Reiny Day Project

[TomE]

Made some rubber reins using Equus grips from Abbey England and HO bridle leather.  These grippy reins are used for jumping and cross country courses.  Had fun sealing the edges with beeswax using an old Dixon edge iron from @PeterMain.  Shout out to @jcuk for the tip about locating the fixed loop closer to the bar of the buckle.

 

[Mulesaw]

@TomE That set look fantastic! 

The creasing looks perfect, and I really like the small detail with the thread going around the side for the first stitch near the bar of the buckle. It gives a really neat and tidy look in my opinion.

 

[tsunkasapa]

Very nice! But what is 'rain'?

[MikeRock]

Were getting 3" of that 'stuff' over the next 36 hours.......  

[TomE]

8 hours ago, Mulesaw said:

@TomE That set look fantastic! 

The creasing looks perfect, and I really like the small detail with the thread going around the side for the first stitch near the bar of the buckle. It gives a really neat and tidy look in my opinion.

 

Thanks, @Mulesaw.  I'm still experimenting with the creasing.  I use heat to crease after beveling the edge and again after staining/drying and before sewing.  The bridle leather doesn't hold a crease quite as well as regular veg tan.  Stohlman recommends creasing cased leather (no heat) but I find the outside blade of my screw crease indents the beveled edge if the leather is cased.

6 hours ago, tsunkasapa said:

Very nice! But what is 'rain'?

Thanks, @tsunkasapa. The reiny days only happen in my workshop.  Today is a rainy day and I'm hoping the horse flies are about done for this year. 

Edited September 11, 2022 by TomE

[jcuk]

They turned out well, i hot crease once i have edge shaved, skived down down buckle turns, edge stained and burnished the edges. And i will hot crease again once i  have stitched the item together and reblocked the loops and burnish again. Equus rein grips are also used in Horse Racing they tend to 3/4'' x 30'' this side of the pond, on your side 1'' is what they use and they are also a lot shorter over there if memory serves i think 18'', long time since i done some American racing tack. I will take a guess at yours 5/8'' x 24'' could be wrong maybe 3/4 x30'', Hook studs are allowed to used on horse racing tack over here, the reins are usually stitched onto the bit ring or they will have buckle billets. On a side note about Abbey England they saved Equus from going under a few years ago along with a few other companies that are vital to the saddlery industry over here, yes prices are going up which is hard to take, but i know from experience of using some other makes of rubber rein grips Equus would be a big loss. Good work again.

Hope this helps

JCUK 

[TomE]

Thanks, @jcuk. These grips are 3/4" x 30" but I learned they are a bit too wide for our petite trainer.  I'll be ordering some 5/8" x 30" grips, and trying the large pips as well as the small.  She really liked the small pips, which are very grippy, but I'm uncertain about how they will wear.  I didn't use a leather cuff at the ends of the grips because these have a molded rubber cuff that makes it hard to fit the leather cuff snugly around the ends.  I suppose I could cut off the rubber cuff and cover with leather.  What do you think about it?

[jcuk]

The wear depends on use, in racing they tend to get abused and don't last to long, small pips large pips thats up to the customer, personally i think large last longer but are not so grippy in the wet. No need to cut the ends off leave as is, you can buy some that you have put leather ends on must say i prefer them the rubber ends do tear easily at times and the leather ends look better to me. One more thing when you come to recover them rule of thumb over here is twice and then bin them save the hardware if its still ok, for racing i will only recover once and bin just because of the stress they are put under.

Hope this helps

JCUK

Edited September 11, 2022 by jcuk

[TomE]

Thanks once again, @jcuk. Very helpful to have expert advice as I learn the craft.

[jcuk]

When i started this i was riding race horses for a living so my adage was and is, if i would not ride on an item of tack that i have repaired i would not put it out. Always better to err on the side of caution, just know when something is past it sell by date. And not a expert just been doing it for a long time and have seen some horror story repairs just because people get away with it  does not make it right and sorry to say some customers do not want to pay for a good safe repair they get it done on the cheap even if it their own childs piece of tack. And i have refused some work only for them to say i will take somewhere else.