Helping the Neighbors: Traditionals in Use

Good lord i sure am glad i don't have hooves and yes i bet the horses are a lot of help seeing what the alternative is
 
Outstanding post, Dave. Thanks for taking the time to document the days work and putting that all together. I thoroughly enjoyed reading that. :thumbup:

Thanks also for the bonus pics Bigfattyt. :thumbup:
 
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I do not comment a lot but I must say...Great post! Thank you for sharing that experience.
 
Man, I've got to get one of your knives.

Wonderful post, Dave. The photos are excellent, and the green grass and clear blue sky make it seem like it was just a perfect day for y'all. Lots of hands involved in the process; y'all have a big cookout afterwards? Thanks for providing a window into your life!
 
I am once again revealed to be a rank pretender, if enthusiastic, when it comes to having and using my knives. :o

:D


-- Great post once again, Dave. Thank you so much for taking the pictures, sorting through them and explaining them to us.

I enjoy all of it, but especially seeing your leather in action. :) Purpose-designed, handmade goods that excel in their designated categories? Good, good stuff.

~ P.
 
A tough job. Dangerous, dirty and nonstop once things get rolling. One year due to weather we weren't able to do it until the calves got BIG. That wasn't fun.

Great pics!
 
Thanks guys! And you're welcome! Sorry back kinda late. Ended up gathering our place yesterday. Got finished right before dark. Gathering is goind out and brining in the cattle, what some areas call a roundup but that word is never used here. A regional difference, we always gather. We were very successful and as far as we can tell we found 100%

Bigfattyt: thanks for posting those additioonal pics. Its interesting to see how things are done differently, particularly restraining the calf. And thank-you for taking the scouts out. That is important. So many folks today think that food comes wrapped in plastic. They have no idea what is involved and it is a dying tradition. Important that they experience it. Thanks.

Modoc Ed my wife is riding a horse right now bred by a guy up there, (Bryan Neubert). And Richard Caldwell was a good friend and my first ever wholesale customer on my knives. He would sell them at his clinics. there's a couple of buckaroos. Those that don't know there are two distinct styles of cowboy. The Cowboy and The Buckaroo. Equipment, style , how work was done, horsemanship, dress were distinctly different. Nowadays ya see a blending of the two most places. Distinctly so in my pics above.

RBeggs. Somebody did. They were all put into a 5 gallon bucket.

ISKRA: The Trapper is the cowboy knife. Hands down. I have made a pretty good in road with my little fixed blades and we even catagorize them by type on our website. For instance we have an In Stock Cowboy Knife page. Just don't see stckmen patterns.Least around here. Many of those guys have my knives but day to day itsd a Trapper. Betcha most don't know its called a Trapper either. They're just referred to as folders.

AShearer: yes these things are being lost. The skills are going away. Big ranches that actually employ cowboys are few and far.

Wurwulf: Thanks on the knives. Yep they had a big grill going to feed the crew after.

Pertinux: Thanks for the compliment on the leatherwork. Its fun to me to see my stuff being used too. Sometimes used and abused but thats what it was made for.
 
arizonaranchman know what ya mean. We're facing that too this year ourselves. Heading and heeling helps on that and then we'll pick up a front foot too with another roper and we can lay those big one's down easy that way. Way easier on your groundcrew. Particualrly we've had brandings where most of our groundcrew was 60 plus. Then going with three ropers is handy.
 
Beautiful pictures, and excellent write up. Very much appreciated. Looks like the ideal life.
 
This is fascinating, thanks so much for posting!

Dave, is your son's Case trapper one with the "as ground" SS blades?

Jim
 
Horsewright said:
arizonaranchman know what ya mean. We're facing that too this year ourselves. Heading and heeling helps on that and then we'll pick up a front foot too with another roper and we can lay those big one's down easy that way. Way easier on your groundcrew. Particualrly we've had brandings where most of our groundcrew was 60 plus. Then going with three ropers is handy.
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Haha yep we restrained front and rear and the ropers draw them tight. Those calves must have been pushing 500-600 pounds that year by the time we were able to gather them - a bit more difficult to handle, lol. The ground crew swarms in and it all happens simultaneously. Blood, mud and sweat!
 
The fact that you make alot of the stuff thats out being used makes it even more awesome. I love to work with leather and make the occassional knife (on a very very very small scale comparatively) and usually end up giving it to family and such but rarely do I get to see it in use. On the off occasion that I get a pic sent to me of one of my knives skinning a handful of rabbit or see one of my friends wearing the knife and sheath I made them it makes me happy. The pics you posted may be of a dying art but it is more than appreciated around these parts. Keep it up...and keep the pics coming down the road, they are very fun to see.

Matt
 
Great thread thanks so much for sharing. It was great to see a lifestyle so different than my own. I was raised and still live in a rural area of WNC. Growing up our entire family shared and lived on, a 30 acre tract of mountain land. It was home to 4 individual families and houses Grandparents, aunt and uncles but other than chickens, a hog and a milk cow we never dealt with animals. Everything we raised was for food for our family with the exception of our tobacco allotment and tending the fields was a much greater task than the animals.
I can only imagine what your life must be like.
 
Horsewright said:
Hope ya enjoyed this little tour of a traditional branding on a cattle ranch here in California and seeing traditional knives in action.
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It's a little early, but I think we have a strong candidate for 2017's post of the year! :thumbup: :D

-- Mark
 
Thanks very much for the very fine posting of a very different life Dave. It was enjoyable reading and the pictures are fantastic . Last time I tried that , I ended getting kicked by a hind leg . Your postings are always nice to see.

Harry
 
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