Rawhidelady

When I die my rawhide strings I soak them in Rit Dye for a couple of hours or until I get the color I want. Then I put them in a bowl of warm water with some vinegar in it, this sets the dye. Then I rinse them in cold water till the water runs clear.

Enrique O. Capone's book Leather Braiding has the information on this knot. He refers to it as Saturn Bomba Version 2 on pages 120 and 121. He has two books that are worth the cost to have in your collection. www.leather-braiding.com

I'm trying to find some different lacing fids that will fit better in my small hands. I need a straight one and a curved one. Does anyone know where to get one or you might custom make them ? Thanks

Personally it's much easier to use the multi string button to make that long of a knot rather than pulling all the length of one string through the braiding.

Just a little suggestion, get some leather gloves and cut the tip of the fingers out of them and sew the seams to keep them from unraveling. This really helps save your hands from blisters when pulling on the throngs to tighten. Also you can wrap the fingers that the throng pulls across with several layers of masking tape to protect them if you don't have gloves. Happy Braiding.

Well it just occurred to me (silly me) that you were maybe actually braiding horsehair (not leather)and trying to find a way to finish off the braid. Missed the ball, bat and the whole field on this one, lol.

Seems like a lot of people on here are looking for a place to find help with braiding and I thought it would be great to try and start a local Braiding Club. Nothing formal to begin with just people with the same interest getting together to work on projects and help each other out. There are two Tandy Stores in Texas that we might be able to use for meetings. Or if the weather is good we could meet at a local park, or if someone has a place available to use that would work too. If it seems to work out and the interest is there, then we can think about making it more formal with dues and rules. I had a hard time finding local help when I started braiding. No one wanted to help afraid they would lose business to competitions or something. Anyway I found a wounderful person willing to mentor me via the internet and with videos we sent back and forth. I sent him some of my work to critique and he would give me suggestions on how to make my work better. I consider myself an intermediate braider, I can make some nice useful products that people want to use. But I still have so much to learn, and lots of improvement that I can still make in my work. I live near the Red River border in Oklahoma, so either Oklahoma or Texas would be acceptable. If anyone else is in the area and would be interested in getting together with other braiders please let me know, if there is enough interest we might try it. Happy Holidays!

Tie a string around the end of your braid to hold it in place. Then separate the strands to get ready to make your termination knot of choice. Before you start to tie the termination knot lay your clean dry horsehair across the center of the braid, you can do it in one section or two sections crossed over each other. Tie your termination knot and when you bring the strands up through the middle tighten your knot and then carefully trim the ends flush with the bottom of the knot. Take the horsehair and pull it together in one bundle around the knot and tie a string to hold it there. Take someelectric tape and wrap the termination knot and hair with it. The electric tape can be trimmed to shape it as long as you quickly cover the trimmed tape with another layer of tape. I would then tie a 4 bight gaucho weave around it. Wrap the gaucho knot with one or two layers of tape of a color to blend with your final button knot. Lastly tie a final button of your choice to cover. Best of luck.

Gail Hought has classes and private lessons, not sure how close to you she is. If you don't find anyone to take hands on lessons you might at least find someone who was willing to mentor you via the internet, videos and/or phone calls. I was lucky enough to have someone do that for me in the beginning and it really helped improve my work a lot. Best of luck.

I usually take my pounding stick (hammer handle without the head) and pound the braid flat. Or I sandwich the braid between two pieces of smooth wooden boards and use a vise to press it, or just step on the boards to press if you don't have a vise handy.

Wow! What nice button braiding skills you have! Nice flat, even, and straight "V" patterns. I like the braided connection leash. Very good job, I'm gonna make myself a pair for "rattling" up the big bucks.

I would assume with 1/2" wide throngs that you would need a core for the braid to look good. Latigo leather should be fine, not sure about the weight (4oz). Can you post a photo showing how your braid is ending up? I may be able to tell more from the photo. I will try to see if I have some latigo of that weight and make the throngs from it and see how it turns out for me. I'll post the results tomorrow. and if you can post a photo of the tug that you are attempting to recreate it would help too. and if you can post a photo of the tug that you are attempting to recreate it would help too.

Your best bet is to buy it from an established braider like Gail Hought or Bryan Nuebert, Nate Wald. If you google rawhide lacing you should get some results. They will make it the size and thickness that you want. The best thing to do is to learn to make your own lace. This gives you control over the sizing and is a lot cheaper, but does take some time to make the lace. It took me three hours to cut, split and bevel the strings for my latest hobble project. The more string you make the better you will get in a relatively short time. I used to buy rawhide disc maybe 36" round and then make my lace from that. But the source for those disc has closed down and I think it best that I now learn how to make my own rawhide straight from the cow. I'm sure that I will ruin a few hides learning but in the long run I will be able to provide myself with all the string I will ever need. Wish me luck!

The revised book Braiding Rawhide Horse Tack should help with the interweave on a gaucho button, as well as Gail Hought's braiding books.

Just wanted to say on the plus side you have managed to keep your braiding rather straight and the "V"'s in a row going down the quirt. I still have some of my first projects that frankly weren't great. It helps when I have trouble with a project to go back at look at earlier works so I can see the progress I have made. I too had to teach myself braiding using only the books a few video's I could find. Finally I found a mentor that I could write to and send my work too, and he would send me a video response with suggestions. Hard to find someone who is willing to sit down and teach a newbie. Hang in there, I see a lot of potential in your first project.

Thank you, I'm back to braiding after about a 10 year break.

Thank you for the contact information RCSaddles. Tucker6591, I purchased those laces on the spool from ebay. I am not in the position right now to make my own lace, so I have to purchase it premade. At least this way I keep on practicing and don't forget how to braid too many buttons. Thanks

I used to get rawhide discs from Hereford Bi-Products but they have quit the rawhide business as Bill Confer has retired. Has anyone found a good replacement source for rawhide?

Here are some of my recent projects. Braided bracelets made with calf lacing.

I use the Braiding Soap recipe from David Morgan's website. The addition of the lard helps to soften the rawhide or leather and allow for a tighter braid that lies flatter. If I use just plain old Ivory soap the rawhide and/or leather doesn't soften like it does with the addition of the extra lard (tallow). The mixture takes no additional water to use, plain soap requires the use of water to soften it so you can apply to your strings. Also the soap mixture is easier to wash out of your braid work requiring less water. The less water used, the less shrinkage you will get in your finished braid. I don't know the science of the compound, I just know it works better than anything else I have tried.

Contact Bill Confer at Tejas Ind. 1-806-363-7232 Tell him you need a full dehaired hide to make a reata from. He will know what you need. Good Luck

Using the rule of 1/3 is always a good bet and would be equally pleasing. So on 8 foot reins you would go 32" max. Smiles

Great, thanks for taking the time to do this.

Oh well thanks I hadn't heard of the tradeshow being here in Denton. I will most definitely look for you there. Happy Braiding