HorsehairBraider

I have been known to play the piano, guitar and flute. In our house though it's Mr. HorsehairBraider who is the professional musician, the guy can sing like an angel and plays guitar, bass, fiddle, harmonica, keyboards, mandolin etc. etc. People pay him to sing, and I get paid not to sing. He did a CD and is working on another... but don't worry, I'm not on it!

For a book that shows all different kinds of braids, try Bruce Grant's "Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather Braiding". That one is in there but as explained, it's just a slit cut in the leather with the leather pulled through.

Congrats on the new yak! Keeping my fingers crossed it's a girl...

Just shows how careful you have to be!

Brian - I have to say, I am puzzled by at least some of your comments - that "Now here's where the anomaly started to take a pattern to me. To experiment try to do a gaucho braid with 4 or 8 strings for a short run of about 6 inches(15.2cm) long. You will then notice on the left side of the braid the odd number of strings and on the right side an even number of strings." I use this braid everyday in my work. Normally I use 8, but sometimes 12. I have *NEVER* had an uneven number on one side. Yes, the sequence is a little strange - for 8, it is U2, O2 - O1, U2, O1 - O2, U2 - U1, O2, U1 - repeat. But there are always 4 on each side (for this example). In fact I just finished braiding 2 bracelets, 12 inches long each, where this was the case - not 5 minutes ago - so I am not sure about what you are saying. Perhaps you have pictures? Or perhaps I don't understand what you are saying?

If Mr. HorsehairBraider ever drops dead, I'll keep that in mind!

I'm with Hilly on this. Here's a site listing all bills introduced by Sen. Rockefeller: Rockefeller Bills Not only are the two bills mentioned not on the list, there is a bill near the bottom (SR. 191) that would help establish broadband service more widely - which will actually help more people get on the internet! It's always a good idea to check stuff out for yourself. The guy that wrote the cited article may have made a completely honest mistake, although of course I'd have hoped he would have checked his facts out a little more thoroughly. Still, *anyone* can make a mistake.

In Grant's Encyclopedia, page 351, he shows an 8 to a 16. It's in the Hobbles section... I think your sequence is right. Did you maybe forget that you have to braid the "inside" strings first, laying them in the sequence they would be if the braid started further up? When I do a 25-strand in horsehair, this takes quite a while, but if I don't do it the braid won't look right at the start.

Try this site: Knot Heads World Wide Look on the left, there is a list there and I think "Tutorials" is the second or third one down. Very nice people on that site, and the tutorials are really terrific. Your plan for embossing sounds like a good one, but I'd ask Clay this question on one of the sections on tooling. He's good at making tutorials. If it were me I'd probably just cut the pattern and then background it all down... but I am sure there is a better way.

I just love this guy's work. It is so inspiring!

I don't know how much help this will be... I'm not in your same position because I am the only person who works for me. So, I don't have anyone to help with the labor, and my situation is quite different. When my orders got to be so overwhelming I was working 16 hour days, day in and day out 7 days a week with no breaks, I had no choice. I had to raise my prices. I actually raised them quite a bit. This basically just slowed things down to a dull roar, but it really helped me have time to work on those special projects. I have a line where I do the same thing over and over. And then I have a line where I take on really custom stuff - stuff where I am really pushing the limits of what I can do. I sort of do them "in between" each other. The bread-and-butter line gets precedence... but I now have enough time I can get them done and still have some time left over. So I'll set aside a day or two, although usually it's a whole weekend, where I work on the special stuff. I try and have several "sessions" a month. I tell those people ahead of time, it's going to take a while... they know what they are getting (and frankly, others who do the same work I do sometimes take *YEARS* to get an order out, so I am considered really quite speedy even when it will take 6 months) and they don't mind waiting. I have the "special" work area at my computer desk. So when I take a break from regular work, I sit at the computer to check my emails and sort of relax, and I have the "special" stuff right here in front of me. I can't help it, I'll do a little work here, a little work there... it adds up. By the time I get ready to take a day or so to do "special" work, I've gotten a lot of the little fussy tasks done, just because they are right in front of my face during my breaks. My bread-and-butter customers still get their work in about 2 weeks. My "special" customers sometimes have to wait a while, but since they know it up front, they don't mind - and I actually can do a little work everyday while I am taking a break. For me, this system works.

Tashabear, I think this is a terrific point - I mean, that people should label their posts better. A post labeled "Help Me Please!" does not really give much information, and I sometimes look at these thinking I might be able to help, only to find it's actually about something I know nothing about. And then of course there are the posts that I am completely not interested in, usually in the section you mention. Most are really good about labeling their posts, though. And this is great because it really helps out when you need to find out something, and use the search function. If the posts are labeled in a rational fashion, you can find the posts that will help you learn more about floral tooling etc.

YAY!

Yikes, how awful! Usually when a customer tells me how a horse died, it was colic (the number cause of death in horses) but I have had customers whose horse died of lightning strike... Lightning is pretty common here, I worry about it all summer. My condolences to your neighbors.

So glad to see you found this place! I think you will love it - lots of inspiring work here, and lots of great people. When you have a chance post your work so we can all see it!

Hey - not only are you lucky, you're smart! That is so cool, and

Not being Scandinavian, I'd just call this "four-strand braiding". It's not bad to do with no bobbins, and that's how some of these whips are done. Sometimes though braiders make what's called a "butterfly" (Bruce Grant calls it a "tamale" in his book) which is just like the butterfly weavers use in tapestry weaving. It keeps the long ends from tangling. It provides no weight but helps with the length, just like the bobbins would.

Although I like to hear what other people are doing in their private life and have concern and care for people going through difficulties, I am not interested in rants etc. I come here for learning about leather work and to share what I know with others who would like to learn. I too have been on lots of forums, and I have seen this sort of thing bring very bad feelings between people. If I had everyone over for dinner, there are some topics I would not want brought up at the table with so many diverse people... I would not want bad feelings between my guests. I respect other people's opinions and hope they respect mine - but that said, there are already tons of places to go on the internet to rant and rave about various subjects. Typically those places are moderated to prevent alternate points of view, so that participants can "let it all hang out" so to speak, and that is fine with me. They have an outlet for their feelings. If it is decided to go with it, I like Tashabear's idea of it being by password only. I am truly not interested and would not join in. I really do come here for the love of leather, and have come to like and respect many people. I would not want to jeopardize a friendship over some of that stuff.

Hey - that's a nice house! I do hope it works out for you - best of luck to you!

I heard the queen *loved* the gift - because it was something useful, and not yet another useless trophy or ugly piece of jewelry that she has to store somewhere. She'd probably also love a piece of functional leather work by a high quality craftsman, such as those you suggest. I had noticed the economy tanking several years ago. It is not recent by any means. But I do understand that people really like having someone to blame - it makes them feel better, I guess. Personally I'm giving the guy a chance... I think it was brave to run at this time, when the country is in such a mess, knowing full well lots of people would point fingers at him and blame *him*, as though *he* had been in office for the past 8 years. And I think it's a good idea to do things differently - what was going on sure was not working, so best thing to do is try something different.

Really beautiful work... what size are the strings? And, how do you like horse rawhide - does it braid up better/worse than others?

I'm telling you, the splitter/skiver/whatever you want to call it, is awesome. Very effortless. I had no trouble with stuff cutting in half. I've had a chance to cut some lace now and this is my favorite lace cutter. It's simple to get it to your exact measurement. It's easy to put the blade in, although I'm using mine a little differently than he suggests. Also since everything is open I've had no trouble controlling my lace going through. I have not yet tried beveling but it looks pretty easy to do. So far I am very favorably impressed with this tool!

Hi Clint! So good to see you here, and terrific job on posting all those pics! I sure hope you'll stick around and share your work and insights with us. You've made a very nice tool here and I agree, it is very easy to adjust to the finest measurements. I really look forward to working with it and getting some proficiency at it.

I had to do this same thing and for the same reason - old computer, and I was terrified I'd lose all my files. I decided I should just go ahead and get a new computer, since I absolutely could not face losing all my files. The place I got my new computer was happy to transfer everything to the new computer. Also, they said I could "upgrade" and have XP so I paid a few dollars extra and got that. I don't even think they charged me for transferring the data, nice guys. Since I had been stressing out about saving my files, my mother sent me a little device called "Clickfree" that backs up your computer... you just plug it in and it backs everything up, you unplug it and there it is. It's about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Here's a link to their site. Seems pretty easy. Even though all my stuff got transferred by the computer guys, I am thinking of the future with this Clickfree thing. Now I won't have to worry... I guess you just back it up once a month or so and then even if something horrible happens you still have your data.

Watch the video in Washroad's post. That will cheer you up!