In this lesson I will try to explain a somewhat tedious method of putting pineapple knots on a scalloped western belt as decoration. This idea was originated by Damon Albus of 5D Hats and Leather in Abilene Texas some years ago.
This is the finished belt with the knots in place. The objective is to braid a knot large enough to slip over the one and one half inch width of the belt end where it can be tightened in place over the three quarter inch width of the scallops. I use pineapple knots for this because the single bight boundary at the edges makes a smooth transition from the belt surface to the knot.
This an eleven part - five bight foundation interwoven with a nine part - five bight knot. ( See the pineapple interweaves for this technique ). This knot is on a three quarter inch mandrel braided to a length of a three and one quarter inches. This is more than twice the length the knot will be when tightened in place. If you look closely you will se that I also pulled just a little slack up in the interweave behind the crsses where the bights nest in the foundation instead of going straight across them. This is just for a little more slack when expanding the knot.
Here is the knot removed from the mandrel and laid beside the belt. Because the lattice structure of a turkshead is extremely flexible you can insert two fids ( drawspikes, screwdriver shafts, pencils or whatever) theough the knot and push the sides apart. This will expand the diameter of the knot and shorten it accordingly. Since I made this knot somewhat long on the mandrel, it will expand to a size that will go over the wider belt ends as in the picture to the right. The measurements given earlier are for 1/8th 0r 5/32nd lace and would vary for different lace. The main point is that the mandrel diameter does not really determine the diameter of the knot as long as it is large enough to braid the knot.
Now slide the knot into a scallop and stretch it back out by working the ends apart to reduce the diameter and lengthen it back out. The knot is still to large and will need the slack pulled out.
In the right hand photo, place the standing ends at the back of the belt and center the knot in the scallop. Now begin at the running end and firmly pull the slack in the interweave backwards in the reverse order that you braided it on the mandrel. The photo shows this almost complete where the loop on the left side is the slack that has been pulled and ready for a good tug on the standing end to complete the process. At this point make sure the body of the knot is centered in the belt scallop. The bight boundary of the foundation is a little messy now but we will fix that in a minute.
Now tighten the foundation knot in the same manner. This time try to get the final tension as you finess the foundation bight boundarys into place and take the slack out of the foundation.
The left photo shows this process in progress with a loop of slack already pulled on the right side of the knot.
The right photo is all of the slack out of the foundation except for a good pull on the standing end to get it completely out of the knot. From here the foundation is complete but the interweave can use another sequence of tightening for final tension and best appearance of the knot.
Clipping the tag ends and burnishing with a clean hammer handle will complete the job.
I usually do several of these belts at a time with various knots. I work from large hanks of hand cut veg tanned goatskin lace and don't cut the standing ends off till the knots are finished to conserve lace. After a dozen or so knots I am working with lace that has been through several knots previously due to the large amount of slack that is pulled in tightening each one. By using white saddle soap as a lubricant the goat lace holds up fine and even gets a little better with use. I can't speak for roo or calf though as I don't use either for these.
These are some more belts done with a slightly shorter knot because the scallops are a little narrower. these are a
9 X 5 foundation with a 7 X 5 interweave.
Copyright Sidney Wood 05/20/2007