troy

Thought I'd try my first arm guard to match a quiver I'm making but can't find any info on the sizes of such things - can any body help out?

like them and so glad you showed the underneath - have always wondered how they were joined together - in the past when I did chest plates I normally left shoulder armour out because of that - cheers mate.

Ye I guess after my trip to BC that some similarities are present between the scenery (Canada and scotland)but tree's right upto the summit in many cases is a god send especially in bad weather - no where to escape to on the scottish hills; An teallach or the forge liathach south from ben nevis summit Most of these are north of Edinburgh but then most of the high mountain are but as roy said I expect there are tours to places like fort william under ben nevis but if you come to scotland from may to september - beware the mini vampires!!!!!!!

You could either use the polishing compounds on the same site - here. or I got a kit off evilbay . They do start off brownish but turn black when polished - but you will need a mask of some sort because of the fume/dust created - it's poisonous apparently.

Buffalo horn - can get them here - the one's you have are polished and does'nt take much to do that.

Why do you think whiskey was invented!!!!! I guess when you live in one area long enough you don't realize differences in temperature - at the same time ray was here I was quite comfortable in a T-shirt and yes I wear boxers under everything!!! It was great to meet you and your wife ray, glad to hear you got back OK.

I tend to use those disposiable gloves (Got tired of walking around with constantly stained fingers) and use old bits of shearling (left overs from saddles) to apply the dye to the lace - upending the bottle onto the shearling then running the lace throught that - applying more dye to the shearling when needed - tends to be the least messy method I have used. Then with another pair of gloves apply aussie conditioner to the lace - this binds the dye to the lace and stops it coming off.

Got a few tutorials I have done along the way - not sure if this is the right place to post them but hope they are of interest to some. braided Dog collar with items about prep of lace. Dyeing rawhide and backing bows making bows from ash making bows from yew Making simple arrows

Not being a saddle maker on par with Bruce or dusty or any other the other saddle makers on here having only made 20 in the last three years I really apprechiate these conversations about saddle making, if only to illustrate that I am not the only one encountering problems with it. Comparing the style and type of rider/horse/activity from BC Canada (where I was taught) and back home here in scotland, the idea's about saddle fitting are remarkibly different unfortunatly - in most cases I am making saddles for leasure riders onto horses treated more as pets or prize possesions which span from highly (and expensive) breed American horses to mostly highland ponies/horses. The majority of my customers do have the sense to understand that when it comes to saddle fitting, that it will never be perfect. That the horse will change over the year as will the rider and not to always believe the advise of trainers/vets when saddle fitting is blamed for odd things - plus being local I am always willing to come out to them and sort any problems out. Of course I am not a registered proffessional as in the trainers and vets and over here that is an important point to some - in fact now I just make saddle when and how I like then sale them on as they are - in the long run I find it more rewarding for me - like the saying states 'you can't please everyone, so just please yourself' which I guess is my version if stepping back and recapturing the joy I had from creating saddles in the first case. Troy

If you try the place below - books by Ron edwards - he does a great little book called 'leather lacing manuel' contains about 20 odd different edge lacing techniques. Ram skull press australia

Heck mate if thats a screw up, your 'just OK' must be fantastic. In any case I have the patent in screwing up so your work can't be anything but great. really love the sharpness of your tooling and clear definitions of detail, plus the mustach, thats a real cool bit of detail.

Just had UKray around for alittle visit today (too short really, living in the middle of no where hundreds of mile away from slightest wiff of a few leather possed person) and he mentioned that there may be a few member looking for horn of one sort or the other. The link below is a place near me that has tonnes of the stuff and does ship over the abroad. Highland horn Plus more for ray then anything, below is a link to get precut and selected lemon wood. Lemon wood staves Hope the above helps out some one. Oh and just to show off I guess, have updated my website with largish pictures of some of my pictoral carvings. Pictorial carving

Hi Flatlander - your braided knots look great, I always remember feeling that I was finally getting it the first time I managed interweaves like yours. heres another knife pouch I have just done for a viking saexe blade - It is made from a wide flat braid folded over, this first attempt is not perfect but it's getting there. First off I thing doing a under 1 over 1 braid instaead of 2o, 2u will make the braid wider which it could of been at the end to accomodate the handle of the blade.

Probably A tad late to help with the rounder but when I first started making braided reins and playing around with other patterns in bruce grants cowboy book, I just used an old piece of hard wood with various diameters drilled out of it - probably not good as a permanent thing like the metal versions but it did the job and cost nothing. Plus is you need a hole bigger or smaller, you can just drill another hole.

Thanks for your advise, hidepounder and Tina - Carving the edge first and working your way to the middle is probably the best method, Ive found this when especially carving celtic patterns - also good for scenic carvings but sometimes the order of carving confuses things for me, i.e carving herd of horses where those in front are carved first etc etc. But this next one should work out OK with the edge method and using layers of plastic to keep the inner moist. Cheers for your advise. Troy

Over the years I have had the odd crazy urge to do large pictorial carvings (A3 to A1 size). During doing them I have tried a variety of ways to keep the leather moist in some areas but slightly dry in others to enable carving - this has ended up with a odd assortment of results. On the recent 30 inch shield I did, I carved seperate designs so just kept thos I was'nt working on covered by a plastic bag. On a 1m x .6m picture I did of a huge pictish stone, I did the stone first (which was in the middle) and then the scene after (from the middle to edges), this way did not work out to well and the carving was'nt as good as I'd hoped. Most carvings I have tried to do like the shield but where I allow the whole area to dry, then re-wet as I come to carve it - this has minimal results as the leather is totally dry and does'nt carve great towards the end. Have got the urge to carve another pictorial but this one is quite big again, probably 1.1m x .8m - does any body else do crasy things like this and if so, how have they found it best to keep different areas of the leather moist and dry at the same time. cheers And another thing - when it comes to embossing, I tend to just push the leather out from the back (use thickish leather most of the time not thin) and perhaps apply some grated leather on the back if the area pushed out is large - I find this the easiest way again with large carvings - how does everybody else do it?

Always good, when it comes to celtic degins, how animals are interweaved into a design - Have tried it a few times my self with no good results but you've combined the celtic and horses beatifully - great stuff.

Hi All I have now and again orders to cover what I regard as cheap water bottles with plastic caps - I get these from a guy in Scotland but have wonered if they are avaliable across the pond with better caps, say metal or wooden one's. Would be nice to make something that could last longer. Have inserted a few picture below so you know the sort of water bottle I,m looking for. Cheers for your help.

Hope you don't mind me diving in on this thread, but there has been a few times I have contemplated getting 'the lace master'. Just wondering if any body has experiance with this cutter - like I say, I keep looking at it like you may keep looking at a farrari (sad eh) and if only I had the pennies!!!

I guess the methods of braiding are very similar for each material, its more the way you treat/prepare each of the different materials that matter, meaning rawhide/roo and cowhide. I guess the best rawhide starter book I have used is bruce grants rawhide braiding, then went on to use ron edwards books.

Have uploaded a pencil drawing of the braid I use for saddles and the bags - probably not great as I'm not the best drawing artist - hope you can follow what I've drawn. Start with a long string, half it and start from the middle of the string - thread through the two first holes from underneath to the top side - cross over and thread through second holes (the half circle symbol means over) thread the strings back underneath to the first hole then up and across the top again - the unders and over you do to create the pattern are similar to a turks head - as in you do opposite to what the neibouring strings are doing, i.e if they are over, under - you do under, over. If you have any differculties just shout again.

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.