Mike C

Maybe I can break the tie, I agree with Frank Turley, I use the horn and virtually all of the face and edges, depending on what I am making. I'm only a farrier though, what do I know?

That is a great pic, welcome to the group.

when I was serving my apprenticeship, I had humility. Much easier to teach a humble man than someone with an inflated ego

I do understand, I was the one with the ego when I started learning 20+ years ago. What a pain in the a$$ I was.....

I do have that book, it is a good one. I made a pitchfork bit with a halfbreed spade bud curved it the wrong way and didn't realize it until I finished it. Hat a disappointment. The pin for the roller, I welded in so I couldn't re-heat it. Pitchforks are fairly high carbon, I didn't know that.

Frank, I am open to new (or old) ideas. The silver solder I'm using ran at just below 550^o. I am going to use a higher temp silver solder as well as your method. I will still use my kitchen oven as that is as close to an exact heat as I can get. The goal is as perfect as an even heat as I can get. I still want to learn how to mortice and tenon the band to the shank but I need to make a monkey tool. Oh the projects. Maybe I should stick to one thing to perfect what I already do....

I'm not sure what Birchwood Casey cold blueing looks like but I'm trying to avoid the gun metal look. Garcia spurs have a very "blue" look. This is whay I am trying to achieve. A difference is that they inlay silver, I am silver soldering the brass. I'm not that advanced in my spurmaking. Working spurs usually end up with silver and rust, the 4140 of the sucker rod will not rust as bad or as fast. Thamnks for the information.

I have the DVD, it's a good one.

Howdy all,

I havent been on in a while as the shop is too hot to work in in the summer where I live. Here are my latest spurs, one piece made from 5/8 sucker rod. Jigs sure make life easier. I did try to blue them in my kitchen oven and succeeded in making the brass gee-gaws fall off or move. I would like the color but am not sure what temperature or time to put them in. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

I am right handed with a left pointing horn. From a farrier point of view, wiht the tongs and horseshoe in the left hand and hammer in the right, it is more comfortable to turn the shoe branches around the horn at an angle to get a rounder circumfrence on the shape as well as the hammer hand over the face of the anvil. I couldn't imagine trying to turn the shoe branches of a handmade with the horn pointing right, I'd have to move my entire body, side stepping to get ther with the hammer swing not matching the natural movement. I would think the handedness of the smith would determine the direction of the horn. There are also times when I need the lenght of the anvil with the horn pointing away but generally I have little need to move much. It's interesting to see what is comfortable with one is not with the other. I've never seen a farrier use anything other than right handed-left horn, left handed-right horn. Perhaps it's unique to making or shaping horseshoes.

Hey Mike, did you see the rattlesnake spurs Larry made? Those things are unbelievable. He has done a few wip's at the bit and spur forum, i learned a lot! Guys, count me in, i will make a pair and donate them for the auction. I just hope we get a decent amount of time since i am a weekend warrior.

Yes I did see them. His damascus spurs on his web site are amazing enough. I spoke with another blacksmith last night regarding making a monkey tool for the tenon/mortice joint for building the californio style like the Garcia spurs are/were made. I haven't tried that yet. I am like you, I do it on the weekends, as well as rawhide braiding, horseshoeing, and way too many extracarriculars that my wife complains about. I met a spur maker in a couple weeks ago that puts over 200 hours into one pair, lots of carved silver work. The most time I've taken on a pair is about 8 hours. I think rules for this contest should be established regarding tools used. This is a blacksmithing forum, therefore limit the tools, just my not so humble opinion. Meaning, eilinate the water and plasma cutters.

Great idea, i hope larry fuegen doesn't show up, if he does we are all done for! His stuff is fan-frickin-tastic!

That's no S#!T, it would be fun, I'm thinking a brief narrative of the construction as well, giving a judge an idea of great work-minimal tools versus all the power tools and minimal work.

just a thought but instead of running a weld bead and then grinding. why not just grind/sand that side of the rasp first before you do any cutting or forging. i think it would be easier to do it when it is flat then after you round and size it. just my thought.

I do it prior to shaping the bands. The bands at this point are flat, perpendicular to the shank. I also do all of my drilling for buttons at this point as well and any other forging on the bands I may want (hole punched and drifted or whatever).

i like them but i have 1 suggestion, from my dad (25yr horse trainer) you may wand to smothe the inside or they will eat the boots

I agree, when I fold them and open the bands perpendicular to the shank, I run a bead with a wire feed to fill the seam then grind the whole thing smoothe or at least so it will not damage the heels of boots. I also stamp it with my mark. Cheers

Robert Hall's book is good.

The antique Mexican and Californio spurs had the rowel shank tenoned through the center of the heel band. Again, the tenon would be square or rectangular in cross-section to keep it from ever turning. The heel band hole is countersunk by filing so that the peened portion upsets and sinks into the countersink and can be filed smooth and burnished. This method is seldom used today by spur makers.

Now I have to try this. Too many people make very nice rowels, buttons and swivel hangers to take the time to make them with traditional methods, if one is to make them to sell with some profit, the rest I will forge. Just my opinion. Looking at Garcia spurs, I think they may be done by tenon and welded nowadays. After about the first dozen pair, I've managed to work out jigs and processes that make it simpler and faster with more preciseness in spur matching and fit. I'm no expert but the finished product is only getting better and better. Thank you all for the information and ideas from the past threads and posts. I just ordered the book as well to try my hand at bits.

Perhaps another pair of spurs, the sucker rod has been sheared and cut into a bunch of "blanks", so it should be good. No bad weather expected here.

Nice spurs. Did you forge the notch in the shanks on the one pair, or how did you do that? I like it.
Tom

On the shank end, when I initially cut them, I cut an "M" into it. After folding it in half, I twisted it "M" center upward and forged the shank ends curving downwards. I do not open the shanks back up any more for the rowels, I just cut into the metal with a cutting blade. It saves a ton of time and energy and is about the right width opening for the rowels.

spur end / shank end|discard this end
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-----------......|...............|----
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4" center cut, 6" to the middle of the rasp or there about. The extra 2" allows for mistakes and creativity on the shank.

On the cut (shank) end, cut an "M"

------------|
............|
...---------|
..\
...\
.../
../
...---------|
............|
------------|

Fold it in half lengthwise and open the bands up around a jig to give a good shape for the bands, using the horn/bick by itself is too hard to make it perfect. If you want the bands to curve up with solid buttons, the center cut will have to be 5". Hope this helps, and I hope my diagrams express my explaination.

Great craftsmanship! I didn't know Jim Poor had a DVD out Mike, could you tell
me where I could get a copy? Years ago I saw him and his pretty wife do a demo, they were awsome.

It was a gift, as soon as I find out, I will relay where the DVD came from. Cheers

Ok, I'm still new to this forum but I've been looking at how others have been building the spurs. Here is what I've made for a while now. I've added the sucker rod idea from one of the other people posting here. Brilliant that they are built similar to the rasp spurs. I have been building the rasp spurs for a few years. I picked up the technique of silver soldering the brass on from watching a show on RFD of Billy Klapper adding silver fittings, and verified my rasp spur building through a DVD from Jim Poor. Great stuff. I will not build my own rowels though, too much work. The buttons are from Ranch2arena.com in California. .75 cents each is too inexpensive to pass up. Some others on this forum have used the same or similar methods for building them so I just want to show off what I have done. The three pairs are the ones I wear when riding and at the local brandings, my latest (sucker rod) and a pair I recently made. I made my spur straps as well. Cheers

Here is my latest pair. I get the buttons and swivels from Ranch2Arena.com and the rowels I pic up where I find them. Store bought rowels are too perfect not to use them. I've also bought Garcia rowels for other spurs I've made.

Good morning Mike and welcome to the form. Do you have pictures of your spurs and will you share? Also, is Jim Poor's video available?
Again Welcome. -grant

I have some pics of some spurs I've made. I did the straps as well. I also braid and work rawhide. I've built a number of more spurs, I like the forging freedom of any kind of shank I can manage with a hammer/forge. The ones in the pics are before I started running a bead in the heel band seam. I was also forging out the shank and not grinding out the sslot in the shank. I am now, it's just too easy and quick not to. It also makes it cleaner. Someone else posted using a cutting/grinding blade to cut the rasp. I will be incorporating that as well, I won't need my hot cutter for it any more. The Jim Poor video was given to me for piping (yes, I play the bagpipes, take a look at my icon, I'm also in the Army) at the Edward Martin Perpetual draft horse shoeing competition in Grass Valley, CA. Regarding availability, I can't find anything on the net for that DVD.

As a farrier, I can relate. We are all unreliable drunks, not to mention sleeping around with all our female (male) clients.
Lucky for me my wife is not jellus and tollerrent. well not jellus eny way...

Interesting, I hope you are joking........I'm a farrier and am neither a drunk nor a philanderer, with my customers. Wow, I do know one who is that way though....

Howdy all,
My name is Mike, I'm a farrier/blacksmith from Nevada. Just checking out all the good information and postss on the forum. Cheerrs

Both pairs of spurs are beautiful. I've built the rasp spurs enough but the ones made from the sucker rod look great as well. I have some sucker rod and am wondering if anyone knows the carbon content this medium usually has?? Thanks

I've only just found this page but have been building this styly of rasp spurs for years. Jim Poor made a video/DVD that describes the process and is quite detailed. I like the idea of th eskill saw. I've been using a hot cutter, this will definately speed up the process. I haven't read all of the postss but the only weld I do is with a wire feed at the heel of the band to fill in and strengthen the spur for more art work on the shank. This is a great thread.