Roo Reins Started, What Ya Think So Far?

[entiendo]

They do look very nice, but I'm wondering if you tightened the knots at the turn back. They look a little loose yet.

[acox4t4]

Howdy, Thanks for looking and asking me questions so that I can get better results. No I didn't do any tighting on the turnback knot. Darn it I thought that this was one of the kind of buttons that they got tight on their own and didn't require tighting and since it was getting hard to pull the lace through expecially where it tapers down I thought it was tight,,,,,shoot shoot shoot !!!! When I get my new hides in, I will probably just redo the end knots and try and add some red to it where the knot is wider, I've been trying to read up on how to do that while in limbo waiting for roo to show up. I was thinking about trying to add the red in now on what I have and with you seeing that they look loose I might just give that a try since it would give me something to do and if it doesn't work and comes apart no loss. Thanks you gave me the motivation to try something new. Thanks for taking notice and giving feedback your greatly appriciated. My plan was to make these and other gear matching set then trade it for a filly that I want from a cowboy I ride with some. He already has the hobbles that will match but with me being a rookie at cutting, beveling ect....LOL this set of reins is going to end up costing me about 500.00 in roo plus all my time. So I just might need to keep these for myself since I will be the only one that will appriciate the time, effort and money put into it. In hopes of in the future being able to make items that are worth more then what I put into them. LOL Thanks again for your feedback.

[acox4t4]

Has anyone beside me found there to be a corrilation (spelling might be off) between Kangaroo hide arriving and the common cold that keeps you home from work??

Hehehe sure glad my sore throat doesn't effect my being able to cut and bevel hide.

Now I can get started working on my project again.

And Bevan, I'm getting better with your tool. It worked really good on the two hides I got, no problems at all and with me getting better I was able to get alot more lace out of each hide. Got about 160 foot of black lace and about 145 out of the whisky. Thats atleast 50 foot more then what I got out of a hide on the second time cutting lace, so shouldn't be any reason to not have enought lace to finish up the project now.

[entiendo]

Yes you have to tighten all your knots, at least most of them. That's why it's suggested you use the most center part of the hide for the larger buttons and smaller strings. It's not to late to tighten your knot though.

[rawhide1]

acoxt4t

The goal should be not to have to go back and tighten a knot. It takes some practice but you'll get it. Just start building a little tighter from the get go. Once you get it you'll save yourself a ton of time on not having to go back and re-tighten

Best of luck, Mike.

[entiendo]

Well I still tighten most all my knots, not sure there is a right way or a wrong way but it's only my very large 6 bight or more buttons that sometimes don't need to be tightened. My knots are very hard when I'm done. I find they roll smoother that away. In fact just the other day I had to tighten a long 4 bight button twice because it just wasn't rolling smooth. Course that could be the difference between working rawhide and kangaroo.

[rawhide1]

entiendo

Each to their own I reckon. I find if I have to re tighten a knot whether roo or rawhide the strings look kind of beat up. I build the base of my knots pretty snug so I don't have to re tighten them. It saves a tremendous amount of time and produces a better looking knot IMO. I haven't had any problems with my knots being soft ether.

Mike

[entiendo]

Hmmm, hard for me to imagine. Even when I have a tight foundation I tighten my knots. It would be wonderful if I didn't have to tighten them but I'm not sure I could keep myself from checking and ultimately tightening them, if just a little. LOL

Keeping the string slick will keep them from being beat up.

[acox4t4]

Howdy All,,, Hope everyone still has all their fingers and toes after the 4th of July I am a fireworks junkie, few burn marks and missing some hair but I made it through another year. hehehe

Well here is the start of the buttons on the reins and with the post on to tighten or not to tighten I figured I would post a few pictures to see if these buttons look ok. I'm having troubles with one lace covering up another and it being so tight that I can't seem to get it out. I figured what you all think but wondering it I don't need to make the buttons bigger??? put more tape under them ??? I tried to have the ruler there to give ya some idea on how big the buttons are. On one of the buttons it looks like I made a mistake but if ya look close you can see the black lace being covered up. I'm doing the buttons directly onto the project, and so far by the time I'm done I can hardly get the lacing needle and lace through the holes that I make with my fid. I still have been going back and tightened the buttons alittle since in some places there has been alittle slack but not much.

If they look like trash and should pull them apart I did not cut the lace yet just in case thats what everyone thinks I need to do.

Please help me out and let me know what ya think. Thanks Annette

[Aggiebraider]

Hey Annette,

What size is your lace? From the pic it looks bigger than 1/8", and for those knots thats too big. I dont think you should change the size of the knots or the number of bights or anything, but if you cut your lace narrower, it will fit together better and you wont get any overlap.

Hope that helps,

CW