Horsewright Knives and Leather

[guy g]

Coyote

 

[echoscout]

Here is one Dave made for my old Western L88 skinner.

Nice sheath!

I wonder if those of you who have his knives could tell us what alloys you have. I believe Dave uses a number of different steels.

My stainless knives are made of AEB-L. The knives with the hamon line are 23C3

 

[echoscout]

Sheath for a Buck 110

 

[echoscout]

Horizontal sheath with floral carving.

 

[Prester John]

Wow guys thanks!!! Wow!

Where to start, still taken aback a lil. For those that don't know me maybe a lil intorduction is in order.

I'm Dave and my wife is Nichole. Together we are Horsewright. I make the knives and sheaths. She makes the bags and purses etc. We both make holsters, belts and many other items. Much of our work is pointed at the cowboy, rancher, western, world cause thats who we are too. We recently retired from being cattle ranchers ourselves, so have quite a bit of street cred in that world. We do still have four horses that we try to work with several times a week. Here's a lil tidibit though that not everyone knows, I'm introduced in a friend's memoir as "the only cowboy you will ever meet that played rugby at a high school in Scotland." Thats true I did live in Scotland for 3.5 years but my friend Jack Black has said he's met another rugby playing cowboy so there's that.

We have three kids Josh and Logan are both 32. Josh is an IT guy. Logan is a working cowboy and Alyssa (27), (Smoke, Rudy, Sally, Ally or any of her other nicknames), is a nursing student. All have helped at one time or another in the Horsewright business.

Been making knives for sale for twenty plus years and have made and sold tens of thousands of knives and sheaths. All of my knives come with a sheath that has been made and fitted to that specific knife, not just to that knife model. We do make a lot of our sheaths for other folks knives not just our own knife models. Been doing professional leather work even longer. Was figuring in my head of that being north of forty years. Lately, we've cut down on some of the leatherwork options we do for the cowboy side. So we don't really make chaps, leggings, reins and some other items like that much anymore. So thats pretty much it as an introduction I guess. I always welcome questions and anything that interests you about my knives, building process, leatherwork, cowboying heck bout anything feel free.

If you are looking for one of my knives, check our website often. I usually have a batch of knives I'm currently working on or just put on the website. If you are thinking of something specific message me here or call.

Thanks again guys for all the kind words!

Here's the current batch I'm working on a couple of days ago. Bolsters are on but not the handle materials.

Bout halfway through yesterday's work. Ya can tell that this old plastic work table has seen a few knives:

Got this group finished up, hand sanded the handles and then buffed and polished. They are ready to be sharpened today. There are five with different wooden handles that need to be buffed and polished today. They were drying yesterday.

Couple recent sheaths for other folks knives:

A few knives from a while back:

Awesome work, Dave.

 

[Horsewright]

Awesome work, Dave.

Thank you sir!

 

[waynorth]

Horn and Damascus Coyote!! Nice work, Dave!!!

 

[Horsewright]

Horn and Damascus Coyote!! Nice work, Dave!!!View attachment 2577778View attachment 2577779View attachment 2577780

Thank you sir!!

 

[Glenn54]

Tell me about the turquoise you use? I really like the way the turquoise looks with the knives.

 

[black mamba]

David, thanks for the steel specs!

 

[Horsewright]

Tell me about the turquoise you use? I really like the way the turquoise looks with the knives.

Glenn its what is called reconstituted gemstone. So 85 percent groundup gemstone and 15 percent resin. The advantage here over pure turquoise is its workable with normal knife making tools, ya don't need lapidary tools too. The real advantage in my mind is its not brittle like pure stone would be. You can drop this and it'll survive. Many of the knife supply houses sell it and its available in many different gemstones. Here's one with onyx:

And malachite:

And I'll do a lot of contrasting woods too. Say using ironwood as the spacer:

But far and away the turquoise has been the most popular with my customers. I have done a bunch:

Mostly with elk handles but a few with other handles. The elk just seems suitable though.

David, thanks for the steel specs!

I use two different steels for the most part. 26C3 high carbon steel and AEB-L stainless steel. The 26C3 is always clay coated prior to heat treat and is tempered to 63-64 RC. Sometimes ya get a cool hamon and sometimes so so but there's always something there. I don't spend a lot of time chasing the hamon, I call what I do a working hamon and that is an apt description. Cause ya can sure go down a rabbit hole trying to polish those things out. I just don't but dang they are still cool!
All the advantages and disadvantages of any high carbon steel (yes it will rust if ya don't take care of it), but a lot better edge holding then most and very easy to resharpen. A cool working hamon:

AEB-L stainless is a great steel if heat treated properly. One if not the toughest stainless steels out there and very easy to resharpen too. So many run it in the high 50s RC wise and really its kinda meh there. Push it to 61 or so and wow! I run mine at 62-63 RC. They rock and roll and still remain easy to resharpen. I make my own round knives and skiver knives for leather working out of this steel. I cut leather by the hour and these guys just keep on keeping on. Start dragging and a quick strop and back to hair splitting ugly sharp. I expect them to slice through heavy saddle leather in one pass.

In leather work I like a very polished edge. For everyday real life I like a toothy edge on both steels.

 

[JJ_Colt45]

And malachite:

And I'll do a lot of contrasting woods too. Say using ironwood as the spacer:

I really like these two Dave ... especially the bottom one!

I'm enjoying seeing this thread. I'll have to get a pic or two and join in later.

 

[black mamba]

Thank you, Dave, and both excellent steels at high "knife knut" hardness. Love it!

 

[JM2]

Horn and Damascus Coyote!! Nice work, Dave!!!View attachment 2577778View attachment 2577779View attachment 2577780

That is georgous, I love the barehead on both ends.

 

[JM2]

Got a belt from Dave not too long ago. I had a nice buckle - needed a nice belt. The water buffalo overlay belt is beyond nice. View attachment 2577686

That is a cool buckle, do you know anything about it?

 

[JM2]

That's a cool old knife, was that a Marbles? Very nice sheath, I think it was a perfect match.

 

[ron55]

That is a cool buckle, do you know anything about it?

I don’t know much about the buckle, other than I bought it at the Boot Barn tent at last year’s Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. I wanted a vintage look without shiny silver, and this one fits the bill.

 

[Horsewright]

I really like these two Dave ... especially the bottom one!

I'm enjoying seeing this thread. I'll have to get a pic or two and join in later.

Thank you sir that knife is a Vaquero in the 26C3 steel with a sheephorn handle and an ironwood spacer. The sheath is an older style Horizontal. I have a newer style now that rides a little flatter.

That's a cool old knife, was that a Marbles? Very nice sheath, I think it was a perfect match.

No sir it was a KaBar. Thanks!

 

[Glenn54]

Glenn its what is called reconstituted gemstone. So 85 percent groundup gemstone and 15 percent resin. The advantage here over pure turquoise is its workable with normal knife making tools, ya don't need lapidary tools too. The real advantage in my mind is its not brittle like pure stone would be. You can drop this and it'll survive. Many of the knife supply houses sell it and its available in many different gemstones. Here's one with onyx:

And malachite:

And I'll do a lot of contrasting woods too. Say using ironwood as the spacer:

But far and away the turquoise has been the most popular with my customers. I have done a bunch:

Mostly with elk handles but a few with other handles. The elk just seems suitable though.



I use two different steels for the most part. 26C3 high carbon steel and AEB-L stainless steel. The 26C3 is always clay coated prior to heat treat and is tempered to 63-64 RC. Sometimes ya get a cool hamon and sometimes so so but there's always something there. I don't spend a lot of time chasing the hamon, I call what I do a working hamon and that is an apt description. Cause ya can sure go down a rabbit hole trying to polish those things out. I just don't but dang they are still cool!
All the advantages and disadvantages of any high carbon steel (yes it will rust if ya don't take care of it), but a lot better edge holding then most and very easy to resharpen. A cool working hamon:

AEB-L stainless is a great steel if heat treated properly. One if not the toughest stainless steels out there and very easy to resharpen too. So many run it in the high 50s RC wise and really its kinda meh there. Push it to 61 or so and wow! I run mine at 62-63 RC. They rock and roll and still remain easy to resharpen. I make my own round knives and skiver knives for leather working out of this steel. I cut leather by the hour and these guys just keep on keeping on. Start dragging and a quick strop and back to hair splitting ugly sharp. I expect them to slice through heavy saddle leather in one pass.

In leather work I like a very polished edge. For everyday real life I like a toothy edge on both steels.

Great explanation on the turquoise sir. I'm going to have to order a knife and sheath soon. Thank you!

 

[echoscout]

Buckaroo Pouches. I find these very handy!