Horsewright
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 11,669
Over the years I've talked a lot about the different type of leggings used in the cowboy world. So there are step ins, armitas, charmitas, chinks, chaps, Arizona Bells, shotguns, woolies, wooly chaps, wooly chinks, batwings, cutting chaps, show chaps and probably a few others I can't think of off hand. So see why we use the generic term leggings? It encompasses em all.
Well there is a whole other kind not mentioned so far. It's called a shoer's chap or farriers apron. These are worn when shoeing a horse. There's even a special leather made for this job. Often called mulehide, (its not), its often used as a horn wrap too. This leather is designed to get beat up, kicked, abraded and just used. It's called pearl grey apron splits and is available in soft and firm and a couple of different weights.
So Tracy, my shoer has been doing this tough job for over forty years. He knows how to nail em on. Unique in this world he's always on time. The only time he was ever late he called from the back of the ambulance. He had been on his way to my place and had gotten rear ended so hard it broke his anvil. He had to take 20 years off from shoeing to get healed up.
Anyhoo Tracy needed a new apron.
Whadya think? Time? These had been patched, and fixed and riveted and patched about as much as they could be. He got 25 years out of them. So we worked out a trade and here we are. On those pics his old pair are laid out over some pattern paper. I used his old pair to make the pattern for the new pair. He came over yesterday, to tell us where he wanted his logo put on at and to pick them up. Tracy has a legendary handle bar moustache and wears wire rim glasses so that is his logo. We took his business card and blew it up 280% on the copier and then used that as the image for his logo. We surrounded it by a horseshoe kinda as a frame. Nichole did the logo and I built the chaps.
So here Nichole is helping me sew the logo on. Once you have the kneepads sewn on the legs these things are stiff. Two layers of 5/7 oz firm rolled, pearl grey apron split is like handling plywood. Makes it difficult to keep things lined up while you are sewing.
Here they are with Tracy wearing his new armor.
Couple little wobbles in the sewing on the logo. That's where that dang plywood would catch on something as we were sewing. Normally ya'd sew something like that on the leg before ya put the two legs together but Tracy wasn't sure where he wanted the logo and wanted to put em on first to see. Oh well, customer ecstatic, time for a beer on Sunday afternoon.
Well there is a whole other kind not mentioned so far. It's called a shoer's chap or farriers apron. These are worn when shoeing a horse. There's even a special leather made for this job. Often called mulehide, (its not), its often used as a horn wrap too. This leather is designed to get beat up, kicked, abraded and just used. It's called pearl grey apron splits and is available in soft and firm and a couple of different weights.
So Tracy, my shoer has been doing this tough job for over forty years. He knows how to nail em on. Unique in this world he's always on time. The only time he was ever late he called from the back of the ambulance. He had been on his way to my place and had gotten rear ended so hard it broke his anvil. He had to take 20 years off from shoeing to get healed up.
Anyhoo Tracy needed a new apron.
Whadya think? Time? These had been patched, and fixed and riveted and patched about as much as they could be. He got 25 years out of them. So we worked out a trade and here we are. On those pics his old pair are laid out over some pattern paper. I used his old pair to make the pattern for the new pair. He came over yesterday, to tell us where he wanted his logo put on at and to pick them up. Tracy has a legendary handle bar moustache and wears wire rim glasses so that is his logo. We took his business card and blew it up 280% on the copier and then used that as the image for his logo. We surrounded it by a horseshoe kinda as a frame. Nichole did the logo and I built the chaps.
So here Nichole is helping me sew the logo on. Once you have the kneepads sewn on the legs these things are stiff. Two layers of 5/7 oz firm rolled, pearl grey apron split is like handling plywood. Makes it difficult to keep things lined up while you are sewing.
Here they are with Tracy wearing his new armor.
Couple little wobbles in the sewing on the logo. That's where that dang plywood would catch on something as we were sewing. Normally ya'd sew something like that on the leg before ya put the two legs together but Tracy wasn't sure where he wanted the logo and wanted to put em on first to see. Oh well, customer ecstatic, time for a beer on Sunday afternoon.
