Paracord Bosal

[Aggiebraider]

Howdy all,

Here are some pics of a new paracord bosal I made. Im pretty happy with how it turned out since this was the first time I used a multistring nosebutton. Many thanks to want2braid for the help with this. I think the nosebutton should have been made with a few less parts, because its kinda crowded. And, I still need to work on getting that darn knot straighter. Any other criticisms are greatly appreciated.

Oh and the mecate is one I made a few years back its 8 strand round with 2 strands for a core

Have a good one,

CW

[blackhammer]

What'd you use for a core if you dont mind me askin? I made a similar one out of gutted 650 over a rawhide core. Diameter turned out to be too thin and I was afraid to use it on the horse I made it for, so it hangs on the wall. Nice by the way.

[Aggiebraider]

Thanks,

I just used an old nylon team rope, but you could use anything you wanted to get the stiffness where you want

CW

[rawhide1]

I think it looks nice an the knots don't look that crooked to me'

Mike

[ahimsacowgirl]

looks fantastic.....I have been avoiding trying a bosal...SCARES me....but this looks fantastic...might have to try it.....

[Angie]

It looks great! Did you take the core out of the paracord? I started braiding with paracord but I (like ahimsacowgirl ) I avoided to try making a bosal.

Is it smooth on the nose of your horse? Did you put some kind of tape around the rope to make it thicker?

Many questions, I apologise . But maybe if I get some more information I might try to make one

Edited August 25, 2011 by Angie

[Aggiebraider]

The core of the paracord was taken out for the cheeks, but I left it in for the nose button and the heel knot for the added weight and I ended up liking the shape it gave to the nose button almost like little channels where there Vs were somewhat flat. Yes, I used tape for the foundation because I made this when I was home on vacation and I didnt have my belt sander to shape it if I had used leather. I use leather for all of my foundations now, just take a strip of kangaroo as wide as you want the knot to be tall, glue it with contact cement as you wrap it around your piece, then keep wrapping until its oversized for the diameter of you finished foundation. Then run it on a belt sander for a while until you get the shape you want. MUCH EASIER and faster. You can do as many shapes for foundations as your mind can imagine, and you dont have to try to shape the tape with a knife and end up cutting yourself like I have lol.

Thanks for the compliments,

CW

[WTT]

Great job covering the swells on the end of the nose button, I have troubles with that. How did you tie off the nylon rope core underneath the heel knot?

Great work!

[Aggiebraider]

Thanks I thought it turned out alright. I just burned the lariat real will and mushroomed the melted portion out real well. This was done after putting a ring knot on it

[MBRopes]

Looks good. I am going to try and make a bosal out of paracord, do you have any suggestions? How many strings did you plait around your core? How or what did you build up your nose piece? I have Gail Houghts book on making a bosea and was going to try and follow that! It looks kind of daunting but I'm up for a challenge! Any help or suggestions would be great!

[Aggiebraider]

The biggest piece of advice I can give you about these is to be careful if you are actually going to use them. The nosebutton on this was really nice until I pulled it around to do the heel knot and when I did that, the strands were too crowded and it got pretty lumpy on the bottom side (strands had no where else to go) and EXTREMELY HARD!!! I have to be really careful or I can make one bleed pretty fast with this one. You probably want to make the nosebutton a little on the gappy side. It might not look great on the top side with all the gaps showing through, but it wont sore a horse'e nose. I know a buddy of mine makes a lot of bosals with paracord nose buttons and gets along great with them, but he doesnt plait the cheeks. That might be the trick to keeping it a little softer. I just dont really like how abrasive it is on them (and it might be my hands as well LOL), so I dont know if I will ever make another one of these. It doesnt really save you anything in the long run even when comparing the price of materials. When you can braid a nice using one out of about $50 worth of lace and core material and sell it for a couple hundred, trying to cut the price with paracord is silly because it takes the same amount of time to make it either way. If on the other hand you dont plan on using this, it can be a good way to practice all of the steps and have something real to show someone.

I think on this one it was a 12 plait cheeks and I used tape for the foundation of the nosebutton. I have since changed to using all leather foundations for both my heel knots and foundations, but the principles are about the same as the way Gail explains it in her books.

Hope that helps,

CW

[MBRopes]

Thanks, I think I just get the leather supplies and do it that way then I can use it and your right about t the same amount of time to do either. Might as well be in leather for function and they look very nice! Thanks for your help! MB