Alberta Bound

Wow that's some beautiful flat plaiting. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Thank you all very, very much. I really appreciate this forum and its members, it's great to have input from other leatherworkers. Aggie, the pineapple knots on the cheeks aren't that loose, but they do slide if you give them a really good tug. They were tied with normal tightness over groundwork that consists of a 4 bight gaucho over a spanish ring knot. The first time you move them after they're braided is a bit of a struggle! Tom Hall shows this configuration in his books but I haven't braided any like this before. I suspect this piece will just hang on the wall so I may have to make one for myself to see how it works out. It takes some force to make them slide and they're definitely strong enough to ride with even if you have to wrench on the reins. Leading a horse by the reins with such a headstall may not be the safest idea. I'd hate to see a horse with a ported curb bit hanging halfway out of his mouth because he spooked and the knots didn't hold as well as a buckle. Ouch, that's one way to get a hard mouth fast. Hopefully if the customer does use it he'll go the traditional vaquero way and lead his horse by the get down rope instead of the reins. Or just use a halter. LOL. For the tassels I just tied the two rounds off into one terminal knot and folded the mane hair over that. Artificial sinew was used to wrap the hair and keep it place. I've had some trouble with the groundwork on tassels before because it can get awkwardly large if one isn't careful! Thanks again, Jen

Thank you 8CKAB. I was thinking it would sit on top of the forelock, like some of those old style headstalls that have the stabilizer strands running from the crown to some place on the brow. It seems like a shame to hide that behind a forelock... Although I doubt it would be very comfortable for the horse if that big thing to sat behind the forelock, it's quite tall.

This is a work in progress but it's taking so long that I figured I might as well show it to someone. At a branding this summer the topic of handmade tack came up. So i put my two cents in and got an order for "whatever you want to make". Isn't that the best kind of order? Here's what I came up with: I've been toying the idea of an Alamar knot browband for some time, but it just never came to me how I could work it into a project. I finally settled on a Carrick Bend, similar to the Alamar knot but lacks that bottom loop. It's not as traditional but it's a little bit different. Since it's not finished yet there's still some cleaning up left to do: trimming/thinning the tassels, tying a couple buttons, finishing the buttons, etc. The browband and throatlatch are done in 8 plait, everything else is 12 plait. Braiding and button strings are each around 1/16", give or take. I had some fun with knots and interweaves on this one, trying out different groundwork shapes and such. The slide button and tassel button on the throatlatch aren't quite what I wanted, they may end up being redone. I also figured out a way to do a herringbone interweave on a 5p 9b turks head by creating what I guess you would call a false 3p 9b turkshead as the interweave. Technically a 3p 9b is impossible because the number of bights and parts should never be divisible by the same number. This interweave probably already exists, but I haven't seen it before. Unfortunately the button didn't work well anywhere on the headstall. It was still interesting to play around with. I should have this finished by the end of December. I changed plans while building it and didn't bring enough lace out here to finish the job! Can't cut any here, so I'll just have to wait until next week to do that. Ah well... The pictures don't show the color contrast well, but it's a darker brown/saddletan with dark red interweaves. It was made it for a working rancher and I figured he'd appreciate a more subtle contrast. Any thoughts or constructive criticisms are appreciated. Thanks folks!

I'm not sure why Hought doesn't use needles. Some people that I've spoken to consider themselves "purists" and use only a fid when braiding. It's purely speculation, but that could be why she doesn't use them. I like the smaller permalock needles, IMHO it seems like they damage the leather a lot less than the two-prong needles, especially if you're working lace that's around 3/32" or smaller. There doesn't seem to be a right or wrong way to do it, just experiment with what feels comfortable for you and the lace that you're using. Aggie, that's hilarious! Perfect analogy!

You might want to check out www.ubraidit.com or give them a call, they're very helpful if you're trying to learn paracord braiding. They have lots of info and books on it and some really nice cord colors as well. I really their book called "How to Braid Quality Custom Tack", it's a braider's goldmine! You can also get some pretty good ideas from their gallery for free if you don't feel like buying books at this point. As to taking the inner filler cords out... I don't on most things like round or flat plaiting for horse tack. When you're tying a turkshead or other knot it looks nicer without them, and I believe some people that plait whips will take them out as well. If you leave the filler cords in make sure you wet the paracord in warm water and dry it completely before braiding (I just put mine in a pillowcase and throw it in the dryer). If you skip this, your finished product will shrink in the strangest and most wonderful ways when it gets wet! If you take the filler cords out you can omit the wetting/drying since only the filler cords shrink, not the outer sheath. Ubraidit recommends cutting your string 10% longer than you need for your project to allow for this shrinkage, but that's a pretty liberal estimate. I've found the shrinkage on most colors to be much less than that.I like to err on the side of caution so I still cut them too long! I use 650 paracord, but there are braiders that use 550. Since I haven't used 550 I can't comment on the size difference but I do like the 650 that ubraidit sells. By making a rope, do you mean like a rope for roping? I haven't seen one made from paracord and imagine that the finished braid would not be stiff enough for the rope to function properly, even if you braided tightly. Paracord also melts at fairly low temperatures so it may fail from the friction that results from sliding through the honda. That said, I'm not speaking from experience would be willing to bet there is someone out there that's made a rope from it! Sorry this post is kind of disorganized, but I hope you can glean something helpful from it. The project possibilities with paracord are nearly endless, if you can dream it there's probably a way for you to make it! Jen

Those are beautiful! Do you have any plans for them? My order was finally finished yesterday: 8 hides from Packer in all colors except brandy. Leanne at the Packer outlet was kind enough to waive the fee for the export permit. Apparently they've changed the regulations since I first placed my order. I'm not sure the whole story behind the export permit, but I did get to order an extra hide with the $60.00 that I saved. I tried to get a green hide from them too but no such luck... Ah well, I'm still very pleased.

If i were to hazard a guess, I'd say that he used interweaves to account for the larger diameter where the side buttons and nose buttons would go.

Those are both great! I particularly like the surcingle (roller). A lot of the rollers manufactured today seem to have put no thought or pride into the design process. However, it's pretty clear you have a good grasp of what training tack is supposed to be like. This one looks like it'll last at least a lifetime! If you don't mind my asking, where did you find the hardware for the caveson nose?

What I found most interesting was their conclusion that grey kangaroo was stronger than red, even when split. Yet, when you do a little "research" on the internet most braiders/whip-makers believe the opposite to be true. Makes one wonder if there are other factors at play.

I was speaking to one of my roommates today about why I used roo for braiding and he was asking if anything else would do. Now, I'm not saying there's no other useful leather out there (far from it!), but our conversation got me thinking so I did a little internet search on why roo is such a strong leather. Here's a link to an article I found and hopefully a few of you will find it interesting. Those lucky folks that get there own roo from the backyard might even be able to apply some of these things! There's a link at the bottom of the page that says "Download PDF". If you click that link you don't need to pay for the article. https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/02-105

Well now you've made me all curious about these awful jokes! Could you add me too please?

I apologize, I suppose I should have read what you were looking for a little more closely. I got so excited by your wanting to do braiding and knots that I forgot all about the other bits! For edge braiding and lacing (not that I cay say much about that since the most I do is lace a metal ring or two), Grant's encyclopedia seems like a decent source of information. But I'd imagine some of the braiders above know a lot more about edge lacing than I ever will. Gail Hought goes over it, but the instructions aren't that detailed and she doesn't show many styles. And yes she makes mistakes, she's only human. The romal rein book has a frustrating one on a long button interweave that gets me every time! Now if only Nate Wald would write a book so I could figure out how he makes things look so darn good....

Oh, and whichever way you choose to learn - Good luck! Welcome to the braiding addiction... err... hobby. Jen

I really like Gail Hought's books. The Art of Braiding: The Basics, Revised Edition gives some pretty good bang for your buck. If you decide to get one of her books, you'll want to start with this one because the others build on it. The unrevised original edition isn't as helpful as the newer one. You can find the revised edition here: http://www.hought.com/brbooks-basics2.html All of the books Knothead mentioned are pretty nice as well. However, I'd shy away from books by Bruce Grant at first unless you want to spend hours pulling your hair out. They're useful books with lots of great information, but they can be a little confusing to start out with. Tom Hall's books are great, they're very down to earth and have some knots, measurements, etc. that you'll not find in many other books. A nice cheap little book that's relatively easy to find is Robert Woolery's Braiding Rawhide Horse Tack. It has some good ideas to apply to all projects and the price is great at around $10. It doesn't just apply to rawhide braiding, but it does focus on the techniques used with rawhide.

They'll only charge the $60 AUD once per order and can ship as many hides as you want with that export document. I believe that you need to have one for each shipment they send you, so it makes ordering in quantity worthwhile.

I realize many of you are from the US and that this won't apply to you, but here's a small update on the hides from Hardtke: . Someone from Hardtke called me today (I didn't catch his name) and gave me the details on the price of exporting hides to Canada. On top of the $60 for shipping there was going to be a $135 charge to have the hides inspected. I believe he said US fish and game did this. So all in all, it would be $200ish more than the price of the hides themselves. Ouch! I felt awful telling him I'd rather order from Packer directly. I'm really impressed with Hardtke's customer service, it was very personal and he was extremely considerate. I wish I could justify ordering from them, but the extra two hundred dollars is just too much. I guess I'm back to Packer and their $60 export fee.

That might be a good idea 8thsinner. Unfortunately I don't know any leather braiders in my area. There are a few rawhiders but I'm the only roo braider (that I know of, anyway) for miles around. I imagine it's the same in Belfast? It sure would be nice to have someone to spit shipping and import fees with. I'm planning a pair of romal reins as well entiendo! I ordered the cores from Oregon Leather today and they should be here soon. Hopefully when I get home at Christmas I'll have time to cut all my strings and I can finish the reins next semester. Now if I could just finish the headstall I've had on the go for a couple of months.....

Isn't buying leather exciting? I just ordered 2 whiskey, 2 red, 1 natural and 1 black hide from Hardtke. Apparently US fish and game has to inspect the hides before they are shipped to Canada and that's going to be around $100. I didn't realize that, I might have to find myself a friend near the border so I can avoid it next time. Makes me wonder if buying directly from Packer would have been any more expensive. Hopefully buying 6 hides at once will make it a little more economically feasible. I can't wait to see them, it's been so long since I've had new hides! I'm in love with the red drum stuffed roo, it's fantastic. I really like your crop bullwhips, looks great!

Has anyone figured out the different in price between Taubmann and the Packer Outlet when hides are shipped to the US or Canada? I know that packer is cheaper by the square foot but I'm curious to see if the difference is very noticeable in the end.

I emailed Hardtke recently and they also have drum stuffed Packer roo for $11.35. I haven't ordered from them before but I've heard some good things. Decent prices too, but I'm not sure what their shipping would be like.

Those look great! I like what you did with the bottom of the heel knots, it's very clean looking.

I've been thinking of ordering that book. Are there many close-up pictures of his work? Is it more of a biography or more about his braiding?