Slideshow
Luthiery work
-
Quatuor
-
Woodwinds
- » Diatonic clarinet
- » Chalumeau
- » Irish Whistle
- » Breton flute
- » Breton bombards
-
Techniques
-
Percussions
-
Miscellaneous
-
Workshop
- » Enhanced Clamps
- » A two-handed gouge
- » Convert inches into millimeters
- » Finger planes
- » Instrument making vise
- » My Metric String action gauge
- » Purfling chisel
- » Purfling cutter
- » Radius sanding block
- » Resawing on the bandsaw
- » Soft vise jaws for the luthier
- » Thickness Gauge
- » Thickness Punch
- » Thickness sander
- » Toothed blades

Woodworking
-
Vintage furnitures restoration
-
Works
- » Plancha Trolley
- » Some works
- » Stool
-
Finishing recipes
-
Wood knowledge
-
Workshop
- » Bandsaw blade tension
- » Carving platform
- » Centering calipers
- » Cordless drill to corded
- » Disk Sander
- » Manual feeder blocks for table saw
- » My branding mark
- » Push Sticks
- » Router plane
- » Scartch Stock
- » Scraping plane
- » Silver soldering a bandsaw blade
- » Spokeshave
- » Startup and blade tension
- » Tenon saw
- » Tenoning Jig
Woodturning
-
My Woodturnings
- » Jewellery
- » Bowls
- » Miscellaneous
- » Pencils
- » Spinning tops
- » Lamps
-
Woodturning shop

Leather work
-
Tooling
Metal working
-
Metal working
Softwares
-
FOR THE LUTHIER
-
The softwares that I use
- » Bigprint
- » Qcad
- » Photofiltre
- » Audacity
- » Melody Assistant
-
Android in the workshop
Webmaster - Infos
Contact Me
Visits
visitors
visitors online
- Luthiery work
- Mandolins
- Quatuor
- Woodwinds
- Percussions
- Miscellaneous
- Woodworking
- WOODTURNING
- My Woodturnings
- Vintage furnitures restoration
- Works
- Finishing recipes
- Wood knowledge
- WOODTURNING
- Leather work
- Softwares
- FOR THE LUTHIER
- The softwares that I use
- Android in the workshop
- Some tricks
- Tooling
- The luthier workshop
- The woodturner's workshop
- Wood Workshop
- Miscelaneous
-
My tools on Homemadetools.net
Braided Mandolin strap

http://www.labellenote.fr/data/en-articles.xml
Braided mandolin strap
Here is how to make of a leather strap for a bluegrass style mandolin.
The main part has a round section, braided with 4 flat strands.
The end on the bottom side has a flat section with a buttonhole cut into it, to be attached to the end-pin at the bottom of the mandolin.
The end, on the side of the neck is here made for an F5 style mandolin, with a scroll. It has the shape of a leash, that is traditionally passed inside the scroll.
For an A style mandolin or any other instrument without any scroll, you can also install a buttonhole like for the tail.
The braid
The braid is made from 4 soft leather laces, of 3 to 4 mm width.
For the stiffness of the strap, is is braided around a hidden core of 6 mm polyester cord.
Here are the steps to make this braid :
-1- We start by ligaturing the four strands around the core with some sewing thread. The four strands are laid out like this , with two arms and two legs. The upper right arm is folded underneath and must come out between the arm and the leg on the left. |
-2- This strand is then folded over, so that to become the new leg on the right. |
-3- The strand is stretched so that to stick the braid on the core. |
-4- We come back to the starting point, with two arms and two legs. There is one of the two arms that is higher than the other. It is this arm that will always be folded underneath to come out between the leg and the arm on the other side. |
-5- And folded over to become the new leg, on the same side as the starting point. |
-6- We come back to step -1- |
-7- Same as step -2- |
-8- Same as step -3- |
-9- Same as step -4-, and so on ... |
See also the explanation on this video :
As an alternative to the round braid, a flat braid can also be used, here is a nice how to showing two different ways of doing a 6 strands braid. (thanks ianbarton from Mandolin Café for the link).
The buttonhole
The buttonhole is done with two layers of leather, sewn together, sandwiching the end of the braid.
The strands of the braid are stopped by the stitch of the sandwich. For aesthetic reason, a ligature is added at the end of the braid with some sewing thread.
The hole for the buttonhole is done with a punch and slitted so that to just allow the end-pin button to pass through it.
The leash
The part that is passed through the scoll of the mandolin, that I call the leash, can be done using a kind of braided knot often used to make leashes for dogs.
The leash is made with a leather ribbon that will, at one end, be connected to the braid using a ligature of sewing thread.
and at the other end will be terminated in the shape of a loop, closed by a braided knot.
Here are the steps for making this braided knot :
(Note, the strap on the above picture has a single knot braid. The example showed below has a double knot braid.)
-1- We start with a leather ribbon. We cut two times two slits. |
-2- We pass the tip of the ribbon through the slit 3. |
-3- We pass the tail of the ribbon trough the slit 2. |
-4- The shape of the braid starts to appear, |
-5- We pass the tip of the ribbon through slit 4. |
-6- The braid must be arranged to get all the parts even. |
-7- The tail is passed through slit 1. |
-8- Here is the result on one side... |
-9- ... and on the other. |
Unless explicitly specified, all works presented on this page are released under a
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA International License.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Category : Leather work - Technique
Page read 11657 times