Sixshooter

Good advice, thanks Frosty! And no, I'm not hunting for any vintage axle shafts at the moment! 1/2" stock works well from what I've been told. Say you want a spur with 1 1/4" heel band, you could use a piece of 1 1/2" x 1/2 stock, split it, the heel bands and shank would end up about right after some shaping and grinding. This style spur traditionally has a 3/8" - 7/16" shank thickness, and 1/8" - 3/16" thickness for the bands. It all works out in theory at least! lol

The type of spur I currently build is known as a "2 piece" spur. The heel band is bent hot, and then the shank is separately designed, cut out, shaped, and then welded to the heel band. The weld is then ground down and blended to the shank and band. On a 1 piece spur, the band and shank are 1 piece. Usually the steel billet is split halfway down the piece, and then forged into a "T" shape. The horizontal part of the "T" would be bent to form the heelband, and the vertical part of the "T" would be shaped into whatever shape of shank is desired. So, The main "frame" of a 1 piece spur is made from one single piece of metal, as opposed to a 2 piece that has the band/shank welded together. Although I guess it could be argued that after welding the 2 pieces together they are a 1 piece spur! It takes a very trained eye to tell the difference between a 1 piece and a 2 piece spur even holding them in your hands. The end result looks very similar. The process of forging out a 1 piece spur as mentioned above is what I was referring to as the "hard part". I haven't attempted that process yet!

Thanks for the welcome, Frosty! I’m a beginner, but these show the first 2 pair I completed, as well as my first bridle bit. Also, pictured are a few pair I currently have in progress, which obviously still need completed and silver mounted. As for the one piece spur, the old timers building in the “Texas style” (Adolph Bayers, Billy Klapper, etc) were/are known to prefer Ford Model T axles for forging spurs. I have heard those have all but dried up, but those still forging this style of spur are using dozer pins, sucker rod, and 4130 billets, from what I understand. After forging the piece into a “T”, I believe the process is very similar to what I am building from there on out. With the expection of the shank needing to be welded to the band. The process for building the rowels, cutting the rowel slots, building hangers, buttons, etc would all be very similar, I just need to figure out how to do the hard part of the process! lol EDIT: Sorry a few of the pictures are sideways, not sure how to correct that.

Thank you very much for the welcome and the heads-up, I’ll take a look!

Hello everyone, just joined the forum and glad to be here. I live in central Texas, and I am a beginner Bit and Spur maker. I currently build 2 piece spurs and welded bits, but am very interested in learning to build a 1 piece spur, and forged bits in the future. I have a fair amount of fab/building experience, but am a rank beginner when it comes to blacksmithing. I recently purchased a very nice old anvil, and have a small gas forge on order, so I’m really looking forward to getting in the shop and fiddling around with some hot steel. Thank you for having me, and I sure look forward to learning from you all, as well as the wealth of knowledge archived here. - Caleb