Perfect prep

For IMTM, I am making a 1:9 scale replica of Winslow's bridle.

His headstall is made of harness leather. The straps are thick and firm and the whole bridle feels substantial. I usually use precut kangaroo lace for headstall, but in this case, I've decided to cut my own straps from a piece of tooling calf. 

This particular piece came from the BreyerWest 2022 tooling workshop with Erin Corbett. I remember being quite dissatisfied with my work at the time, but it looks fine to me now.

My buckles for this bridle are made for 3/32" straps, so using a straight edge and a sharp X-acto knife I cut five straps of that widthth: two cheek pieces, one crown piece, one browband, one throatlatch.

Before moving on to the next step, I double check the width with one of the buckles. In this case, the strap is just a scootch wider than ideal. I'll use it for the browband. 

The cheekpieces are flared out at the bit ends to accommodate the conchos. I use a sharp pair of scissors to add this detail.

I am very out of practice. I actually had to cut the cheeks multiple times before I had two that passed quality control. These aren't those!

Once the leather is cut, it's time to prep it. You can read about my process here. There are easier ways to do this, but I'm set in my ways. Besides, you really can't argue with results. My method - although laborious - produces beautiful, drapey lengths of leather.

This bridle also needs a curb strap. For this piece, I used 3/32" kangaroo lace, trimmed to fit a 1/16" buckle. Nothing is easy.

Once that was prepped, I looped it back on itself and glued a single 3/32" keeper around the doubled up section.

When the glue was dry, I carefully cut the keeper in half with the X-acto knife. Now it's two keepers!

At this point, I've spent a lot of time on five little straps. I'm done for the day, so I gather them up and tuck them into the job box with the hardware.

Safe and sound until I can work on this again!

And let me tell you, I am looking forward to that next session. So far, this has all been prep. I am itching to finally make something!