Hedge

You might try contacting a museum and talk to the curator. They have people who preserve things for a living.

I know Tandy used to carry it. I still have a couple of spools. You might try them.

Yeah, no kiddin' about the donuts. Who the heck put onions on 'em? Bagels?.....oh. Welcome to the forum LadyJ. I'm sure you'll find all kinds of sources for your interests, here.

I really like that second one. Nice work. You learned a lot from making the first one and put that knowledge to good use.

Welcome aboard, Paul! Now, that's one I hadn't thought about...baseball stitching. Neat! Hey, I heard they don't make the covers out of horse hide anymore. Is that true?

Looks functional. Clean design and very nice hand stitch.

If you're braiding a foundation core, start with a 4 plait braid. 4 plait doesn't require a core to give it roundness. Then, braid over the foundation as many layers as it takes to get the thickness of the bosal core you want. Increase the number of strings or increase the width of the strings for each successive layer in order to get full coverage of the previous layer.

:D How's that .62 shoot? Much of a kick?

That is one sweet looking strap! A job to be proud of.

Ya didn't happen to find a .50 cal Hawkin' laying around that bag by any chance? Nice work, Luke! It has that aged and used look I like in new gear.

Welcome to the forum, sodapop! You're lucky to have someone to help you out with hands on experience. You'll have to display some of your work.

The way I do it is cut a long string (roughly square) from a hide, give it a good soaking in distilled water so it's pliable and then draw it through my rounder (a piece of hardwood with various size holes in it). After that, I roll it between 2 pieces of hardwood until I'm satisfied that it has the shape I want. If you don't want to go through that trouble, you can get various diameter climber's line from REI. It's not climbing rope, just the various smaller stuff that's used to tie off gear. It doesn't stretch and makes an excellent core that's firm and will hold shape.

Excellent tip, Troy. Works the same for rawhide. You can get various colors and tones by using teas and berry juices. I suspect one could do a lot of experimentaion with any vegetable/fruit having a color since they all contain some acid.

Welcome to the board, Richard!

Not only is your leather a work of art, so is the photography!!! The leather color is oustanding. And I love your tooling...simple and elegant. Not too much and not too little. You're one hell of a craftsman, Chuck.

You're welcome, Johanna. Hope people find it usefull

Welcome aboard, Tim! I'd sure like to see some pics of your work.

I lay out my lines the same way Tazz does. When you set your stamp, do it lightly at first, settling it into the end cut of the adjacent one. You should be able to feel your tool line up before you smack it. It just takes practice.

You can do it with the strander, but it takes practice, the right consitancy of the hide and sharp blades. That means don't be stingy with the blades. As soon as it starts showing signs of cutting hard, change it.

I use Skidmore's and have used Dr. J's. Both give the finish I want. One thing about Dr. J's though. Don't let it freeze and then use it on braiding. Seems to form little white beads that are a pain to get out from between the lacing.

Nice job on the tut, Drac and that ain't a bad Turk's head. I'd like to encourage you to pursue knot braiding. You could make some sweet looking pieces and they would command a little more in price. 2 reference I'd recommend getting: Gail Hought's "The Art of Braiding" the basics-revised ed. and the Tom Hall series on Turk's heads. Execllent presentations. Gary

Some of you may find this useful. I worked up a little program to calculate the length of lace you can get from a given circle of leather. (works the other way, too) You just need to put in the width of the lace and it will tell you the size of the circle you need. It's pretty self-explanitory. Wrote this up as a give-away for the fellow who makes Lacemaster. I see he had someone re-write it in Java. So, that's available at his site if you want to use that one. Mine's been tested in Windows up to XP, so it should work for most of you. Been sitting on my computer for awhile and just though someone here could use it. If you find any bugs (programmers always seem to miss one thing or another), let me know and I'll get the varmits out. Johanna will post a message as to where you can download it. Gary LaceCalc.zip LaceCalc.zip

Tom, I think you're a natural at lacing. You've got it down. As far as the braiding, I've no doubt you'll catch on to that quickly. One key preparation to make a good smooth braid is to bevel the edges on the flesh side for leather and hair side for rawhide. Another trick is to roll the finished braid. I just use a couple of smooth pieces of hardwood and roll it between them. You'd be surprised at how good that makes it look. Gary

Good show! For some reason I got it in my mind he wanted an angle on the openings. (not good at multi-tasking...like breathing and thinking at the same time! )

Ahhh!! Now, I see what you're talking about. Hmmmm...I've never done that execept by eyeball. Not even sure there's a 'standard' curve to apply. Sorry, Drac. That one's beyond my ken.