Aggiebraider

you might just play with the spacing a bit but I think half the length of the chisel makes things work out fairly well

I think that some of the spaces are too close together. The holes are also too long, but they may be that way because the leather is so thick. Try making the length of the holes the same as the width of the piece of leather. For some reason that works out the best that I have found. You can also use a wood chisel to cut the holes, which helps to keep the holes the exact same size and nice and straight. Hope that helps, CW

Yeah it sure stiffens it up. Not sure what the concentrations of each are, but if by white gas you mean Kerosene, then yeah thats what I have heard works. Apparently it works really well to make any hides bevel better. I havent personally used this mostly because I dont want a bunch of kerosene lying around, and Im not sure how long it stays in the leather before it evaporates. I dont think it would be a long time, but I wouldnt want to put something into my tack room that was flammable lol. I would give it a try on a small section first or a piece of scrap. CW

Dont worry so much about holding the plaits or braids tight just worry about pulling the working strand tight before you braid it into the others. Huge turning point in my braiding and kind of an aha moment lol

Trying to cover a flat piece with a round braid can be really difficult so just play with it until you get good coverage. Increase strand size or number of strands. Type of braid (o2 u2 o2 vs o3 u3) can make a big difference as well

Ok, I think the reason the top or start of the braid looks different to you than the bottom or the working end is because it is different. If you turn the piece a quarter turn, you can get it to then look like the bottom. If you notice, as you braid down the Vs are actual Vs, if you turn it upside down, the turn into /\s. This is why, if you start a braid in the middle and braid in both directions, you have to turn it a quarter turn to get them to be Vs again. This is what you can do on say a bosal body if you start it in the middle. It takes some practice to understand it without seeing a diagram, but with what you are doing I wouldnt worry about it. You should do as entiendo says and just cover the transition with a knot. Then it doesnt matter what it looks like because it will be covered. Hope that helps, CW

Just an FYI. You have to go through a TON of work to get licensed by universities in order to use their name/logo/mascot etc. I have a lot of people that want TAMU stuff, but im not licensed to use the logo and if i did, I could get sued by the school. Looks great though nice job on the halter

Try Gail Hought's books, they helped me a lot

And SOLD! Felt pretty good to have someone not try to haggle too much and just cut me a check for them lol.....was getting kind of tired of hauling them around and trying to sell them lol

I have seen other people make these crosses and tie the corners together with just Spanish Ring knots. I know you were wanting to tie this one in particular, but it might be easier to just do ring knots. CW

I think there may be some confusion here on the topic of softening vs casing. The softening process that Enrique told us about actually changes the fibers of the rawhide to soften it almost to something similar to chap leather. It isnt quite as soft as chap, but more like it than rawhide. Since you are changing the fiber matrix, there is no way (in my knowledge) to get it back to what we know of as rawhide. Russell, I think what you are thinking of is called casing. This is the process of adding moisture to rawhide in order to make it more pliable and easier to cut/braid. Yes, you will need to case the rawhide in order to cut it smaller, split it, bevel, and braid it. The degree to which you case a piece will depend on what you are doing with it. There are many different techniques for casing, just find what ever works for you. The softened rawhide is used a lot in Argentina for things like knife sheaths, belts, and other strap goods. Hope that helps, CW

I usually just use olive oil. If it is harness leather I like to use a harness oil that weavers sells, but I cant remember what they call it. You basically just dip the piece in the oil for a couple seconds, pull it out, wipe the excess off, put it in a plastic bag and set it in the sun for a couple days. The piece will be broke in like youve been using it for 10 years. Works great on split reins. CW

Yes and no...no you wont use any dye or edge kote to dye the edges, but you can use gum tragacanth to smooth it up a bunch and help with burnishing. Then, just oil the whole piece real well. Hope thats what you were looking for, CW

Thanks for the compliments everyone, I really appreciate it. Mike, lol yeah I didnt make these for rein chains but the next pair will be. CW

Thanks so much for the compliments it means a lot. Mike, I completely agree. These have been hanging over my head for a while Thanks again, CW

Some more pics And another....wish I could post more in one post lol

As stated in the title, I finally finished my first set of romal reins. I learned a lot and think they turned out ok. They are 8 plait 48" reins with 12 plait romal. Thanks for taking the time, CW

While I dont have any experience braiding veg tan goat, I have cut some goat rawhide and it wouldnt work well for whips. It is entirely too thin and stretches a lot, so it doesnt really work well for actual braiding but it does work for buttons. If you are careful in how you cut your lace, you can get a couple hundred feet out of one kangaroo hide. So, depending on how many bellies and bolsters you do, you should be able to make a bull whip from 2-3 kangaroo hides. Personally, if you are going to go through the steps to make a good leather whip, why not use the best materials. Clients will appreciate the better quality, and you will make much better whips. Now, take all of this advice with a grain of salt, because like I said I have never worked with veg tan goat specifically, and I have yet to make a whip but I plan to. Hope that helps, CW

Do you have any pictures of the items? People are a lot more likely to show interest if they can see what you have if you dont really know what it is as far as giving us details. Also, where are you located? A lot of times sewing machine sales can live or die by how far something has to be shipped. I would be interested in the Adler if its for the right price and it isnt too far. Thanks, CW

You could just pass it through the loop and half hitch it if you didnt want to put a button on the other side. That way if the strip stretches, you can always tie it tighter. You could just take a straight piece and cut a slit in it for the loop. Sorry I dont have a pic, but its the same way I do the hangers for bosals. That way they tie similar to a rope halter and can always be adjusted. Hope that helps, CW

Just give him a call....hes really helpful and wont feel like you are wasting his time. You can even email him and he will forward you his whole price list. It covers everything from unborn calf all the way up to full size bull hides. CW

I would not tape the core, you want them to be able to breathe to work correctly. The tape will also eventually degrade to the point that it will lose its shape or the glue will seep out through the rawhide. This is why I dont like to use any tape in my knot foundations as well. The tape also seems to creep out when used as a knot foundation and you will see parts of the tape come out above and below the actual knot. I wouldnt worry about the humidity over time because if you use it and its sweaty or wet, make sure you wipe it off, take the mecate off, and take it in the house to dry out. You might even want to just plan on keeping them in the house all the time if you dont have a dehumidifyer or an air conditioner in the tack room. Hope that helps, CW

The easiest and best way in my opinion is to use a strip of leather and wrap around the body of the piece. I will determine to width of the strip based on the size of the button then skive the ends so they can overlap smoothly. I will take a test strip and wrap it around how ever many times I want and then cut it and cut all of the strips the same size. I use contact cement to glue it all down as I wrap it around I will add some to the inside. Then when its dry, you can either shape it with a knife or shape it on a belt sander which is what I do. If you add successively smaller width strips and wrap them centered on what you already did, you can make the foundations really round. This is how I also do scarf slides. Its a really good way to use up scrap kangaroo since its much easier to wrap around something tight. Hope that makes sense, CW

Just convince them to give you money or a plane ticket for the trip for christmas. I did that last year and seemed like every family member wanted to pony up at least a little cash once they found out I was going lol.

I think the reason the ends wont match is that you are tying one end in the normal fashion (whatever normal is for you either away from you or towards you), and the other end is backwards. This means that you will go under 3 one at one end and just under 2 at the other end because eventually you will bring the other ends around and finish at the top. This is really confusing in writing and much easier to see in person. Or I may be confused my self lol. It may be easier for you to tie this knot if you make it longer so that you can see how the wraps lay out as you go both directions. This can be a really confusing way of tying the nosebutton, but it is really easy when you get it down and understand it. It might also be easier if you do more bights to spread things out a bit. CW