8thsinner

I hope you fixed the over and under pattern on the left side. Your left end, should have finished under then over, instead you have it as over then under...

It all depends on what you plan to do. Do you want to cut your own lace from a hide or buy it? You can save an awfull lot of money by making it and tools can be cheap to do so. Braiding properly takes time, patience and good concentration but in it's principle, it's easy to learn. For an fairly standard but better looking 8 strand handle You will need lace, 1.5 -2 times length of handle Rope or something as a core to braid over lace 1/8th width of core (fractionally more actually) SOme sort of thin but strong twine or thread. Saddle soap If making lace.. Lace maker Lace splitter compass circular template to cut from water bottle to stretch and strengthen lace.. THeres not much more to it, and you will find braiding instructions if you go through search function.

We have an adult section here you can join into. That way we could more accurately cut the sizes to be snug to the erm... ITEM... so that it will not fall out...

Be more specific, are you looking a large full hide to be split? Or one inch straps cut from that hide, or thinner lace? If your after full hide then only professional large companies who take thousand s of hides a year will be able to do that I think. In which case they might easily enough be able to skip your hide in with other cuts and charge very little. Especially if you can make friends with the guys who is cutting it. If it's just straps and you have a draw gauge, making a splitter is really really easy. I made one with a mahagony skid 12 inches long, 2 shelf studs, 4 nails, one screw and a small strip of steel plate. ANd it includes it's own blade sharpening jig...Just chiek out my new bracelet thread on critique forum for pictures and guide.

Struck another deal today. Walking past a local craft shop, I decided to stop in and ask if I can offer them cheaper lace supplies. I went in because I know the stuff they get they charge too much for, so I assumed they were either greedy with their own mark up or didn't have a good supplier. They said they would be interested if I could beat a certain price. Well I went home and did some rough minimum calculations and worked out I could provide for 50% (charging them 90% of what they stated) of what they told me they were buying in for, So I took in a sample of stuff, that was cut, dampened stretched by hand as i ran it through my hands whilst saddle soaping and briefly burnished to remove excess soap, which actually polished it very very well. And Although I took the stuff from a rather expensive hide that required thinning could still make a profit on using plates of lace. Taking a whole lace with a solid 4foot circle I should be able to increase productivity by 30%. Anyway, Compared to the stuff they had in stock, the boss took one look at it and said order a few rolls. Yay. If they like it so much and want it so bad, it's encouraged me also to go round local show shops and other craft shops asking the same. Enough regular orders will cover my costs in this and constantly provide me with lace to use for my own projects. And also benefits me as being a customer that leather hide providers will perhaps look more favourably towards. Another thing, I am only using a lace maker and a hand made leather thinner cutter. Ah, yes that S word for cutting the back of leather I have for weeks been forgeting the terminology, Anyone else get this???

Title pretty much says it all. I want to make a seasonal gift for someone who loves the iris flower. If anyone has done one that can provide details it would be better. I am not a tooler, I have one swivel knife and ten punch set. Thats pretty much all I have to work with. It's only going onto black veg tan so no colours are needed just general shapes and stamp instructions. Or if anyone is willing to create one and leave details, that would be nice too. I would like to leave space for the name (4 letters)

There are a lot of new business related threads popping up at the moment. Thus I propose this thread. I want this to be a reference library of FAILED and OVERCOME business mistakes you have made on the journey. Do not discuss responses here, leave it as a library and maybe we can add html links to index the contents later on, or even turn it into a pdf for download. Try to list them something like this... SUB TITLE (In bold at thread headings) FAILED STOCK SYSTEM Taking a desposit in order to guarantee christmas delivery, and using that deposit in order to buy materials for the job is NEVER a good idea WHY The future is unwritten, you never know when your suppliers wil be burned to the ground or have flood damage, disscontinue stock or close for family berevment. METHOD OF OVERCOMING OBSTACLE Always keep a minimum of three sources of all materials and non permenent tools, Better yet, never take on an order unless you have the materials and tools to get the job done and well. If you might not have time to take the job on completely then don't. Be professional about this, if you fail you may spend money trying to be professional in fixing your mistakes. I hope this helps us all out, in this trying time of recession and long beyond.

If you check out the other relevent threads right now you will see one recommendation was to do repairs on saddles. I know your name from in here but can't remember what you can and can't do, and I don't have the connection strength to look around for it. Heres one path, there will be other replies adding to this and distracting from it. But first off, Make a list of everything you can make. Get pictures of as good a quality as you can manage of everything you have made. If that range expands over more than one discipline your in better shape than some. Make a list of all the tools you have, will need, and can do without or make until needed. Work out what you will need to have in stock and what you think will do your market stall??? If you can get a good ranged portfolio and can cover your costs, it will be greatly beneficial. Get a website, build it yourself if possible, if you can keep that upto date yourself it will help costs a lot, deisngers are very expensive. I just took in ten orders for note books for christmas and my paper source just went bust. Now I am stuck in a complete rut, Deposits have been given already...Now I need to spend three times the money just on getting something barely parfor what I had cheaper and better. Tip ALWAYS keep multiple sources you can rely on and have tested material from. Go round all your local shops which sell anything leather with a portfolio show them what you have and ask to leave flyers, cards or samples if you can afford it. Repairs are loss leaders, Ie something you will not make money on but wil get your work known, if it's good word of mouth will be your Very Very best sales tactic. Also cheaper or easier to do simple product ranges will get little money in and name out. Get yourself enrolled on a business start up course. Go into your local dole office and ask for details there... Don't go head strong into it and quit your job. But start acting now like you have already, work everything towards business, make thurough notes on all costs and time sheets etc, theres a good download in download section for this. Don't undersell your work, It's a business saying, you can always reduce costs but increasing them is suicidal. Not to mention unprofessional. Include light heat and other utility bills into costs. If you can prove to the tax office that your living quarters has been converted solely for business use they can save you big money on that, so factor it it, also this will be covered later if and when you need more space. The start up company can provide cheaper than regular office space for some things. Accounts books, reicpts books, diarys etc all need to be covered, every business transaction must have head and footered details of your company for legal purposes, so printers, and ink also need to be covered, plus any stationary you use. Don't be afraid to ask friends and family to help out, you might feel like your pressuring them but if can help drum sales it will help a lot as they can also be favourable character references. It's called networking and it's very important to develop the skills. Everyone has a friend who has a friend who can fix pipes or electrics, it's how the world works, but a personal recommendation is always better than finding a card in a shop desk. If you can sort all this and can write youself a business plan covering all the relevent details if things work and or don't work and can stick to the plan in it and make enough to live on for three years you should make it. Remember it's not all fun and games, it's a lot of very hard and stressfull work and if you fail you may be bankrupted, if that happens your credit history virtually dies. TAXES, you have an account friend in training right? If you can't do it fully, you need someone you can trust who can. Check the other threads around and corelate all wisdom into a spread sheet of actions and things to do and get organised and do it. And good luck with it. I hope the ramblings of a not quite yet successfull businessman helps even the tiniest little bit.

I managed to get out of storage an old hatchet, It's completely metal, blade is only about 2 inches cutting length, handle is about 10-12 inch, the bottom of the handle swells out like a coin but the rest is like 3:1 rectangular. I can't get a picture on any time soon, sorry.

If your looking for a leather braiding book which will provide years of pleasure, a little history, a few stories and clear and easy to understand instructions then Bruce grants encyclopedia of rawhide and leather braiding is worth it and more. If your looking for carving and more that side, then al's work is probably still the best starter. I don't have many other books on it, although I have picked up several from old old second hand sourcesthey have interesting things but never as detailed. I am looking to pick up ron edwards work soon though, I'm looking forward to that, but again it's braiding work mainly. I think Bruce grants how to make cowboy gear might interest you but I am not sure because I don't have it and can't comment. Help any?

I already have the encyclopedia of rawhide and leather braiding, But I am curious to know if there is any additional information in the other ones that makes it worth also investing in?

If your lace is wide enough for a 4mm cord ie para cord, make sure you get the 7 strand version. If you want to know why 7 strands, then put 7 coins in a circle and see for yourself. If I was making a long one I would definately use paracord for the shape and the additional strength it adds.

The water thing I have never heard seperated from the full shower version which helps boost the immne system and skin in general. Thanks for sharing.

Any chance of a close up picture of the brown stuff, I haven't worked with tandy lace before but am interested. Also check the price to UK if you can please.

I love your work jerry. That roo hide 24 handles 16 plait is superb. And your knot work is excellent. So, I challenge you to make a shot loaded 3ft maximum length mini snake with three layers of leather capable of performing a four crack pattern easily....MUAWhahhaha. And it must not be less than a 16 strand overlay... No seriously. I do. Question for you though, What products do you use to finish the leather, polish? Lacquer? what?

I looked this up a while ago. It's a brilliant tutorial piece, with some interesting methods of construction. Actually very light on material required compared to the designs I use. But I agree with the bolster argument, I don't like using them myself.

It only took my phone about a minute to open that... Nice little tutorial. I don't get how you like those lacing needles though, I hate them.

I have actually spent a lot of time working on finger and arm exercises for other hobbies. So heres a huge list of them for you to use. Because we as braiders are usually pulling strongly against thedirection of the fingers, we need to increase our resistance to lateralmovements. More recently I keep my fingers strong and arms used to air work by twirling a steel bar, recently leather wrapped. It's about one foot long and half inch wide or so and weighs probably 400 grams. I twirl it around all the fingers underneath my hand then lifting the hand the other way reverse the direction, then I spin it around the thumb and spin the hand back over to restart the underneath cycle. It's much harder with the left hand when starting. I used to use two two foot wooden bars wrapped in leather, and work both sides at the same time but they are currently in storage... Another exercise is rocking the bar side to side between two fingers, holding the hand thumb up and pinky down... Very painful if over done. Work between all the fingers. More for the fingers, find yourself two marble balls about three inches wide, and rotate these the smaller exercise balls, work in both directions for five minutes each. Keeping the palm as straight as possible, reach the tip of each finger one at a time back as far as possible without any other finger moving, Hold for 3 sets of teen seconds each then move on. Both hands now... For the wrists, tie a filled two-five litre bottle to a staff securely with three feet of string, grab either end of the rod and twist, twist, twist, up one side then slowly down and finally repeat until pulpy arms syndrome. For arms in general throwing and spinning once a hammer in the following order helps the arms and shoulders remain supple and loose. Left to right right to right right to left left to left repeat DO you make tamales? If not learn to work your forearms and wrists in doing so. Tamale as quickly as possibly 50 metres of 2mm lace, much wider and it gets unmanagable. I bet you can't get to fifty without stopping or slowing down. Hold your arms straight out in front of you, and do mexican waves with the fingers without moving anything but your fingers. It won't look like a mexican wave, but doing this for five minutes sure makes you feel it. And this won't make sense to read but do the waves slowly but strongly. Before any work gets done, warm with some sort of exercise each muscle to be used. Also card tricks, balisongs, pen spinning, zippo tricks, contact juggling etc are all good exercises for finger dexterity. One last fore arm exercise, screw 2 six inch nails into a hard wood block with a manual screw driver. I would say use the left to unscrew it but I never did. As for the back...Tai chi Door side and a vice...or broken swing (don't ask) Hope these work for you, they have worked for me for over ten years.

I can't believe I never thought of braiding over wire to get shapes before. thank you for that. Could you tell me exactly what sort of wire your using? In exchange I may be able to offer you another method. Following on from the last idea, and taking it further, you get a single strand braid around the whole thing with one layer over one end and two over the other. You already have the exact number of turns taken per strand over the length, fold one strand in half and place it over the end. Work these over the length crossing over itself in roughly the same place if possible. Count the turns just to be safe. When you get to the end fold one then the other over and use lacing needles on each end to pass through the crossing turns creating yourself a nice little four strand braid simulation. It almost certainly will not be as tight on your first go, but it can be done with practice if you really need to reduce the need for knots. Which I can understand if it's the need to reduce time to make them. Do you really need to braid a turks head under your cover knots though? You could try wrapping strips of thinner leather around, carving it to shape very very very carefully with a razor. Add a drop of glue every inch or so in the wrap and the thing will never move.

This is just personal preference but I don't like the look of that lower knot, I would have recommended using the same knot for each end, using a smaller lace on the bottom. The top is very docorative looking and the bottom to me seems crushed or something. I love the horn and strap though. Nicely done.

Excellent replies to this. I am trying to start my business too, and after a year I am not much further into it, certainly not enough to live from it. I don't have a day job so time is on my side, I can sit around all day drawing out new designs and plans of promotion etc. After a recent recap of my methods this was my new plan. Find all the expensive selling places in the area, be it pet store, sex store, tack shop novelty items or what. Find out what they sell in detail, take pictures, make notes and think about it all. I was in a novelty shop selling all sorts of high quality irish gimmicked goods. Celtic knot work tables and chairs, sterling silver, paintings etc. They also sell beads, beads which I can use to enhance my own range of bracelets, Using those beads I struck a deal, he will basically buy outright my stuff using his own bead selection, which I will be buying from the manufacturer directly. I am hoping to pump the range in that by displaying plain versions beside his beaded versions. I also showed my full portfolio of work, whips, necklaces, torch handles, bracelets, books... 55 pictures in all. Got an fairly interesting discussion out of it, which I hope he will remember next time he has people ask relevent questions...and then point my way. A travelling continental market is another way I hope to branch out my name. I made a friend on one of them who sells reindeer hides with his wife. We got talking about fire steels, bushcraft, knives and all sorts. The last time they were here, I was randomly looking around the market, and he popped in between me and someone else shouting great things about my leather work. I am hoping this year he can put some of my stuff in his truck and see if sells back home. My partner's sister is a vetenery nurse, for the spring, we intend to put a small catalogue of sample dog leads in there to advertise goods. With any luck that might also pay off. My partner works in an office for the govt, so we sent in a sample braided book and an order page for christmas sales, with a 50% deposit it's guaranteed by christmas. We also offered free name carving. In one day I got enough orders to buy all the materials for the goods wanted. I am looking to find other friends in similar working enviroments. A DJ friend of mine is regularily across the water in the gothdam of england, nottingham as a DJ. I am arranging with her to have flyers dropped of and maybe run a stall too. I have had very long discussions with my friends on making budget stuff, and for months I was going to, but I am a braider, I have pride in my work, work which took me a long time to make and a long time to learn, three years professionally in leather work included with 12 years practice and experimentation. I have compromised by offering cheaper materials in some cases. the new leather knot bracelet range is prime example. from top quality hand cut braided cords used to make continuos knots right down to 1mm round lace versions. If we get the market stall up and running I had another idea...Leave out the belly of a whip secured to a frame of some variety if possible with 16 strands of lace ready to go. and let customers try it themselves. With any luck they will see straight away how difficult and time consuming it is there by justifying expenses. My expertise is most definately in braided goods, my carving is a lot on the needing work stage, so in order to improve this, I am trying to sell products which can incorporate this eventually ie notebooks, This way I should always have scraps to practice on which i have been. Like wise with all materials. I am trying to maximise the possibilites of product outcomes using the same materials in different ways. I can reduce the need to get supplies from 20 different sources saving me money on postal costs. and time on sourcing cheaper. No one in my area offers carved leather goods of the quality on this forum, whether or not theres a market for it I don't know but I hope to find out in a few years. In the mean time I will continue to search for cheaper better raw materials, making my own tools when possible and when needed. and save all the scraps I can because one day they will all have a use. I even save the hair of the back of my laces when it's been cut. Oh one more thing, jewelry has one of the largest mark ups in price in the market, BDSM goods probably get shoved in in a close second. If this is acceptable behaviour for everyone else and you can do it and get away with it, go for it. Thing is, braided whips are far more often worth exactly what their worth and not marked up much at all...go figure. Anyway, theres a few of my plans, and I hope it helps.

Roo hide is georgous and 80percent stronger by thickness than other hides in a test mixed group. Oil is strong too, as is old (old cow hides) If you check my critique post you'll see very thin work too. The pen is wrapped by Wine red old cow 1.5mm scross by .4mm thick. Black pig skin 1.5mm across by about .6mm thick. The pig skin as a four strand braided cord can tie up a 60kg pack to a tree without issue, I have never even thought about it ever snapping on me. I can't actually see your picture but thought I would chime in as best I could.

Yes it's a turks head terminal knot, crown followed by wall knot. go to your local library and ask for ashleys book of knots and you should find it.

I know I haven't been here for a while but I was just in to post a link to this tutorial, though I got it from BCUK... Nice to see you here also troy

Yes raven, I am in a lot of places, where did you see me?