Covering handles for crops and other items

[wolvenstien]

Thank you Drac

[Chitin]

Thank you Drac

This is a fantastic tutorial! If I may suggest one addendum to the design - why not use a thinner dowel and have the tail leather extend all the way down through the handle, then braid over that? This improves durability, balance, and makes the handle a little bit soft so that it's easier to the grip.

[howardb]

Drac,

Thank you! I'm knot much of a braider (hahahahaha), but some GREAT tips on toy making here. I will definitely be adding one of these to my list of things I can't show my mother in law.

Brent

[Drac]

leatheroo

I figured if other professionals here were nice enough to show how they make some of their items, then I could too. making this stuff was me livelihood for a long time, but I'll still share (unlike most in me biz).

chitin

with the way I attach tails, no loss of durability. you can hang from me floggers. also, I've seen 'em done the way you're talking about and seen the handle break during a hard session. plus it's very hard to get a consistent handle size. I actually used to do them like that (never heard of any of mine breaking) and I'd used electrical tape to do a compressing wrap before doing the handle braid. another problem is when done like that you get a seam that runs down the handle. it's not that noticeable with softer leathers, but something like latigo definitely shows it. also I've noticed the balance tends to vary a lot from flogger to flogger when done that way. when done this way the balance point is about a 1/4" into the top turkshead out from the handle. but let's face it, balance doesn't really mean anything since there's so many different ways to hold a flogger. it's more about what feels right for an individual.

howard

I don't think of the the handle being braided until is done since I suck at round braiding anything more than 4 strands. that's why I came up with the way i do the handle braid. it's much quicker and easier. try it and you'll see what I mean. the only semi-difficult part of it is figuring out how snug to wrap and pull, and you figure that out fairly quickly. plus, an advantage to it is if you have to let go it for some reason it's not gonna unravel itself.

[Chitin]

Interesting... I'd never thought of it that way! Thanks!

Also thanks for the supplier tip in the other thread, I'd been wondering that for a long time!

[Johanna]

Drac- Thank you! Really well done lesson there, and we all appreciate the time it took to put that together for us. You're a peach!

Johanna

[Alexblow]

Waouw,what a tutorial ! Clean,clear,easy to learn !

You've said "i suck at round braiding",i don't think so ...What a fantastic work.

Its so generous,thank you for sharing.

[Drac]

alex

*L* thanks, but I'm actually no good at the round braiding. I can only do a 4 strand round braid the normal way, and I'll still screw up on those occasionally. that's why I came up with doing the handles with the wrapping and pulling the other strands through. made it much simpler, quicker and easier for me. the hardest part was figuring out how to do the turksheads. me head exploded several times over those, not to mention the migraines. that's why I only figured out the one turkshead braid.

[Maeshin]

Wow, just wow! Fabulous post ^_^ Thank you very much for that incredibly thorough tutorial. I'll have to give it a try now that I know how to go about it ^_^

[Drac]

so, everybody's had a few days, let's see some pics o' work!