Horsewright
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 13,483
I was contacted by the producer of the Working Ranch Rodeo for our local Kern Coounty Fair (in Bakersfield) to make some prizes. As these are team events he ordered four similar knives and sheaths and 4 martingales. A martingale/breast collar/ breast plate/ choker /collar goes around the horses chest and attaches to the saddle in 3 different places. Its job is to help stabalize the saddle and hold it in place while in rough country or while doing heavy roping. After talking we decided on doing all rough out martingales as that would match just about anybody's saddle. A slight ulterior motive here is that while I edge a roughout martingale I don't rub those edges. Anthony from Omega asked me about one one time so I measured the edges on a martingale. There are 332 lineal inches on each martingale, times 4 and you get the picture, thats a lot of rubbing.
Leather is 10-12 oz Wickett and Craig russet saddle skirting. The body of the martingales are two ply making a very durable and useful piece of tack for a working cowboy.
The knives are my Coyote model, hollowground AEB-L steel at 62 RC with brass bolsters and elk handles. The elk is kinda cool because its all sourced from local Kern Co sheds. The sheaths are my right hand cross draw Horizontal sheath to be worn above the left front pocket. These are Herman Oak and smoothout and wetmolded to each individual knife. The part of the martingale shown in this pic attaches to the cinch of the saddle between the horse's front legs. Its the only part that is split down from full thickness. The lining is still 10-12 oz but the roughout piece I split to about 5-6 oz. Two pieces of 12 oz leather is not going through that 1 inch buckle and keeper.
Being crazy that week and feeling like I didn't have enough to do... built another one for stock. On this one I used 10-12 oz Wicket and Craig bridle leather for the lining and straps and stainless hardware instead of brass.
Still feeling underwhelmed I made a roughout rifle scabbard for another order at the same time too.
And that pretty much wiped out the whole side of the saddle leather. Most of the straps I cut from another side so actually took a little more than half a cow.
Now feeling somewhat whelmed (neither over nor under) I finshed off these sheaths too:
Two kitchen knives, two skivvers and 5 roundknives. Most of the handles in this group are ironwood. Bottom left roundknife is mesquite and the one to its right is osage orange. Think I'll go ride my horse and defrag.
This pic of Nichole from one of our brandings a couple of years back shows how the martingale works on the horse. Most of the time we will run a pretty small crew at our brandings. That I'm giving the shots here means I missed my roping shot. Nichole didn't. Dang the old guy had to get down.
Leather is 10-12 oz Wickett and Craig russet saddle skirting. The body of the martingales are two ply making a very durable and useful piece of tack for a working cowboy.
The knives are my Coyote model, hollowground AEB-L steel at 62 RC with brass bolsters and elk handles. The elk is kinda cool because its all sourced from local Kern Co sheds. The sheaths are my right hand cross draw Horizontal sheath to be worn above the left front pocket. These are Herman Oak and smoothout and wetmolded to each individual knife. The part of the martingale shown in this pic attaches to the cinch of the saddle between the horse's front legs. Its the only part that is split down from full thickness. The lining is still 10-12 oz but the roughout piece I split to about 5-6 oz. Two pieces of 12 oz leather is not going through that 1 inch buckle and keeper.
Being crazy that week and feeling like I didn't have enough to do... built another one for stock. On this one I used 10-12 oz Wicket and Craig bridle leather for the lining and straps and stainless hardware instead of brass.
Still feeling underwhelmed I made a roughout rifle scabbard for another order at the same time too.
And that pretty much wiped out the whole side of the saddle leather. Most of the straps I cut from another side so actually took a little more than half a cow.
Now feeling somewhat whelmed (neither over nor under) I finshed off these sheaths too:
Two kitchen knives, two skivvers and 5 roundknives. Most of the handles in this group are ironwood. Bottom left roundknife is mesquite and the one to its right is osage orange. Think I'll go ride my horse and defrag.
This pic of Nichole from one of our brandings a couple of years back shows how the martingale works on the horse. Most of the time we will run a pretty small crew at our brandings. That I'm giving the shots here means I missed my roping shot. Nichole didn't. Dang the old guy had to get down.
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