rgerbitz

Tracey, I cannot remember what the name of the company is without looking, it is a regional company. I just looked in the yellow pages and started calling/emailing every chemical supply company around till I found one close by that carried it. I paid $170 for 55 lbs picked up at the warehouse. I use about a lb or two per hide. It is pretty easy to use but you want to be sure and have plenty of fresh air around or some kind of special breathing gear it can be pretty rank stuff. Rob

Hello acox, I started with 25 foot of string that I bought from Mike and Cindy Beaver, after that I have made all of my own hides except for some chap and roo hides that I have bought. So far I've been at this for about 4 or 5 years and feel like I am starting to make some decent rawhide. I have thrown away about as much rawhide as I have kept. Either because I screwed up the hide dehairing it, screwed up the string cutting it, or had to can some projects cause the workmanship was horrible. I have given up on using lime to remove the hair, I have only been able to get that to work out well on a few occasions. I have gone to using sodium sulfide to remove the hair (Big thanks to Rod Nikkels for that). 45 minutes and the hair is history. It's not a process you would want to do in town unless you really like pissing off the neihbors. The smell can be a bit stiff. I had a hog farmer complain about the smell!! If you would like to know more call me 815-542-6035. Best of luck, Rob

looks good, thanks for posting.

Thank you very much. Some things seem to obvious once explained.

Hello Everyone I am working on some chaps and am wondering how you get the zipper pulls to both end up on the inside of the leg. Do they make right and left handed zippers? Or is there something else I am not seeing? Thank you, Rob Gerbitz

Left hand bosal is a roo hide nose and heel with rawhide body. It has a 20 plait 1/2 diameter body and a 7 1/2 inch nose with 10 1/2 inches nose to heel. The right hand bosal is all rawhide with a 7 inch nose and 10 1/4 inches nose to heel and measures a 7/16 diameter. Hondo is 12 plait and bit hobble is 8.

Haven't put up anything for awhile here is some recent stuff. As always I am open to critizm. Unless it has to do with my spelling. Thanks for look'in Rob

I have only done this a two times. But I started with a healthy hand full of red onion peels and a 2 quart sauce pan 3/4's full. Boiled the liv'in ship out of it then strained through a wire strainer. The longer the rawhide sits in it the darker the color gets. The second time I did it and used a bigger pan with more water. I ended up having to boil off some of the water to get it as dark as I thought it should be. There are my two experiences and the extent of my knowledge on the subject. Pretty impressive, I know. Rob

Looks good Brock, the only thing I'd change is to cover the cut strings on the bottom. Other than that iverything else looks very well done.

Boiled onion peels make a nice red color that's color fast on rawhide, I imagine if you dilute you could come up with pink.

That's awsome, beats the snot out of twisting by hand. Thanks for the idea.

I'd soak it till I got a sort of half cooked spaghetti feel to it then take it out and wrap it up good in plasitc for overnight. You might have to let is soak for an hour or two depending on how thick it is. The warmer the water the quicker it will soften. When you get it out the next day it should be pliable but if any of it is overly strechy let it case for another day of so till the moisture gets down to where its not strechy at all. Then pull it over and through the stick with a slit to take out the curl. When the strip is passing through the stick it should be making an S shape as it travel over and through. I have been finding that if a split the whole strip down to about 3 or 4 32's prior to streching that I can usually get away from the strip curling up so much that I need to do anything about it. Hope this helps Rob

Which do you all prefer for braiding, I have used drum stuffed and havn't used any veg tanned. Was wondering what the pros and cons might be. Thanks for you time, Rob

That really nice looking work, thanks for sharing.

Thanks I like the direction this is heading. Bevan, it has a 7 inch nose, it will just clear the eye on most horses. I tried it on a couple of ours to see how the knots lay on the nose and to see how close to the eye it got. It fits real nice. Rob

Thanks for the compliments, Bevan I used a twistied rawhide core in that one, and she is getting it as a gift. I have another one in the works that will be similar to it and am trying to figure what to charge. I was thinking about $350, but a few people have told me that I am to cheap. Hey Mark I was thinking that something that looks like that but smaller would make a nice bosalita, what do you think?

Finished making this for my wife today and was wondering what you all would think would be a fair price for a piece like this. It has a 1/2 inch 20 strand body with a roo nose and heel. Thank you Rob

Very good looking work Bevan thanks for sharing. Rob

Very nice! I to think the pattern change looks good. Rob

In what I have seen so far it looks like a strop is standard in any shop either the old fashioned peice of leather on a board or a new fangled bench grinder. What I am really hoping for is a discussion on the different types of stones, oil, wet, diamond, different sizes and shapes. Which ones do you have and what do you like about them. And what don't you like or would like to see different. Also what grits work best for shaping and sharpening. Like most folks I am trying to keep up on a variety of edges from splitters to edgers. I don't mind spending $100 on a stone, but I would rather do it once than five times trying to get the right one. Thank you for your time, Rob

The only thing I've ever really tracked is how long it take to braid a round for a bosal. Its about 34 inches of braid and will take me about 1 1/2 to braid up. That would be a 12 or 16 plait. As for getting faster, don't know if I can get much faster and expect a descent job. Most of the time I feel I waste is in the prep prior to braiding. In getting strings cut, cased or in getting ground work on in an effecient manner. There is still alot of by guess and by golly in what I make as far as measurements and sizes of knots go. Which makes for alot of getting something worked up only to go back and disassemble because things aren't balanced or knots are disporportionant. Rob

I am looking for some sharpening help. Have been looking over all the options, wet stone, oil stone, diamond stone, sand paper....... Am wondering what works, how it works, why it doesn't work. What would be the best all purpose sharpening set up for a shop. From sharpening/shaping to stroping/polishing. Thank you for your time and input, Rob

Nice work Jerry.

The shop that made it for me mostly repaired hydraulic cylinders. It is part of a shaft off one of those. The metal is some kind of chrome or something. Not much of a metals guy sorry I can't be more specific. Rob

3 to 5 depending on how everything works out. I seem to end up with somewhere between 450 to 550 foot of the 3/4 strip depending on the size of the hide and how much gets trimmed out. Rob