Really fascinating post, Dave!
That's quite a knife you designed, and I'm glad you're finding a market for them.
(As a math guy, I'm curious as heck about how the estimate of a million calves cut by the experienced cowboy who designed your Tapadero was arrived at!
One way to get to a million is 55 calves per day, 365 days per year, for 50 years - that's a LOT of cuttin'!!
If you were from Texas, I'd say it's one of those "embellished" tales that Texans are known for.
)
- GT
Okidokie GT here's the math and its even a better story. My friend and I Mike "Tapadero" Vatalero are sitting under a tree outside of Sacramento Ca once upon a time. Its crazy hot and we're watching the wives ride in a ladies only horsemanship clinic. Our main job of the day as we self proscribed it was to monitor the interior temp of the ice chests. Tapadero or Tap is Mike's nickname. A tapadero is a stirrup covering like here on my saddle after a long morning checking the high country for cattle:
Tap is an extremely talented and skilled bit and spur maker and if you have ever seen any of my engraved knives, Tap did the engraving:
Here he is in his booth at the Brannaman Pro Am last Oct. Our booth was just down the aisle from his. To show ya how small a world our deal is the lady he is talking to in this pic was the sponsor of the clinic on the day in question when the ice chests needed constant monitoring.
A couple of his bridle bits that we use often. He made the two on the right:
Anyhoo Tap was "Bedroll" cowboy for over 30 years. A bedroll cowboy is one that basically owns nothing but his bedroll. Today that equates to what can fit in the back of a pickup or the tackroom of your trailer and maybe a horse or two. There are some of these guys left but not a lot. The big ranches that employed a big crew are getting few and far.
So sitting under the tree I ask Tap "how many calves ya think you've cut in your lifetime?" Ya can see him doing the math in his head...well I was on the ZX for 6 years and they ran so many momma cows and I was on the Padlock for 3 years and they had so many momma cows and MC for 5 years and they had so many........ On the Y Bar for so long.. The Span for this amount of time. So despite the calculations needed here one has to take in all the neighboring ya'd do. All ranches help the neighbors some so that threw more in and he still runs ranches in Northern Ca and I've been with here in Southern Ca when we've cut a few hundred together. Many of these larger ranches will brand for 4 to 5 months doing several hundred a day. Ya might be out on "the wagon", camping where the cattle are for months at a time.
After several minutes of hard thought which also included several mandatory spits of chew he says "probably over a million". I says draw me out the perfect branding knife. He kneels down in the dirt and draws it out. The only thing I changed is I curved the back of the handle down a bit (he'd drawn it straight) as I knew that with the curve it would fit a larger variety of hands. Here it is in sambar stag with a mammoth tooth spacer and filework:
I named it after him The Tapadero and he got the first one. There are some large ranches out there still that count their cows in the tens of thousands and their acres by the hundreds of thousands. Their are ranches that are bigger than some of the eastern states and this is what Tap did for 30 years.
Watch this trailer. Have your speakers on the music is great and the thoughts expressed are profound:
So many folks have tried it and not got it right, finally someone did. Hope the documentary is as good as the trailer. This is creating quite a stir in our world.
