Mandrel And Then?

[jari]

Howdy

in a beginner's blood, sweat and trears process I braid my first knots on a mandrel. Typically, the mandrel's circumference is bigger then my plaited leather.

How do you solve this :-)? Is there any hint you might give me? After resizing the knot to the new size, the knot looks nothing but horrible (well, it did already before, but then even more :-))

Thanks and best wishes from Switzerland

Jari

[GrampaJoel]

Welcome to the forum.

If you are braiding onto a mandrel to form a knot to be slid off the mandrel onto a braided string, ( or other object) the mandrel should be the same size, or near it to work. If not there won't be enough shrinkage in the knot to form correctly.

Or your knot could be braided of a smaller size string that would allow it to be tightened ( shrinking during the tightening) onto a braided string smaller than the mandrel you are using.

I, myself, have found it much easier to braid the knots directly over the braided string. I use a mandrel to practice the knots I want to eventually form on a finished object.

Of course if you are making something like a scarf slide, it can't be braided on the scarf, and you must use the mandrel. In that case, Measure the smallest diameter of the object to hold the knot and use that measurement for the mandrel size.

Just a thought. Are you using a core on the knots you are trying to build? If so that would prevent the knot from shrinking as needed.

Did I completely confuse you now?

Anyway, I hope this helped.

Joel

Edited February 18, 2016 by GrampaJoel

[bucksnort]

I'm think Joel covered it. I too work all my knots directly onto the piece.

[jari]

Thank you very much for your answers! Thank you Joel for the clear and comprehensible explanation! I used bigger size mandrels (1/2" diameter) ; braiding a knot while following instructions from my book is easier on bigger mandrels - on smaller ones I still get lost. I'll try it with smaller size strings, directly onto the braided strings this weekend - hope to be able to show you the results next week :-)!

Happy trails

Jari

[jari]

Good morning

yesterday, I tried to braid the knot directly over the braided string. It took a while to adapt to the low circumference of the braided string, but hooray, here it is.

Thank you for the advices you gave, it wouldn't have been possible to "shrink" the knot from the mandrel size to the braided string size

Have a great day

Jari

[bucksnort]

Looks great.

[GrampaJoel]

Good morning

yesterday, I tried to braid the knot directly over the braided string. It took a while to adapt to the low circumference of the braided string, but hooray, here it is.

Knot1.jpg

Thank you for the advices you gave, it wouldn't have been possible to "shrink" the knot from the mandrel size to the braided string size

Have a great day

Jari

Nice job.

It may take more practice, but you have done it once, so now, you can do it again whenever you want!

Good for you for trying and hanging in there!

Joel