Raw hide lace cutting

[JmShoemate]

I have started learning a bit about braiding with rawhide lace. However, I can’t afford the tools for prepping and refining the lace. Like cutting, thinning, beveling. Does anyone recommend some more rustic/ DIY ways to make those tools. Ie, resources or guides to make my own tools. 

[chuck123wapati]

try and find the book , Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather braiding, i have an ecopy  I found on the internet. It explains everything about rawhide making, cutting and usage its an old book so it is very rustic lol..

[AlZilla]

Search youtube. I remember seeing some real low tech ways to make lace. I seem to recall a razor blade mounted somehow and a circle of leather being cut spirally.  Also a video or two about making round leather that involved rolling wet leather strips out. If you've ever seen a leather treadle belt for a sewing machine, that's what was being made.

 

And second Chuck's suggestion above. The author is Bruce Grant, I also have a copy. You could spend years mastering all the techniques in that book.

Edited April 14 by AlZilla

[bruce johnson]

I will second the Grant Book and there are a few others out there. There are some videos - Bryan Neubert and some others along with on-line instruction. Yes these old timers used relatively crude tools and mostly got excellent results but that was then, this is now. Braiding was a hands-on taught by someone on the ranch usually - a true bunkhouse craft.  There are a lot of pieces of that puzzle.  Rawhide braiding to my mind is the lowest paid and most labor and time intensive of about any handwork I can think of. That said, I love good rawhide work, appreciate what all has gone into it, and don't mind paying what they are asking. You skin the cow, flesh the hide, dehair the hide by whatever method you like, stretch the hide, cut sections, cut big strings, cut little precise strings from the big ones, bevel the strings, temper the strings so they are just right, keep them at just the temper right while you braid. Then you hope it dries evenly, pulls down good, and doesn't twist or gap. My hat is off to them all. I have been really intrigued by braiding for 45 years but as one guy told me - you have too many irons in the fire to commit to it - fair assessment and true enough.

That said, if you are just getting into it then the braiding groups are most likely going to tell you to start with buy some good string, already cut and beveled and use that first. Randy Roberts seems to be the go-to guy for that right now, Bret Haskett has string sometimes, no doubt others. They are going to to tell you to get with somebody to learn the tactile stuff that a book or video can't - tempering correctly and even tension.  Once you feel like you have the braiding skills , then go back and make your own when you know what good string looks and feels like and why certain hide parts are better for foundation and other parts better for buttons. 

Don't know where you are located but the rawhiders are a really open group.   There are get-togethers in Texas, Utah, Idaho, and more probably - Pendleton, Oregon gathering is coming up in a few weeks. These are informal gatherings with masters and rank beginners - openly sharing tips and tricks and "let me show you this" deals over a few days. These folks have had someone teach them and most will line up three deep to help a beginner. They can demonstrate everything from a notched wood stick and pocket knife to make string to some pretty sophisticated cutters, bevelers, and splitters. I don't think I have ever met a braider that didn't talk pretty reverently and appreciatively of whoever taught them to start with. Then they say so-and-so taught me this button, that guy taught me to flesh better, Joe taught me to scald instead of scrape to dehair, etc. Used to be they had to quit a ranch job and went to another one to learn different things from the crew there, now they go to another gathering and mostly keep the same job.