curlyjo

I am looking for a tool to sharpen large, up to 1", hole punches. Everything so far stops at 5/8th's. Thanks

Raise each end with a piece of tape and that should anchor the end of the multiple string button. Or a ring button out of rawhide on each end. The rawhide will cinch down better than leather. Then wrap a piece of light leather between ring buttons and tape over that. A lot of bosal nose buttons are built like that.

It depends on the type of material you are working with. Heavy Rawhide and leather most surely needs to be split but kangaroo is pretty thin to start with. I don't even split roo if I am braiding 1/2" or 5/8th's bosal bodies. Nosebutton string will split just to even up. You just need to increase the number of strings. 12 strand for 1/2" and 16 strand for 5/8th's. These are finished at between 5 and 5 1/2/32 wide. And I recently purchased a tool that bevels string from the bottom. So if the string isn't perfectly split it doesn't matter. It took awhile to get used to as you can't see the bevel coming off but does a great job. JMO

Knotty Linda in Canada has a huge selection, Packer lace.

Drum stuffed Kangaroo hide cuts and braids easy and is real strong. That's what I use for bosal string, bodies and buttons.

Hardtke in Texas for hides email peter.hardtke@icloud.com Drumstuffed is best

Joe Benner in Or. sells hides. Billy DeMarco in New Mexico. Type in Rawhide for sale on Google and you can get names of places that sell.

Jack Armstrong has some classes coming up in March I believe. He's on FB, always putting little button videos up to help us that lack necessary skills.

I've been using the single sided razor blades with the heavy piece on the back. Just snap that off and use it. And the blades for hand scrapers that Tandy and lots of other outfits sell. Similar to the old injector blades for shaving.

The only reason I was there was I'm off with shoulder surgery and just spent 2 weeks looking at the walls. Needed a road trip and could drive by then. Overnite, back by way of the Hide House in Napa then home. Brad

Brian, Nice entry at Red Bluff. You and Shawn had great silver plus braiding. Brad

Looks good to me. You just need practice so send that one my way and try again while it's still fresh on your mind!

Just double the length of your strings and start braiding in the middle. Say you're going to use 35' per string to braid a 23-24' mecate, make each string 70' and loop in the middle over a nail or whatever in your vice and start braiding. The easiest is to find the middle on all your strings and tie together in a loop to keep straight. Then tie each in a tamale and wrap with a good rubber band. When you get that done, untie the loop and start. Make it good and tight at the start. When done just go back and unloop and put in a nice piece of leather for a popper. You can also do that at the start. The finished end just tie a turkshead. If it's a 12 strand rope, tie a 12 strand knot, then tie an 8 strand so it has a little taper, keeping all your ends out the end. If you've done any button work you could stay with just a 12 strand knot and leave your ends stick out and tie a pineapple knot over the tied knot.

Nice looking.

Nice job Buck.And rc, that's how I feel. You learn by mistakes but if I can help someone just before the error occurs, it can make the difference between losing a hide or a bunch of string and total frustration. I'm no expert but have enough mistakes to qualify as somewhat experienced. And also Buck, I'm trying to get to Red Bluff Thursday evening. I had shoulder surgery yesterday so I don't have a thing to do for awhile. Bryan's going to be there with a dog so maybe we could get together. Hopefully 2 weeks is enough time before a road trip. Email me your phone# and I'll call from the show if you're going to be there. Brad