Lace Cutting Question

[rcsaddles]

I also saw somewhere that someone said they make sure the flesh side was fleshed great before tanning. Not sure how to explain what I am trying to say. You know how at thimes on the flesh side you can pull off some loose stuff? Ya, that. Anyway, does anyone condition their strings before beveling? Not sure if that will make a difference or not. Someone said they bevel then splits to have all the material he can to bevel. Just trying to throw out some ideas.

[Bevan]

I also saw somewhere that someone said they make sure the flesh side was fleshed great before tanning. Not sure how to explain what I am trying to say. You know how at thimes on the flesh side you can pull off some loose stuff? Ya, that. Anyway, does anyone condition their strings before beveling? Not sure if that will make a difference or not. Someone said they bevel then splits to have all the material he can to bevel. Just trying to throw out some ideas.

Good point Joe

I normally use drum stuffed hides !!but some times i have to use dry , this is the only time i will split the lace before resizing or beveling just to take the fluff off ,, with greasey hides you dont see too much fluff

cheers

Bevan

www.bwrwhips.com

[KnotHead]

Someone said they bevel then splits to have all the material he can to bevel. Just trying to throw out some ideas.

That was me. I do it that way for the simple reason that having more material on the surface of my cutter seems to work out best for the cutter I use. I get a much cleaner cut on my bevels that way. I am also beveling at 30°. I don't know what that bevel is on the cutter acox is using. I have no idea if that will work on the cutter acox is using, or not. I have no experience with that cutter.

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[acox4t4]

There is alot of fluff on the underside where it seems to cut like crud, and it also seems like it has more stretch in those spots also. I might have a bad hide or I may have not ordered the right stuff. Either way I'm not giving up. I greatly appriciate your help and I promise ya that I'm taking all the information that your giving me and trying to get it figured out, so please know that your time and effort is not being wasted. I'm trying, and again thank you for looking at the pictures.

Annette

[rcsaddles]

I was pretty sure it was you, Brian, but when I got ready to post, I wasn't sure so I changed to someone.

This is why I really like this site. There is so much information here that your average person won't have. I'm sure if we keep this up, we will all be expert lace cutters in no time.

[want2braid]

Hello! If you want to make it like a greased hide you can do like I do even to drum stuffed kangaroo hide. Its the old timer method of camp fuel and parafin(jelly)wax. You take a stainless pot and pour the white gas( also called Camp Fuel) by Coleman's, and then use a cheese grater to shave a bar of parafin wax into it, which makes it dissolve better. You stir it up and then put your string in. I spiral out whole hides, so I rough cut them at 3/4'' and throw that in before splitting, fine cutting or beveling. It gives i more body, stiffening it up a little that make it cut and split cleaner, but has a buttery/waxy feel. After I let it soak a while, I pull the long strand between my thumb and index finger to get out excess mixture, coil it up and let it hang to dry. The humidiy will determine how long this might take, but the camp fuel is highly refined so it evaporates quickly. I have left it in the mixture to long and it leaves a wax residue on the outside. It will simply buff off with a soft cloth and elbow grease. I hope maybe this could save your string... Have a great week!

Brent

There is alot of fluff on the underside where it seems to cut like crud, and it also seems like it has more stretch in those spots also. I might have a bad hide or I may have not ordered the right stuff. Either way I'm not giving up. I greatly appriciate your help and I promise ya that I'm taking all the information that your giving me and trying to get it figured out, so please know that your time and effort is not being wasted. I'm trying, and again thank you for looking at the pictures.

Annette

[KnotHead]

I mainly get the same thing on colored hides. The saddle tan, red and blue ones mainly. I don't have much of a problem with whiskey tan, black and the brown colors. But as mentioned above, I use a Pecards leather dressing to fix that problem of the hairy parts. I think I will have to try the method in the post above though.

My cutter is different than the one acox is using.

Below is what my cutter looks like with the 90° insert in place.

So my cutter is a bit different and some of my solutions are based on the cutter in the photo.

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[acox4t4]

I think I finally got it !!!! Whoot Whoot !!!! This black roo hide was soooooo much better, it didn't have that fluffy stuff and is even thickness. It didn't roll up on me, instead it just went through the bevan tool like butter. Both the cutter and beveler I might be tooting my horn to soon, so here are a few pictures for you all to look at and see what ya think, but in compairson to my previous efforts this one rocks.

I also have a couple of questions for want2braid hopefully reads this post or if not if anyone else can answer the questions that would be great. want2braid mentioned a way to get rid of that fluffy stuff with a mixture of camp fuel and wax. I went and bought both and ready to throw that cruddy whiskey hide in but also have a red hide with some fluffy that I need to do also since I notice its fluffy on the back as well. Can I put them in together?? If not can I put the whiskey in then pull it out and put the red one in the same mixture?? When you say leave it in awhile -- How long is awhile??? In Kansas a walkabout would mean walking around the city mall shoping for 1 hour, for Bevan it would mean being in the bush seeing the great outdoors for a year. For my sister when we go fishing for AWHILE if she doesn't catch a fish within the first 5 mins, she is done. Where as for me give me a lawn chair, some drinks, shade and a fish playing with my hook and I'm good for AWHILE. So just wondering since I left that second raw hide flop in the lime for AWHILE, and ended up with a holly mess. HEHE

Well I was heading to bed but was so excited about the lace that I just had to share my excitement before I could get any sleep.

[acox4t4]

Want2braid that was great advice on using the camp fuel and wax, I soaked both the whiskey and red in it today and made the whiskey hide to where I was able to get it cut and beveled. Thank you so much I only let it soak for about 5 mins, not sure if it should have been longer but just that 5 mins worked wonders on it.

Like I kept saying about Bevan's tool it was totally my error, once I got the roo stiffened up by soaking then it cut so easy. Would never have got it right without ya want2braid.

And Knothead would be proud of my progress also, I had a blood sacrifice today

Only one thing to say to you all......

[KnotHead]

I am proud that you are making good progression. I don't know how bad the blood sacrifice was. So I don't want to boast of that just in case there was a limb lost. LOL...

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