HorsehairBraider

Thank you so much for sharing, Jim.

I've made rawhide slip hair before by putting it in water... cold, hot, whatever but it takes about a week. I kept changing the water several times a day (because it gets really smelly depending on the time of year) but keep checking and it'll eventually slip. If you have a running stream that's nice (except for the people downstream) but my stream does not run all year and in any event is about a mile from the house, so I don't use it for this purpose. I'll bet you can salvage it, but it is going to take a while.

Drac, that's a great idea to use 2-sided tape. I often have to cut extremly fine lace, so thanks for the tip!

Nice job, Randy! I like the silver accents. Beautiful! What I always say is, if their money is green, I'll take it! You probably made the customer *very* happy because they sure aren't going to walk into a tack store and find a unique item like that. It turned out great.

Clay, that's nice! You've even got the eyes, nose and tongue shiny so they look like they are wet. That embossing is a really neat technique for showing depth.

Wow, that's very cool! I'll have to try that on one of my little tiny hackamores. That's a very sharp looking knot, and what a great idea!

Here's one place to buy it: Oxalic Acid Crystals I have used it in dyeing fiber, but I don't know why a leather person would want it. Here is a Wikipedia article about it, and it lists a lot of uses. Perhaps someone who has used it will chime in and enlighten us all.

Glad to hear you are still up to this! I'm anxious to try one out. I sure understand about "crashes" - computers are great when they work, but then sometimes they quit (or crash) and you can't figure out why. Good thing cars don't do that...

Rio Grande (a jeweler's supply place) sells a couple of things that might help. One is leather finger guards. They go on the thumb and forefinger. Another is this stuff called "Alligator skin". It's like tape but only sticks to itself. You wrap it around the fingers that are going to get the worst puishment. These things are intended to protect from heat while polishing jewelry but should work for what you want. An alternative to Alligator skin is this stuff you can buy called Vetwrap. It's the same stuff, it just comes in wider rolls to be used to hold a bandage on an animal. Since I have horses, I can hardly imagine not having this stuff around, but in case you don't you could try a local vet. I bet they could sell you a roll for a couple of bucks and you could try it out and see if you like it. I think they even sell thinner rolls for use on dogs and cats that would work nicely for wrapping around the fingers. The leather finger guards do a good job too, and you won't have an entire glove on your hand which is nice. You could just cut some fingers off an old glove, and see if you like that method.

Clay - here's a pic of my tools. I should have added that giant penny... but I hope this gives you an idea of scale: most people have seen a scalpel blade. From left to right: First is my scalpel. Second, a sculpting tool made of polished agate that I use for a "pear shader", next is a dental tool, the next two are my plain "seeder" and my textured "seeder". Then my "mule foot", my "camoflauge tool", my "veiner". And then are two pieces of 10 gauge brass wire that I fabricated into "bevellers", one sharply triangular and the other a little wider. Next are my only two real tools - a beveler and a pear shader by Craftool, nos. B935 and P233. Then my solder pick (I really use it to pick up pieces of solder when I am soldering), and another one of those tools made from polished agate. In the center is the cantle back of a teeny saddle I am making. This was my first carving in donkey's years, a floral, and it's kind of bad but I am hoping I'll improve and that no one will notice on the cantle back of a teeny saddle! As far as it being a challenge to use such tools: ignorance is bliss. I can not remember using "real" tools, or doing full-size carvings, at all well. So I suppose I will have the exact same learning curve as someone new to carving, which I basically am. Scalpel blades aren't too hard to use if you hold them really close to the tip of the blade, and be really careful not to cut off any fingers. Thanks for what you said about my painting. You are obviously really kind! Hopefully people who join in will be able to accept other's opinions in a generous way. As for me, I used to be a sculptor, so when you finish your embossing you can expect some comments from me in turn.

I agree with Clay, with one tiny exception: when I get to the corner hole, I punch a round hole. The reason is I have to go through it 3 times like Clay says, and I don't want to weaken the leather with a longer slit while at the same time I want enough room to go through 3 times. My feeling is that a round hole in the corner solves these problems. The three layers of lace seem to fill the hole nicely. I am sure there are other ways to do it though.

The trend seems to be to add color somehow, so I decided to paint mine. I thought - "Hey! How could I possibly make it worse?" I painted sparingly because my taste is for leather paintings that you can tell are still leather. On doing it so small: first, I know I'm not very good, so I am messing up less leather this way! Second, my tools are not real leather tools. They are meant for stamping sterling silver. (I'm a jeweler.) So they are quite tiny. I don't have a swivel knife for example, but I do have a scalpel so that is what I used. Clay, you should not feel uncomfortable saying your opinion - isn't that the whole point? For my part I accept what is said here in the spirit I hope it was intended - in the spirit of friendly helpfulness. I hope anything I might say would be accepted the same way! I certainly intend it that way. Clearly I am no expert - but I still have an opinion, and I am sure everyone else does as well. From what has been said, I gather I should strive to make shallower cuts and perhaps fewer of them, and maybe add a few more details in things like the hair. I'll try to improve! Scouter, how did you do the nose? Did you cut it? Because you can clearly see it but it looks much better than mine. Personally, I would add whiskers but I would do it with a knife. Do you have a scalpel? :D MIne worked like a charm! I never thought of adding color with heat. I'll have to try that! It turned out very nice.

Well, I decided to give it a try. I drew a picture somewhere between the photo and the pattern. It's kinda small, hence the penny for scale. This is Tandy's "petite tooling calf" which I think is 1 - 1 1/2 ounce. Many years ago I did about 5 carvings (all pretty crappy) and then recently I did one very small one. I have never done figure carving before. So, I know quite well this is not that great, it's fine with me for you all to say so. But I am hoping I can learn, so that I can improve - so feel free to tell me where I went wrong.

Neat pattern! I think I am with you on the color - my taste is more to the traditional - but you know, if their money is green... It *does* show off the pattern really well though.

Glad you are here! I look forward to seeing pictures of your work.

Too bad on the pics that you can't get them larger! But these are lovely, thanks a lot. It looks terrific! The deer on the saddle turned out great. And I should have known that was kangaroo - it has that quality look!

I've got an old McClellan that I ride, but it's got the date pretty clearly stamped in a couple of places. Go over your saddle with a fine tooth comb and one of those visors jewelers wear and you just may find a date stamp. Mine even says where it was built. On the hardware, I got a reproduction on eBay that seemed to have all the hardware. It was a crappy saddle (the tree sucked!) but it did have all the hardware. I don't know what I am going to do with mine. You sure can't put it on a horse. But you might be able to get one on eBay with the hardware.

Oh man, I feel your pain. I've messed up so many things in my life... One of my tricks is to oil the crap out of something, but all that does is spread the dye more evenly. So, you would need to dye the whole thing by that method. And there is always black dye....

Clay, this is a great point, and perhaps I might ask yet another question? Just where on earth do you get tools, besides Tandy? For my whole life that was the only place I knew to get them. I have three of them still to this day. But I do not know where else to get them - so for the sake of any lurkers, (because I think my Google-Fu is up to the task), where do you get stamping tools for carving leather? And thanks, not just from me, but from all you lurkers out there who are too chicken to post.

I sometimes use one of these stitching awls: Stewart Speedy Stitcher if I need to do some stitching on a saddle or some other heavy leather. If you use it with a stitching horse you can actually get pretty good at it. My tips on using one are, always keep the groove in the needle oriented the exact same way for every stitch, and after making every stitch, roll the tool so that the thread winds up tighter. The thread can come untwisted, and it won't be as strong, so you want to make sure it stays twisted. Use one of those enough, and you'll probably come up with a creative way to get $2,000 for that machine! The reason I don't have a machine is I don't do enough stitching! :D

Thank you so much Clay - that helps enormously! And Robert Beard even supplies tools, apparently - I have written him and hopefully he will send me his catalog, so I can get some of those tools. He was using bevelers I had never even heard of. Some of those tools are exactly what I need! And the Painting Cow tutorial helps out with not only order, but depth of the bevel as well.

I have not carved for a very long time. In fact, when last I carved, dinosaurs still ruled the earth... I was pretty crappy at it anyway, so that was why I gave it up, but you are all so inspiring I thought I would try it again. However I can not for the life of me remember the tooling order for beveling. Sometimes you have areas that are very close to each other, but one area is supposed to be on top of, or in front of, the rest of the carving. Then you have another area really close by that is not supposed to be so high up in the carving - it's supposed to be in the background but still raised up from the actual background. No matter what I try, my beveler will hit BOTH areas at once - so which do I do first, the main part that is supposed to be higher in the carving, or the more background part that is not so important? Or does it matter? Also I wanted to ask about bevelers. Now, my carving is very little (of course) and my beveler seems HUGE (it is a Craftool B935) so I wondered if there is a place where I could get a truly tiny beveler. Or do you guys all make your own? Or do you use something else to get into those tiny little areas? Any help would be greatly appreciated...

I'm just guessing... so please go ahead and try because I might be wrong. I don't think it will stick, unless the leather is REALLY dry. The reason I say that is because I used to paint with oils, and often got it all over the place including on me, and worst of all, my saddle. (I didn't have a tack room or a husband back then, so I could keep my tack in the house.) It always came off the saddle. My thought was, the saddle itself had oil in the leather. Therefore the oil paint had a hard time adhering to the leather. It always came off me too, otherwise I would have very interesting looking hands and arms right about now.

Beautiful headstall! I'm so jealous - I wish I had enough leather laying around I could make one of these just for fun! And that looks like really GOOD leather too. In case you don't see my other post - how are you cutting your strings?

WOW! A question I actually know the answer to! It means "By The Way". :D @Victor: Do you cut all your strings by hand? How do you do yours?