bucksnort

TXAG, I don't know where the pic went, I saw it yesterday. Anyway, it looked good, I like the pattern. Buck

Brian, Am I correct in assuming that you braid it over a dowel first? Thanks, Buck

Brian, That's a beauty, she'll be tickled. Buck

Thank you much. Joel, keep us posted on how they turn out. Buck

Thanks guys. GrampaJoel, My camera isn't good enough to get the detail, but if you braid 8 strands under 2 over 2 (12 is under 3 over 3, 16 is under 4 over 4) without a core you get 4 distinct faces. Opposing sides will match, on 2 side the v's are up & 2 sides are down. If you braid it over a core it will turn out round. This is kind of the old time ranch standard. Some like it because they can feel the difference between the reins & a riata. Since you're not braiding over a core, you use thicker strings which will take more abuse than thinner strings over a core. I also prefer the life & feel to reins with a core. Hope you all have a Happy & Prosperous New Year. Buck

Finished a little earlier today. Reins are 8 square split to two fours. Romal is 12 square. I made these to sell, but kind of like them, may have to keep them. I started braiding to make better stuff for myself than I could afford to buy, now I sell all the good stuff & keep the stuff I make mistakes on. Buck

No pics?

No, the knot has to be tight first. Start at the beginning & follow clear thru the finished knot tightening as you go. With practice you'll figure out how snug to make your base knot so that you don't have to do much tightening if any. Pounding & rolling is just to even out the finished knot. Good luck & hang in there. Buck

Sounds like they need to halter break those hounds a little better. Buck

Tracym, I use the 2 part epoxy to fill gaps & smooth out under back braids & heel knots, but wouldn't recommend it on slide buttons, I think the movement & flexing would cause it to break apart. For smaller diameter buttons, I work the button directly on the braid & use a ring knot on each end thru the braid to keep it from moving. For building up & shaping buttons, my personal favorite is Sealtex track bandage over a ring knot. It is latex rubber that sticks only to itself & is tan in color, so it doesn't show thru any small gaps too bad. I'm sure others will give some other methods & you'll be able to come up with what suits you best. Also, if you check past posts, I think I recall seeing this covered before. Good Luck & Merry Christmas. Buck

Thanks Brad, Merry Christmas to you & yours as well. Buck

You're on a roll. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Buck

That's what I'm talkin' about. I thought it might turn up some neat techniques. That's one I've never heard of, but I like it. Buck

Don't know what the procedure is to get a post pinned, but this is a great candidate. Buck

That question may bring up some interesting answers. With practice you'll get to where you keep them more even &he tension right while your tying them. I roll them, pound with a piece of hardwood (I use a piece of a pick handle on a marble slab) & even up the ends with curved needle nose pliers. Be neat to see what others do. Buck

Now your getting what I was talking about with overthinking. Leatherpownder actually answered the question with his original post, it's a four pass pineapple. Merry Christmas All. Buck

No problem, the crossovers are tough. The tutorial Leatherpownder put together should get you on track. Merry Christmas. Buck

Wow Bret, Great job & I know I'm not the only one who appreciates all the work you put into it. Merry Christmas. Buck

Thank you Mike. TXAG, The body is a piece of 8 strand 1/8 diameter waste from the necklaces I made, doubled to make the loop for the popper The plait strings are 3/32. I cut my strings with a draw gauge. A standard draw gauge will only cut down to 1/8,by grinding & filing I got mine down to 3/32. Can't cut strings any smaller, but for most of what I do it's fine. Thanks again to everyone for the kind comments & support. Merry Christmas. Buck

TXAG, I can't give you an over under sequence because I just tend to do things by what looks right at the time. Just remember the standard rules, always split pairs & exit the same (over or under) as the strand you are following. On the first part of the turkshead your over 2 under 2, next your over 3 under 3 & so on with each part. The problem you may be having is not moving to the right each time. On the first part you parallel the standing end, on the next you parallel the strand that paralleled the standing end, with each part you are move over one strand further from the original standing end. The beauty of a turkshead is you can make your crossover at different points if say you only want to fill in a certain part in the center, such as with a heel knot or a tapered nose button where the diameter is larger, this may be what they are talking about with different types. Granted it is very easy to get lost in a pineapple & the more passes you make, the more complicated it gets. When you think you have it, you'll screw up the next one totally. That's my pep talk for the day (my wife tells me I'm not very good at it,I wonder what she means by that?) Hang in there. Buck

I may be wrong here, but it appears to me your way overthinking this. All pineapple knots are tied on a turkshead base. For even # bights you begin with a 2 bight & however many passes you decide to make it the right length. Every time you add a full pass to the base knot, it adds 2 bights,so 2,4,6 & so on. More bights add more to the diameter of the knot more parts add to the length. The pineapple adds passes without adding bights to fill in without adding bights, For an odd # of bights, you start with a 3 bight turkshead & every pass adds 2 bights, 3,5,7 ect. he books & stuff on the net like to give a lot of different names to what is pretty much the same thing. A pineapple is a pineapple, just depends on the # of parts & bights. Hope this helps. Buck

Thanks Guys. Help yourselves to the design I'm sure the patent is expired. Buck

From what I can tell, it looks like continuous crowning. Basically you make one wrap & tie a overhand knot, then continue looping it thru your 1st wrap all the way around (like sewing a whitp stitch). Back at your starting point, you loop it thru the loops from the pass before & so on. Hope that makes sense, I haven't looked, but there may not be anything on the net to show how & I've never seen directions in a book. Grant shows a pic of a bosal where the heel knot is done with continuous crowning but no directions. I wouldn't say it was common practice, but it wasn't uncommon in the Central Valley of California to use this method for buttons on reins ect. I'm told it is a good way to use up short pieces, you just keep adding in as you go. I've only seen one set of reins done this way (but have seen pics on the net), it's kind of cool looking, different & simple. Hope this helps. Buck

I think the idea is simply to try & replace the natural oils that soap removes. Everybody has their own ideas, but most of the old timers I've been around used either saddle soap or yellow laundry soap (Fels naptha soap) then treated the finished job with a mixture of tallow & beeswax. This may just be what popular in my area. Saddle soap is expensive & ivory or yellow soap are cheap. I've been told that rats & mice don't like the yellow soap, but I don't know what difference that would make in the long run since they love tallow (so do dogs). Some of the modern formulas are more advanced & take PH into account which is suppose to help preserve the rawhide better, but I have rawhide that's been in use for over 75 years & is still in great shape. Hope this is of some help. Buck

The guy at the slaughterhouse where I get hides in a pinch (If I can't find free ones) said, a lot of our hides go to waste I feel kind of guilty charging you for them. Since I'm such a sensitive person, I told him I didn't want make him feel bad by paying for them. He said that he could use a key ring, so now we're both happy. Buck