Steven
Interfector Viris Spurii
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RaptorIsAsRaptorDoes
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Austin, Tx.
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In times gone by lariats were made of rawhide. Some whips are currently made of rawhide ... If rawhide will work in those instances it should work for slings.
Excerpt from book by Dan Beard How the Rawhide Lariat is Made.
The raw hide is first cut into strips as long as the hide will allow. The hide is half- tanned without removing the hair. The strips are next soaked in water and stretched over a block, after which they are neatly braided into a rope. During the latter process they are care- fully pulled as tight as possible. When this is done the rope is buried in the ground and al- lowed to remain in the earth two weeks to soften, after which it is dug up and again stretched over a block by means of heavy weights. After the hair has been sand- papered off, the rope thoroughly oiled or greased with mutton tallow and properly noosed, it is ready for use.
The lariats are made either forty or fifty feet long, ac- cording to the preference of the maker. Mr. Charles Lummis says the standard lariat is forty feet in length, but from other sources I learn that there are two standards, one of fifty and one of forty feet. The lariats vary also in thickness from three-eighths of an inch to half an inch. It takes a hardy, tough man to wield one of such dimensions. A rope twenty or thirty feet long is long enough for any boy to handle.
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