rawhide1

Opagon Those turned out very nice! Was the problem ya had with the first set due to the strings being a little to narrow. Other than not likeing the pattern with 12 strings (what sequence did you use) would it have covered alright. Thanks for sharing Mike

Freak It looks great!! I really like how this deer turned out. Thanks for sharing Mike

TomSwede I'm not sure if this answers your ?'s. But about 8yrs ago before I got on the fire dept I worked for a box company on 3rd shift running a big die cutting press. I made about $24,000 a year plus free insurance. I still have family that works there in different postions. And I'd say pay ranges now from $20,000 to $40,000 a year plus they have to pay for their ins. Machine oper. on 3rd shift will make the most. Sorry about kinda hijaccking the thread. I use tandies if I need anything which is not much and their close. When I worked for a tack co. we used herman oak and weaver they were great people to work with and ya couldn't beat their quality. Mike

WOW!! I'm not a bike person by any means but I would sure as heck ride something that looked like that!!! Great work Mike

welcome to the site!!! Nice looking work Mike

Heather I hope it's okay to call ya Heather. Very nice job on the leash. It will be interesting to see if useing the extra strings will fix the gaping on the reins. Good Luck!! Mike

Well said!!! Mike

Well Nick I hope I can get down there and see ya. Newton is just 20 miles North and I live about 10 miles East of Newton. How long will ya be in Wichita? Mike

Opagon I think they look great! I plaited over a pair of those flat racing reins one time for my wife. I think it was a sixteen strand braid. If I remember right I only needed to use 14 or 15 to cover the dia. of the reins. But I went with the sixteen strands and I didn't get any gapping when they were used. I don't know if it was because I used more strings than needed or if it was fools luck. I know thats not much help but thats about all I can offer.Mike

Crow While no master by any means I think your off to a great start. Just keep after it and you will get better with with time an practice. I know its hard to know what your doing right or wrong(width and thickness of strings, beveled not beveled ect..) with no other work to compare yours to. Thats way this is such a great site you can get many opinions from a lot of different folks. But if ya get a chance to stop by a tack store or theres a horse show it's awful nice to be able to study others work. Me and the wife just got back from Vegas and while there we went ot the cowboy Christmas show there were hunderds of vendors there. So I had plenty of braided gear to study!!! Some was excellent (probably should be hung on a wall and not used) and some was pretty poor ( should probably be thrown in the corner and not used) my point being if ya can get to a show and study braided gear it will help you a lot. Mike

Thanks for the comments! Horsehairbraider those long knots are built useing 1 long piece of rawhide about 6foot. It's easier for me than multi strings. I've never built a bosal(in my plans when I get better)but I'm sure when I go to build the nose button I'll use the multi string method. The collar will just be used as a go up town collar so hopefully it wont get chewed up. Thanks Rayban and I'm glad people like the bracelet. Mike

Mr. Johnson Thank ya very much for your travel guide!!! I had no idea about the other shows at the different hotels. Were staying at the hilton and I think part of the package includes the shuttle bus. And I'm diffently going to try Binions if the banker (wife) says we have the funds. Who knows it may be bologna and day old bread but well worth it.. It looks like there's plenty to do. Now if I can only find a computer to use when I get there so I don't have to go without this site. Thanks again Mike

Well tommrow afternoon me and the wife are headed out to Vegas!! We're going to watch the first round of the NFR Thursday. This well be my first trip to Vegas but my wife went probaly 20 years ago to watch the NFR with her dad. I'm pretty excited about seeing all the vendors that will be there and what kind of stuff they will be selling. The only down side is I'am already missing my kids and I aint even left yet. I was wondering if anybody on this forum set up at the cowboy Christmas. Mike

Here is a dog collar I just got done with. I'm fixin to leave for vegas tommrow afternoon but when I get back I hope to get going on a matching led. Any feedback on how to improve the looks of the collar would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Mike

I think it all looks great!! I really the the saddle bags and the sepreate holster. Thanks for sharing Mike

Very nice I like the colors. Mike

Pip I have to agree with ya. Sometimes stuff I have to deal with really makes me question the human race but then I experiance something like that and it gives me hope for people again. Mike

Nice looking work! Can't wait to see more. Mike

Well I just wanted to share a experiance I had to day. This morning when I showed up to work at 7am my Lt. told me we had to get our antique firetruck (1926 Lafrance) down to the Wal-Mart. So we got it down there and the other station sent a front line pumper. The Salvation Army and a radio station out of Wichita was also there. They were going to be collecting toys all day for needy kids. Well anyway we left the 26 there with a retired Chief and came on back to the station. Well later on at about 20:00hrs (8:00pm) we get a call to come get the 26 and then to go help the salvation army unload the toys at there building. When we get there they have a box truck plum full of toys. I mean it took me and another firefighter over a hr to unload that truck. There were bicycles and every kind of toy ya could think of. The staff said they had collected over 3,000 toys. Needless to say that has been the highlight of my day so far and just impressed the heck out of me with how generous people can be. There will be alot of happy kids come Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I'm so long winded but I wanted to share that great experiance.Mike

Freak Thank You very much for leading me to that thread. Mike

Well I'm kinda of slow so freak had to led me to this thread and I'm glad he did!!!!!! SO I want to say a big THANK YOU Johanna for starting this site. It gives me something to do besides yelling at the kids and kicking the dog. Just kidding about kicking the dog! Thanks Mike

I just want to say hey to everyone and I hope ya'll are doing fine. And I was wondering how this site got started. I would luv to know the history of this great site. I'm not a computer guy by any means as a matter of fact I hate the things and think they will be the ruin of all things that are good. But I must admit this is a great site and I spend a lot of time on it. Much to the amazement of my wife and I'm not even looking at nasties. So if anyone can help me out it would be much appreciated. Thanks Mike And I would like to say a great big THANK YOU to everyone that keeps it running!!!

Welcome i always enjoy seeing others work!!! Mike

I marked apprenticed which is kinda what it was. Right out of high school I went to work for a wholesale place called Western Heritage. And the fella that ran their shop was a man by the name of John McBeth and he had two boys Bart and Blake that also worked fer him. And between the three of them they taught me how to make headstalls,breast collars, reins,flanks, braided gear, and a number of other items. About the only thing we didn't make was saddles. So I worked there fer a couple of years and then John and his boys left and I was put to running shop fer about a year or so. Well I couldn't keep production up with all the stuff they were selling to TSC stores and everyone else without dropping quality. Which I wouldn't do so they kinda of run me off. But I used to braid a lot of mystery reins and tye downs for them. So that got me going on braiding. So know 10-15yrs later I've tried to pick the braiding back up but this time with rawhide. But those years I worked for John and his boys was the most fun I've ever had. Sorry for going on so much Mike

Looks great!! I really like the tooling and the knife work on the inside. Thanks for sharing Mike