Some Recent Work......

[Horsewright]

Took about a week off of making knives to knock out some leather orders that we had. Thought I'd share some of them with you.

Had three rifle scabbards to do:

First up was a roughout with initials and a border stamp. This one was for one of the newer lever actions with a large loop lever. This takes a slight modification to my pattern:

For the initials I use a stamp set and then bevel around the stamped impression:

Next up was a scabbard with a brand and a Carlos border stamp. The brand was surrounded by a horseshoe:

The third one was pretty simple, just a plain border stamp. I use water buffalo for the straps on these scabbards:

This customer also ordered a martingale. This attaches at three points to the saddle and helps to hold it in place, particularly climbing hills or roping heavy cattle:

He had chosen a little different border stamp for this one though:

Course I've always got some sheaths to do too:

Course than there is always belts to do as well. Maybe even a matched set:

Nichole, my wife does all the flower carving, I built the knife; Damasteel and Mammoth Ivory:

So while she was carving that belt I jumped in on the two oak leaf belts we had to do. She won't do oak leaf for some reason so I do them:

One had a brand at the tip:

Nichole's flower carved one took a long time, course it was for a 51" waist.

She has also been working on this little strap dealy called a bosal hanger choker. It prevents the hanger from getting close to the horse's eye:

And we're famous for our Sandwashed Silk wildrags. Once a cowboy wears one of these they are hooked, the warmth they provide wrapped around your neck is incredible. I had a guy call me from Utah a few of weeks ago: "Dave ya gone down to LA yet?" (We buy this silk in the Garment District of LA, imagine Tijuana in Arabic and that's pretty much how this gig is.) "Well I'll buy ya a bus ticket, I'll even pray for ya while you're there!" That's how much folks want these rags.

Course Nichole makes the vests too so we been busy. Whadya been up to?

Questions and comments always welcome

 

[High Standard]

Hey Dave. The both of you do fantastic work. I really like the rifle scabbards. Simple, but elegant.

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks H High Standard ! Here's some more too. Some Beavertail inlay. First time I inlaid one of my pancake sheaths:

Not quite as refined as your inlay Vinnie but closing. The first two were orders, this last one was the prototype.

 

[grogimus]

Took about a week off of making knives to knock out some leather orders that we had. Thought I'd share some of them with you.


I use water buffalo for the straps on these scabbards:

Course I've always got some sheaths to do too:

Nichole, my wife does all the flower carving, I built the knife; Damasteel and Mammoth Ivory:

Always love seeing your work Dave. I have an old Remington 700 in .270 that I'd like to leather up with a scabbard and cartridge holder at some point but that's a whole different world than anything I've been doing. I've been making sheaths for some pretty big knives lately and I think I'd like to work up a baldric adapter and straps for a carry option, I think I need to investigate that water buffalo hide a little more. It looks awesome.

I really like the border on the middle knife of the second pic I quoted. That's a great way to end a border.

Nichole does some amazing carving, I'd like to do some more traditional carving at some point. Do you happen to know what she's using for a background tool? It's absurdly well done.

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks grogimus ! I like making rifle scabbards, they are fun. I have a whole different pattern I use for a scoped rifle. Here's one:

Its two halves sewn together (front and back), instead of one piece folded over like for the lever actions. This allows easy adjustments for different size scopes, barrel lengths etc.

The water buffalo is just great strap leather. We're using it for lots of different things, hangers, that choker that Nichole is playing with, belts, headstalls, spurstraps etc. When used by itself without a lining like in the straps for the scabbards the edges don't finish really great. But that doesn't seem to distract. Lined like in a belt or a headstall the edges finish very well. We were using it some for sheaths too but have backed away from that. Over a period of time it just wasn't holding the molding like I want it too.

Thanks I'll pass on the kind words! She uses Barry King bar backgrounders in three or four different sizes. She really does rock the bar backgrounder. Interestingly, we've tried those stamps on the oak leaf patterns and it just didn't look right. Went back to the old fashion normal backgrounder. As a person gets better and better at carving, it gets faster too. Use to take her a couple of hours to flower carve a sheath, now about 15 to 20 minutes.

 

[Hengelo_77]

beautiful work

 

[just-a-hunter]

Another treat of eye candy all the way through. Awesome works as always!

Todd

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks guys!

 

[golfer1]

Love seeing your work and the info you share is a great pluss. Lovely model too by the way.

 

[GB940Rookie]

Another great thread Dave. Seems like I can't wait to see what you and Nicole do next.
I really appreciate good leather.

 

[grogimus]

Thanks I'll pass on the kind words! She uses Barry King bar backgrounders in three or four different sizes. She really does rock the bar backgrounder. Interestingly, we've tried those stamps on the oak leaf patterns and it just didn't look right. Went back to the old fashion normal backgrounder. As a person gets better and better at carving, it gets faster too. Use to take her a couple of hours to flower carve a sheath, now about 15 to 20 minutes.

I received my very first Barry King stamp recently, I feel like I just hit the big time. I bought a shell crescent stamp and love it but my Tandy border stamps don't camouflage it very well.

It's crazy how quick she knocks those designs out. I don't remember which one of these I paid attention to how long it took but I do remember cussing a blue streak at the 8 hour mark.

It was worth every second working on them but it's encouraging to think that they may speed up at some point!

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks G golfer1 . That's our friend Angie in the tan vest and Nichole in the green one.

GB940Rookie Yes sir YOU will see our next leather project for sure! And soon.

grogimus yep once ya get the hang of a pattern ya can knock em out pretty quick. Ya will like those Barry Kings! Think I like the bottom one the best.

 

[Macan]

GReat work! You gave me hope that I could be faster at stamping, and Nichole is mighty fast

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks M Macan Yep the more ya do it the quicker ya'll be but more importantly the better too!

 

[darkmatter35]

That's a hole lot of beautiful work Nichole and Dave, thanks for sharing. Going to have to get some beaver tail, looks nice.
John

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks D darkmatter35 . It was kind of fun to play with.

 

[MaverickFZX750]

Hi Dave! Inlaid sheaths looks very nice. I've never saw before a beavertail leather on some leather works, is it nutural colour of beavertail? I thought it must be much darker,isn't it? Like the vests are beautiful and elegant, seems warm. What do you think about leather vests, did you ever make some?

 

[Horsewright]

M MaverickFZX750 yes its natural color as tanned. Its a veg tan leather. In our western deal you will often see it on bucking rolls. These are are a removable part of saddle and put some support in front of the leg. Here's a pic of my friend Steve's saddle. It has beavertail bucking rolls. You can see the texture. My saddle does too but I couldn't find a pic off hand.

Thank you. The vests are how Horsewright as a business got started many years ago. We stopped doing them for many years for various reasons and then have been making them again for 10 or 12 years now I guess.They are very warm, kinda like your getting hugged all the time. 20 odd years ago we made a few out of deerhide lined in wool. We only made a few though, they were problematic to construct and prohibitively expensive even back then. So we quit em. We don't make a lot of vests as sometimes its difficult to find the right wool and Nichole is very particular about what wool she'll use. People that have them love them though. Just had a cowboy in South Dakota order two more, He's had one for about 4 years now and has worn it literally everyday since getting it. Nichole is also really good at making really big sizes for guys that usually can't find something decent. She's got a 3xl tall to make and just finished a 4xl. She makes a lot of vests in these very large sizes.

Wool she didn't like on the top shelf of my closet:

 

[MaverickFZX750]

Oh! Yeah right. Thanks. I saw before a bucking rolls, but just didn't imagine that is beavertail. So why beavertail, does it have some special characteristics for this kind of use or it's just traditional since old times? Yes, quality of wool is very important to make good longlife things, I got friend, she makes a hand knit things and she always notice that. As any other type of material to make something really good, quality on the first place. Nichole must be very talented woman. Really good looking vests.

 

[Dusty One]

Outstanding work on the leather and Wool...