rcsaddles

One of the issues I have with doing repair work is, will it look nice enough that when someone sees it they will want me to do repair work on their stuff? I have people tell me a lot that it does not matter what it looks like just fix it. It does matter what it looks like because that is advertisement for me. I understand the time and waste thing but it is not your fault that the dog chewed the leash and if they have to buy a new leash and wait a little while for it, they may be more careful with it in the future. You can reuse the hardware but make sure you charge for your time.

IMO you will have a hard time getting it to look right. What is going to be the cost difference in making a new one and trying to reapir the one you got? I would opt for making a new one.

Very nice.

Cheryl, I will be at the Bethesda building Friday so, Yes, we will meet up after class on Friday night. There is a customer appreciation at Sheridan Leather on Friday night. Everyone goes to it. We will have time to chat as it is on the way back to the Holiday Inn. I look forward to meeting you. Please Look for me around the building. I will be loading stuff after my class on Friday night. Look for teh grey Chevy 4 door pickup with the Montana license plate. You can even call me at noon on Friday. I'll be running somewhere to get lunch but probably a little behind the rush. Which class are you taking there? Then I know where to look for you.

Cheryl, My name is Joe Boyles. I will be over at the Bethesda building for my classes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoon. If you can, Call me on Saturday morning, 406-366-3469 and we can meet there at the Holiday Inn before noon. I'll introduce you to some braiders I know. Travel safe, Joe

I am teaching a Four Strand Stock Whip Braiding class in Sheridan, WY this Friday at teh Rocky Mountain Leather Show. I have room for 6 people and only have three signed up at this time. Everyone will braid a complete whip as well as cut out one to take home with them. It is an 8 hour workshop and we will cover all parts of the whip braiding. I'll supply the Ron Edwards book Whip Braiding 1. I will also have four whip braiding stands there to use and will sell them if anyone is interested in one. I'll be in Sheridan from Wednesday evening until some time Sunday. Please say hi and introduce yourself if you see me there. Thanks

I seem to remember something about a "flint hide" and am thinking that is a hide that was salted and then used for rawhide. I think I would have to agree with Buck. At the very least, you will know how it reacts, what might work and might not. One thing I have always said is I try to learn from other peoples mistakes because there is no use making them over. You would have knowledge on this to share with others.

I use this tool all the time. I use ot to resize and then bevel lace, both roo and rawhide. There should be a video on the www.y-knotlace.com shortly on how to use this beveler. I have about three different bevelers and this is my "go to" tool. It is advertised at $180.00 and in my opinion, worth every penny. Feel free to ask more questions.

I did the lime method on a horse hide over Christmas and I am thinking that is the way to go on horse. I cut the hide into pieces such as both hips, both sides and then I used the 6 inch wide strip down the back as a piece. I put them in a barrel with lime water. It froze around the outside so I put a tarp over it and a little electric heater going. I had this in a shop with no insulation and no heat. I stirred it about 4 to 6 times a day. I noticesd that after about day 8 the hair was starting to slip. I did not have time during the week to do anything with it so on day 10, I got teh hide out to remove the hair. I was wondering how I was going to do it so I threw the first piece out on the ground. We had snow at the time. and used a garden hoe to scrape the hair. Let me tell you, when you think the hair is just starting to slip, wait another day or two if you can. It took all of about 15 minutes to remove the hair from all five pieces. I then put the pieces back in teh barrel, after dumping the lime out, and used it to rinse them. I must have put clean water in and stirred it about 20 times until the water was clear. Then I put them in a bucket with about three gallons of water and a cup of white vinegar. I left it in that for about 12 hours and then used water and baking soda to neutralize everything. I then stretched the pieces on a piece of plywood and let them dry. More after I cut some string.

Thanks for the post, Buck. One of the things I think is most important about this forum and Leatherworker.net is the ability and willingness of people to share in their experiences with their work. I know that experience is a great teacher and most of us learn the lesson better when we make the mistake, but I also believe that when I make a mistake, I should share it so others can skip that step and advance in their knowledge.

Ok, don't have the pictures downloaded yet but here is an update. I took the hide out of the lime on Friday afternoon. I put it out on the ground and used a garden hoe and "scraped" the hair off. Took all of about 15 minutes. I rinsed the hide until it ran clear water, then into water and vinegar. I left it in the vinegar for about 12 hours, then into water with some baking soda. Will take it out of there in the morning, (Sunday) and cut a soga and then split it.

The hide has been in the lime for a week now and it appears that the hair is really starting to slip. I will have half a day at work today and then, work on the hide. I'll try and get a few pictures to post. Happy New Year, everyone.

I had a guy contact me in July about braiding him a set of rawhide reins. He called me recently and said he had a horse that he had to put down and would like me to use that hide to make his reins. I was more than happy to say yes. I'll be making a set of split reins with a few buttons on them. I have also heard from Nate Wald and Enrique Capone about the lime. They both say to dump it anywhere. Wont hurt anything. I don't "plan" on doing another hide this winter so I will just dump the water.

I got my first horse hide two days before Christmas. I have it in teh lime and have my 12 year old son stirring it while he is on Christmas break from school. I don't think the hair will slip for about a week as it is below freezing but I have the barrel wrapped to try to keep it from freezing. Any of you that have used teh lime for dehairing, what do you do with the lime water when you are done? I hearrd to put it on a garden spot but with the ground frozen, not sure that will work. Any suggestion?

Very nice.

If you want to do a round braid and have a dee ring on each end, I would suggest that you go to a flat braid at the end. Then you back braid around the ring.

Stunning, absolutely stunning!

My rawhide teacher was Mary Fields from Bonanza, Oregon. I will explain the way she taught me, and how I do things. It is open for discussion and I wll say now, take whatever advise and ideas you can get and adjust them to work for you. I guess I should say that when I skin a cow, I will skin from the top of the shoulder, down to the belly line on each side and up in front of the tailhead. Kind of a big circle. If I take the hide off the critter, I will lay it out on the ground with the hair side down. I will give it an hour or two or whatever it takes to start getting some firmness to it. I then use a utility knife and start in the middle of the hide and cut a strap about 1 1/4 inch wide. I just kind of corkscrew out. Of course you need to be on the lookout for a brand or two or three, as well as any other blemishes that will affect the quality and intergity of the rawhide. If the hide is already dry, I will soak it and tehn start cutting my strap. The reason for the utility knife is that I can change the blade often. Once the strap is cut, I will tie one end to a post and stretch it as far as I can and tie to another post. I will then tie a rope in the middle of the strap, which can be as long as 140 feet, and pull it over to one side and tie it to something solid. This is to take more stretch out of the rawhide. I then use my pocket knife to scrape the hair off the hide. this can take up to four or five hours of scraping. If the strap is too wide, as it dries, it will curl and be a bugger to scrape. Once the hair is all scraped off, I can either store the strap or soak it and split it. If splitting, I put that strap in a barrel of water for a day or so until it is the consistency of spaghetti. I will then run it through my splitter taking a paper thin slice at a time. I might have to pull it through the splitter up to 10 or 12 times. Don't try and hurry this process. If you get carried away and think you are doing great and can go faster, that is when the strap will curl and you will cut through it. That, is experience speaking. After splitting, I usually hang the strap up so that it is not touching itself. Usually in the shade or out of sunlight to start the tempering process. I usually hang it over an old clothes drying rack, running ut back and forth across it. As the strap starts to dry, the edges will become hard and the middle will still be flexible. When it gets like this, I put the strap in a plastic bag for a couple of hours to "mellow" or temper and it will all come back to an even moisture content. Usually at this point, the hide is ready to cut string. As Rob mentioned, when it is ready and cutting great, there is nothing better than just cutting that string. This may sound strange but... when I start to cut my string, I take a ver narrow string off first to make a good straight edge. I will be taking this off of the "inside" cut of the strap. Yes, you can tell which is the inside fo the cut and wwhich is the outside. I always cut from teh inside to the outside. Remember, this is the way I was taught and the way I make my rawhide. I am not saying it is the only way or the best way to make rawhide. When I first met Mary, she was in her 70's. I told her I was looking for a young lady that could teach me everything I needed to know about rawhide. She laughed and said she cuold teach me all the mistakes. I often asked "why" on the techniques she used. She always told me she had tried different ways and this was the way she found that worked the best but I could try it another way. If you don't know, Mary Fields is in teh Bruce Grant Encyclopedia of Leather and Rawhide Braiding. She passed away the summer of 2013. I believe she was in her 90's. She and I bacame pretty good friends and she even signed by Bruce Grant book for me.

Very nice, Rob. When I have a few minutes or a half hour, I will post how I do the rawhide from start to finish just as a comparision and as more info. Sorry for the arguement, Buck. We have to make our own fun here in Montana. You just opened the door for me.

Don't listen to Buck. Some of us have ruined more than a few! His advise is good, I was only talking about the last statement.

Very nice, Brian. Is teh interweave on the buttons rawhide?

Thank you. I have about five more sets to do. I will post more pictures as I get them done.

The set on the green background was sent to me by a customer in Texas. They use them to rattle in bucks while hunting. Need to have a high number of bucks in the area to make it work as it sounds like two are fighting, which means the "girls" are close by. The other set will go to a shop in Houston, TX to be sold. Tramp, probably want bigger ones for the Harley!

Thank you.

Here is a set of antlers that I braided around. Each button is a single strand, 10 bight using about 15 feet of lace. I have problems with the width of lace, number of parts and bights so I have to experment to get it tight.