bucksnort

Thank you guys. Buck

Bret, The ash won't harm the hair you want to keep on. I would clip the areas you want to save before putting the ash on. The ash will get in the hair & be hard on clipper blades. I've always thought that if I was making a piece of equipment for myself with a hide I had clipped short that I probably wouldn't bother scraping it. The hair will wear off though, so it's not a permanent look. Buck

First entry ready for the Red Bluff Bull Sale show. Santa Ynez reins with M16 shell ends. The five button pattern of red & blue buttons represent the five branches of our Armed Forces. These will go by silent auction with the proceeds going to the Fisher House Foundation. They are a charity that furnishes housing at no cost to military families at Military & VA hospitals world wide. A really great charity. Buck

Great job guys. There's a lot of knowledge packed into a small space. Joe, I definitely set myself up for that one. Rob, could you expand on the Sodium Sulfide when you get a chance? Thanks, Buck

I think your instincts are probably right on not soaking them. Most of these reins are thin strings over a rope core. A rubbed or sprayed dye should work fine. I would think your idea of adding dye to a conditioner would work, but if it didn't it might make it difficult to get anything else to absorb afterwards. Good luck, Buck

You got me, I may have fudged it a little. With our chosen art form you always have to kill another cow.

Millwright, The dry ash method works well & preserves the color of the hide. I will also sometimes clip the hair & not scrape the hair until after I have cut, split & cornered my strings. Only leaves a small amount on the main part of the string to scrape. As long as you get the hair all to an even length it doesn't seem to create any problems with wetting & tempering. If you plan to try the dry ash method you don't want to clip, the longer hair creates more grab. Hang in there, we've all ruined a few. Buck

Another nice job Brian, like the interweaves. Buck

Nice job. Buck

Joe, I thought I posted this, but it doesn't show up, so this may be a repeat. The horns are really neat. I'm curious if they are decorative or have some other use?

Kassidy, Look on the internet for instructions for a long 4 bight turkshead that's all the base for the one string nose button is & there should be some instructions for raising it to a 6 bight too if you need to. Good luck. Buck

Kassidy, I don't know what your skill level is, so this may or may not help. The one string nose button is just a long 4 or 6 bight turkshead with either a pineapple or gaucho interweave. I start out with a long string about 16 ft. for the base knot & go however far that goes & then finish up with a 12 ft. string. Once you've done a few you can adjust your lengths (if you want to change colors for your interweave). Hope this helps. Buck

Brian, Really neat looking knot. Buck

What, huh, now I'm all confused. Truly Mike I think we're saying the same thing. You only tighten the string your bringing into the braid & watch it up higher in the braid to keep your tension equal from side to side as opposed to trying to keep every thing tight all the time. Ah shoot, I think I confused myself again. Gonna go braid something & test out the theories Buck

Greg, I'm with Joe, braid loose then pull tight. That way you watch your braid as it pulls tight up above & watch your tension & straightness as you go. It looks nice & some of the places that look a little off appear to me to be because your lace isn't really consistent. If you get set up to cut & split your own lace (or even up your boughten lace that will improve. Overall a nice job, keep it up. Buck

Tracy, Rit dye works fine, but will fade fairly quickly. To avoid this I first soak in ice water with vinegar when coming out of the dye. Then rinse it with hot water until water runs clear. This will set the dye & it won't fade. I think what millwright was referring to is if your using rawhide. I get the impression your using a tanned hide? If so, just dry & braid like you would with roo. Buck

Tracy, For core size subtract 4 times the thickness of your lace from the finished diameter you want ( you get 2 thicknesses of lace on each side where your braid crosses over). For lace width. take the circumference of your core & divide by the number of strands you want to use (in your case 8), that will tell you how wide your lace needs to be. For core you can use almost anything the right size, for a collar probably a piece of rope the right size or sewing machine belting. Good Luck, Buck

Mike, I'd enjoy it, but too far from my stompin' grounds & I'd have to come out of the hills. If you don't already know Aaron introduce yourself. He is a nice guy & a wealth of knowledge. Joe, give it a try & let me know what you think. I think that regular old Knox gelatin would work fine & is more easily available. Thanks Guys. Buck

I had an interesting conversation a while back with Aaron Winchell of Cal Classics. for those who aren't familiar, Aaron is a first class braider from Paso Robles, CA., you can check out his work online at calclassics.net. Aaron told me that he has always heard about keeping the "glue" in rawhide but no real explanation of what it was. He did a little research & decided that what we call glue is gelatin or maybe more properly collagen & is water soluble. He now wraps his hide in a damp towel rather than soaking, to remove less glue. I thought if it could be removed, maybe it could be replaced. I had a few strings around that were soft, punky, fuzzy & weak. I soaked them in a solution of water with a lot of Knox gelatin dissolved in it. The results were pretty impressive. There was a significant increase in life, firmness & strength. I figured if it helped junk that much, it should be good for the good stuff. With a little study, I discovered hide glue which is just a less processed form of gelatin. It's used by violin & furniture makers & some homesteader types make it by boiling rawhide for 24 hrs. or so. I went the lazy mans route & ordered some on E Bay. I dissolved it in water & a little heat from the microwave & came up with a gel of the right consistency. This made a good substitute for braiding soap & is actually good for the rawhide & is an excellent dressing as well. It seems to keep well in the fridge although it will go bad pretty quickly if stored setting out. It has always kind of bothered me to use soap on rawhide & in the case of Fels Naphtha soap, naphtha is a petroleum based solvent (on the other hand it has been used for at least many decades with no apparent harm). Any way, the hide glue mixture work well & give rawhide a nice silky feel. Since this is something a little different than the norm, I thought it was worth sharing. Buck

Tracy, my experience with deer hide is as you said, it's really stretchy. Should work OK over a core. I can't think of any reason it wouldn't work fine for your buttons. Buck

I have a set of reins that I braided from some rawhide circles that I bought. They are too stiff & I have to condition them more frequently than stuff I have from rawhide that I made. Not sure what the difference is as some of mine was dehaired with lime like the commercial stuff. Hides I have dry scraped or done with dry ash are more pliable but still have good life. Like I said before, different hides processed the same way will vary as well. Joe's suggestion will help with finished projects & pulling the flesh side back & forth around the edge of a fine toothed file in a vice will soften strings before braiding which is kind of the same effect as a mordaza. Good luck, Buck

A true story indeed.

Rawhide has a certain amount of stiffness (life) to it & it will vary from hide to hide & how the hides are processed will make a difference as well. You can soften it up some with a good rawhide dressing. A friend recently told me that a guy showed him a piece of rawhide that was soft like leather & told him he soaked it in glycerin. Haven't tried it, but might be worth a try. You can soften it prior to braiding by tempering your rawhide, rolling it up hair side in & pounding it. This is what Grant shows in his book, but he doesn't give any details. Enrique Capone has more details in his first book & says pound it for about 1/2 hour a day for 10 days. Hope this helps. Buck

Hard to say. If your strings are too dry it's hard to get a nice tight braid, if too wet they will shrink up too much & leave your braid gapped. I would guess your problem might be not using the same amount of pull with both hands while your braiding. Most people tend to pull harder with their dominant hand. Getting & keeping the proper temper in your strings is probably one of the hardest things to learn & is different for everyone. You want them soft enough to be pliable, but if you feel any stretch in them or they feel kind of elastic, then they're too wet. Personally, I like my strings fairly dry & I don't like to rewet them while I braid. When I get the right temper I soap up all my strings with a braiding soap with beeswax in it that tends to hold the moisture in & if they start drying I throw the piece into my humidor for an hour or two & work on something else. For me, this works well & keeps an even moisture thru out. A lot of people who do far nicer work than I do have different methods, so it's just whatever works for you. Sadly there is a lot of trial & error involved, but there is no shortage of cows. Buck

Just something about the way the strings are pulled down kind of makes me think it's a possibility. Buck