Horsewright Knives and Leather

[Horsewright]

Working on a new batch of knives currently. Will have some pics and shortly. Some of you might be interested in a WIP I did for the Sheaths and Such section here on BF:

Post in thread 'Spur Straps a WIP'

Jun 1, 2025

Moving on with our WIP:

After trimming the excess thread from sewing I will then trim all the excess lining leather off. I use a roundknife for this as it goes around the tight curves so much better than other types of knives.

I will then sand the edges of the parts getting the top leather and the lining leather even. Since my friend Coleman, at @Sharp & Fiery, said I couldn't show my Cobra Finisher any more I didn't take any pics of this step! The finisher sanding drum won't fit down into the two tight inside curves on the bib part. So to...

• Horsewright

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• 
• 

 

[echoscout]

 

[mitch13]

Working on a new batch of knives currently. Will have some pics and shortly. Some of you might be interested in a WIP I did for the Sheaths and Such section here on BF:

Post in thread 'Spur Straps a WIP'

Jun 1, 2025

Moving on with our WIP:

After trimming the excess thread from sewing I will then trim all the excess lining leather off. I use a roundknife for this as it goes around the tight curves so much better than other types of knives.

I will then sand the edges of the parts getting the top leather and the lining leather even. Since my friend Coleman, at @Sharp & Fiery, said I couldn't show my Cobra Finisher any more I didn't take any pics of this step! The finisher sanding drum won't fit down into the two tight inside curves on the bib part. So to...

• Horsewright

• 
• 
• 

Very nice Dave.
Do people tend to add a fancy yoke to go with rhe tooled strap?

 

[Horsewright]

Very nice Dave.
Do people tend to add a fancy yoke to go with rhe tooled strap?

Sorry my friend what do you mean by yoke?

View attachment 2890246

It keeps bouncing around here between felt and straw time! Yesterday I was wearing a straw and Nichole was in felt.

That's a great song. Very funny!

So yesterday we were helping some friends. Our friend Mary Kay has some grass that needed eating and our friend John had some cows that needed grass to eat. So we met over at Mary Kay's to check the fence and fix some holes. Everybody was wearing a Horsewright knife and sheath on a Horsewright belt. I had on my snake gun in a Horsewright holster too, since we were trudging through some tall grass.

Then we ran home and saddled horses and drove over to John's to load his cattle:

There was one steer that cut back. There's always one. Maybe he heard John and I guesstimating his weight seeing if he was big enough to slaughter. Queen Sabe? Anyhoo we went back for him:

Ya always want to go as slow as ya can but sometimes ya gotta turn the burner up.

Helps to have a couple good ponies that ain't afraid to bodycheck a steer when he tries to back up that alley. Both of em smacked him with a shoulder.

Got er done and and dropped em off at Mary Kay's. Came home and cracked a beer. It'd been hot all day.

 

[echoscout]

"There's always one" ain't that the truth

 

[mitch13]

Sorry my friend what do you mean by yoke?

It keeps bouncing around here between felt and straw time! Yesterday I was wearing a straw and Nichole was in felt.

That's a great song. Very funny!

So yesterday we were helping some friends. Our friend Mary Kay has some grass that needed eating and our friend John had some cows that needed grass to eat. So we met over at Mary Kay's to check the fence and fix some holes. Everybody was wearing a Horsewright knife and sheath on a Horsewright belt. I had on my snake gun in a Horsewright holster too, since we were trudging through some tall grass.

Then we ran home and saddled horses and drove over to John's to load his cattle:

There was one steer that cut back. There's always one. Maybe he heard John and I guesstimating his weight seeing if he was big enough to slaughter. Queen Sabe? Anyhoo we went back for him:

Ya always want to go as slow as ya can but sometimes ya gotta turn the burner up.

Helps to have a couple good ponies that ain't afraid to bodycheck a steer when he tries to back up that alley. Both of em smacked him with a shoulder.

Got er done and and dropped em off at Mary Kay's. Came home and cracked a beer. It'd been hot all day.

Maybe my research was wrong.
This what I came across
"yoke", "branch", or "heel band", which wraps around the heel of the boot. The "shank" or "neck", which extends from the back of the yoke and is the area that touches the horse. The rowel, seen on some spurs, a revolving wheel or disk with radiating "points" at the end attached to the shank"

Well the metal pieces

 

[Horsewright]

"There's always one" ain't that the truth

For sure!

Maybe my research was wrong.
This what I came across
"yoke", "branch", or "heel band", which wraps around the heel of the boot. The "shank" or "neck", which extends from the back of the yoke and is the area that touches the horse. The rowel, seen on some spurs, a revolving wheel or disk with radiating "points" at the end attached to the shank"

Well the metal pieces

Gotcha. Yeah heel band is the term we use. We'll just say spur though collectively for all the parts. Yes sir almost always decorated particularly in our Californio style of western horsemanship. I have three pairs of spurs:

This pair was custom made for me by my good friend Mike "Tapadero" Vatalero of Taps Bit and Spur Shop. I told him something California and slipped the bridle and turned him loose.

This pair is silver inlaid and engraved as well as quite of bit of firework on the steel.

This pair that I seldom use I traded for with a German Bit and Spur maker at a show here in California.These two are silver inlaid and engraved.

My final pair is silver overlaid and engraved.

 

[mitch13]

For sure!


Gotcha. Yeah heel band is the term we use. We'll just say spur though collectively for all the parts. Yes sir almost always decorated particularly in our Californio style of western horsemanship. I have three pairs of spurs:

This pair was custom made for me by my good friend Mike "Tapadero" Vatalero of Taps Bit and Spur Shop. I told him something California and slipped the bridle and turned him loose.

This pair is silver inlaid and engraved as well as quite of bit of firework on the steel.

This pair that I seldom use I traded for with a German Bit and Spur maker at a show here in California.These two are silver inlaid and engraved.

My final pair is silver overlaid and engraved.

Some great details on those spurs
Very informative as well,
thanks Dave

 

[Horsewright]

Some great details on those spurs
Very informative as well,
thanks Dave

Anytime my friend!

 

[jfk1110]

 

[Horsewright]

So we were going to a cutting horse clinic Saturday afternoon. I was riding in the clinic and Nichole was gonna set up a lil table. Here's what we were taking:

And five knives:

Had a great time in the clinic, I learned alot. Nichole did well too making some sales but we didn't sell any knives.

 

[jfk1110]

 

[Horsewright]

A good friend requested this knife so, I did it in the latest batch that I just finished.

A Sonoran Belt Knife in 26C3 high carbon steel with a jade spacer and dark desert ironwood handle. The Horizontal sheath is a water buffalo overlay.

He was very pleased with it. I liked it too, so I did jade with an elk handle:

And what the heck, another water buff overlaid Horizontal.

He'd hand selected the ironwood for his project so I used the leftovers on another knife, a Sonoran Hunter:

Did an oak carved Pancake sheath for this one. This knife and sheath were the first of this batch to sell from the website:

 

[echoscout]

Reckon those are sure nice Dave. Really like the Sonoran Belt Knives

 

[Horsewright]

Reckon those are sure nice Dave. Really like the Sonoran Belt Knives

Thanks amigo! Competing in my first cutting tomorrow morning.

 

[echoscout]

Thanks amigo! Competing in my first cutting tomorrow morning.

Sounds exciting. Hope you do well

 

[Horsewright]

Sounds exciting. Hope you do well

Thank you sir!

 

[ron finkbeiner jr]

A good friend requested this knife so, I did it in the latest batch that I just finished.

A Sonoran Belt Knife in 26C3 high carbon steel with a jade spacer and dark desert ironwood handle. The Horizontal sheath is a water buffalo overlay.

He was very pleased with it. I liked it too, so I did jade with an elk handle:

And what the heck, another water buff overlaid Horizontal.

He'd hand selected the ironwood for his project so I used the leftovers on another knife, a Sonoran Hunter:

Did an oak carved Pancake sheath for this one. This knife and sheath were the first of this batch to sell from the website:

Love this sheath!

 

[Horsewright]

Love this sheath!

Thank you!

 

[jfk1110]

A good friend requested this knife so, I did it in the latest batch that I just finished.

A Sonoran Belt Knife in 26C3 high carbon steel with a jade spacer and dark desert ironwood handle. The Horizontal sheath is a water buffalo overlay.

He was very pleased with it. I liked it too, so I did jade with an elk handle:

And what the heck, another water buff overlaid Horizontal.

He'd hand selected the ironwood for his project so I used the leftovers on another knife, a Sonoran Hunter:

Did an oak carved Pancake sheath for this one. This knife and sheath were the first of this batch to sell from the website:

GORGEOUS!!!

I just luv that Buff leather....