Building Up A Nose Button

[bullwhips]

I'm working on my second bosal and I've read in several places to use tape to build up the shape of the nose button. This may be the whip maker in me but using tape inside plaited leather just doesn't seem right to me. I know a lot of whip makers use tape for things like shot bags or splicing bolster, and I've learned other ways to make them without out tape.

My first bosal I built up the nose button using waxed string. Now I don't know much about bosals, and the main reason I'm making a couple is that I saw some rawhide ones at Hamley's in Pendleton OR and thought they looked cool.

So I guess my questions is: Is there anything wrong with building the shape of the nose button with waxed or unwaxed thread instead of tape?

I'd imagine that in the long run waxed thread would hold up better than tape because over time tape will loose it's sticky-ness and basically just sit there as filler. But thread will contribute to the strength of bosal under the nose button and may hold a limited amount of dressing, which may help prolong the life of the bosal.

For what it's worth, here's the bosal in it's current state:

Louie

[Aggiebraider]

Hey Louie,

I know that alot of braiders use tape (bookbinding, athletic. electric. etc.) to build up their nose buttons mainly because you save a good bit of time as well as you have the opportunity to carve on the tape if the shape doesnt come out completely round or symmetrical. As far as wax thread goes, I would say that would work just fine, but it would take an extreme amount of time and as far as adding to the strength of the bosal goes, the real functionality of the bosal doesnt warrant itself to needing more strength. Depending on what you used for a core, there should be no way for a horse to pull through a bosal that has a decent sized core and more than 8 strands to the foundation braids. you can also use Spanish Ring knots in even places through the nose button to give yourself benchmarks for roundness and thickness to build the nose button around. I wouldnt feel bad though about using tape on the bosals, because they are just there for shape and to give you a foundation. The tape really doesnt do anything to add to or take away from the overall function of the bosal.

Oh, and next time you have any braiding questions, I would post them in the Braiding section of the forum. Youre more likely to get the help you need there since the only reason I found this was I bored and looking through different sections of the forum.

Hope I was able to help,

Aggiebraider

[bullwhips]

Thanks for the response! I didn't know where to post it, because it's not exactly a braiding question.

For the core of the bosal I twisted a piece of rawhide, then wrapped another piece around that one with the twist in the opposite direction.

I already built it up with thread and while it took quite a bit of time, it was a nice day out and I did it on my deck in the sun (which is rare in the Seattle area). Next time I'll try doing it with tape.

Louie