Big knife

I finished this one this morning.

8.5" blade, 13.75" overall length. Axis deer handle with 1018/15n20 damascus fittings.
The blade is 5160/8670/15n20 damascus. The contrast in the pattern is a little more subtle than some of the other commonly used steels, but on the right knife, I sure like it. Most damascus makers shy away from the 5160 because they say it is hard to weld. I have had no problems, just learned to give it a little more soak time before making the initial weld.
This knife will probably make it to the Big Spring custom knife show in Big Spring, Texas on October 29-30th. All custom knives, and lots of talented makers if any one is interested in attending.

Rasp bit

This is the start, just a plain old horse shoeing rasp.

After the band saw.

Ready to weld. I missed a few steps in between, the biggest is drilling holes, but it is boring any way. I use a step drill bit for the round holes, and my band saw for the tear drops.

The finished product. This one sure ought to make one go whoa. With a long shank and a high port, he won't have many runaways.

rose bowl spurs

These spurs went to the head coach at TCU. These where the first 1 piece gal legs I did, and I was a little nervous about how they would turn out. They are big spurs, 1" band, and 2.5" shanks, with 2" rowels. I have a set of these to build for a cowboy in Stamford with his brand on them.

Cell phone pictures. I should probably leave the photography to the professionals. These where taken from the hay barn off highway 36. the top is looking north west toward east Caddo Peak. Second is heifers hoping I was the feed truck. The grass is usually not this color until thanksgiving, this whole country looks like over grazed february.

Ranch pictures

We got out and looked around this afternoon. these are a few pictures we took on the Admiral place.

A shot from the hill, looking north east. My shop is to the left in the picture.

Angel, my bulldog, cooling off.

Kim's longhorn cow. The purpose of her longhorn herd is to let them die of old age, get their heads, and mosaic them. They do turn out pretty. She allows me to put an angus bull with her cows and keep the calves.

I hope this bunch of cows survive the drought. It's gonna be a long winter for them, with no more feed than we have, but they will probably run out of water before we run out of feed so it won't matter. We are luckier than a lot of cattlemen in the area. There are a lot that are desperate to sell or ship now, and the sale barns and slaughter plants are completely full of east Texas cattle. Fire ran most of them out of grass, and it is causing lots of big runs at the sales. Thing can always get worse, and they will.

Kelley spurs

These are one piece spurs using 4140 for the steel. The 4140 is a little harder to forge than some of the other steels that could be used, but it is a lot stronger. These are ladies spurs, and I was able to thin the bands down to reduce the weight, and not worry about them bending out of shape when being used hard.
The font I use for the silver name is lucinda hand writing. It is probably the most popular thing requested on my spurs.
 It was back to the mid 90's on the ranch today. Our cold front didn't last long. We are just about out of grass, and will be feeding hay in a week or so. We can usually manage to make it through Christmas in most pastures without hay, and don't hay at all in some. It's gonna be a LONG winter. It could be worse, I could have been a cotton farmer.

Random

A cold front blew through today, dry for the most part, as usual. Temperature did not get over 75, it felt so good I pounded out damascus all afternoon.
I changed my picture to a set of spurs I made for some republican ladies to present to our esteemed lt. governor, Mr. David Dewhurst. I understand he is into cutting horses, maybe he uses them some.

Either way, I'll bet he is the only lt. governor in the U.S. with a set of damascus spurs.

Some cowboy jewelry, made from a mexican coin.

A set of rasp spurs I made for Jarred Smith, bareback rider extraordinaire.

These snakes are left over pieces of spurs. waste not, want not.

Ranch rodeo september

http://www.photojkc.com/-/photojkc/gallery.asp?cat=166831&pID=1&row=15
This is a link to my daughter, Jessica's web site. Lots of fun photos of a local ranch rodeo a few weeks ago. Look around the rest of it while you are there, she is pretty talented.I built the buckles for this and had lots of equipment on both horses and contestants.