troy

Just love that romel - rawhide braiding has always fascinated me and something I like doing now and again but should do it more often as it is something I'm not that good at. I agree about the tandy rawhide lace - I just tried to skive some from a reel and it just kept breaking - no good!!!

Must admit to of never heard of such a thing - all rope/string etc are braided or twisted together, as with sewing thread) to give strength/tension and form to the rope - without it all the individual threads would seperate and act as an individual instead of as a group - as far as sustaning force goes - same reasons why a whip is braided and not just one long bit of leather, the tension and stretch is equal and shared around the entire circumfirance. The only thing I can suggest is that sometimes the cores for paracord and other rope are less braided then the outside and would be easier to unbraid - other then that, use natural fibres such as nettles/bark or sewing thread. Hope that helps some.

Cheers for every bodies comments. have had to check just how long I have been doing this stuff and it was about four years ago after a visit to standing bears trading post in los angeles - amasing how time flies - it was a few months after that I went to BC canada to learn the western saddle stuff. Have attached some close up's of the shield. I have tried to do a variety of things - just my way I guess - before doing this I made bows, and my own arrows, quivers etc - even made my own rawhide for backing the bows with, too old for that malarky now, just happy with the whips, knives and the occasional saddle or carving.

Not the clearest of pictures, but this was one of those labours of love and seemed to be in the planning stage for a few months too long, but finally got round to doing it over xmas.

Been playing around with braiding handles and sheaths onto blades I've been making - just wondering if any body else has experiance with this sort of braiding. Finding it OK when making a simple sheath but adding a pouch on is proving tedious to say the least. The main problemn is adding on strings. below are a few piccys of the stated sheaths - the first sheath does have a built in pouch but it is not very clear -

will get back with some photos soon - have no idea about post cost but could well be over £150.

Hi all UK members Got this machine for sale, only used it for a year for saddles - quite expensive to ship but any offers over £600.00 plus P&P excepted - just want rid of the thing now, have no room for it after leaving the workshop. http://www.sewingmachinery.com/highlead/highlead-GA2688.html

Tandy have opened a store in northampton and hold all the stock they sell in the states - 01604 647910. leather solutions on ebay are also good for carving leather, just search for tooling leather. Used it for most of my carvings and have never had problems with dyeing etc and is always very clean i.e no scratches, marks.

Great to see many UK'ers here, Tandy opening a store in Northampton must be a god send to all - great leather without import taxes. As for saddle making, average is two weeks to make but tends to take longer in the planning stage - last saddle was built on a custom tree that took 3 months to make.

Shocked at your prices of hides, mine mostly cost £5.00 for deer and £15.00 for cow or occassionally nothing from road kills. Used to use chemicals to help the de-hairing (man-made ones) but having a wood fire and living somewhere where its burning most of the year, I started using ash - if the hide is still warm I wrap it in salt for a few days first. A week soakin normally does it, sometimes the neck areas can be a pain but most hair comes off without taking too much of the underlaying skin off. Luckily we are in a windy area and place frames in direct path of it, otherwise the skins would never totally dry. Usin this method, I never had any grease on the hide.

just can't get enough of the spice! - or, you'd be amazed what a saddler is asked to make here in the UK other then saddles that is! I was tempted to post a few of my many unsuccessful experiments but know they'ed be better off displayed on a forum about Horror movies. Cheers for your comment

Ye another hide guy from the UK - been working with leather for about 3 years - have attached a few photos so you can see the various succesful things I have experimented on. Paul Visit My Website

Planning to make another rawhide rope, but would like it if this one does'nt break. So far I've used home made rawhide from the red deer, which can be quite thin in places - what sort of rawhide should I be using. Am tempted to get some cow rawhide like that used on saddle horns. Any body got any suggestions?

Well I think you and your site have done it now - changed the design of my bridle abit and have also managed to do a headhunters knot and something called a lazy man knot today - they look pretty good done over a narrow or perfect pineapple knot. Just hope the bridle looks like a bridle when I'm finished and not just one bit knot.

Finally managed to do pineapple knot, with alittle help from an article in the leather crafters magazine - can't believe it, only took about a year. thanks for the insperation.

Ye I love your site - I've been trying to do pinapple knots like yours for ages for the western tack I do. So far I've just used thicker thongs for the few smaller knots I know, but seeing your stuff sort gives me a kick up the behind.

Put this link on one of the yahoo groups earlier - site does'nt seem to say any thing about copyright issues. http://catfangz.com/celtic/Celt.html

Have used black hull dye in the past for dying rawhide. The powder when mixed with water, can get very thick and smooth depending on the ratios, but may work out of a feather pen - don't know what they used. on this ancient theme - i'm starting to carve into leather old pictish standing stones in my area and have already got some acedemic interest. First one I'm doing is 6m high and has over 100 fighting figures about some war. I'm only carving it 1m high and plan to carve in a typical village of the time in the backgroud - sort of like after the battle stuff.

Well not much has changed since your grandad left and if my ancester had done the same as your's, I would'nt be here making bows to just shoot at dangerous cardboard targets!! May be over next year - my wife went to school at places like Kitty hawk and there is rumours of a school reuion, but apart from that I would love to see loads of places.

Hi my names Paul and I'm relativly new to western saddle making and carving, but have been messing around with longbows and rawhide for awhile now. Joined, cause theire ai't that many people over hear doing this sort of thing, and would love to hear from any body here whose from the UK or Europe. Doing items from books etc is'nt quite the same as seeing and feeling other peoples work to compare or see my mistakes and one day I'd love to visit Texas.