Materials

Taos Leather specializes in making high quality handmade braids.

The process starts with full grain vegetable tanned cow hide. The lace for braiding is produced using hand tools. After dyeing, each individual lace is prepared for braiding by trimming away the flesh edge, thinning to the correct thickness and then conditioning with our special homemade saddle soap.

The edge trimming enables the lace to be placed tightly together and increases the amount of the full grain(strength) incorporated in the braided piece. For example, one of our braided 8 strand bolo ties with a diameter of 7-9mm, is cut from a 2” wide of strap leather and a 1” 12 strand braided belt starts with a 3.5” wide of leather strap. The edge trimming also gives the finished piece its beautiful smooth finish.