Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1995–1996
Rawhide Braiding:
Randy Stowell and Hank Brackenbury
The enclosed back porch of the main house on the
Geyser Ranch, a place just barely over the Lincoln
County line an hour south of Ely, is hung with braided
reins and bosals, broken reatas in for repair, and about
a hundred feet of inch-wide rawhide strung up to dry.
Rancher Randy Stowell clamps a new razor blade in his
custom-designed string cutter, then slides the end of
long leather strip against a guide and begins pulling it
through, slicing off a strip about an eighth of an inch
wide.
He works smoothly and steadily, not in a hurry but
not wasting any time or motion either, and the thin
strings pile up at his feet. In no time he’ll be done with
his least favorite part, the cutting, and can begin braiding.
“I hate cutting string,” he says, “that’s the most boring
part of braiding to me. You cut and cut and cut, and
you can’t see that you’ve done anything. Where braiding,
you know, you start braiding and then you can see
what you’re making and it’s more exciting, it keeps your
interest better.” But as with many traditional art forms,
preparation of the materials from scratch is part of the
job and can’t be skipped or skimped if you want a quality
end product.
His apprentice Hank Brackenbury, like Randy a native
of Elko County, watches intently. “He makes it look so
easy,” Hank says appreciatively, knowing full well the years
of experience that lie behind Randy’s deceptively simple
craftsmanship. Raised in the buckaroo tradition of northeastern
Nevada, Randy has ranched all his life. Through a
combination of learning from his father, looking at books,
and taking apart old gear to see how it was put together,
he has made himself into one of the region’s best braiders
of cowboy gear. Working in rawhide and leather, Randy
makes reins, quirts
(short whips), bosals
(used around
a horse’s nose instead
of a bit for
training), hobbles,
reatas (long rawhide
ropes), headstalls
and other
horse gear favored
by Nevada cowboys.
Hank Brackenbury
at work on his first
piece of braided
horse gear, under
the patient tutelage
of master Randy
Stowell.
The patience
that makes him
such a good
craftsman also
makes Randy a
great teacher. He
shows Hank how to pull strips of rawhide through the
skiver, which shaves the hide to an even thickness, then
sets Hank to do it on his own, tossing in helpful hints
at just the right time and letting him learn by doing.
After Hank has cut his leather into eighth-inch wide
strips and beveled the top corners, which makes for a
smoother braid, Randy gathers twelve of the strands
around a core cut from an old reata and starts the braiding
for a bosal, Hank’s first project. Braiding twelve
strands takes concentration, and it’s slow going at first,
but with Randy’s watchful eye catching mistakes almost
before they happen, Hank makes good progress and is
well on his way to a finished bosal.
Hank, too, has been around ranching all his life, and
knows the value of well-crafted gear. He has done some
leather work in the past, mainly making chaps and doing
a little saddle repair, but hadn’t done much braiding
until he worked with Randy. He now
runs a small ranch in Rainbow Canyon
south of Caliente and does day work for
other ranches. Both Hank and Randy
say they wouldn’t want any other kind
of life, for them or for their children,
and they look forward to passing on
that love of tradition to the next generation.
Randy Stowell makes braiding twelve
strands of leather into a bosal look easy.
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