like it quite a bit. I have not had the experience of using horse rawhide yet. I use a lot of goat and deer rawhide for a lot of my smaller projects.

There is the Sheridan show in May in Sheridan Wyoming, In the Fall there is one in Pendleton Oregon, There are shows in Texas not sure when, I think there is a show in St. Louis Missouri. I will check with a friend of mine that used to go to leather shows in the Midwest and the east coast and see if he can give me a list of them.

Wish I had found this earlier, I can't get in this round, I'm in the midst of prepping everything for a class I'm teaching in late June. Good to see yer still at it Rossr.

most of my rawhide lace for a riata is 5/16 or 3/8 inch wide. a lot depends on whether you bought the rawhide or if you pulled it off the cow and did it yourself. If I've pulled and prepped the hide myself I like to split my thickness no thinner than 2mm thick, I have my splitter set at 2.5mm for the last riata I did. which is roughly between 4-6 oz on the standard leather chart. most of the time it is the braiders preference and what he's comfortable using.

Some lace at Tandy's is OK. Depends on what you plan on braiding. I use an Australian strander cut all my own lace from whole side of leather, I use many different widths and lengths. I made my own set of bevelers for beveling my lace at either a 15, 30, or 45 degree angle depending what project I'm doing. I always cut my lace wider than needed so I can stretch it, trim it to the right width and then split it to the right thickness for the project that I'm working on. Grant's book is a good place to start your braiding experience. I've made several of the projects from his encyclopedia. working on a set of Mexican quirts right now. check www.y-knotlace.com for kangaroo lace and also check Maverick Leather company they carry roo hides and lace. I don't use roo myself, everybody likes it but I'm not a fan of it. Tandy's hasn't carried roo lace for a very long time. there are some youtube vids by bernie46 you may find interesting. he shows you how to make a quick beveler from wood, The beveler he uses is made by bwrwhips.com out of Australia. Hope this helps you some.

I would like to do some of the greek armor. I'm working on some from assassins creed oddessey. that is a very nice set of armor you've done there

google rawhide lace, there are a few that do make good lace. Tandy sells the bleached rawhide in cut lace, You may find it to work for you. I buy Tandy's natural rawhide sides and cut my own. I use a strander and after stretching use my own made resizer. That's just me.

You can splice different ways, as rgerbitz above pointed out , I do it the way he stated and also will skive the ends and join them with tanner's bond contact cement and a put a spring clamp on it for 30 minutes or so. As for the beveling it does make it look cleaner. you can buy fancy beveler's but I made one from wood that works good. look up bernie46 on youtube, he's an aussie that makes whips. simple to make. you can also make a skiver with wood and a razor blade. I buy my leather always a little thicker and split my lace down to a 2 oz. thickness for a lot of my plaiting. I make whips, lanyards, and a lot of other braided stuff. If I'm doing rawhide I will go to 1 to 1.5 oz on some lace for edge lacing. also look at whyknot lace. they have a good cutter and beveling system. I cut all my lace with an Australian strander that I have reworked to be more friendlier. I usually will lace a whole side at a time. I DO Not use kangaroo lace for any of my stuff. too pricey. Hope this helps.

It is a nice piece. your going to want to keep it conditioned well from now on. It could be repaired but why. If you were going to use it I would say repair it, but if its going to be displayed I would do a light clean up on the piece just so you there is no debri that can be snagged and possibly cause further damage if handled in the future. I you try to repair it you are going to run in to problems. even though you are conditioning the leather some of the other strands most likely have damage that cannot be seen and when you start trying to remove the damaged strands you may snap others. it looks to be very tightly braided so trying remove the selected strands by simply sliding the damaged one out and a new one in is not going to be simple , easy, or advisable in my opinion. I have repaired item like this in the past. I usually have to dismantle most of it to repair it properly and at that point its easier to just plait a new one and clean the old one up for display only. Hope this helps