Argentine lace cutting

[Alan Bell]

The Argentines are really advanced in their rawhide work. 60, 70, 80, and even 90 strands will be used to cover a knife handle! I've seen a braiding masterpiece of a one foot wide girth strap that took its braider, Pablo Lozano, one year to braid! They do many intricate patterns and knots far beyond our simple pineapple and herring bone. There really is no comparison yet they use very simple tools to do all this intricate work. One of these tools is their lace cutter. It is simply a 1 1/2" - 2" disc about 1/2" thick. Sometimes these are plastic washers and they make them out of hardwood or cattle horns. They cut a horizontal slit into the side that goes past the half way mark and in the middle they will drill an egg shaped hole. A very sharp knife will be wedged into the hole and the material to be cut will be slid into the slit. The difference between the keen edge of the knife and the wall of the slit is the width of lace that will be cut. Now comes the neat part...after the first little starter cut has been made you get the cut lace piece coming out of the top of the center hole, pulling the material tight (I clamp one end and pull tight with my left hand) you grab the lace with your right hand and pull towards yourself at an away angle. As you pull the knife will be hanging there in mid air wedged inside the egg shaped hole and it will just glide along as if it is cutting the lace by itself! Because of the size of the pics I made I'll have to do several post. The first is my knife inside the plastic circle.

[Alan Bell]

Here I have started the lace and it is coming out the top. I have pulled on the lace to get it to this point but I had to let go to take the picture.

[Alan Bell]

Here is the finished product.

Vaya con Dios, Alan Bell

Many people will fight you down when you see Jah light

Bob Marley - Exodus

[Hedge]

Thanks, Alan!

What a simple device and perfect for the job. Sometimes, I think we make things more complex than is really

necessary. This one is going in my book of tools.

[TomBanwell]

Very cool technique. Thanks for posting that.

[skip]

Thanks Alan that was a great tutorial, I do have a question about the kind of knife used. Is it as it looks in your picture just a standard straight knife? it just has to be very sharp is that correct? what do you use to change the width of your lace? does the knife just change position in your plastic ring? I am going to have to try this one out

[megabit]

Very cool Alan.

[KAW]

Alan, that little tool works great for making very small strings.

I made one kind of like it years ago out of Grants book and it works good, it dosent take alot of fancy tools to make good strings.

Thanks for posting the pics hopefully people will see it doesn't take fancy tools to cut their own strings and do a good job.

Did Wald show you that tool on your visit?

[Alan Bell]

Thanks everybody glad folks found it useful.

Skip, your right the knife just changes position to change the width of the lace. While I'd bet a good 'Ol' Timer' type blade would work my particular knife is a Japanese version of the Argentine "Criollo" type knife.

Kevin I'll answer both post here. The visit with Nate Wald was great! I had seen the lace cutter at the Braiders Round table 2 yrs ago and had tried to make one up but didn't fair too well. Nate had one that he was using and I got a little more hands on experience with his so I made mine as soon as I got back. He has quite a bit of horse rawhide and I took a little with me that I had made and we made lace out of that and he helped me putting that fid work on the quirt handle in the other post. I had not been able to get things to work out for me using what I had been told and what I could glean from my rough interpretation of the Argentine braiding books I have and Nate cleared things up for me and I found out it is as hard to do as it looks but well worth the effort. I'd imagine like anything else the more you do it the easier it will get. I don't know if the pictures of beveling the string by hand will do any justice but I will try and get some up maybe next week.

Vaya Con Dios, Alan Bell

Speak the truth, speak it for ever. Cause it what it will! He who, he who, he who hides the wrong he did, surely did the wrong thing still!

Bob Marley - Mix Up

[Timothy]

Thanks for this tutorial.

I'll have to make one of these myself. I think I'd rather use a knife I can resharpen rather than swapping razor blades all the time.

Looking forward to the bevelling pics. I need some help in that area.

Timothy

[rgerbitz]

That is pretty slick Alan. Thanks for sharing that with us. What is the braiders round table.

Rob

[CharlieR]

Alan--thnanks for the tutorial. This forum is great for beginners like myself to see how many different things are done. You mewntioned the braiders roundtable--is this a yearly event and would it be possible for beginners to attend or obtain infomration?? Thanks for all you have contributed to theis forum. Charlie

[Alan Bell]

The Braiders Roundtable was a first as far as anyone knows. It was a gathering of braiders from all of North America and we hosted braiders from Argentina and 1 from Australia. We were supposed to host braiders from Mexico but they didn't make it. Hopefully it won't be the last time but I do not know of any immediate plans to repeat the event.

Vaya con Dios, Alan Bell

Let's get together and feel alright

Bob Marley - One Love

[JLD]

The Argentines are really advanced in their rawhide work. 60, 70, 80, and even 90 strands will be used to cover a knife handle! I've seen a braiding masterpiece of a one foot wide girth strap that took its braider, Pablo Lozano, one year to braid! They do many intricate patterns and knots far beyond our simple pineapple and herring bone. There really is no comparison yet they use very simple tools to do all this intricate work. One of these tools is their lace cutter. It is simply a 1 1/2" - 2" disc about 1/2" thick. Sometimes these are plastic washers and they make them out of hardwood or cattle horns. They cut a horizontal slit into the side that goes past the half way mark and in the middle they will drill an egg shaped hole. A very sharp knife will be wedged into the hole and the material to be cut will be slid into the slit. The difference between the keen edge of the knife and the wall of the slit is the width of lace that will be cut. Now comes the neat part...after the first little starter cut has been made you get the cut lace piece coming out of the top of the center hole, pulling the material tight (I clamp one end and pull tight with my left hand) you grab the lace with your right hand and pull towards yourself at an away angle. As you pull the knife will be hanging there in mid air wedged inside the egg shaped hole and it will just glide along as if it is cutting the lace by itself! Because of the size of the pics I made I'll have to do several post. The first is my knife inside the plastic circle.

Hi Alan,

Know that it is quite some time since you posted this but I just found it looking for some help. Quick question please.

Does it matter how wide the cut is there the rawhide slides through ? I assume from the width of the rawhide you are cutting from that it hasnt been split so do you need a fairly wide split to allow for the thicker bits of the hide. Also is the rawhide dray when you are cutting it or is the hide cased?

Thanks for you tutorials and help it is much appreciated.

johanne