Horsewright
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 11,658
A week ago we were contacted by the studio that makes the TV show Yellowstone. They are interested in building the Yellowstone brand and wanted to place an order for some of our horseshoe coasters that my wife Nichole builds. They were looking for additional product to sell at their booth at Cowboy Christmas, at the NFR in Ft Worth this year. Normally the NFR (National Finals Rodeo) is held in Las Vegas but this year due to the virus, its being held in Ft Worth. Held in conjunction with the NFR are several large shows all over Vegas. These are strictly western themed events due to the rodeo and people come from literally all over the world to shop. If its remotely western its there and for sale. These shows are HUGE with thousands and thousands of people attending daily for the 10 day run. Our family went to Cowboy Christmas last year and had a great time.
Well once the haggling was done between Nichole and the studio and the final order placed, it was Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. Forgot to mention they needed to ship to Ft Worth on that Friday. We'd agreed to half the order that they originally wanted. The full order was simply impossible to complete in the time frame. Monday night, feeling pretty good about the order going through, we went over to Tractor Supply and bought every size 1 horseshoe there was. It was perfect because with another order we already had for a set of four, there was exactly the right amount of size 1 horseshoes in this town. We bought em all. Of course this time of year we're already neck deep in alligators just due to the Christmas rush. 12-14 hour days for both Nichole and myself are normal and 18 hour days are often too. We haven't even been horseback in over a month. For instance my work flow has 6 rifle scabbards, nine holsters and a martingale besides numerous sheaths and two more batches of knives before Christmas. Nichole has numerous orders too. But now, we're really jammed for time:
Here was the original make up:
Some of the shoes. Each is given a couple coats of a clear coat:
Nichole doing some of the metal work, to prep each shoe, prior to the clear coat:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_kvGjjqmT/
The top leather piece is 8/10 oz Wicket and Craig russet skirting. Each is done with a border stamp and then the Dutton Ranch brand. I'd call this a rocking flying Y. The executive we were dealing with was very excited we could read brands and thought it was really cool when we told him how to read it. Each brand will be bevelled in, back grounded and then the brand dyed black. Here the swivel knife work has been done on these:
The tooling all done and the tops oiled, Nichole is glueing on the lining leather. All oiled up:
Lined, she sews em all:
Then each is painstakingly hand painted. This is the dangerous part cause there is no remedy if there is an oops. She did get a stray brush mark on one and had to redo it:
As the dye was drying I was oiling the sides of each one:
Once they were all done she rubbed all the edges and then started glue up. All edges rubbed and drying some more:
Glued up and drying overnight:
Here's another weird tidbit. Besides there being exactly the number of size 1 shoes to buy in our town. I had exactly the right amount of clamps to clamp up all shoes. We needed 80 clamps and that was exactly how many I had.
That was Thanksgiving evening. No Tday for us. It was 5 to 5 in the shop. After feeding the horses we did go over to a friends for a drink and they warmed up some left overs for us.
Friday morning SHIPPING DAY! Nichole always puts the finish on last and puts on six coats:
Course it takes a while to dry in between each coat:
We wanted to do a little something extra for em too, so Nichole also made up one of her roughout notebook covers:
All done but the pics. Breathe, Dave and Nichole, just breathe, we made it!
Forgot to mention. We've never even seen the show! We watched the first three episodes Saturday night. So if you're down TX way, first couple weeks of Dec., stop by the Yellowstone booth, #120, at Cowboy Christmas. Us, we'll just be hanging here at home breathing. Still neck deep in gators but paddling like a big dog.
Well once the haggling was done between Nichole and the studio and the final order placed, it was Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. Forgot to mention they needed to ship to Ft Worth on that Friday. We'd agreed to half the order that they originally wanted. The full order was simply impossible to complete in the time frame. Monday night, feeling pretty good about the order going through, we went over to Tractor Supply and bought every size 1 horseshoe there was. It was perfect because with another order we already had for a set of four, there was exactly the right amount of size 1 horseshoes in this town. We bought em all. Of course this time of year we're already neck deep in alligators just due to the Christmas rush. 12-14 hour days for both Nichole and myself are normal and 18 hour days are often too. We haven't even been horseback in over a month. For instance my work flow has 6 rifle scabbards, nine holsters and a martingale besides numerous sheaths and two more batches of knives before Christmas. Nichole has numerous orders too. But now, we're really jammed for time:
Here was the original make up:
Some of the shoes. Each is given a couple coats of a clear coat:
Nichole doing some of the metal work, to prep each shoe, prior to the clear coat:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_kvGjjqmT/
The top leather piece is 8/10 oz Wicket and Craig russet skirting. Each is done with a border stamp and then the Dutton Ranch brand. I'd call this a rocking flying Y. The executive we were dealing with was very excited we could read brands and thought it was really cool when we told him how to read it. Each brand will be bevelled in, back grounded and then the brand dyed black. Here the swivel knife work has been done on these:
The tooling all done and the tops oiled, Nichole is glueing on the lining leather. All oiled up:
Lined, she sews em all:
Then each is painstakingly hand painted. This is the dangerous part cause there is no remedy if there is an oops. She did get a stray brush mark on one and had to redo it:
As the dye was drying I was oiling the sides of each one:
Once they were all done she rubbed all the edges and then started glue up. All edges rubbed and drying some more:
Glued up and drying overnight:
Here's another weird tidbit. Besides there being exactly the number of size 1 shoes to buy in our town. I had exactly the right amount of clamps to clamp up all shoes. We needed 80 clamps and that was exactly how many I had.
That was Thanksgiving evening. No Tday for us. It was 5 to 5 in the shop. After feeding the horses we did go over to a friends for a drink and they warmed up some left overs for us.
Friday morning SHIPPING DAY! Nichole always puts the finish on last and puts on six coats:
Course it takes a while to dry in between each coat:
We wanted to do a little something extra for em too, so Nichole also made up one of her roughout notebook covers:
All done but the pics. Breathe, Dave and Nichole, just breathe, we made it!
Forgot to mention. We've never even seen the show! We watched the first three episodes Saturday night. So if you're down TX way, first couple weeks of Dec., stop by the Yellowstone booth, #120, at Cowboy Christmas. Us, we'll just be hanging here at home breathing. Still neck deep in gators but paddling like a big dog.
Last edited:
The tan colour works very well.
