ljensen

I have bought lace in the past when I was starting out. B-B in Idaho had 1/8" or 1/4" by 50' or 100' for about twenty bucks. I has been awhile though since I bought any.

Thanks for taking the time to share that. I need to find me a draw knife.

I got a cow hide over the weekend off the hoof and spent last night in the garage scraping/fleshing the hide. I quickly dulled the knife that I had so I ended up using a hacksaw blade that I flipped around in the frame. I would like to find out what is the preferred tools for fleshing and scraping the hides. I would appreciate pictures if you built your own homemade tools. Thanks, Logan

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to share that. It is really helpful to see the process in different steps.

Last week I finally found one place in town that carried lime, so after about four days in the garbage can with lime and water, the hair came right off the hide. Then after another day of soaking the hide in vinegar to neutralize the lime, I put the hide on a small frame that I quickly threw together. Thanks again to those that offered their help and advice.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I finally found one store in town that carried the lime. The poor checkout girl looked a little concerned with my combination purchases of lime and a large garbage can.

Thanks for the advice and for the links to those other threads. After reading about the lime again, it doesn't seem too bad. Now for another question, where do you by lime? Is it a special order or do most stores carry it? Thanks again.

Last weekend we were up visiting my family and they had a young calf that died. So we skinned the calf and then nailed the hide to the fence and scraped the flesh off. (Now this my first attempt at getting rawhide straight from the source, so I am just guessing on the best course of action so far). We left the hide on the fence for a day and then brought it home with us. So now I have a calf hide with the hair still on the hide. What are my options for getting the hair off and prepping the hide for cutting strings? I am not really set up yet to try soaking the hide in lime and also not sure it that will even work with a dry hide. Any advice and suggestions will be appreciated.

That is looking good and that large pineapple should add some weight to the hondo. I don't think that a burner using a braid would hold up very long compared to a solid strip of hide. Do you stretch your hondos at all?

This question has been in my mind for a while and thought that I would ask for some advice. I was building a folded hondo similar to the ones shown in the "Folded Hondo" thread. However my problem came when I was braiding down the neck where the rope would go. I did a basic 4 strand braid, U1O1. However when I went to do the turnback and interweave back to the top, the final braid ended up being under 2 over 2 or vice versa. Is there a way to keep the final braid looking like and over 1 under 1 braid? Thanks in advance, LJ

Thanks for sharing your ideas. I made a beveler from a wooden dowel that i cut at an angle. Then I found a metal collar that can be adjusted to the proper width. I look forward to seeing your other creations. I also made a crude but useable splitter from a piece of PVC pipe and bolts and washers. Depending on the thickness of the string, I can add or remove washers. Logan

That looks great and the interweave has some nice contrast. I am amazing that are doing that with horsehair. I started a horsehair tassel the other night and after cursing and yelling at the hair for an hour, I was ready to throw the whole thing away. Sorry i digressed.

Looks great! Bravo

Thanks for the advice for all. I appreciate all the great insights and tips I get from this forum. I will have to try that. Thanks.

After looking at the pictures some more I can see where you were coming from. It was my first beveling attempt and it took more off the hair side than it should have.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that for rawhide the bevel was on the hair side (so looking at a imaginary section of lace, the width of the hair side would be less than the width of the flesh side). One other note, my homemade beveler is not something that I would brag about, so the beveling on the strings were not as consistent as I would like. At least I have a starting point and can work up from here. LJ

Here are several pictures of a couple of my latest little projects. I have just been working on my knot tying skills using rawhide lace that was already cut. The first couple pictures are of a shoo-fly that I made, just cause I always wanted one. I did notice though that the knot slides up and down on the horsehair, so I need to find a solution to that dilemma. The picture below shows the progress with some scarf slides. They go from left to right with corresponding amount of practice. After doing the middle one, I realized the reason for a beveler. So being low on greenbacks, I built a beveler out of a wooden dowel. The one on the right I was also experimenting with dying the strings with coffee grounds. Since this is still in the early learning stages, I would appreciate any comments and constructive criticisms.

Thanks for the tips. I had a practice scarf slide that was similiar, so last night I moistened it up and when to whacking and rolling. The knot seemed to lay more even this morning when I checked it.

First off, thanks everyone for sharing all the great advice and wisdom about braiding. It has helped me out significantly. Now on to my question. I braided this key fob the other night. I was using some rawhide strings that I bought that were not beveled. I need to get a beveler but I thought I would try it anyways. So things looked great when finished. However after drying overnight, the knot ended up not being as smooth as I thought it would be. Is there anything else that I should be doing besides beveling the edges?

Looks real nice for your first bosal. Can't wait to see your next project.

Looks good. How did you attach the hair and leather? I've been thinking about making some tassels after the holidays and was curious how to attach everything.