curlyjo

Mike , if you decide to try the wood handle cutter lay your rawhide or leather on a smooth top table cut right into a bucket or plastic storage container. This keeps the dirt off and saves your splitter. I use an old glass top patio table and it can spin under your arm pretty easy. Metal works real good but wood top drags the disk . It works but its just easier on a smooth surface. Brad

Mike, you've got the right idea but the blade and nail are on the top. You just grip the whole stick in your hand and work your way around the outside of the disc. Give me a little time and I'll take some pictures and see if we can get them on here. With my description your almost there.Brad

Mike, I'm going to attempt to describe how I cut string out of wet or cased rawhide. It might not make sense but I learned this over 40 years ago from Bill Dorrance. After the hide is soaked, set it out for a while to get extra water out. I'm using disc's maybe 3x4 rounded off. This is the hard part. I take a piece of broom stick handle or ax handle about 6 inches long and drill a 1/4 inch hole about an inch from the top clear through. Then cut down perpindicular about 2 inches with a narrow coping saw down through the 1/4 inch hole. Not centered if right handed of center to the left. You then slope the stick on the front part to carry the hide. The idea is to use injector blades in that slot you cut with the coping saw and tighten the blades in place with a 1/4 inch bolt through the small hole. Your guide is a small finish nail to the right of the blade. You can either move the nail with a pair of pliers and hammeror make several different size tools. I'll try to post a picture of this homemade tool when I can get someone here at home to show me how to post pictures. I cut most of my strings about 3/8 or smaller using these tools and have cut 1000's of feet. The key is using sharp blades and just walking around and around the disc off the edge of a table. When you get to a sharp corner just make it a little wider and clean it up when you size for width. You cut with the hide against your nail and your thumb on the outside. Once you figure this out it cuts real slick. This is also how I cut Roo hide using a cutter about 3/16 wide for button string. Its to pricey to cut to wide. Hope this helps and I'll try to get pictures soon. Brad

After cutting the rough string while wet I loop them out between 2 posts about 40 ft. apart in the shade and get some of the moisture out before splitting. Then I split all to what thickness I need and do it again to get them a little drier. I then use a bench mounted gauge to pull through for width, generally taking off a little on each side til I get the right width. Let them dry some more and use another bench mount beveler to finish. It's all about the right moisture and that takes time to figure out. To dry and it wont split worth a darn , to wet and the strings curl when cutting for width. If the weather is dry you cant cut fast enough and if high humidity you better have a book to read waiting for things to dry up. Iv'e got run now but hope this helps. Brad

I don't think it was your problem as much as the hide you are working with. It sounds like a hide with some serious drying issues. I get my hides from Bill Confer at Tejas Ind. in Hereford Texas. I have always been able to soak them in water for several days and then cut string with even moisture. I try to only cut what I can handle at the time. 3x3 or 3x4 rounded pieces cut just over 1/4 inch to make Honda and Bosal String. He sells all weights of hides and the 30 inch rounds are almost blemish free. A little pricey but if you cut around from the outside at 1/4 inch you should get over 180 feet of string. They aren't quite thick enough for Honda string but the split bull works well for heavy string. Cow hides would work for light string and the bellies from those would make button string. Brad

Thanks Megabit, I was leaning that way as I heard from a fellow this morning about a twisted core in a Quirt that spun so much it was breaking strings. I've also noted that it's happening on my 6 strand bosals and not apparent on the 8 stranders. Maybe not enough outside cover to overcome the twist. Well, go back to braiding over 2,3,4 strings for core for the size I'm looking for. Thanks for the help.

New here. Recently started braiding bosals with rawhide bodies and roo buttons. 6 and 8 strand 5/16 to 3/8 over twisted rawhide cores. Problem is some are twisting at the heel knot after being finished. All are pulled together with a ring button and then tuck the strings around and cover with heel knot. Never done while rawhide is damp. Have one that has spun the heel knot 1/4 turn. It was sitting in the sun at a roping where I had a few things for sale. Any ideas would be appreciated and I hope I can contribute in the future. Thanks