Unusual request....

[rgerbitz]

A friend of ours son just recently got out of the hospital after having been there for a little over two weeks. He is 16 and came down with a damn near fatal case of bacterial menegitis. He had to be in a induced coma for five days and while under had to have some kinda of pressure release valves inserted into his brain. He is really into playing his guitar and had some really long hair to go with his hobby. As you can imagine the doctors had it all shaved off to do the surgeries. A friend of the families took the hair and washed it up and sorted it to length. His mom then brought it over to us and asked if we could make some shu flies out of it for him to keep. Which I agreed to because he is a really nice kid and we know the family. For some reason it's freakin me out a little to work with it. Anyways, I don't know how to get all the hair bound together to tie a nice knot around. It would seem that some type of glue, but not sure which would work best and how to get it all stuck together. Sorry this is all kinda of long winded but does anyone have any ideas how to go about making this into a shoo fly?

Thank you all for your time,

Rob

[rawhide1]

Rob

I find that after I punch my hole in the leather or work a hole in my braid. I separate my hair into two piles of equal size. I then tape the hair on each pile so that it forms a long point so I can get it through the hole. I then bring the hair through the hole from opposite sides. I find in doing this I get a lot more symmetrical foundation to start with. I then use tape to form the shape and size of foundation I want. I hope this helps and ain't to confusing. Let me know if I can clear it up any.

Mike

[rgerbitz]

Thank you Mike but I think I may not have been clear on what I need to do. The hair isn't long enough to run through a hole and double over. So I am needing to make a kinda of plug out of it. I used super glue once to do this but that made the hairs very brittle and they broke away very easily. I am really looking for what type of glue would work best or another idea.

Thanks again,

Rob

[Myriam]

Here's an idea. Why not take a few hairs at a time and tie a knot with it at one end. Once you get a bundle of hair prepared this way, all you would have to do is tie them together and braid a decorative knot over. That would ensure that each hair won't slip out and it'll also help built a foundation for the decorative knot. A lot of work but the only one I can see which wouldn't use glue.

Myriam

[justken]

Hi All..I'm a horsehair hitcher and do a lot of custom/keepsake items. Last time I tried to post was night whole system crashed! But I'll try not to kill it this time..

I'll try to explane one way you can do this with shorter hair. First you will need to get the hair wet, I useually wash and lightly condition it. It'll help to loosely wrap bread ties around bundle to keep everything togather. You need the hair wet and "soft". You can bind the cut end as tight as you can pull it down about an inch from end leaveing around a 10" tail on your string(will be used for 2nd knot). I'll wrap it about 3-6 times then tie it again. Now hold your tassle upside down and fold the tassle part evenly over the knot. Kind of devideing it into at least 4-5 sections. While doing this I always try to have short end(10" part) sticking out one side and running end out the other side. Draw down tightly over first knot which is now evenly covered with tassle and tie off again just like first knot.Be sure to kind of pull this down so you'll end up with a nice even button for your foundation. If you want more "bulk" you can wrap button with white election tape to build it up(with horsehair, black tape tends to darked up the pattern where white dosen't for some reason) Guess I should say to do that after sewing on your ring. I useually use size 277 poly thread to tie and hitch over,use smaller thread for smaller tassles. You can also do this same thing over a folded leather strap but I find it doesn't draw down as tight. As the hair drys it'll be kinked and that'll lock it in tight.

Hope this'll help and not just confuse everyone. I can't post pictures as I'm at work. I'll be back on here tommoro night if you have any qustions.

Any other hitchers on here?

[rgerbitz]

Thank you for the input everyone. I think I might try kens' way. If you have any pictures Ken I would like to seee them I think I understand you directions but some pictures may help, if it is not to much trouble.

Rob

[HorsehairBraider]

Hey... sorry I missed this, I've been, well, braiding horsehair night and day.

Use a rubber band. Band it about 1/2", or less if you can manage it, from the cut end. Bind it very tightly. You want it in as small of a circle as it will go.

Mix up some 5-minute expoxy. Turn your bundle of hair cut side down and rub it VERY thoroughly in the epoxy. Then use a toothpick and poke epoxy down into the bundle from the top, striving to get all the hairs epoxied.

Once it sets you are going to have to shape it to make it more spherical. I use scrap pieces of leather. I would crown a piece like this with gradually smaller circles of leather until the top is nice and domed, glueing each circle down carefully. Don't start to tie a braided knot until the foundation is right, of course. Bet you already know that. You can also sometimes shape the foundation with a little judicious use of a razor blade.

You're brave. I worked human hair a few times, found I did NOT like it, and now refuse all jobs that deal with it. I always made people who wanted this, pay 100% up front! I told them I could never re-sell it if they disappeared... to them it might be a precious memento, but others might find it a little disgusting, however I never got "skunked" on a job like this.

[rgerbitz]

Thank you HorseHair, I will try this with the next one. I did the first one the way the JustKen recommended and it work out good. The remaining hair is short enough that, the way you explained will work out better. And I am with you I believe that this will be my first and last project with human hair. I kind of shiver a little every time I touch it.

Thanks again

Rob