roo4u

if you can post a picture of your knot one of the braiders might be able to help you figure out your mistake. i keep all my messed up knots that ive had to cut off of projects in a little box..

which bg book do you have? in the encyclopedia he shows the two bight turkshead of any length on page 376 and on page 378 the 3 bight turkshead. basically you wrap the strand around your object however many times you need and proceed with your over/unders just as you would a standard length t.h.knot then, just as in a standard th you just build the knot to as many bights as needed.

well i have never looked at ashley book of knots....but have all three of grants books as well as 3 of tom halls books. with the encyclopedia you will get some duplication of the info in the other two grant books but you also get alot more so i think it is worth the purchase. ive heard good things about the ashley book. when i asked for recommendations from the other braiders the tom hall books got the most recommendations. his western tack tips and more western tack tips contain alot of measurements for various types of western tack, headstalls reins and more. plus lots of tips on tieing knots, finishing, braiding keepers, attaching poppers etc. he also covers a bunch of knots not covered by grant in any of his books. really good reference material....

well good luck with your braiding....caution its addictive!!! the hardest part of your rein will be the turnback.....but just ask lots of questions and we will all help you. as to length on roping rein-that is just a matter of preference. some like to have a pretty short rein and grip it with no extra, while some like to have enough length that they can have decent slack and grip the reins sorta like split reins.....hope that makes sense.

well the thicker the lace the less tightness you get in the lay of the braid, if that makes sense. so then you would get more movement in the lace as the braid moves and bends.

sometimes whether or not the core shows is determined by how you tighten your braiding...do you pull more down or sideways

yeah...i splice when i braid...never had a problem... thats what i thought...some sort of nylon liner

ive never braided a reata....but one thing i remember reading in an interview with mike beaver...he said if you break a string when braiding a reata then you end up with a shorter reata cuz he would not splice a string. what do you think he has lined that rounder hole with?

i know that grant said it should equal....but that never works for me....i would go with 1 1/2 times also on width...this is what gail hought recommends also.

it wore on his jaw....because it cant be shaped...so it rubbed and the rawhide wore the hair off and then rubbed the skin raw...even with extra wraps of the mecate we could not get the bars of the bosal off of the horses jaw. whereas with a rawhide core you can shape it and use a shaping block to set the shape and if you need to you can use the mecate to get the desired spread. even the paracord bosal that i braided with a lariat core i could shape with the wraps of the mecate. i guess it depends on what kind of cable we are talking about.....what grant referenced, and whats in my bosal, is telephone or power line cable and while its not hard to get it bent around for the basic shape from there its impossible to make any adjustments its just too stiff.

as a general rule i do 1.5 times the finished length...or 3 times if doubling the strings over.plus a little bit extra on the ends for finishing, amount will vary depending on how ends will be finished. below is the general rule on strings length taken from gail houghts website. General rule for plaiting string length and string width. String length, for any number of plaiting (4,6,8,12,16), needs to be 1½ the finished length of the item being braided plus the length needed at each end, which will differ with each project. Another factor effecting string length is each braider’s individual style. If a braider tends to pull the strings outward, they will need a slightly longer length; and if a braider pulls the strings downward, forming sharper V’s, they will need slightly less length. This would probably only be apparent in a longer project. Most projects will need an extra 6” - 12” to work with at each end. I suggest you leave a little more than that at each end until you are comfortable with how much string your style requires. The same general rule of 1½ applies to string width. Added together, the total width of the strings needs to be 1½ times the necessary circumference of the item to be plaited. Note: this may vary depending how much the material stretches and narrows as it being braided. Fig. 1 is a dog collar plaited in 4 plait and the extra string is needed to splice the ends in on the turn back. Again no matter how many plait is being braided the rule is the same. 1 ½ times the desired finished length plus the length needed at each end.

what ever you do dont use cable for cores in bosals...the only exception may be tiedowns.....i have a commercially made rawhide bosal that has a cable core. you can not shape it in any way, so it may not hit the nerve points correctly. when we still used it we had to pad the thing cuz it took hair and hide off of the face on my moms horse. also it is not a legal core for the show pen in any association.

the dog chews are not very good quality rawhide....add to that the bleaching process and you get stuff thats only good for dog chews(im very anti-rawhide for dogs it kills alot of dogs). there are quite a few places that sell real small circles for drum heads if you want a better piece to work with.

wow that is a gorgeous sidepull....

well i know they are conway buckles but have never seen any with a mark or anything like what those have.

i know i cant read it either....but the google translate button is on every page and if you use that it will automatically translate the entire page for you...comes out a little weird as far as sentence structure but readable

i found this site....its actually applique work of rawhide on rawhide or leather....use the link below and scroll about 1/2 way down the page....its amazing. most of the archive pages have examples of this work. http://eltrenzador.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

well for my comments...i wasnt mean and i didnt lie so i will stand behind what i said. i agree there was no need for name calling and meanness. i received an email from steve and have replied to him. i understand they had a difficult year but this can not be the excuse for every single complaint.. will i order from them again? perhaps if i need and they have. i do not hold a grudge and will usually give a second chance. mr siegel seems genuinely interested in rectifying these issues and i hope they can get back on track.

no i dont currently have a website...im trying to get some new stuff done so i can pix taken. it never occurred to me to take pix of all those leads we braided....i got pix of the last batch i braided, but not very good ones. we did just plain roo....knots but never did beads. we sold them wholesale to a vendor in colo for about 3 years(until their checks started bouncing) and to a vendor in texas for about 4 years(until he got seriously ill). we are not currently doing leads as we no longer have a vendor....because of work i cant get to enough shows to make it worthwhile although i sure wish i could.....my mom did all the plain braiding and she is fast...i cut lace and set them up and finished them. i miss it. my dogs would love if i could work at home again. the core used for our 4 strand leads was harness sewing thread, doubled, nice thing about it is it didnt make the braid larger around...never had anyone break a leash...repaired a bunch of chewed ones....alot of other braiders wouldnt fix leads but it didnt bother me and so id even fix other braiders leads. here are links to some of the stuff ive posted on here: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2848 this is a para cord hackamore http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3907 this is a bunch of our leashes

okie dokie...i will break out the camera and take a couple of pix to show the pattern...i think you will like it better.

wow thats a long time to spend braiding 20 inches. the more strands you add the less stretch you will get just because you are dividing the stress even more. we used cores so never had to worry about stretch even on a four strand. the only exception was we made toy breed leads with flat handles and flat in center of collar so no core. also i had a special way to finish my leads so i didnt have to backbraid much, just enough to get the strands secured. its kinda cool cuz the way i finished was our signature, nobody else did/does it and when i see dog shows on tv i can recognize our leads. are you braiding with or without a core? let me know that and ill post a quick tutorial later.