1St Project

[bucksnort]

Hard to say. If your strings are too dry it's hard to get a nice tight braid, if too wet they will shrink up too much & leave your braid gapped. I would guess your problem might be not using the same amount of pull with both hands while your braiding. Most people tend to pull harder with their dominant hand. Getting & keeping the proper temper in your strings is probably one of the hardest things to learn & is different for everyone. You want them soft enough to be pliable, but if you feel any stretch in them or they feel kind of elastic, then they're too wet. Personally, I like my strings fairly dry & I don't like to rewet them while I braid. When I get the right temper I soap up all my strings with a braiding soap with beeswax in it that tends to hold the moisture in & if they start drying I throw the piece into my humidor for an hour or two & work on something else. For me, this works well & keeps an even moisture thru out. A lot of people who do far nicer work than I do have different methods, so it's just whatever works for you. Sadly there is a lot of trial & error involved, but there is no shortage of cows. Buck

[25b]

but there is no shortage of cows. Buck

You'd never know that by the amount people are trying to get for rawhide lately...

[bucksnort]

A true story indeed.

[Rawhidelady]

Just wanted to say on the plus side you have managed to keep your braiding rather straight and the "V"'s in a row going down the quirt.

I still have some of my first projects that frankly weren't great. It helps when I have trouble with a project to go back at look at earlier works

so I can see the progress I have made. I too had to teach myself braiding using only the books a few video's I could find. Finally I found a mentor

that I could write to and send my work too, and he would send me a video response with suggestions. Hard to find someone who is willing to sit

down and teach a newbie. Hang in there, I see a lot of potential in your first project.

[Tanthathide9]

Thank you everyone who took the time time comment and lend their advice, it has not fallen on deaf ears i can promise you that...back in the "lab" gulf coast texas has some gorgeous weather right now so i will take to it while it's here