8thsinner

I have never really thought about making horse tack, but I am amazed at the stuff your doing these days. It's absolutely stunning, I am sitting here just counting up the hour or so to do two buttons for each button button....Ouch. How long did the whole set take? I am also curious about what knots you use to do the foundations, I would guess most of the grip is spanish rings under, but maybe a gauco with a spanish ring on top to get the circular effect on those pineapples???

Hi acox. I'll chime in here I like the colours you used, and the round braids seem pretty straightly braided, But I do see some faults that are easy ish to over come First most obvious one, is either split your leather so it's thinner or bevel it so it sits beside itself nicer. Either or both will greatly improve your work. You can get a fairly reliable splitter made by youtubing, board leather splitter. Very minimal tools, or search this place and you will find lots of versions that work. Your widths seem good, but the spanish rings on one seems to waver a little. Second major issue I see is the turks head on the first pic, you should have done another pass. And hammer it a little more, it seems slightly larger on one side. I like most especially the simplicity of the tan one, turks seem good here but there is a little bit sticking out of the right one that can be trimmed off. Hope that helps.

I have found the pronged needles a pain to use in the past when I worked with a lot more cowhide. Moving onto roo they might hold better, or perhaps even rawhide as it can be made fairly stiff through wetting and drying out. But using perma lok needles, I have filed the tips of mine so they are slightly flatter, the threaded section only extends about a third of the way in so it leaves a lot of room for shaping and as it's brass it's easy to shape and smooth down. With any leather though I have found it improves over time in getting the right taper, using the right amount of braiding grease and getting a well sized knot. i have not bought more than three of each size in the last 6-7 years.

Hi Bernie, I am glad you found the place. I have to say this is the finest looking whip I have seen from you yet. Just phenomenal. So so clean looking. I hope you enjoy this place btw.

It's a mistake that could quite easily be used to exploit the idea of extending a colour one block. The piece is very neat looking though.

Nice link, I must have missed that last time round

Yup, burn it baby. I just use a small needle to remove the char instead of a drill bit but burning is the only way I know of and how it was recommended to me by my dealer.

I think this looks great. I am sure it must be hard to find pieces and clasps. Have you thought about making your own out of something from a hardware store?

I think this is awesome. Great colours and great work.

Another thank you

Grant's encyclopedia was my first leather braiding book and venture into using flat lace for knots and though some things are hard to see and there are minor mistakes every knot can be made fairly easily with practice. You do have to sort of use your common sense too. I have Ron edwards making whips too, the new one, and the plaiting handle patterns section is awesome, his detail on round knots however is rather pathetic. But I think he more than makes up for this in the small details throughout the entire book. I hope to get some of Gail's books at some point though. But currently cannot comment on them.

I understand the lack of pictures for the allergy. and I'll check the site

A couple of pictures might help Ray, and approx sizes of skins too. I haven't worked with goat so I have no idea what size they are... Maybe pics of the universal machine too in different uses, your description is rather limited.

Up until now I have gotten away with using various parts of my last place for leather work, coffee table, door, floor etc. But I am looking for suggestions on a custom built work station, that operates at ground level. Suitable for braiding, cutting upto 1mtr probably in length and trimming roo hides etc, probably 75 cm or so from the wall I am thinking. I do a lot of lacing too on books and things, and would use the same space for tool storage, but it has to be small also. Has anyone got a smaller work station they have made up or seen thats suitable? Show me some pics please and give me some ideas.

You can take this with a pinch of salt, but if you have prestretched the leather I do not see a problem with undue further stretching being a problem. And 1" sounds like plenty of overlap to me, but it depends how good your sewing is and what stitches you end up using. If your hand stitching, I suggest copying the levi outer leg stitching method to give them as much strength as possible, but thats three stitch lines and a lot of work. If your not sure of your stitching so much then go the easier route and do one stitch line like the inner leg would be done. and for that 1" is far too much. It's good enough leather and if the thread is a good one you should not have a problem, IMO. But like I said I am not a pro leather clothing maker, but I am sure a few chap makers will be in soon to clarify, but at least you have something to think on... Hope it helps

Bruce grants encyclopedia of rawhide and leather braiding has a nice looking design in it, I have never needed to make them but they are adjustable to the body and look pretty decent. Would look even better if braided in roo. But his version uses straps which is much easier to do.

You could do what I am trying to do, Bulk buy for other braiders in your area or country. I have only a couple lined up so far but canada probably has more than the UK Knothead, I couldn't help but notice in the last picture that the strands look very dry. Have you been using plaiting soap at all, or do you only soap the next two three inches at a time?

It's always sad to see a great craft man pass, more so when he was a gentleman.

I just checked out your site for the first time shelly. And you do some mighty fine braid work. Very impressed. Reminds me too just how much I still have to learn...

Nice work for a sticky. I like seeing how one of these go together, I never knew before. Love how it turned out too, and gives me a few ideas on how to do things for whips in the future. I can see about all the mistakes you have made in the past to come up with such a precision piece like shown. That too, to me is quite important.

I have been trying to work out how to do this for you for a while, but ALL pages now have the ads, which I dont mind, however it does take much longer to load, I am currently on a very fast connection and there is still a lag in loading. Instead of loading the ads first, can you please try to load a place holder first, load the rest of the text then load the ads in the space holder?

Not sure how you seen those pics and saw dog...I saw splinter in his youth lol

Yes that helps a lot thanks. Means I have a little less research to do than I thought I would need... For the knife I was actually gonna use a spare cut throat, that cuts through sponge anyhow like butter... lol I have a stapler too so thats easy, and like you said that glue, well I know someone who works with 3m... Cool.

I may have a customer interested in a bike seat. Currently he is looking around to give himself ideas of what he might want. Now, this is similar to the bike seat in question. http://static.blogo.it/motoblog/kawasaki-zxr-1200-mod-2009/Kawasaki_ZRX_1200_01.jpg I don't know what his actual model is, But it's fairly plain shaped. His first issue is that it is uncomfortable. I would need a better foam, or additional layer of foam on top of his shaped foam??? Recommendation for buying? Second issue, it's a fairly plain bike in reality, I want to offer something just to dress it up a little, now my tooling is pretty indecent so I won't be offering that, I may pop in tomorrow and ask someone else to tool for me though... I can probably just get him to pay for lacing the edges nice. I am worried about a few things, Not having the tools to pull this off I don't mind spending his money and taking no drawings for tools so whats my basic outlay. I am guessing, dremel or drill, rivets, rivet machine thingy (whats that called?) Sharp knife for foam cutting I can handle...I have looked through the tutorials I know I am better going for 10oz perhaps 8oz to stay in his budget.... This is the way I would go about charging Leather costs including lace, £50 not including post, by jt bachelors, 3.5mm shoulder...That would do right? Time involved Tools (let me know) (I can borrow a dremel short term) I will be looking through this section of the forum to try and answer my own questions but I wanted to get in here too cause you guys know better than I what I might not know what to look for... Thanks a million guys.