rawhide1

Mike I believe that adding dishsoap to your water breaks the surface tension of the water making it penatrate your leather easier. Mike

Welcome Medic this is a great site lots of help for any ?'s ya might have regarding leathercraft. What department are ya on. I'm a career firefighter/EMT for Newton Fire/EMS glad to have ya. Mike

Have any of ya guys/gals that make rawhide ever used clippers to remove the hair once the hide is cured. Will this work or does it not clip the hair close enough for smaller strings leaving stubble. Thanks Mike

Great looking stool I like the pattern a lot and the lacing looks great. The dish you had sounds like chicken mole. Mike

Thank you for your replie KAW. With everything considered (ease of getting) I think I will use the white saddle soap that Mr Bell and you suggested. Mike

Regis if ya decide to get a splitter ya might look in the market part of the forum. I just got a 8" model 84 from Greg Gomersall and I think he has a couple of model 86's and another splitter cant remember what it was thuogh. He's a heck of a nice guy and would answer any of your ?'s hope this helps some Mike

Thanks Mr. Bell I will try that when I run out of the cream.

Hello hope evryones doing good and having fun. I have a couple of questions about the use of tallow and liver. First can you use tallow on any rawhide gear such as romel reins, bosals, and reatas ect... 2nd Does it ever go rancid and start stinkin makin your gear have a odor. 3rd How much do you use and how often. I've used the vaqureo rawhide cream and like it but it's kind of pricey and lastly I read somewhere about useing liver on a reata. What do you use it for and how do you use it and prepare it to be used so you dont have blood all over your gear and do you just use it on reata's only. Just some stuff I was wondering about and would like to try and use. THANKS Mike

Sorry Greg I should of put CharlieR names in the post my mistake!!!!!!!!Mike

Greg I just bought one from Smuckers Harness Shop for $95.00. They took a old one they had and made a some copies out of stainless steel. They said a guy would have to do a little work on them as they didn't come out perfect. But that it shouldn't take to much to make it work good. It has 15 holes but I dont remember the sizes. And I figured heck whats a fella got to loose except for $95.00 all the ones i've seen on ebay go for at least a couple hundred bucks. I should have mine by the end of the week. You can go to their website at smuckersharness.com and see the one they have for sale. Their phone# is1-717-445-5956 call them with ?'s their a nice group of people. Hope this helps when I get mine i'll post how it is. Mike

Great job!!!! Very nice looking whip. Mike

Mr. Gomersall the 8" keystone splitter you have for sale is that the model 84. I don't know much about them but the model 84's i've seen look like they would be good for splitting rawhide and roo for braiding. What do you think. I would like to see a picture but not sure where to post email addresse. Here or somewhere else. please excuse my lack of computer skills. Thanks mike

LAPat do you have the encyclopedia of rawhide and leather braiding by Bruce Grant it is a excellent book for turks heads and braided knots and much more. There is also a series of books by Gail Hought they are pricey but worth it in my opion. If your just starting it would be best to buy the first in her series because each additional book builds on knots learned from the previous books to build projects. I didn't relize this and bought The Art of Braiding Romel Reins 1. But between that book and Bruce Grants books and hours of trail and error (slow learner some say rocks in my head) I was able to figure out what I needed to which was how to expand the long button knot to any length. Which is what you need to do to cover your turn back on your leash. Or you could use the cowboy button knot. I think for the money Bruce Grants encyclopedia of rawhide and leather braiding or how to make cowboy horse gear also by MR. Grant would be great books for you and help you alot. Wish ya luck Mike

KAW first of all you do great work and your examples you posted really gives a feela something to work towards. Well with the mushy stuff out of the way. I was wondering when you braid a core do you use leather or rawhide and is there a formula (big word for me) you use for string width&thickness to get your core dia. Or is it just trial and error. Thanks Mike

Theres one at www.leatherbraidingtools.com it's kind of pricey but it looks like it would work good. You might check with your local high school. The one in town near where I live has a nice machine shop so I called them up and and asked if they could make me one. Their teacher said sure I just needed to bring by some plans or a picture of one. So now i'm waiting for the kids to get er done. When I asked him about the cost he said it was just a donation of what a fella thouht it was worth. So if it turns out ok I'll be tickled pink. I just dont know what to pay them. I figure if it would cost me $250-$300 to by one then I would give them a $100 bucks. Seeing as the kids dont get the money and it should easlie cover the cost of materials for them. Any thouhts on if thats fair or not. Didn't mean to ramble on so much. Hope something in there helps.Mike

I want to thank everyone for their repley. It loks like I will stay with the round leather belting for my cores it seems to be the best. I bought my belting thru Oregon Leather (541)343-2563. Their 3/16" is $1.45 a foot or you can buy 100' for $125.00 the 1/4" is $1.85 a foot or $164.00 for a 100' and the 5/16" is 2.95 a foot or $260.00 for a 100'. I don't know if it's cheaper anywhere else or not. But if anyone knows of it cheaper let me know. Thanks Mike

Hello I hope everyone is doing fine. I was wondering what ya'll use for a core when you build rommel or roping reins. I'm fixing to braid a pair of roping reins for the wife and i'm going to use a piece of round 3/16" leather but it was kind of pricey. So I was wondering what else a fella could use that would be as good but cheaper for next the pair I do.THANKS Mike

Thanks Elton for the replie. I work with a fella that raises them big critters so i'm thinkin I might give it a try. It will be a few months yet before he butchers them. But I should be able to get them cheap. And it will also be my first time trying to make rawhide so here's wishing for luck. Mike

Hi I hope everyone is doing fine. I was wondering if any one has used rawhide made from buffalo and if so how does it compare to cow rawhide. Thanks Mike

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I live east of Newton which is 20 miles north of Wichita. I would like to post some pic. Once I figure out how to use my wife's camera and put it on the computer. Maybe if I sweet talk her she will do it for me. It's kind of sad but my 8yr old can use this thing way better than me. I really don't even know if this is going where it's supposed to go.Once again thanks for the welcome. Mike

Hello just thought I would say hello. I used to work in a tack shop making reins, headstalls, and other related items and a little tooling. But my main focus now is braiding with rawhide and kangaroo. I've been messing with it off and on for a few years but finally decided to get serious. Some of my projects will include the use of tooled leather for poppers and some headstalls. So I thought I would hang out in the shadows and learn what I could. So I might have a ? every now and then. Thanks for letting me on your site. Rawhide1