Aggiebraider

If its the person Im thinking you mean....used to own a line of gear and then sold out and has recently started up again, then he owns his own shop. While I dont think he makes much himself anymore, he employs quite a few people to do his bit and silver work as well as his braiding and leatherwork......I think he sells to vendors as I used to see his original line in lots of different retail stores, so he might let you be a vendor. Hope that helps, CW

A pair of cantle pliers works really well for flattening out braids, but they arent cheap. I especially like using them to even smooth up areas on pieces with a core that I cant get my rein rounder onto or roll with a board. As far as your original question, I think its a Trenza Patria. There has been a lot of discussion about this braid type lately, just look down a little further in the Braiding section and you should find it pretty easily. CW

Ubraidit.com has probably the best selection of paracord and understand what braiders want as far as core material, colors, etc. The roo and other leather lace that most places sell thats precut isnt worth much, but springfield leather has some good stuff from what I have heard. If you are just starting out and arent worried about quality that much, you could just get some precut roo at Tandy, but if you want nice pieces early, dont go there. Most of us cut all of our own lace from hides. I wouldnt start there as there is a big learning curve for it and its a pretty serious investment since most quality lace cutters run $200+. If you wanted some good quality lace, you might be able to sweet talk one of us with a cutter into selling you some. Welcome to the forum and feel fortunate that you found it when you were starting since I braided for 6 years before I found LW lol. I taught myself with NO HELP OR ADVICE and if you cant tell, it was really frustrating at times. Good luck! CW

So, I myself have a sheath like this that I bought (I know its sacrilegious for a braider to actually buy a braided piece) but I liked it and couldnt figure out how to do it so I got one. It is a 6 strand gaucho button (not sure # of bights or parts as this will change depending on the size of the knife). The only thing I dont like about the gaucho is that since the parts go horizontally rather than vertically like in a herringbone, there is a springy action to the sheath. Now that does make it nice when you go to take it out, you can push up on the bottom of the sheath and it forces the knife up a little to make for easier retrieval, but it doesnt look very nice. I tried to make one a year or so ago and it didnt turn out well lol. At the time i didnt know how to make a multi string button and tried it with one strand and due to the strange shape of the knife it was really difficult and i stopped after about an hour lol. If I were going to make one, I would cover your knife in serran wrap or something else to protect it and give you a little extra space so its not a completely tight fit. Then I would do an 8 strand multi string button directly over the knife. This is really difficult because you dont really have a way to actually hold the knife securely while still giving you room to braid over it. Well at least I dont have a way. Then once your foundation is down, just fill in the gaps with interweaves. The real trick comes into making the belt loop. You need to have something secure that isnt going to stretch and wont come out. I dont think splicing one in would be very effective unless maybe you super glued the pieces in once they were spliced, but i wouldnt do that. I would probably make a strap, put a PK knot at each end and then attach a ring knot at the top and bottom of the strap around both the strap and the sheath. I havent seen one done that way, but not saying it hasnt been done already. You could also tie the knot on something else like a dowel and then tighten it on the knife to get the necessary shape and form, but sizing it correctly when its loose on a dowel can be really difficult and its hard to make a knot cover a larger area once its already tied. I commend you for finding a project to start on, but I can tell you from past experiences, these are really difficult to make (which is why not even many braiders make them), and to start to learn how to braid on something like this will most likely just frustrate you. Not to discourage you one bit, take that as more of a warning. As you will see if you still decide to try your hand at braiding, it can be extremely frustrating to learn, but will be very rewarding once you feel you have a handle on it. Hope this helps, CW

Typically they are cut from a straight strip then bent around and folded over the headstall and sewn together. If the strip is kinda thick, it may seem like it wants to twist a little as you are bending a straight piece of leather in a circle, but thats how most of them are and it will work just fine. If you have a rein rounder, you can round the part that goes around the ear and leave the pieces that make the loops that the headstall slides through flat so you can sew them together. I know this is clear as mud, but if you need further clarification, let me know. Hope this helps, CW

Looks much better! I hate to keep being so critical, but I feel like there is just one small other change I would make and your knots could look even better. There are a couple places where even though you went O2 U2, because things were a little tight, it looks like you went O1 U1. I think the problem is that the foundation of the long knots may not be quite long enough for the number of parts and the width of the string. It is really hard to get it just right, and I still struggle with it. You can go to Wal Mart or a hardware store and buy every size of dowel rod that you think you would ever use for a piece, and tape on foundations of various sizes and shapes, and experiment with different width strings. That way you can get a standard and if you are making a specific size rein and want to use a specific width, you will know what works from the practice. I dont think I would redo these, because they look fine and no one will notice it except other braiders, but we are our toughest critics. I really think that you might be off by just a VERY small amount, so you might even be able to make the adjustment on the remaining knots and you wont notice the difference. One thing you can also do is tape a foundation for a nose button on a dowel and practice nosebuttons for bosals. Then you can experiment with different string sizes and different interweaves and what not. Seems like its always so much harder to cut a knot off that youve finished because it didnt turn out right lol. Hope that helps and again it looks MUCH better, CW

I think so.....it looks good even if its wrong lol

Hey Annette, What size is your lace? From the pic it looks bigger than 1/8", and for those knots thats too big. I dont think you should change the size of the knots or the number of bights or anything, but if you cut your lace narrower, it will fit together better and you wont get any overlap. Hope that helps, CW

Yes, the first time I tried one, it didnt come out....the pineapple knot wouldnt close up tight enough around the hair to even be functional let alone look ok. Someone did tell me to wash and condition the hair before I try to do it and it will lay nicer. But, a tutorial on how you do it with pics would be great!

Thanks for the posts guys, I understood the main process, but didnt even think about splitting it before I got so gung ho about twisting it so there are some thicker places. I also cut it off a round and not in straight strips off the back, I will definitely try it that way next time. Bevan, I have been wanting to make one of those since you first posted it, but I cant figure out what the pieces are that I need to buy. I obviously know the tubing and various other types of steel, but what are the parts that rotate? I really want to get one of these to be able to twist multiple strands easier in order to make bigger cores. I was also using string that was WAY too long, because I thought i would lose more with each twist than what I did, so I have some i could cut and make 3 cores out of one lol. I guess I only have 1 more question regarding cores, typically how stiff are they once they are dry? Can they stand up in a corner or are they at least a little pliable? Thanks for the help, CW

Thanks for posting that Brian, it reaffirmed what I thought about last night in that if you have 7 on one side and 5 strands on the other then go O2 U2 on the 7 strand side and U2O2 on the 5 strand side, thats the trenza patria.......If you dont do the twist in the center in the tutorial, it wont have the crocodile ridge. It can be done with any even number of strands if you do the uneven splitting in your hands and alternate the braide O2U2 and U2 O2 on the correct sides. The only problem is that this doesnt have a finished side on both sides of the braid.....You will end up with the grain side on one side and the flesh side on the other. If you want grain side on both top and bottom you would have to do a round braid without the core and pound it flat.....Or you can do 2 8 strand braids and lace them together in the center and it will look like 16 strand on the top, but you will see the 2 pieces of 8 strand if you look at the bottom. Ive been wanting to do a split ear headstall that way, just havent had the rawhide to do it. Hope that helps, and thanks again Brian, CW

I was wanting to do the same thing to my saddle, but Im pretty sure Im going to have to replace the stirrup leathers, because they are thick to begin with and have a reinforced area stitched over the holes, so it is pretty difficult to get the twist in there. Thanks for the explanation on flipping them Shelly. CW

Looks great! I really think you should do a picture tutorial on how you do your tassles. They always look great, and I cant figure them out lol. Thanks for posting

Howdy Everyone, I had some trouble last week cutting some old rawhide I had into thick strings for bosal cores. I think my problem was that the hide was too thick, but I dont have my big splitter set up yet to thin the heavy stuff down any. I was wondering if anyone could give me the dimensions of the strings they use for both twisted and braided bosal cores. At first I tried using my draw knife and found out that they really arent designed for cutting wide (anything larger than 1/2 ") off a round. I just couldnt get it to maintain the width, even though it has a guide lol so it may be user error. I was thinking about trying to make a cutter that would hold a straight razor, but havent gotten around to it. So, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Have a good one, CW

Lol thats all I could remember too was that there was an uneven amount of strings in each hand. Want2braid wrote it down I believe so hopefully he can answer. If not we might have to call Nate lol

Thanks, I just used an old nylon team rope, but you could use anything you wanted to get the stiffness where you want CW

Howdy all, Here are some pics of a new paracord bosal I made. Im pretty happy with how it turned out since this was the first time I used a multistring nosebutton. Many thanks to want2braid for the help with this. I think the nosebutton should have been made with a few less parts, because its kinda crowded. And, I still need to work on getting that darn knot straighter. Any other criticisms are greatly appreciated. Oh and the mecate is one I made a few years back its 8 strand round with 2 strands for a core Have a good one, CW

Howdy Everyone, Its been a while since I posted much, hope everyone is well. I decided I want to try and make a quirt, but realized I havent seen the typical dimensions written any where, so I thought I would check here. If anyone can chime in with normal diameters, lengths, etc. I would really appreciate it. Also, what do you normally use for a core? I was thinking about using a twisted rawhide core, but havent been real happy with how they have been turning out for me lately. Im having a LOT of trouble getting my larger width rawhide strings cut consistently, so any advice on that outside of eyeballing it would be appreciated as well. I have tried using my normal lace cutter and a draw gauge, and neither seem to work real well. Thanks for the help, CW

Try turning the L shaped piece over and groove with the pointed tip down. I had this same problem then turned it over and it worked ok. Not as well as the good groovers like a Versa Groover, but better than it did before. Hope this helps

Nice job on this for sure! For those of you that dont know, a rope can is what cowboys use to carry their ropes that they want to keep out of the weather when they arent in use. Typically they are used by calf ropers as their ropes are a little more affected by weather changes than say a team rope. Below is a link to Smith Brothers who have sold the best rope cans for a long time (not affiliated with Smith Brothers). http://www.smithbrothers.com/the-original-sierra-rope-can-medium/p/X3-11646/cn/11/

Not sure what you are looking to spend, but you could have someone braid you a necklace out of something like kangaroo. Let me know if you are interested and we can discuss this further

Hey Alan, A friend of mine from down here said he would love to attend as long as it didnt conflict with a football weekend (he works for TAMU and must attend all home games). So, put him down to tentatively attend and once you get the dates lined out he will know for sure. Thanks, CW

Yeah I will probably go since its so close. I went to the one in Ca in Feb and learned a ton. There are a couple of other people that will probably go that were at the workshop in Ca that are from Texas and OK, so I will pass on the info to them as well. This is a really good opportunity for all levels of braiders because we all kind of just help each other and Nate irons out the big stuff that we were having trouble with. Hes a great guy to learn from and is a very good teacher. CW

Hey Grady, What you could do is use multiple strings and plait it on like a nose button for a bosal. That way, you dont have the ends of your strings at either end of your braid. By using a multiple string nose button technique, you would be able to bury the ends in the middle of the braided section, while still having bights on either end that will help keep everything from coming undone. I would even go so far as to build a foundation if he doesnt want it smoothly transitioned like Brian suggested. That way your bights have something to hold onto on the shoulders of the foundation. If you want to get together I can show you how to tie it once you know which way he wants it done. Hope this helps, CW

Looks great! How much do you get for the frame by itself?