What Knives Did Cowboy's Carry?

[birdsbeaks]

Off-topic, apologies.

 

[Vlade]

This is a cow but he only speak Spanish. this is at a gas station. nearby my home. I suppose you would use a knife to cut rope? Let me go to the checklist cows got them, gas got it . Gas station knives no got it.

 

[JM2]

Interesting discussion before it turned to chatgpt and other blathering that has nothing to do with knives. If the mods wanted to clean out the non-knife and non-cowboy posts... it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all.

Thanks all for sharing about knives, and thank you Horsewright for sharing all of that information and pictures.

 

[NWFRS]

Love those Sheffield bowies.

 

[osoverride]

Off topic. Will move conversation.

 

[birdsbeaks]

So we should stop teaching our students to be competent because they can use ChatGPT to get a polished turd of an answer? Yikes, buddy.

I deleted my off-topic reply. Apologies.

 

[JM2]

I am excited I got to use the word blathering in context! Thanks yall.

NWFRS I've seen some pictures of knives of that sort, and I wonder what the true prevalence of them were. Even if it was in the 1890s, it would be interesting.

 

[NWFRS]

I am excited I got to use the word blathering in context! Thanks yall.

NWFRS I've seen some pictures of knives of that sort, and I wonder what the true prevalence of them were. Even if it was in the 1890s, it would be interesting.

I actually don’t even know what decade mine is from, it just seemed close. And I’m with you. I’ve always imagined that most were very rough cottage industry sorts of things. Flatten-out a horseshoe, file it sharp, and nail some driftwood slabs to it kind of stuff.

 

[black mamba]

I always thought Cowboys carried Cowboy knives . . . don't they?

 

[Prester John]

Argentinian cowboys carry knives like this:

 

[Shuya]

The Steamboat Arabia wreck museum has a fascinating display of knives found in the wreck, (which was a steamboat laden with goods for the Western frontier in the 1850s.) Lots of jackknives, congress knives, and fixed blades, from memory. (I was last there in 2011 and wish I’d sneaked a photo.)

Most of the patterns we know and love seem to have come about when the “old west” era was ending and the big cutlery manufacturers were beginning to be established.

Indeed.

Checked the book above, the pocketknives carried in the 18th century were patterns we all would recocnize:
Okapis, Friction Folders like the Taschenfeitel (see Here ), Navajas, Barlows, Swell End Jacks, Pallares Knives, Otter Knives, Sodbuster (then known as french Mineur or german Hippekniep)
They all have one in common, cheap reliable singleblade no nonsense workhorses.

Even with the trappers there isnt a single note to the multiblade knifes we now know, like Trappers and Stockmans.

Maybe some point later they were common.

And I cant imagine that the country prople carried different blades, no evidence for that known to me. They most likely used what was sold at the towns and outposts.

 

[ea42]

I actually don’t even know what decade mine is from, it just seemed close. And I’m with you. I’ve always imagined that most were very rough cottage industry sorts of things. Flatten-out a horseshoe, file it sharp, and nail some driftwood slabs to it kind of stuff.

I believe those EBRO marked Williams knives started appearing shortly after WWI.

Eric

 

[black mamba]

Nice photo, Vince, I really like the sharpening steel on the sheath.

 

[Prester John]

Nice photo, Vince, I really like the sharpening steel on the sheath.

Thanks, Jeff. It's good to he prepared.
I have ordered a small gaucho knife, called a verijero, in a similar sheath, but carried in front.

The one I ordered is like the one CelloDan has, which you can see in his gaucho knives and "walk in nature" threads.

 

[Horsewright]

I always thought Cowboys carried Cowboy knives . . . don't they?

Many do! This is my Cowboy model, one of my most popular.

I received a phone call from a cowboy in Montana. He'd been at a large branding the day before. He said that including himself there were ten ropers and they had two fires going. They had several hundred head to do. He told me of the ten ropers he was the only one not wearing one of my knives. He said they were all Cowboy or Buckaroo models (Buckaroo was the damascus version of the same model). So he said figured I better join the crowd and he ordered one too.

A young ladies horse checking out her new knife and chaps in Florida. This was her second pair of Horsewright shotgun chaps, she'd worn out the first pair.

This was her first pair.

Just a little anecdotal story on these guys. This was the pair of chaps that got me not making this style of legging for some years. Ya can see how it would be difficult to dig a folder out of a front pocket in a hurry wearing this type of chap. To make these you need some specific measurements from the customer. No adjustment for the legs in these. The guy from Pennsylvania that had ordered them had told me 24" for the circumference of the upper thigh measurement. Now I've made enough leggings over the years to know when a measurement or combination of measurements don't seem right. 24" is an extremely common upper thigh measurement so no alarm bells went off. Made up the chaps and shipped them to him. They were too small he couldn't get them on. Turns out his thigh measurement is 28" not 24". Well heck how do you miss the circumference of your thigh by 4"s? He'd been a good customer so ya didn't want to say sorry, I made them to the measurements ya gave me, so chew on nails. So I had him buy two more sides of leather and made the new pair to his correct measurements. So he's happy and I'm only out about a day making a new pair. Put the old pair on our website and they sold overnight. So I got to the point where I wouldn't make these types unless I measured you, or you had an old pair that fit ya good and ya just needed a new pair and I could use the old pair as a pattern. Anyhoo;

Yes ya see Quads used a lot. Around here its not too unusual to see a stock trailer behind a flatbed pickup with both a saddled horse and a quad in the back. We have a lot of rough country around here and quads will work on part of it but there's places ya just can't go with a quad. Most folks around here won't work cattle with a quad, it gets them too stirred up. In simple terms your job as a cowboy is to keep your cattle as quiet as possible. Chousing em around is in reality running $$$ off of them. We took great pride in how our cattle handled quietly and that was because they were handled quietly. We used a quad for scouting as it could get to places quicker and to more places than a truck. We'd find out where the cattle might be and then go get them horseback. The quad was especially good for cleaning up leftovers. Ya've already made a couple circles horseback and have bout 90 percent of your cattle in. A quad was handy for finding those last few scattered here and there. Also quads are very handy for fixing fence and other chores like that. But we never worked cattle with them. They do other places. Kinda ironic we bought a new Honda quad aptly named the Rancher in June. July was when we found out that the ranch had sold. Developers bought it. They offered us the opportunity to stay on another year or two but all the stars were kinda lining up including historic high cattle prices, that now was the time to retire.

One aspect we haven't covered yet where a knife is needed in cowboying is castrating bull calves at a branding. Castrated bull calves are then steers and 98% of the meat ya buy wrapped in plastic comes from steers. There's quite a bit of etiquette involved in branding, lots of dos and don't. The "cowboss" will either do the cutting or he'll delegate who he wants to do the cutting. Here Salty had been delegated. He's using one of my Vaquero models:

Its much more involved than a simple slicing off of parts that most folks that haven't seen it realize.

Around here braniding is done by roping the calves. They are then secured at the fire where they are given a series of injections, ear tagged, wormed, branded and if a bull calf, castrated. Other areas they'll use a chute or a calf table for branding and then a kinda specialized knife is used often referred to as a "nutter". I've made a few in the past but most folks around here use just a small knife with either a small fixed blade or a trapper.

Some branding shots:

We'd use a chute too to brand new bulls, but these are 18 months to 24 months old:

Well gotta go feed again. Hope this helps.

 

[NWFRS]

I believe those EBRO marked Williams knives started appearing shortly after WWI.

Eric

Good to know! I’d thought I’d read somewhere they were in the 1900-WWII range, which I was willing to believe because it looks the part, but I don’t know. Still planning to keep my eyes open for more because I really do like it.

 

[joeradza]

I guess if they had too, but novelty was not a good choice for work.

 

[Horsewright]

Good point you make Dave Horsewright ...are we talkin' Rowdy Yates or John Dutton?

On Rowdy I got nothing. How about Curly from City Slickers? Remember Curly said: "There's nothing like bringing in the herd". Gathering Jack Palance's (the actor that won the Oscar for portraying Curly), cattle here in Tehachapi. I'm third from the right and Nichole my wife is second from the left:

Nichole looking for another of Jack's calves that need branding:

On John Dutton I got these. We made a bunch of our horseshoe coasters for the Yellowstone folks. Biggest order for these we've ever had. They sold them at a promotional show during the first season. We made the notebook cover as a thank you for the big order.

Dave, congratulations. Seems to me it would be very tough to just stop that lifestyle. A hard but rewarding lifestyle I am sure. photo of, I assume, you riding into the sun is great.
Certainly going to miss your working photos. Thank you for sharing those with us.
Guess retiring from ranching lets you spend more time making knives and leather goods.

Yes sir Its been an adjustment. We look at it as a just another phase, gonna do something different. We did get to go out on our terms instead of getting a call that the bulldozers will be there in the morning. Or not getting a call at all. That's happened before. Looking at getting back into horse competitions. In fact just dropped Mitchy off yesterday to start his training. He's named after City Slickers too. Billy Crystals nickname in the movie was Mitchy The Kid. Thats Mitchy's registered name with the AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association), Mitchy The Kid. The other day I was helping Nichole carry some Christmas decorations up to the house from a storage building. One of them was a waist high cow with Christmas lights all over it. As we're walking, Nichole turns around and says: "Ya know thats the only cow we own now." Kinda like getting hit with a bat. Ferry Cattle Co and Horsewright are/were two separate entities and yes Horsewright will still be as busy as ever. Need to be, having a horse trained by one of the best in the world ain't cheap!