Pictures Latest attempt at a lead rope...

[Keith_Beef]

I forgot my lead rope up at the yard after a Sunday lesson a few weeks ago. I remembered when I went back the following week. I looked in every stable box around the yard, to see if somebody had found it and used it for another horse, but no joy. When I described it to the instructor, he said "oh, yeah, I saw it hanging up here yesterday... but you know, if you leave anything around here, somebody will filch it".
So I gave up on ever finding it, and between yesterday afternoon and this afternoon had a go at making another one.
It wasn't a total success... I must have underestimated the width of leather required, because the two edges don't meet up properly along the second edge that I sewed, and the lines of the stitches are nowhere near straight.
It will be strong, though. There's a double thickness of bridle leather sewn to the centre of hemp rope... I think that the breaking strain of the rope is around 200kg. Sewn with N° 332 linen thread and N° 1/0 needles.


Looks half way decent from a distance...


Not too bad on this side...


Yucky stitching on that side!


Can just about see the second thickness of leather inside the outer sleeve.

I'm going to leave it at the current length of about ten feet until I've used the rope to lift my anvil up onto the block that I finished last weekend, then I'll cut it to a shorter length of around six feet.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Nice job.

 

[Firefly9410]

I like it! It is good to be so inventive. Yours looks better quality and stronger than many in the shops.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I think that the weakest point in the whole assembly will be the pump snap hook... I didn't ask for the breaking strain of it when I bought it, but I doubt it will stand more than about 80kg, if that.

The next one I do, I'll use veg-tanned leather, cut slightly oversized but also tapered like this one, and after stitching I'll soak it in water so that it shrinks to the size of the rope as it dries. I'll probably also skive down the thickness of the loop inside the sheath to make the whole think neater and give it a more elegant taper.