Hello! I recently came into possession of this horsehair piece that I’m told belonged to my great grandmother. She was from California, but could have acquired it while traveling in the west. The year likely would have been around the late 1800’s. Can anyone tell me anything about it? And if it would have been a hatband or belt? It’s quite small in diameter, but she was a very small person. Thank you for any help you can provide!
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Welcome to the forum, @chbowers.
Your horsehair belt is lovely, I love the natural tones. 
One of our members, @TAH, is much more knowledgeable than myself concerning horsehair, but I’ll share what little I know.
There are two techniques used when working horsehair: hitching and braiding. Hitching is extremely labor intensive, has a very tight, flat appearance, and is used to create incredibly complex designs. Braiding is the process of taking square braids and stitching them together by hand. This is much faster, but has limitations on the complexity of possible patterns.
Here’s an example of a hitched belt.
Your belt, to my untrained eye, looks to be braided, but we’ll see what @TAH says.
Would you mind providing some dimensions? Perhaps the width of the belt and a rough diameter of it in the rolled state, as you’ve got it photographed? When you have a moment, could you also please provide close up photos of the backs of the silver components?
Much of the visible embellishment on the silver appears to be rocker engraved (the sawtooth looking decoration). It looks to be present at the outer perimeters and around the central whirling log element. This same technique appears too have been used to convey the leaves and flowers on the “tulip shaped” tips.
The straps that are soldered on to the backs of these embellishments are telling.
With a few more up close and clear photos, especially of the silver, we’ll be able to provide our thoughts with a bit more confidence.
Just a little bit of info if you’re curious: while it is an ancient tradition, the crafting of horsehair into belts boomed in Western prisons from the late 1800’s through the 1920’s or 30’s. Your belt is giving me early 20th century vibes, but I would love to see more photos.
Thank you for sharing!
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Very nice. Are there any markings on the back of the silver pieces? This could help with dating and determing the silver artist.
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Aaron, you gave an excellent description of braiding vs. hitching. I agree, @chbowers belt appears to be braided.
I’m not sure how the sawtooth looking decoration was created, but it is very similar to my father’s 1950 Renalde buckle. That sawtooth decoration was fairly common on mid-century Western belt buckles.
I’ll bet @mmrogers can tell us how these were engraved. 
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@TAH @Ravenscry I have never even heard of horsehair belts before. Looking at the 4 sterling silver(?) pieces with rocker & sawtooth embellishments, they don’t look like Native American silversmith work, imo. Am I off-base in thinking that?
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Hey @Patina, horsehair, both hitched and braided, is a beautiful form of art. Utilized for horse bridles, belts, hatbands, and numerous other utilities, it’s an ancient process and technique..
This headstall is neat.
Here is a shot of my hitched horsehair brow band. I removed it from an old headstall to use as a hatband.
They definitley exude more of a Western vibe than Native American, to me. Although, the whirling logs are interesting elements.
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@Patina here’s a good source for horsehair products…
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Hi Tom. The rocker or wriggle border is done with the same type square graver used for western bright cut. The graver is hand held at an angle with the sharpened cutting edge at about 30 degrees to the surface of workpiece and the pattern created by rocking or wriggling back and forth as the graver is steadily moved forward along the desired path.
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Thanks Mike. Are rocker engravers still used today? Do you ever use one in your work?
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They’re used all the time, Tom. Still a favorite tool of cowboy engravers, and buckle makers. It’s orders of magnitude faster than classic single point, deep relief style engraving. We did some western bright cut in the shop back in the mid 2000s for our Texas clients. I sent two of my best guys, Mike Yazzie and Dan Martinez to GRS engraving school in Kansas to learn the style. In retrospect I should have gone as well, and may still. I learned single point with Bill Oyster, and then from Sam Alfano, which is the style I work in today.
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Your depth of knowledge and experience is amazing, Mike. I love reading your posts.
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Likewise, Tom. Love the great buckles you post from your collection, your leatherwork, and photography, which is just outstanding! Also really enjoy the western fashion stuff you post both from personal and artistic perspectives. Aaron too. Y’all’s collections and sense of photographic composition are truly amazing!
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@Ravenscry Thank you for the photos. I really like your hatband ~ the diamond design & colors are wonderful. @TAH Thank you for the link/information about horsehair products! This is a world I never knew existed.
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ETA: I found a video demonstrating the technique (actually done by an Englishman who’s pretty entertaining). The engraving isn’t the best, because he’s new to the style, but he gives an excellent demonstration of how the technique is done, and how fast it is.
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Thanks Mike. A video paints, or in this case, engraves a thousand words.
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Hey @Patina, while we’re waiting on the OP to respond with more photos, I thought you’d enjoy seeing my repurposed browband in it’s final resting place. It took me long enough, but I finally secured it to my hat this morning.
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Well, that’s good looking, Aaron. Neat idea!
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Hi ~ Oh, that looks great! Against a black hat, chef’s kiss. Thanks for sharing the photo.
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Very nice looking hat you have there @Ravenscry !
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