fringe...

[RoaringBull]

how the heck do ya cut long fringe evenly and straight and all that to make it nice looking?  Anything over 1" and I'm just shot!!

[LRB]

  If you get it too straight, and too even, it will look store bought. You just do the best you can. I start on a piece working from left to right with good sharp scissors, trying for about 1/16" or a tad more in width. I make a starting cut, hold that with my left hand fingers, then cut to a stopping point with a gentle pull on the piece I'm cutting. If I see that I'm getting too far away from a 90° angle, I widen, or reduce the width near the stop point on the next few, and occassionaly just remove one, if that will help.

[Kermit]

"...good sharp scissors..." Yup. I prefer those cheeep PCish Chinese imports with the loop handles and black finish. They're all over the place. Mine are--and stay--the sharpest scissors in the house. Great on leather, especially the lighter stuff.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Fringes in leather garments should be only as wide as the leather is thick.  In other words, the fringes will be square.
To cut them, I place the leather flap that is to become fringe on a kitchen cutting board - the soft self healing plastic kind with a kind of embossed textured surface.  This grips the buckskin, and holds it from sliding around while I cut.  I use a short bladed knife with a curved edge, that is razor sharp, and a steel straight edge.  Once I have made the first cut, I simply slide the straight edge down the seam about 1/8" and press it down.  Then I use the tip of the blade to cut right to the seam, and slide it down the straight edge until I run off the end.  From time to time, the end of the cut leaves the fringe with a fat end, and I just trim them off.
Fringes along the edges of garments should be more like hair than fringe.  They don't have to be long to be attractive and effective.  Brain tanned buckskin makes the nicest fringe, by a long shot.

[Beaverman]

Fringes in leather garments should be only as wide as the leather is thick.  

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Interesting reaction.

Nothin' looks worse than some flatlander pork eatin' pilgrim with fringes on his 'skins that look like fingers sticking straight out.  But we never say a word in criticism, even to be constructive, unless asked.  At the places where I shoot, there are those who put a lot of effort into authentic costuming, and there are those who don't know any better, and don't try to learn, and there are those who don't give a @!*% at all.  And they are all welcome.
The best outfits live in "primitive" and the others live in the ghetto (tin).

[Robby]

I do it almost exactly as Taylor does, including the wide x thick, proportion. The only difference, and I don't know for sure, is the straight edge I use is one of those wide bladed, flexible, putty, or drywall knives.
It has a handle and the flex blade helps pin down the material for good, straight, slicing, and speeds things up a bit.
Robby

[Leatherbelly]

 yep,I agree with Taylor. Nothing uglier then fringe that look like linguine noodles!

[smshea]

yep,I agree with Taylor. Nothing uglier then fringe that look like linguine noodles!

Dito!

[RoaringBull]

coool!  I think that most of my problem is the leather slipping...gotta get me a good old fashion metal putty knife like I used to use on drywall spackle...never thought of that before!

[David Rase]

I cut mine just as Taylor, square.  Then I like to twist mine when I am finished cutting.
DMR

[Chuck Burrows]

Fringes in leather garments should be only as wide as the leather is thick.  In other words, the fringes will be square.

With all due respect to Taylor that's a pretty blanket statement and if 'true" than there are LOTS of old Indian goods that are wrong - fringe runs the gamut from spaghetti to at least one finger wide on goods as disparate as clothes to parfleches.
For examples see:
http://www.splendidheritage.com/nindex.html

http://anthro.amnh.org/anthropology/databases/north_public/north_public.htm

Now for what it's worth I do prefer narrow fringe but by far no all original goods had it and sometimes when teh leather is thin making it too narrow means lots of lost fringe.

When I cut I do mostly like Wick LRB, but when cutting really fine fringe from braintan in particular:
1) be sure and pre-stretch the hide
2) Cut out the piece you're gong to make into fringe and spitz with rubbing alcohol or plain water
3) While still damp (not sopping wet) lay the piece on a smooth cutting board
4) Use a metal straight edge and a razor knife to cut the fringe - I'm right handed so I work from left to right
The damp leather will "stick" to the cutting board and the metal straight edge will stick to the damp leather helping hold everything in place

And IMO Wick was also right in that making it too even will look machine made - on the several thousand original pieces I've been lucky to handle over the years none was perfect.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Chuck, I agree that there is every description of fringe that you can imagine, in historical artifacts.  Much of the Northern plains stuff from Canada, for example, from the late 19th and early 20th century, has fringe that is cut to exactly uniform length and 3/8" wide.
I personally think it looks terrible, and would not consider trying to replicate it.  I prefer to study the art of Miller and Kane, Catlin, and others, for inspiration.
I liked your idea of dampening the leather first...makes very good sense.

[BrownBear]

When I cut I do mostly like Wick LRB, but when cutting really fine fringe from braintan in particular:
1) be sure and pre-stretch the hide
2) Cut out the piece you're gong to make into fringe and spitz with rubbing alcohol or plain water
3) While still damp (not sopping wet) lay the piece on a smooth cutting board
4) Use a metal straight edge and a razor knife to cut the fringe - I'm right handed so I work from left to right
The damp leather will "stick" to the cutting board and the metal straight edge will stick to the damp leather helping hold everything in place

I'll have to try that.  My method to date has evolved to stretching the leather and either tacking or clamping it along both edges (long axis).  I cut the leather piece about an inch wider than it needs to be, then make all my fringe cuts (knife and straight edge) to stop about an inch from the terminal edge.  I end up with a "ladder" of sliced leather connected down either side, if you can follow my halting description.

As a final act I make one long cut all down one side to remove the extra 1-inch of leather and "free" the fringe.  I agree that if the fringe is too regular it looks factory, but even using this technique mine is usually irregular.   

[Artificer]

Not having been professionally trained or apprenticed, I always sewed the solid leather that would be the fringe in place and cut it after it was sewn in.  I would then cut it by eye to about maybe 3/4" and then keep cutting each 3/4" finger in half or maybe thirds by eye with a sharp pair of scissors.   Then I would cut the less wide fingers in half or thirds and keep doing that until the fringe was as thin as I liked.  I like fringe to be fairly thin as well and found this was the easiest way to do it and it was just uneven enough it looked authentic.  I also start the cut and then pull the leather finger help "eyeball" the cut up to close to the seam. 

Gus