HorsehairBraider

It's not just the tools though - you are so FREAKING ORGANIZED! I usually have to spend an hour or two cleaning my desk before I can find all my tools!

I can see it plain and clear... What a great idea! Thanks for this. I made my own stamp, so now I'll be able to figure the correct angle!

Looks good! I hate it when my ends come untucked, so I'll try and put them under at least three if I can. If I am tying them on a pair of reins and the knot is not supposed to slide I'll bury the ends in the reins, as invisibly as possible, to help the knot stay in place. If the knot needs to slide obviously you can't do that. You have to bury them in the knot, again as invisibly as possible. As for an "easy" method of tightening... I'm not going to lie and say it's easy, but learn to tie hard and fast the first time. Then you don't have to go back through and tighten. It means you tie the knot in place, where ever it is supposed to go, and tie at the right tension. You can start a little bit loose and as the final turns of the knot go into place the whole thing starts to get tighter. It takes practice though... so I won't claim it's "easy". I *HAD* to learn to do that. You can not go back and re-tighten horsehair; it's too brittle and will start to break on you. Then you have to do the whole thing over again. That's no fun at all, so I learned to tie it at the right tension right from the get-go.

That's much better - thank you! Actually noticed right away. There is something about it that just jumped out at me... but you know, it could have been one of the drawings where he is showing how it's done, or some of the knots are for a particular purpose and look different. But I feel much better now that the overs and unders all match!

How does my country compare? Well, in my country (the USA) traditionally this money has been handed out to corporations. The idea is the corporations will hand it out to their workers; what actually happens is, they hand it to the top 2% or so of their CEOs etc. These are the guys who already make as much in one year as "bonus pay" as I am likely to make in my entire lifetime. What the heck do they need all this money for?! Just how many homes, cars etc do these people need? However that is just how it's done. Giving it back to the taxpayer is a good idea, I think.... It's your money, you earned it, why should they give it to someone else? It does not make sense, to me, to give it to someone else, especially someone who does not need it. But I am just a horsehair braider. Rewarding people for being energy efficient strikes me as an excellent idea. We need to solve the energy problem globally. There are children coming after us, I guess I am crazy but I think we should think of them. Is it a good approach? Well, I don't know. It has not been tried here, so hard to say. It's worth a try though. We've been doing it the other way for years, and that has not helped. Why not try something different? After all, the definition of "stupid" is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results. But, you know, I am just a horsehair braider. So who knows.

I agree. Gives me chills just to think of it. A computer is a pretty amazing thing (when it works! )

Wow. What a perfect day you have just described. Except, I would have only gotten 12 conchos, and more chocolate.

What a cool trick! It looks wrong to me on the bottom, but maybe that's the way it's supposed to look.

Your computer did a pretty good job of translation! At the end though he is saying, "I'm sorry I can't give you more details about this person", I think that's a little closer to what he meant. Also at the start, he is saying, "Thank you for your words" or we might say "Thanks for writing", not "by your words". Amazingly close for a computer! What a cool guy, both the Leather Wizard and the photographer for writing back. It's a wonderful photograph. That's one I'd hang on the wall.

It works! Thanks, very nice work to be seen there.

I have no idea how everyone else does this... This is what I do and I think it depends on how much lace you have to do. I get my lace wet first. Then I put it in a jar (maybe an old jam jar) with the dye, close the lid (being sure to catch the end up in the lid so I can find it again) and shake the jar so all the lace gets covered, take off the lid, then I pull it out through my fingers (I wear gloves of course!) to sort of put back all the drips in the jar. Depending on how dark I want the color I sometimes then rinse the lace in water, and sometimes I don't... When finished I have a little dye left, usually I just leave it in the jar for the next time. Sounds weird but I get a fairly level dye on the lace like this. If I don't have to do much I do like you do. But if you have to do 100 yards of lace that gets a little old, not to mention it's hard to get the dye level from one end of the lace to the other.

Hey, sounds like fun! I'm glad your helpers had fun too, that is hard when you have no helpers and must do everything yourself... And there are always people like the person who tried to tell you the flask was "used" (I mean, what is up with that?! Does it hurt it if someone put water or something in it?) I just smile and remind myself to make a joke out of it later... I also actually had someone tell me a piece of my artwork was "used". Is the Mona Lisa "used"? Do people wear stuff out just by looking at it? You have to have a sense of humor to work with the public... they always make me laugh, sounds like you have the right attitude! When is your next event?

These are terrific - excellent advice! I don't think you've gone wrong anywhere. And as a side note, it is interesting how similar things are in the UK and the US. I would have thought they would have been different, and I would have been wrong. Again.

Welcome - and what beautiful work you do! That piece is just lovely. I am sure you will have fun on the site!

How beautiful! What fabulous work. Thanks for sharing to both of you.

Treasure every moment with those you care about, for you just never know... I think that is very wise of you to understand that. So many people don't... and of course, none of us will live forever.

The way I have always made browbands is to NOT fit tight. A little bump on the inside should really be no problem, as long as the browband actually fits the horse. Also I agree with Bruce Johnson - the screw should be the proper length. If the screw is so long it pokes the horse in the head, it is TOO long. Or, the browband is too short, one or the other.

Well, for me anyway, you would have to explain a lot more what it is you don't get. Can you do 2-loop Spanish edge braiding on leather? If you don't know how to do that, maybe try that first. It's exactly the same thing except there's no leather and no holes, which I guess could be confusing.

I don't use the one you've pictured, I don't like those at all... I do use these occasionally though: speedy stitcher. I don't own a sewing machine so when I need to do a repair I use it. I have also stitched knife sheaths together with it, or purses, things like that. But I've also repaired saddles. When I was quite young (a *really* long time ago, just use your imagination) I repaired a McClellan saddle for a cowboy. Years later he asked me if I wanted to buy a saddle from him. It was the same one, but I did not realize it when I bought it... it took another 10 years before I realized that. I had to do the same repair many years later, and recognized my own stitching!

I had one fail on me... I was trying to drag some firewood with the horn and it just came apart... no one got hurt and no one was in any danger, but then, firewood does not jump around and carry on like a cow. (Also my horse knew better than to cross me, and behaved throughout. ) That sort of thing makes me a traditionalist when it comes to gear. I'd rather have it over engineered than under...

I'm an American, I think everyone should be allowed their viewpoint and a chance to say it. My viewpoint is that the inauguration was really cool, I enjoyed watching all those people get together for a good purpose and to be happy, and I wish the new president all the best although he has taken on a very tough job. No doubt he will do something I don't agree with. But life is not about agreeing with what I think, so that's OK with me. He is starting out well and I have every hope it will continue that way. God bless the president of the United States of America.

Hi Raven... I happen to have an opinion on these as I have used them quite a lot. I have to say... I DO NOT like the type you show. I far prefer the speedy stitcher If you go to that site there is even a video, plus instructions. Now of course a sewing machine is way better. But I have stitched many a saddle or pair of reins back together with that tool, and it doesn't cost near what a leather sewing machine costs. If you live in the boonies like me, there just isn't anyone around with a good repair shop, so it can really help you put stuff back together again when you haven't got the time to drive all the way in to town. Once I learned how to use it I found it easy to use. By coincidence, my neighbor stopped by not two hours ago wanting me to stitch her reins. The guy in town can't do it as his machine is on the blink right now (town is 30 miles away) so she wanted to know if I could. Well, I don't have time... but in ten minutes I showed her how to do it. She stitched away while I watched, and within 15 minutes felt confident enough to go home and finish stitching her driving reins back together.

I know of a forum that also does something like JohnBarton suggests... there is a "nominate" button at the bottom of each post. People nominate things they feel are the best - in the case of that forum, best use of language. At the end of the month, the person in charge goes through all the nominations and picks out what they feel are the best 10. Then they put up a thread with the top ten, and everyone votes on which one they feel is the very best for that month. The winner gets a special little banner under their name for the month, that looks like a little medal of honor. Naturally some people are very gifted writers and win again and again while others (like me!) have never even been nominated... but it sure gives you something to strive for. It's made me pay more attention to my spelling and grammar. I'm sure a "Best of the Leatherworker" award would be inspiring to everyone.

I'd like to hear how it goes... naturally I'd be interested in the braided horsehair category (that doesn't exist yet). Didn't they used to have a show like this? I think maybe it was called "Trappings" and was held in AZ somewhere. Flagstaff, maybe?

Hey - that's cool that that species of bird were finally able to reproduce successfully. I hope they manage to eradicate the other invasive species too. I suppose this gives good information for other efforts like this. Well, that's how you learn... by making mistakes... The important thing is not to keep doing the same mistake over and over.