Aggiebraider

Do you have a picture of this braid? I did a little searching through Google and the forum and found pics, but I couldnt figure out what they were saying made it a trenza patria braid. It looks like roo4u knows what it is because she posted some leashes that she had made in that style Sorry I couldnt help, CW

Yeah I have no idea what badger hair is like but I assume pretty coarse. I would think it could still take folding it in half since horse tail hair can be pretty coarse as well, but I dont know. Just trying to contribute to the collective knowledge lol. CW

What I would do is get the hair twice as long as you want the tassles to be. Then when you put a pineapple knot on the end of the string, do your spanish ring knot, then take the ends of your strings and loop them back through to secure it, but before tightening them down, run the hair through them. Id split it up and do a little hair at each string. Then once you tighten up your pineapple knot it will help keep the hair tight. Hopefully that makes sense. CW

I actually called Peter Hardtke and asked him about white and he said they didnt have any that was of braiding quality. He told me about the other kind but wasnt sure how it would work for braiding. I might get some and give it a shot. I dont need much so I might get some from Springfield Leather since they have some already cut into lace. Thanks, CW

Hey Brian, Nice to see some work again in here, I thought everyone quit braiding lol. Did you use kangaroo for this? Because if so, I need to find somewhere to get white roo (preferably hides). Very nice work, CW

If you are just learning to braid I would say the best way is to step back from the route you are going now and simplify things. I would suggest getting some parachute cord or any other nylon based cord and learning the different braids and knots. Then once you progress and feel comfortable making the jump, start working with leather. Kangaroo has proven to be very nice to work with for myself, and yes it is somewhat expensive, but it works so nice that I will never go back to anything like latigo or cowhide. Rawhide is so temperamental and difficult to learn with, Im afraid youre jumping the gun just a bit. If you have already learned the basics and know how to braid fairly well, why not save the money and time and just buy rawhide already made in hides or even strings? Bill Confer ((866) 660-2830) sells rawhide and from what I have heard his is the best. He also sells precut lace in different widths to meet whatever needs you have. If you have already been braiding for a while and are trying to make the jump to rawhide, disregard what I said, I just hate to see you spend more money and struggle. I know some braiders that do GREAT work and buy all of their lace pre cut....they just feel like their time spent in making lace is worth more by just braiding and buying it premade. Hope this helps, CW

Many of the best saddle, bit, and spur makers in the world have no website, do no advertising, and work solely off word of mouth. I wouldnt let this aspect of this braider deter you in looking at his work for what it is. The ONLY thing I can see is that there is a very slight twist in the crosses on the handle. CW

I believe those are just different shots of the same tools....i went through and tried to count the tools in the box and there are right around 30.....

One word of advice if you are trying to make your own beveler, make sure you use injector razor blades. They are a pain in the butt to find, but are EXTREMELY sharp and thin. You can get them from Weavers for an ok price, but one of the forum members told me about this place http://www.americancuttingedge.com/. They have a huge selection of blades at very good prices (injector blades are just $0.13 a piece). The only problem is that you have to buy at least $100 worth. I havent ordered any from them yet, just because I cant afford to put that much in just blades right now. CW

Ok thats what I thought you meant but I wanted to make sure before I answered. I would suggest ALWAYS beveling your lace, not matter what you are doing or the size of the lace. This is because you are basically asking a flat surface to lay smooth over most times round bases. To achieve this and allow all of the lace to be smooth on the top side, you need to make some room on the bottom side. This can also be achieved by beveling the top side, such as in rawhide, and is done so, because when rawhide dries completely, the sharp 90 degree edges of an unbeveled lace can be EXTREMELY sharp and unattractive. I think you will notice a big difference in your braiding if you can get a smooth consistent bevel that runs from the grain side completely over to the flesh side. Think of a trapezoid shape. I know for myself personally it made a huge difference and probably the biggest difference in making my braiding look better once I learned to properly bevel my lace. Hope this helps, CW

Im confused about the angle youre asking about. Are you wanting to make a skiver or a beveler? As I understand it a skiver should cut straight and parallel to the piece of lace

When I cut circles of kangaroo that are for lace (generally 2-3 ft in diameter) I use a large set of wing dividers. They are cheap ones from Harbor Freight but are pretty sharp so they scribe a nice line. Since the kangaroo is fairly thin, I then use a set of Gingher scissors to cut the circle out (carefully). Im thinking about getting a gasket cutter and trying them out on kangaroo. Hopefully it will speed things up because the scissor approach takes a good piece of time. I think the determining factor is what you are trying to cut and how large a circle it is. Hope this helps, CW

If youre going to put a liner on anyway, why do you need to remove the rubber cement? If there is ALOT of cement, maybe carefully cut it away with a razor blade to smooth things up. I thought you could just rub the rubber cement off with a little friction (may be heat activated as well). If you were able to just peel the plexiglass off, you should be able to remove the remaining cement fairly easily. But these are all suppositions as I have yet to start tooling and havent run into this problem

Hey Kevin I really like the look of this cuff, and the inside is great. What are the pictures printed on? I assume its some type of fabric since paper wouldnt hold up for very long with sweat and what not. I think it would be a great idea for the lining on a purse I was wanting to make for my girlfriend. Thanks for sharing this great piece with us CW

Take this for what its worth, I am no saddle maker, but..... The lace up stirrups may have been used since the saddle was only sold in Florida, and they wanted to avoid using Blevins buckles that may rust out at an inopportune time. As far as the latigo being attached behind the ring, I cant think of a function other than to reduce the amount of bulk that you have in one spot. I dont think this hurts anything and really is no difference except for aesthetically. Nice looking saddle though, the leather is surprisingly in good shape.

That seems pretty easy, I will have to give that a try. Not sure what I will do about the mixer though i really dont want to use my Kitchenaid stand mixer for this, but it might not be bad since its just soap and lard. Thanks for posting this, CW

The thing I have noticed about using saddle soap is that you need to use the white version rather than the yellow, not really sure why, I saw an explanation somewhere and cant remember what it said was the reason. Also, you need to get a good amount of water into the soap and a pretty good lather to get it to really penetrate. I kind of like the tackyness that you sometimes get on your hands, it makes it easier to pull tighter. Not sure what the creaking noise is, I havent seen that in anything I have made. Bullwhips, I wasnt able to find anywhere online to get that Dubbin, there arent any dealers within 1000 miles of me either. Thanks for the info, CW

Thanks for the help everyone, What do yall use for grease? Lately I have been using white feibings saddle soap liberally when I plait, but was curious when I saw a guy on youtube braiding a whip and was using grease that was much darker in color and more towards what I would actually call grease. H grabbed a huge glob in his hand and worked it into the lace. I have some stuff at home that I think is called Black Rock Rawhide cream, which looks alot more like grease consistency wise, but it was expensive and I didnt get very much (probably close to what would fit in a jam jar). I would like to find something I can get in large (5gal) quantities. Thanks, CW

When you guys are stretching the lace, how hard to you pull? The lace I have cut so far has been so tough that I dont think I could break it if I tried unless there was a weak spot.

Thanks for the advice guys. When I cut my lace, the injector blades are so sharp that I hardly get any stretch in the cut, bevel, or even split stage, so I think I am going to try Bevan's idea. The only problem is the fact that I dont have any fence posts at my house since I live in town lol. I will probably just use the legs of my workbench once I get it finished.

Hey guys, So I understand the need for stretching rawhide, but recently there were a few posts that I saw on here referring to stretching lace before you cut it to final thickness. It was kind of a duh moment for me, because I hadnt thought about doing this, but after making a few bracelets and hatbands, I did see a good amount of shrinkage due to stretching on my buttons. I didnt really notice it in my braiding though. So my question is, does anyone have any advice on how to get the stretch out of the lace before you start braiding? Also, is it necessary to do so on lace that is for plaiting, or just lace that is destined for buttons, or both? I hope everyone is doing well, havent heard from any of the Braiding section frequents for a while. If anyone has any new projects theyve been working on I would love to see them. Have a good one, CW

You might get more hits to this post if you posted it in the wanted section rather than the for sale. Sorry I dont have a lead on one for sale. never mind you did post there lol I see some on ebay every once in a while but they arent cheap

I just found this on eBay...should suit your needs well and is fairly priced for what shape its in. http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Leather-Cutting-Tool-Osborne-Skiver-/260651378165?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0#ht_500wt_1154

I would be really interested in going to something like this. Even though we have the Saddlers Roundup in Wichita Falls, there doesnt seem to be any classes or instruction available (this will be the first year I well go). I would suggest trying to get a meeting like this at a different time of the year such as spring. I would be interested in just about anything Sheridan or leathercraft related similar to how the classes at Sheridan are set up. I would also suggest maybe getting some of the members of TCAA to come in and give a class or two since so many of them are from Texas.