Aggiebraider

The easiest way to finish this braid without making a more difficult pineapple knot would be to make a terminal turk's head knot. If you have any braiding books at all such as any of the Bruce Grant books, you should be able to find a terminal turks head. If you cant find the instructions, let me know and I can try and explain it to you. Hope this helps, CW

You shouldnt damage too much by lifting up the strands, but sometimes without needles, trying to push the strands through where they need to go is like trying to thread a wet noodle through a key hole. Like my Grandad always told us, You have to pull rope, you cant push it. Hemostats can also help greatly with this as long as they are small thin ones that arent sprung and are still straight. CW

I bought some lace from Bill Confer when I went to Witchita Falls and I am really happy with it. Its really consistent and a great color. You will have to bevel it because it doesnt come prebeveled, so I would buy lace a little larger than the final width you want then bevel it down. You can buy a beveler a lot cheaper than you can buy a lace cutter. There are a few different options for one, and Bevan (member here on the forums) makes one that is supposed to work really well (I just havent seen one used). CW

Great job on them! I keep wanting to use up some of my roo scraps and make a few slides, just havent gotten around to it. What are the dimensions on these? CW

Well since so many other fellow Texans posted, I thought I might as well too lol. Welcome from College Station

Did you try Googling "skull with cowboy hat"? I just did and had quite a few images come up. Not sure what style you are looking for but I would start there

Try Hansen Silver, not sure if they have pink but I do remember seeing some buckle sets with crystals

I agree with all of the above statements and have just one to add. I would not use Pineapple knots for the adjustment knots. They typically dont slide as easy as a Spanish Ring Knot, and almost seem to try and roll over when you try and slide them around. Also, Try cutting the ends of your braided pieces shorter so that they dont show out the bottom of your pineapple knots. CW

Without being able to zoom in and actually see the braiding, I would guess Mr. Wald made his core, laid down the foundation for both the side buttons and the nose button, then braided over top. Not sure how the execution of this would work, but I assumed he use a boning tool and smoothed things out as he braided up to and over and of the foundations. The rises and falls of the buttons would be tricky otherwise. I have never seen this style done before, and for using gear it would work great since your bottons wouldnt be made from extra strands, and would be impossible for them to work themselves loose since the ends are down in the heel knot. Interesting find! CW

Have you tried just adding more interweaves to the middle of the knot? I would try there first if you are getting the 6 bight to hold well at the top

Maybe he likes to have a holster for every gun. If he is willing to keep spending his money, I would keep taking it lol

Harbor Freight has some nice boxes that you can actually lock, so the nosy child cant get inside and cut their hand off. http://www.harborfreight.com/17-3-4-quarter-inch-x-12-3-4-quarter-inch-x-5-3-4-quarter-inch-aluminum-case-35777.html Apparently they are on sale too $25 is a pretty good price. If the link doesnt work, search on their website for tool box and at the bottom, there are two different sizes of Aluminum Cases. These have lots of sections that you can actually change the size of, and lots of slots for tools, pencils, etc. Hopefully this is what you are looking for, CW

Not knowing much about Dressage or other English style riding, this can be achieved without the use of a different set of reins or a gimmick. If you can get her collected atleast enough to where she will flex at the poll, just use your legs more and drive her back end forward. This will cause her to bring her back legs under herself more and will cause her to round her back. This is done (or should be done) with every horse, no matter the discipline, and it is achieved in Western horses without a special set of reins. Just something to think about. CW

I second the Gail Hought books, but unless you want to make horse tack such as bosals and romal reins, the other books arent necessary after the Basics book. I bought Woolery's book last month when I was at the Congress and read it on the plane and in the airport. Its a really good read even for experienced braiders as its full of different ways to do things. I started like most people did with getting the Grant books, and I completely agree they are quite confusing for the beginning braider. Some pics are backwards as apparently Grant was left handed, and there are some steps missing. There are a few good videos on youtube, namely from a guy named bernie (i think) that are mainly geared at making whips, but he is a great teacher and covers quite a few of the braid patterns. Ron Edwards book is also very good, so either his or Gail's book, you cant go wrong. Welcome to the obsession lol CW

One thing I just thought of, I tried working off the door knob when I started (basically works the same as a hook) and didnt like it because things moved around too much as I braided. I know alot of people use a hook, but I made a braiding stand from some square metal tubing with 2 flat bar stock pieces on the top. One is welded to the tubing, one is loose. I then welded 2 bolts to the attached bar stock and ran them vertically. The loose piece of stock has 2 holes drilled in it so it fits down over the bolts and I can tighten it down onto what I am braiding with wing nuts. I like using a clamp like this alot more because it keeps everything situated where it is and secure. You could also go the easy route and get a small vice or clamp and work off a table. Another thing you might try is to braid a bit and then move what you have braided up, braid some more, move it up. When youre using a clamp, you can do this. That way, you arent just walking backwards away from the parts you have already braided and will eventually get to a point where you have 4 or 5 feet between you and the hook. You could even use a stitching horse for your clamp if you have one. Sorry I know this is probably as clear as mud. Hope this helps, CW

When you say 4 seam, I assume you mean something along the lines of doing an 16 strand O2U2O2U2 braid. The first thing I was going to suggest was that you were pulling too hard on one side, but it seems you already thought of that. The only other thing I can think of would be how your belly looks. If your belly has somewhat of a twist to it, the overlay will amplify that. I have seen this in some of the cores I used. I have tried making my own cores for things like dog leashes and romal reins by taking a piece of thick leather, beveling the edges of it and tried to make it as round as possible. There was a light twist to it and it caused the braid to end up twisted over top of it. You may also be starting the twist when you actually set up the strands to start braiding and as you braid, because of the geometry of the actual work, the braid continues and is impossible to work back straight. Sorry I dont have any definitive advice for how to fix this, hopefully someone with a little more experience will chime in. CW

Lol, I am actually thinking about making a mecate all in kangaroo for a show piece or if a rich peanut roller comes along and wants it for their 2 year old. I made a few sets of split reins out of paracord when I started braiding, and I think most flat braids are going to give you alot of stretch. Atleast mine did and I pull really tight.

No I didnt, but I did stretch the reins after I braided it to try and pull the plaits in a little better. With as much paracord as there is in this set of reins I dont think it should be an issue. I really dont think you can eliminate the stretch from paracord, and if you are noticing stretch while you are using them, you are probably pulling on your horse too hard lol. You might try putting the paracord in a pot of hot water and shrink it. You wont actually shrink the cover, but the core will shrink about 10%. I used to notice when I dyed my own cord, it was alot stiffer and would pull alot tighter after it was in the hot water. Hope this helps, CW

Thanks guys I really appreciate the compliments CW

I actually plaited 4 strands around 1 core strand for the core of the body and I left the inside core in each strand. So really, I plaited these reins twice. I wont use this method again, it just takes too long. The eye is spliced back on itself, similar to how you would do it on a pair of romal reins. CW

Howdy everyone, Here are some pics of a mecate I finished tonight for MarkB. They are 12 plait, and just a hair over 1/2". Mark made the popper himself. I tried to attach a horsehair tassle to the pineapple knot, but couldnt get it to work right and had already cut the strands off flush or I would have run them out through the knot to make a tassle. Let me know what you think and I am open to critiques as always. Have a good one, CW

If you are looking for a good quality boot that you can ride in everyday, and will still stand up to normal walking and wear and tear, you cant beat Anderson Beans (http://www.andersonbeanboots.com/). They are made by the same company that makes Rios of Mercedes, and a few other brands, and are the best "production" boot on the market in my opinion. I say "production", because they are made in large quantities, but are still made by hand. They can be customized anyway you want, as long as you are willing to pay lol. I personally have 3 pairs of Anderson Beans, and two pairs of Rios of Mercedes, and I wont even consider buying another brand other than these two. The Rios will be a little more expensive, but some Beans will run you between $200-600 (US), depending on the leather, tops, stitching, etc. AB also has a lot of different sole options (leather, crepe, hybrid (leather with rubber midsole), oxbow (compressed crepe and rides like leather), and a few others). They have what they call their production line, and these will be boots that any AB dealer can order, and many will carry during the year. They also have a lot of different styles that one dealer may carry, but another wouldnt, because the dealers are able to call and design boots that they want to sell. I have never had any issues with me ABs or Rios, and have had the soles and heels changed many times, and they still fit like the day I bought them. My absolute favorite pair of ABs are my chocolate elephants. They did stretch more than I anticipated, and I bought the half size bigger than I normally wear thinking they wouldnt stretch very much at all, but they still fit fine and are great to ride in. I have the same thoughts on boot quality that Dennis has, I would much rather spend more money now and have them last me 10+ years, rather than pay for 10 pairs throughout that span, because they only last 1 year each. As far as getting ABs or Rios in NZ, I would call the company directly and see if there are any distributors or dealers down there, or see how much it would be for you to just buy a production model if you find one you like. Im sure that a western store such as Cavenders (www.cavenders.com) would be willing to ship a pair that far, but it might be kinda pricey. Hope this helps, CW

Let us know how the deer hides work as rawhide. I have often wondered why no one talks about it as a possible source of rawhide for plaiting.

Hi Bob, I think this is a good start in the direction of saddle fit research, but I think there are a few areas that might give you trouble. First off, how do you justify fit? Will you use pressure reading pads, or just have an expert say this fits or this doesnt fit? Secondly, when you introduce so many horse or subject related variables, you invariably have to increase the number of horses that you use in order to find statistical significance. For those that are inexperienced in research statistics, statistical significance is basically showing the tester's ability to say that a treatment (whats being changed in the experiment) caused an effect. This is reported as a P value, and typically if P is less than 0.05 it is significant. There are many different ways to test significance and the proper way is really dictated by how the project was set up (repeated measures vs no repeated measures). If a measurement is not significant, then you cannot say that it actually caused an effect. So, what does this mean? If you take one tree and measure how it fits to the horse, then change bar length or any other variable that you feel contributes to saddle fit, and see that by changing this variable, you see no difference in bar length, that measurement will not be statistically significant. So in order to test all of the variables you have listed, you would need multiple trees that are the same in every way, but change bar angle, then you would need trees that had all the same attributes, and change the bar shape, so on and so forth, until you have tested all the variables by themselves. You wouldnt want to have two trees with different bar lengths and different bar angles, because you wouldnt be able to say whether it was the bar angle or the bar length or a combination of the two that caused a difference in saddle fit. You would also need to test each tree with individual differences in "Tree variables" and test them against each difference in horse type (postparturition mares, fit and unfit, young and old, etc). You would also need as I said multiple horses that fit into each category to eliminate and individual error associated with the confirmation of that individual horse and give you a representation of the whole population. The variables associated with horse can be somewhat difficult to measure as well and therefore categorize them into the correct group. For example, what constitutes a fit horse? I know that many of us could look at a horse and say hes in good shape, or hes way out of shape, but those are not scientific measurements that quantify their fitness. One way to get around this is to use horses that are in different body condition scores, since the body condition scoring system is a valid scientific method of assessing their body composition. There are many other things that can contribute to making this area of research very frustrating and complex, but my last consideration for you is who will do this research? If you can get one person or a group of people to do each and every test, great. If not, you will have significant error associated with different individuals doing different parts of the project, maybe even in different states. Why is this a problem? Without an accepted, standardized way of measuring any of the things you are interested in, two different individuals may measure something differently or say that saddle fits, that one doesnt. I dont want you to feel like I am saying this is impossible or even a waste of time. By doing the research correctly, I feel that you would be able to definitively say what goes into saddle fit. If you are interested at all in me helping in any way I can, I would be more than happy to because I feel that this is an area of saddlemaking that could use some standardization and actually reliable information and knowledge. Hope this helps, CW

Dang I was really hoping you had found an actual supplier