Horsewright Knives and Leather

[Horsewright]

I use the same leather for the welts as the sheaths. I don’t dye edges, just burnish.

 

[Horsewright]

Been working on this pile of blades. Here they've been cut out on the bandsaw. So they need to get profiled on the grinders:

There's a 117 blades in this batch. But profiling doesn't take as long as a guy might think. Because I have several grinders I can set up my grinding bench to handle each knife just once. This really helps. Maybe 2-3 hours total on this many blades. Here they are all done with a tally of what blades and how many of each.

The next step is to mark all the blades with the holes that they will need drilled.

All marked and ready to drill, baby drill:

Here's my drilling set up. The press on the left is set up with a #30 drill bit. A #30 is slightly larger than 1/8th. It's used for the bolster rivet holes or the front hole of a blade without a bolster. Did ya know a 1/8" pin won't go in a 1/8" hole? That's why I use a #30. The #30 is also used to drill the pilot holes for all the much larger handle holes.

The press on the right is set up with a 5/8's inch counter sink. I use this to open up all the handle holes. Several reasons to do this. First of all gives ya lots of options for pins, loveless bolts and spacers later. Second it tends to balance the knife over the index finger which I strive for. Ya've just removed a lot of unnecessary weight from the handle. Third it gives your handle greater strength as you've just vastly increased the surface area that your glue, when affixing the handle slabs, has to bite onto. Makes a stronger built knife.

Boring out those pilot holes takes time but using the countersink is the best way I've come up with, after thousands and thousands of knives. One of the things that really helps is my super secret biodegradable, organic cutting fluid. I will reveal here for the first time in public, what I use. Here's the formula. Ya take two molecules of hydrogen and combine them with one molecule of oxygen and voila a super effective and SAFE cutting fluid. Seriously my Dr use to worry about me and cutting fluids, apparently they are pretty bad for ya. I never used a lot but I had used some. I came upon this deal of dunking the blade in water and then drilling. It really works even with the counter sink. I do two holes and dunk. With the counter sink I don't try to bore all the way through at once. Lil bit, dunk, lil bit and dunk, flip the blade over and lil bit and dunk. It really works. The bits just bite better. I theorize that it has more to do with the temp than with the water. The cooler metal just seems to cut better. It really works.

This is the most laborious part of the entire knife deal for me. But we get er done.

Been at it for three days now. No shop time today but only three blades left.

Some years back my daughter, when she was in college and trying to get into nursing school (impacted program and based on a draw), she would sometimes find herself a little light on funds towards the end of the month. She always had a job but sometimes there wouldn't be enough hours. She would come up and work for me in the shop to make up the diff. She never wanted us to just give her the money, not how she rolls. Profiling was one of her favorite parts of the process. She was up onetime and I had her drilling holes after she had profiled a bunch. She was wearing a ladies T shirt. Not super low cut or anything but not a crew neck either. I'm working away doing something else and I hear her for the first time that I ever heard her, drop the F bomb and she goes inside the house. She comes out a few minutes later and she's wearing one of mom's ranching button down shirts and its buttoned all the way to the collar. She says I'm calling BS on that! I say on what? She says, I get on Instagram and I see all these girls and they bending over a grinder or forging on an anvil and they have their cleavage hanging out. I'm calling BS! She said I just got a hot shard down my shirt and that hurts! I'm calling BS! Those pics are set up!

 

[ecallahan]

That is an impressive amount of work.

 

[JM2]

I was watching this with my son, and I see what I think is a HorseWright knife, or at least a sheath, at 5:50

thought it was pretty cool.

 

[jfk1110]

And he's retired...

 

[Horsewright]

Thank you!

I was watching this with my son, and I see what I think is a HorseWright knife, or at least a sheath, at 5:50

thought it was pretty cool.

Yes that's a Slotted sheath and it does look like maybe a Coyote. First met those folks many years ago. The dad and one of the son's stopped by the shop and order several knives. Then one of the son's now an adult was heading off to cowboy in Australia so I made him a couple before he left and have made them some more since. At least I believe that's these folks, the Phillips. and kinda how I remember it happening. It has been many, many, years. Good eye on spotting the knife and sheath I had to stop it several times till I caught a good enough view to call it.

It's been kind of cool over the years, going places or seeing something and recognizing our work. Still see one of Nichole's wild rags now and then on different videos. They were distinct enough that we can call em when we run across one in a video or something.

Went to a large roping one time and counted 37 of my knives being worn by spectators and competitors. Here's some of the pics from that deal. Nichole was actually competing that year. That's John our friend from the saddle making video in the tan vest kinda center and Nichole in the green vest next to him.

This was when the NFL couldn't decide if they were standing or kneeling. Wasn't much of a question on this outfit when the gal sang the National Anthem:

Heck there were Canadians, Australians, Germans, French, Italians and some Czechs too and that's just who I talked too. They had the hat deal figured out that morning.

Here's a model I don't make anymore, a Compadre:

Anyhoo it is cool to go someplace and see your work.

 

[pjsjr]

This was when the NFL couldn't decide if they were standing or kneeling. Wasn't much of a question on this outfit when the gal sang the National Anthem:

So good to see! The way it should be.

 

[JM2]

Dang, I like the compadre model.

 

[Horsewright]

So good to see! The way it should be.

Absolutely. It was interesting too, to see all these foreign visitors be respectful as well!

Dang, I like the compadre model.

Ya know it was so similar to the Coyote that it got lost by the wayside. It was kinda redundant. And I was selling a lot more Coyotes than Compadres. Quien Sabe? Don't mean I'll never make em again just haven't for some years.

Just a few more to drill:

Now that we've got em all drilled we move to the next step. The weather cooperated too as I like to do this outside. I call the next step Cowboy Surface Grinding. I use a flat disc grinder and remove all the burrs from the drilling and profiling. I'm also looking for any hollows in the steel that might affect the grinding later. There was one I had to straighten on the anvil a little.

Ready to go:

First three done. This is not as laborious as it might seem. Maybe 30 -40 seconds a blade:

Now I sit down at that well worn table and mark where my Horsewright stamp is gonna go. On a knife with a bolster such as this one it goes just in front of the sharpie mark. No bolster it will go on the sharpie mark.

This is my stamping set up. The long arm on the press holds the stamp in place and I put a lot of pressure on the end of that to keep the stamp in place. This prevents stutter stamping. Then with that 3lb sledge in the back ground on smack on the top of the ram pretty hard, 3 or 4 good whacks. I joke about this being "leg day at the gym" Cause I'm up and down out of that chair at least once per knife, making sure the stamp is where I want it.

Then while I'm still up, I take the blade over to the anvil for straightening. AEB-L is pretty bendy prior to heat treat and this is one of the reasons most people, myself included, do all our primary bevel grinding after heat treat. So our stamping can sometimes cause quite a bow.

This one has quite a bit of bow:

Turn it over and some gentle rapid tamping and it'll flatten out again.

While here I'll clean the sharpie off with some acetone on a cotton ball.

Pretty much finishing this step off today. Did about 20 last night and the rest today. Leg day at the gym!

 

[pjsjr]

Absolutely. It was interesting too, to see all these foreign visitors be respectful as well!

Looks like even those way up 'in the cheap seats' are paying their respects.

 

[Horsewright]

As far as the eye can see!

 

[Horsewright]

Been a while since I've had a chance to post here. I got those knives above all shipped out and they are at heat treat currently. I started a new small batch of 6 knives and finished them a couple of days ago. These have been posted on the website.

Here's a few pics:

A Cowboy with the very last of the red woolcarta that was made.No mad of this handle material.

A Coyote. As I was making this batch I started calling this knife The African knife. It has African Blackwood for a spacer and African Bubinga as the handle. I thought it came out pretty striking. Whadya think? Funny thing was there was no intent it just kind came out that way:

A Gordo with elk and turquoise:

Nichole has been knocking out a lot of her purses and they have been selling really well for her:

This saddle blanket lining has been very popular:

Here she did what she calls her boot top type stitching:

 

[Blues]

Well Dave, I'm not gonna give you the accolades today. Nichole's leather work looks awesome. I think I'd better not let my wife see this page.


(But send me a DM and give me an idea of price ranges anyway. LOL)


You guys really have the gift.

 

[RLB0414]

Knives look awesome

 

[Blues]

Horsewright

Well, I guess you don't have to send a DM now. Thanks for taking my order, Dave. Great talking to you...

 

[Horsewright]

Knives look awesome

Thank you sir! Thanks for the order too! Shipped out yesterday:

Rick contacted me and asked if I could make a sheath for his 110. I told him I had a lil modification I wanted to make for better retention in this style of sheath, it's made by many makers but I always worried about 110s retention. So he agreed for me to give it a try on his order and bam! It just snaps into place with an audible clunk.

Horsewright

Well, I guess you don't have to send a DM now. Thanks for taking my order, Dave. Great talking to you...

Thank you sir! It was great talking to ya. Should ship out tomorrow I think. We don't make it into town every day. Funny deal, I didn't post pics of it in the first post this morning cause I hadn't moved them over to Imgur yet.

And another recent:

We've had some great weather. Sorry guys I know most of ya haven't. Been getting quite a bit of riding in.

 

[jmgruber]

Did you happen to snap a picture of the Cowbell with new sheath?

 

[Horsewright]

Did you happen to snap a picture of the Cowbell with new sheath?

Yes sir I did. Was gonna post them over there in Redmeadow but ran out of time. Had some hungry horses to feed.

I did put the thong on but the pics were taken prior to us talking about that. The Cowbell knife by my friend John over at Redmeadow Knives here on BF:

This sheath too has excellent retention.

 

[AkAlces]

Great group of knives, Dave. That Coyote is a looker. I like the grain in the oak Cowboy quite a bit too. Think you’ll try to find a micarta maker for more ____carta in the future?

I have an old blaze orange wool coat from Bemidji Woolen Mills (great wool products made in northern Minnesota) that I think would make neat knife handles for hunters and those that want a hi-vis knife.

 

[Blues]

Thanks for posting the pix, Dave. I wanted to save some to the laptop, but by the time I got back from town they were removed from the site.

(I emailed before coming back on here, so you can disregard when received.)