PORKY ROACH KIT INSTRUCTIONS

No other headgear, with the exception of the Plains warbonnet, personifies the North American Indian as much as the hair roach. Historically, its distribution and use covered virtually all tribes of the Plains, Plateau, Great Lakes, and Eastern Woodlands cultural areas. Paintings by artists in the 1830’s reflected the use of the hair roach at that early date, and contemporary use of the porky roach may be seen in the outfits of the Grass Dancer, Oklahoma Straight Dancer, Oklahoma Feather Dancer, Northern Traditional Dancer, and the Old Time dancer.

Using Online Kit Instructions: Click on any figure (image) to view larger version. To print the larger view, "right-click" with your mouse on the image and select "print picture" from the menu that appears.

ALSO NEEDED: Needlenose pliers, sewing needle, 50-60 straight pins, small pair of scissors (manicure type are best), piece of heavy cardboard approximately 1” x 3”, ruler.

IMPORTANT: Read all instructions carefully before beginning, then reread each section prior to proceeding with that step. The porky roach should take 13 to 18 hours to complete. Do not rush because the time and effort you spend here will make a big difference in the quality of your finished roach.

PREPARATIONS

Wash & Prepare Deertails
The deertails must be washed to remove excess dirt and salt (used to dry & preserve them). Dish washing liquid and a bucket of warm water are recommended. Wash twice, rinse thoroughly, and lay them white side up on clean paper to dry.

Tying Board Construction & Preparation
Construct a tying board as shown in Fig. 1A. Wood screws and carpenter’s glue are best for securing the boards together. Do not use nails, they will not secure the ends properly.

After assembling this board, or frame, drive a nail into each end at a downward angle. This will be used to secure the base cord. Small, rounded grooves shown in Fig. 1B will help hold the cord in place while tying.

Prepare Tying Bobbin
Prepare a tying bobbin using the spool of “button & carpet thread” furnished with the kit as shown in Fig. 1C. Wind approximately 10 to 15 yds. of the tying string onto this. A rubber band can be used to prevent too much string from unwinding. Let the string out as needed. This “bobbin” of thread is much easier to handle while tying than the whole spool of thread. Note: This thread is also used for tying the deer hair and for sewing the tied rows of hair to the roach base.

SORTING THE PORKY HAIR
You must first sort the porky hair into groups of similar length before tying it. Take a small bunch of hair, about as thick as a pencil, and with the bottom (root) ends of hair down, tap it against a tabletop several times. Hold the hair loosely in your hand as shown in Fig. 2A. This will line up the ends of the hair for sorting. Be sure that all hair has its roots at the bottom of the bunch. See Fig. 2B.

Place the entire bunch of hair between the first two fingers and thumb of your left hand and, holding it over a ruler laid on the table, pull out the hairs, starting with the longest first. See Fig. 2C.

Separate all the hair into half-inch groups, such as 5”-5.5”, 5.5”-6”, etc. Any hair over 7.5” long should be in one group and all hair under 5” is placed in another. After pulling out all the hair in one size group, tap the bunch down to realign the roots, then sort out all the hair in the next size group. Repeat this until all the hair is sorted. The size categories needed are: under 5”, 5”-5.5”, 5.5”-6”, 6”-6.5”, 6.5”-7”, 7”-7.5”, and over 7.5”. You can now place the sorted hair into separate envelopes to prevent it from getting mixed up.

TYING THE PORKY HAIR

The porky hair is somewhat easier to tie than deerhair, so we recommend tying it first in order to build confidence & skill in making the knots & handling the small bundles of hair. Deer hair is finer & more difficult to tie tightly, & since this is the row of tying that is seen on the outside of the roach, you must tie it in neat, even bunches. The porky hair allows a little more room for error.

String the base cord which is the heavy “chalk line” or “cotton cable cord” on the tying board, securing it to the nail. Tie it tightly because it is easier to tie hair to this base cord if it does not give. Mark a 32” length of the base cord in sections as shown in Fig. 3A. For the Deluxe 18” Roach, this will be 38” as shown in Fig. 3B. These marks are where you will change the size of porky Hair that you are tying. These are suggested section widths only! Because the thickness of porky hair naturally varies, it is difficult to say how many hairs should be used in each bundle of tied hair. This number can vary from as few as 12 strands of thick hair to as many as 20 strands of thinner hair. Therefore, you may need to modify these section sizes based on the amount of hair you have in each category. If you find that you have enough hair that is over 7.5” in length, then make room for a section for this at the center. A good method of determining whether you are tying correctly sized bundles of porky hair is by trying to tie from 7 to 10 bundles per running inch. Just measure an inch of your tied hair & count the bundles.

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