megabit

Iwould use a large core and experiment to figure out what size and how manystrands you need to cover it. Youcould use rope or maybe even a wood dowel as your core. Another idea would beto twist some rawhide or roll up and sew some leather.

Very nicely done. I love your heel knot. :clapping:

Sure looks good Brian.

Hey I just had an idea that would be kind of different. Go down to four inside the bead and four over it, then back to eight.

You have a number of options. You could contact Bruce Johnson or leatherpounder and see if they have any splitters (they both sell them). Buy a Hansen String Cutter, it has features you already have but the splitter works real good. Or you could search ebay. I would avoid any solution that use razor or utility blades for splitting, they are to flexable to do a good job. You need something solid like the ones in the Osborne or Hansen tools.

Nice work like always. If you break them, you might want to work on getting softer hands.

Youcan wrap some leather around a dowel and glue the ends together. You need tocut the ends at angles so you get a smooth round ring of leather. Slip thatover you braid (so be sure to use a dowel that is the same size). Tie yourturks head or pineapple over the ring so you can’t see the ring anymore. Theknot should have enough friction to stay in place.

SWEET! Your work always looks great as does Shawn's silver.

Four stands of rawhide with no core is a traditional reata. I think CurlyJo is sugesting you use this for bosal cores. I like his idea of trying to split it first before you put lots of work into the string. That should give you a fair idea of where you are.

I think the hide should be ok from what you described. How wide is your 145' string? For a reata you need 4 strings about 1/4" wide and between 85' - 100' long. That should give you a 60'+ rope, so if you can only get one 1/4" sting out of what you have I think it will be a short reata, but would still be good practice. You could use it for pigging strings or bosal cores.

SWEET!

Made this for a friend I am currently visiting in South Dakota. P5280018 by jinglebob1958, on Flickr Detail of nose band P5280019 by jinglebob1958, on Flickr Yesterday we fired up his forge and banged on a little metal. I made a new hoof pick from a old horse shoe. P5280021 by jinglebob1958, on Flickr P5280022 by jinglebob1958, on Flickr

Nice work.

Exactly, one of the best things I've learned was from Clint and Nate, to pull tight before you plait and then plait loose. That has sure helped.

I've started doing something that I think looking back Nate showed me. If I need say 6" of nice tight braid for say a honda, I'll braid out to about maybe 9" to get it nice and tight out past 6 and then unbraid back to the length I need. Anyone else do that? I braided up a honda I cut string for a couple of weeks ago last night. I finished the braiding and put it on my strecher and found out how tight too tight was when I broke a string. grrr!

If you have to use spool lace, I would buy a larger size than you need and then trim it down to even it up before you go to beveling. It won't be long before you will just be cutting your own lace if you keep braiding. I think you will find that the store bought lace is more expensive and of an inferior quality than you can make for yourself.

Great work like always. A loop for each ear. Not a great picture and not nearly as nice of headstall but

Not sure if you are looking to make leather or rawhide from your post. I assume rawhide though. There are two sitckie threads that cover making rawhide with two different ways to get the hair off. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3233&st=0 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=8453 You can also scrap it off with a sharp knife. Bruce Grant covers a few different ways to to it in his books too. The ones I recall off hand are to stake it out in a running creek untill the hair falls out and I think putting it in a mix of water and wood ashes. I traded for a hide that had been scraped and streched but not de-haired last week, so it looks like I'll be giving it a try myself. Mike

SWEET!!

First up I have a couple of swiveled San Juans. I made a design change to prevent the loop from closing down around your rope. The 4 strands that make the knot go back up through the loop and then back down to make the knot. swivels2 by ss1442, on Flickr Then I have 3 traditional San Juans (one I still need to put the burner on). sanjuans2 by ss1442, on Flickr Here is a better picture of that knife I did. knife2 by ss1442, on Flickr

Looks good like always!

I like the stuff I get from Bill Confer for the same stuff rawhide1 mentioned. I don't know how old those critters were when the lost their skin.

With rawhide I don't bevel enough to actually change the width of the string. You just want to knock the corner off.

Ok, now I understand and that would be basically the same as what I showed. You want o1u1 going down then you turn back the stings going one way to make pairs, then turn back the other to split them. Glad you got it figured out.