HorsehairBraider

Beautiful as always! And what fun those empty spaces are - conchos? More braiding? I bet you are having a good time with it! When you are finally done it will be a true work of art.

How many of you teach classes in braiding? I'd sure like to start a discussion about that. About 20 times a year someone or other will contact me (usually by phone) and want me to teach them everything I know about braiding over the phone. Imagine me beating my head on my desk now. !! How can you teach someone to braid over the phone?! I do not possess this rare skill. And usually the person calling thinks I'm just being difficult. It's given me the idea of offering a braiding workshop. Maybe a three day class, they would stay at the local hotel and I'd be there so many hours a day to teach. Anyway if any of you teach, I'd love to talk about it... if you like you can PM me, and I'd be happy to pass out my email address to talk to people about it. I'd love to hear your experiences, what you taught, how big of groups and so on. I have a great deal of teaching experience and I've even taught large groups with zero experience how to do real simple braids (a 4-strand round for example) and I have 40 years braiding experience. I think I could teach people a thing or two. What do you guys think?

Nice! I love it!

Terrific work. A beautiful spade, too. Do you ride with it? It's not so common these days to find one trained to a spade anymore, sad to say, so I hope you use it. Hope someone falls in love with that set at the exhibition!

Beautiful! Nice, smooth work. Thanks for sharing.

Nice! I like the fid work. That is something I've always wanted to do, maybe I'll do it soon. Yours turned out great.

Sorry, writing is not my strong point so I can't really do tutorials. It's the braid that Grant calls the double flat braid. I think he shows it in 9 and 13 strands in his book. Same braid, more strands! Hope that helps. And thank you kindly, Leatherpownder.

Pretty easy, really: tie the Turk's head or casa knot in one color, when you start doing the rest of the knot change colors. Easy peasy.

Oh wow, a zombie thread! @Paris7: You could try human hair conditioner. A moisturizing one would be best... one with coconut oil. That seems to penetrate the hair shaft. You could even try getting some coconut oil and rubbing it in. Honey is also a good moisturizer, but I don't recommend using it straight. Be careful though because the hair is no doubt fragile... hair DOES wear out, that's why horses grow new hair all the time. You might be able to breathe some new life into it though. @Dwing8: It's a 25-strand double flat braid. Hope that helps!

Just a gorgeous belt. I like how you are using a vise like that... I've got a stitching pony and usually use that, but the vise sure looks secure! Did you give it to him yet? I bet he absolutely loves it.

That's pretty clever, using plastic rings! The belt is beautiful. You *should* make things for yourself; how many times have you been talking to someone, said "I'm a braider" and then they don't know what it is. And you have nothing to show them, so they can see and understand!

The picture is not real big so I can't see it real well (eyes not as good as they used to be!) so I just have to guess, but it looks to me like the thinner sections are a 4-round braid, and they go into an 8-flat. I think paracord would work fine. In fact I think you could make a real dandy one out of paracord. My suggestion would be, make a practice one out of baling twine, you know it will be smaller but that's OK, then get some real nice paracord and make it out of that. Should be real stout! ETA: Oh, forgot the other question. I have seen instructions in Grant's Encyclopedia that show going from a round to a flat. You might be able to figure it out from seeing how he makes hobbles and so on.

Nice as always... good work! And what a great way to spend a holiday.

Also... don't you find is to satisfying to see the inevitability of the math coming out before your very eyes? There is something that just soothes the soul to see that... especially (for me) if it is very tiny.... Nice work! I like the shape of your tools too. They look very useful to me.

I haven't been here for ages, I check in just to see what's going on and I get to see this... what a treat. I love that braid and use one of them in my work. Very nice, your customer should be very satisfied!

What a great use of something that would normally be discarded... we waste so much, including people... I've made myself a fid from a very small screw driver. It already had the handle, so I just ground it down and polished it to my satisfaction. Most of the time I am working very very small so I prefer a fid much smaller than most people would want. I am happy to see someone else doing very fine work! It just warms the heart!

I wanted to respond to this first, as it is not actually true... the Gaucho braids are intrinsically round, even without a core. Of course they are more difficult and not many people do them, so if you are going with braids that most people do, this is indeed true, but just not true for the Gaucho braids. Next, to Saint, to do this braid, start out with an 8. When you feel confident, move to the 16. It will be exactly the same, except where I say "two" it will be "four" so where I say "under two, over two" it will be "under four, over four". Set up so that you have two blacks, then two tans, on the right. Then set up two blacks, then two tans, on the left. So the blacks will start. First black, the top one on the R, goes all the way around the back of the rest, UNDER the two blacks on the L, and OVER the two tans on the L. Then the top left black goes: all the way around the back of the rest, UNDER the black and first tan on the top right, then OVER the tan and black. Then the R top black goes all the way behind the rest, UNDER the top black and the top tan on the L, then OVER the tan and the bottom black. Think of it this way: Top string on the R goes all the way behind the rest, under two and over two. Top string on the L goes all the way behind the rest, under two and over two. To do 16, it's exactly the same except top R goes all the way behind the rest, under four and over four. Top string on the L goes all the way behind the rest, under four and over four. Piece of cake. You can change the color patterns in this braid simply by changing where you put the colors when you start out. Experiment, starting with the 8. Put all the blacks on the R, and all the tans on the L, and see what happens. Do two blacks on the top, two tans on the bottom on the R, and two tans on the top, two tans on the bottom on the L and see what happens etc.

Very nice! I like your knots. A terrific example of how we can add art to our everyday lives.

Love the brow band. I've done that in horsehair and it turns out really cool! I like your "between the ears" idea, that is really neat and I've never seen it before. The mule looks less than enthused. You would think a mule would be thrilled to pieces to be wearing such a beautiful work of art, well, that is mules for you!

I've got a cutter/splitter/beveler from White Buff of this forum. Some where around here there is a thread about that. It's got pictures and everything... I'll see if I can find it later on today.

Take this with about a pound of salt, because I'm not known for braiding rawhide... But when I *do* braid rawhide, I always temper it in a damp towel. I have no idea if that would make a difference or not, that's just the way I've always done it. Sounds like an aggravating problem, hopefully someone with more of a clue than me can help you out.

Beautiful work and a pleasure to see it. What width are your strings? That is some real fine braiding.

That used one is so polished it almost looks wet! I really like the way you finished off the lacing on the wear leather. That is a real nice touch. The other one is also beautiful, and it's great that you use your stuff. Very nice work.

Oh wow, lucky you! Those wooden fids are gorgeous!

Thank you, Miguel, for this information. I will look this up. I really admire fid work and I'm always anxious to learn more and see what others have done. Nice work again, Brian. Also inspiring because it is unusual.