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Whow its not sounding like Roo leather to me, I've never bought any roo that was Thick? I've had some that was kinda frizzy on one side to where I took the advice of someone here to put the roo in Keroseen gas (spelling way off sorry) along with a stick of cooking wax chopped up in the gas. Put mixture in a stainless steel container large enough for the roo then to be soaked in it for a few minutes, pull the roo out and let it dry. This is of course all done outside. Once dry It no longer had the frizzy's on the one side and I was able to bevel it, the mixture made it very usable where I like you was wasting it all trying to bevel with the frizzy's. So if that someone is still reading these post, I hope that I gave the right directions on how to rid the frizzy's if anyone sees that I made a mistake on it please correct me since its been awhile since I did it.

I have bought the belting to use under the roo, from what I've seen on what I've used its not very strong on its own. They look nice but hope that they will hold up against a strong puller. Not trying to be a downer, so please don't take my commet as so just stating that what I have delt with from the belting that I have gotton I would be scared to use it alone.

Very nice work. Since its a different color are you going to make matching headstall also?? Also seeing the picture of the hide when being de-haired makes me want to drag out the 3rd hide that I bought out of the freezer (been there almost a year) and give my 3rd attempt at making rawhide another try. first time was a magot mess, second time to much chemical and it ate the hide into a slimmy mess so when I got this next hide it ended up in the freezer until I get my confidence up to try again. Not that my work would look anything like yours since yours is so near prefection but it sure wants me want to give it a try. Again great work of art you made, thanks for posting the motivation that will hopefully keep me trying. Annette

Class act work. Lucky new owners who gets to use those.

Thanks for the visial, It is a great looking headstall, some horse is going to be proud to be wearing that and making him look twice what hes worth

Oh my God look out Knothead is GIDDY again, we all know what happens when he gets giddy. We will be seening alot more pictures of work being done. Great looking tool.

Great Braiding work, looks great. I might sound stupid with this question but I guess never have seen a headstall made with two big loops like that before, do you have a picture of it on a horse?? Trying to figure out what those loops are for. Yes, I'm a city slicker horse owner. LOL

ROFL (rolling on floor laughing) at Magibit response that just cracked me up. Yea keep at it , you'll catch on one of these days and be as good as the rest of us. Oh my GOSH that is ART WORK at its best. Something that beautyful yet ready for use. Really stunning. Love it. Always love seeing your work Thanks for sharing it with us.

wonderful looking work.

Very good

Howdy All, Yep I'm still alive and kicking just have not done any projects lately so just been reading post and not really answering very many or making up new ones until today. hehe started a new project. I have a new appriciation for those of you that work and create such artistic work while using rawhide. I am going to try and make a quirt with rawhide and since my last two attemps of getting a hide myself to make the rawhide turned into a maggot mess and then a holly mess by using to much lime I went on and bowed down to ordering some precut strands. For me its been a week long challenge to get the moisture level just right to where I can work with it, was having troubles with some of the strand having to much moisture and in other places not enough, I put it all in a plastic bag to let sit in the refrig until finally it seemed to be even through-out the whole strand. I beveled it, then figured to start out with a 4 strand about 2 1/2 foot braid. I consider myself a pretty tough women but whow that 2 1/2 foot of braiding just about kicked my butt. My hands after only about 1 foot were feeling pretty sore and my fingers trying to hold the braid tight while trying to pull tight another strand has me feeling like a whimp. The good news is I have a great new appriciation to you all that can do this work and do it with such artistic talents to produce great work. After my fingers come back to life to where I can push the button on my camera I'll post my work in progress. But until then just wanted to say, how wonderfully talented I think you all are. Annette

Thanks for posting the new book. I've got a several already but I'll pull up the site and see if this one looks like something that I need to add to my collection. Thanks again.

Howdy there, Well I hope that your first hide goes alot better then my first and second since they both were flops. I'm not going to give any pro advise other then where I think I went wrong, which was to leave the hide in the lime to long and I had to strong of a mixture so it ate my hide up. Now to find the pro advise I would suggest that you look at all the post on making rawhide. There are atleast one if not two post that are very detailed with great pictures showing the process. And then there are my post where I was making mistakes and the great people on here told me what I was doing wrong and where to go to find answers. Sorry no great answer from me on if your doing it right or wrong but hopefully it will help lead you to the place to find the great answers. Annette

I hate to ask you to go to more work, but pictures would really help going along with your words of wisdom. I'm one of those people that always have to see to learn. Just an idea if you have time, LOL I've got two jobs so understand time limits. Thanks and again great words of wisdom Annette

THANK YOU. I think I get what you are saying, I'll give it a try and find out . Love your work, I didn't realize that horsehair could be used to make all that kind of tack, didn't think it would be strong enough. LOL my simple idea of just making a hat band. I love this web site, every time I log on I learn something new and interesting and get to met new people, seeing that great work gives me new ideas. Thanks again for taking the time to post a message, I'll give it a try and hopefully before Christmas there will be a finished product that I can give to my sister. ROFL my horses might not like it when I drive up anymore and since brushing their tails to get hair from them is alot cheeper then buying or having to buy roo, rawhide ect.... They both might be bald by the time I'm done learning Thanks Annette

Whow those look great. I hope that these don't end up where my first set of hobbles went. I gave them to a cowboy to use so he could tell me how they worked and well they are lost somewhere in a (they think) wheat field. They put them on the horse then rode off on all the other horses leaving the one behind and that lone horse ended up running to join them Hobbles gone. It hurts to know the hard work went for nothing but in your case those are diffently a show piece and hope that they treat them as such. Love them, you do great work. Annette

Howdy there Friends !!! Well now that my reins are done time to start a new project. My sister got a new cowgirl hat and wants a hat band. I'm thinking about suprising her with a braided horse tail hair hat band made of her own horses tail hair. Has anyone done any horse hair braiding?? Anyone have any pictures of your horse hair projects?? His tail was not real long but was able to get several strands of hair pulled out, anyone have any ideas on how I would go about doing this project or if its even a good idea or not?? I tried a test run using 6 hairs tied together, braiding 3 groups of those 6 hairs. It came out far to small, and to short. I can always add more hairs to make it thicker but how do you make it longer?? Can tail be spliced, keep adding another hair when I come to a short one?? I was trying that and then I would have a hair end sticking out in the middle of the project. Got online and didn't see any real good information on it so hoping someone here will have some insight or know where I can go look for it. Thanks Annette

NO Offense taken what so ever THANK YOU so much for pointing out these flaws. That first one that pointed out with the red circle, and at different angles of all the knots I bet you would see it on all them. I'm pretty sure that is going to be the way that I'm ending the knots and trying to hide the end. I'm never happy with it the way that I've been doing it but I've been attempting to follow Gail Hought and I might be doing it wrong but I thought that I was doing it the way that she says. After I have my foundation knot I pull out the standing end (end where I started) and go under one so that it makes it under 3. Then I take the working end and go under one, over one and then try and hide it under atleast 3. But I'm having trouble with it since it seems to me hard to hide it since you go up over one and then take it to the side in the middle of the knot and then under. Looking at the pic's and what you circled I'm almost 100 % sure thats where my knot started and what I'm doing. Anyone have a better way for me to bury the ends?? Or any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong with the way that I understood how I should be doing it using Gail Hought's method? And Whow, thanks for putting all those red dots in line, LOL looks like my "V" 's had to much to drink and couldn't walk a straight line that day..... I didn't notice it until actually holding it up and putting a straight edge to it. LOL I'll diffently work on that one. I hope from my errors others will learn as well, I know by looking at all the work everyone else has been posting that its helping me and you all are great for taking the time to take such a close look at it.

Howdy, Well I think I am FINISHED !!! Right now I'm thinking on going with chain rein connectors rather then braided ones, and inless you pro's tell me I need more buttons for more weight on the reins I'll be done. The headstall I decided to use a already made leather one and put buttons that match the rein's on them. I'm tossing around taking the leather that goes across the horses forhead off and braiding a strand to put there using buttons to hold it in place to make it hopefully match the reins more but right now I'm undecided on that as well. So depends on what you pro's say to weather or not I am actually done or not but since I want them to work right, look good and hold up I want to show ya what I got now, listen to advice and then continue on if need be. Thanks for looking and for the comments.

Thank you Aggiebraider and Entiendo for noticing those little things, Bevan must need those glasses he was speaking of in another post since he didn't mention anything about those. I do wish that somehow I could get you a picture Entiendo to where you could point out those flaws. I must say I've not done alot of praticing on the different knots and lace size. I'm flying by the seat of my pants and hanging on hoping that the ride goes good. Since I do want to be better once I get this project done I will take your advice and pratice on the dowel rod using the left over cutting it down to different sizes. It would make it so much easier in future projects to be able to pull out a dowel rod and know exactly what size lace I need for that knot and project. It might take a bit to do but in the long run I'm sure that it would pay off. Entiendo I also agree with you on using buttons under buttons to be best. I'm trying hard to count the amount of times I wrap the tape to make them even but I hate that they seem soft, and can some places if you look close can see the tape. I'm diffently learning from this big project. Now off topic. I'm heading to Cheyenne WY for the Rodeo 24th-28th will anyone be there?? If anyone will be showing off their work ect... I diffently would love to stop by and say HOWDY.

Ha days off work, they are wonderful things. With a few days off I've been able to get back to my project. Took your advise and narrowed the lace down a bit. Took out the knots I had and restarted and I think its made a Great difference. What do you all think??? At the end of the knots I do have to tighten them a bit now but atleast there is room for the lace to fit rather then laying over other strands and hideing them. So Bevan put on those glasses and take a lookie and tell me what ya think?? LOL if its still not good I'm having so much fun with it now that I think I'm getting better it actually wouldn't hurt me to take them apart again if needed.

I'm going to post some pic's of the rein project in the forum on my first rein project. But I wanted to also post something here because since I'm seeing that when I wasn't needing to tighten my buttons I think it was because my lace was too wide and by the time I got all that lace in there it was so tight, was hiding strands ect.... But if ya look at the pic's of what my buttons look like now that I cut the lace alittle narrower, when I am done with a button there is alittle adjusting to do. Not a whole lot but just snug it up a bit after I roll it. So I'm with you in thinking that almost every button needs alittle adjustment but I've not done any real big ones or multi string ones yet to know on those.

Howdy All,,, Hope everyone still has all their fingers and toes after the 4th of July I am a fireworks junkie, few burn marks and missing some hair but I made it through another year. hehehe Well here is the start of the buttons on the reins and with the post on to tighten or not to tighten I figured I would post a few pictures to see if these buttons look ok. I'm having troubles with one lace covering up another and it being so tight that I can't seem to get it out. I figured what you all think but wondering it I don't need to make the buttons bigger??? put more tape under them ??? I tried to have the ruler there to give ya some idea on how big the buttons are. On one of the buttons it looks like I made a mistake but if ya look close you can see the black lace being covered up. I'm doing the buttons directly onto the project, and so far by the time I'm done I can hardly get the lacing needle and lace through the holes that I make with my fid. I still have been going back and tightened the buttons alittle since in some places there has been alittle slack but not much. If they look like trash and should pull them apart I did not cut the lace yet just in case thats what everyone thinks I need to do. Please help me out and let me know what ya think. Thanks Annette

ROFL LOL I was checking out the post without logging in but when I saw this message "The rat shits r only to stop it from unwinding I only hand press" I had to log in so that I could see the pictures that was attached. LOL I thought that I was going to have to go to pet store and request that they save me some rat shit so that when I go to make a twisted core I would be prepaired. Thank goodness I can see from the pictures it was a typing error.....lol thought it was going to be a austie secret trick.