curlyjo

Mike, that was written by a Surprise Valley Resident that knew Lige a long time. But Lige did teach my wife a thing or two about sourdough cooking. He shared his starter and later gave us his recipe for the starter. Bisquits everyday.(can't do that anymore) Maybe try to get down to Santa Ynez on Sunday. Brad

I mentioned this not to long ago and hope you get a chance to see it. I worked for him in 1974 and used to come to visit him after I moved to Oregon. There is also a book about him called Sweet Iron that is full of stories he told my wife and I at 2 cowcamps we shared in Nev. at the Bare Ranch. I look the video over once in a while just to hear his voice and remember the stories. Brad

Just regular contact cement. And sometimes as I'm winding the leather around I'll put a dab to help hold in place, especially towards the end as it helps hold in place while you finish, trim and glue all at the same time. Brad

First thing is I put the foundation to a ring button on each side to hold the nose button in place. Then point the leather strip at an angle and glue the start down. Tie a little piece of string to hold your glued end down. Then wrap the leather all the way to the other end and taper that end and glue and tie down again. I've also used nylon string to firm it up. Don't use jute string unless you cover with tape. All the stringy ends start showing up through the finished knot. Hope this helps. Brad

I,ve been using a hot glue gun to even up heel knots and then shaving with a SHARP knife to make it even before putting on the heel knot. For under nose buttons I cut and split a long piece of leather and bevel the edges and wrap to increase the size. But thats only if needed. It,s generally about less than a 1/2" wide and makes the nose button a little more defined. Under small buttons just tuck a small string under the braid 2 or 3 times and it won't go anywhere. I hope this makes sense. Brad

I've added this before. Take a bucket or plastic container, put a screen about 6 inches from the bottom, soak large string for an hour or small string for just a little time and place in container with about an inch of water in bottom. Cover with plastic in a warm spot. The rawhide will pull moisture up and be evenly tempered. I made some string for hondas yesterday, put them in last night, and braided 2 this evening. Just had to swab a little soapy water to bring everything up to snuff. The container generates its own heat from the plastic so be careful. With button string I just dunk it in water and put it in the container. Brad

Beautiful piece of work, Brad

Mike, no but someday hope to attend. Worked east of there and north of there years ago and have a cousin outside of Alturas. Brad

Thanks megabit for posting that link. My computer skills aren't high enough to do that sort of thing. Probably need to use more than 2 fingers on the keyboard. Brad

I was fortunate to be neighbors with Bill Dorrance and really got to know him in early High School as I was the same age as his twin boys. My cousin and I would either ride up horseback or drive up through the hills and learn the old style buckaroo ways of handling cattle and learn to make rawhide and buttons and lots of other stuff. We used to scrape hides until we thought we would cry but thats what it took to learn. Then I headed to Nv. and Oregon and when I'd get a little vacation time I'd come home to show off the daugther and head up to Bill's to make string and braid. I also worked with Lige Langston at the Bare Ranch in Surprise Valley, Ca. and Nv. He got me started on Hondas and using them on nylon ropes. There is a good movie on Lige made in the 80's. Just look up his name on Google and it's there somewhere. He also told me of stretching wide green hide out and shaving the hair with broken glass after it dried. I quit Braiding for a while and then started up about 12 years ago building Hondas and 2 years ago relearning Bosals. I'm using more Roo now as it is just nice to work with and you can put it down and take off again any time you want. Sorry if I rambled on and good luck to all you new braiders out there. Brad

Concentrate on what you are really interested in and things you will use for your own and family. From there you might figure out a need and build one item or many different items. I started out with Hondas and moved into Bosals just to remember all I learned years ago. The Hondas I have a source to sell but still working on the Bosals and am switching towards all Roo as its a little more concistant than rawhide. But rawhide is still working with Roo buttons. I hope this helps, Brad. PS My wife told me to build more small keychains and I think that might be a project to keep busy.

leathercordusa.com sells round leather belting suitable for cores or whatever. You need to determine the core size to the size of strings used. Brad

Rawhide is stiff but using kidney fat or other grease options softens the reins or riatas or everything else. Years ago the crew I worked with would use white Vaseline to grease rawhide. It worked good and slowed the dogs from chewing on the good stuff. Brad

If you can pick a hide from a cow that died of a combination of age and starvation without to many brands. Holstiens from a dairy are good as they are old and blemish free for the most part. And they are big. I've never built a riata as the need for long string keeps evading me. Someday. I heard from one fellow that buys I believe are split bull from Bill Confer at Tejas and he's cutting string for Riatas and braiding 4 and 6 stranders without splitting.Brad

Throw it in a trough or barrel of fresh water and get your beam ready. It shouldn't hurt anything and will bring back the moisture to flesh it. Then it will be ready to put in a stretcher or whatever your next step is. Brad

I've always thought if you do the body inrawhide then accent with roo or leather. Be it quirts or bosals or reins. Or the other way. Thats just me. Brad

Welcome. You'll probably hear quite a few ways to learn braiding and buttons on this forum and you might search back on previous posts to get a few answers. My 2 cents worth is to get some parachute cord and a short piece of broomstick handle and practise building different buttons over and over. You can stop at any point and then pick it up again. And with 2 small boys you can learn and teach 4 strand braiding and build piggin strings and go from there. Leather lace works to but I would stay away from Rawhide until you get things figured out. I learned basic buttons with a piece of leather lace, a homemade metal needle, and a Vicks inhaler. I carried these in my pocket and tied the ring button hundreds of times in school.( My grades reflected this hobby). Don't be afraid to ask questions and soon you'll be hooked. Brad

Maybe I was out of turn on my salt comments. But I've never used salt in any process of rawhide. If I ran out of time before stretching, I just throw it in a trough and do it the next day. And if it takes a while to get it stretched just take it out and throw it over a board in the shade and soak it again when you're ready. It takes quite a while to ruin Rawhide and it will come back. I just nailed 3 fresh hides on a wall and their dry and hard and ready to scrape the hair.( 2 weeks ago) Brad

I don't know where the salt comes from but for rawhide you don't use it. After neutralizing the lime, rinse with clear water and stretch. Maybe the salt is something I've never heard about but I've never used it on anything but the lip of a Margarita Glass. Brad

What happened to the braiding section and all the tutorials? Name: curlyjo UserName: curlyjo IP Address: 76.21.14.184 Email Address: tbfarms@comcast.net

This is only a suggestion, my 2 cents worth. It seems you are bent on using a piece of rope as a bosal body. If thats the case, find a piece of Reata instead and use that. Treat it like a bosal body and build your nosebutton on that. Then pull it together like you've seen on the tutorials here and build your Heelknot. It will give you some practise and you're not out to much. Brad

This might be to simple but I just use the small bars from hotels. Put it in a small plastic container, add a little water, and stir it up with a cheap throwaway paint brush. The hotel soap is usually real mild and sometimes you get lucky and get a good clyserine bar. Then just slather it on with the paintbrush as you are braiding. When it sits and gets dry after a while just add some water and you're good to go. I learned this from a friend who used a shaving brush but they are to expensive. This is for rawhide. I use drumstuffed Roo and it's got plenty of grease in it for me on the leather side. Brad

For a small core you could use 2 strings the same size as you are braiding. Don't use bigger string as it might not be able to round out around braided part. Or take a small finished string and twist a core carefully and braid over that. I just mellow the string out and put 1 end in a vice and twist with vice grip pliers and nail the pliers to the bench when I'm happy with the looks. Takes a day to dry and is pretty simple. Has to be for ME. Brad

Megabit, I think you'll be ok with 3 at 100' and 1 at 90'. Fromthe measurements I talked to you about you lose about 1/3 when braiding a 4 strand reata. And keep your plastic containers ready because I think it's going to take longer than 1 day to braid up. Also I was teasing about the paracord and lace over rawhide issue. I've lost track of the number of hackamore and bosal bodies I have hanging on the wall that are designated chew toys for the learning curve. To short, twisted, to big or to small core, and than some. But when it works all is well. Brad