Ed Blanchard was known to family and friends as a wild, reckless cowboy long before horsemen of the West recognized him as a noted maker of cowboy spurs. But it was his years spent herding snorty cattle and cinching his saddle on broncs that taught him his trade as both a cowboy and a spur maker.

Jane Pattie has researched the times and added historical background, and she has drawn on interviews she did with Blanchard for her earlier book, Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers. But it is from New Mexico rancher Tom Kelly, Blanchard's cousin, that she uncovered Blanchard's work in the cattle business and how he learned the art of hammering hot steel into the shape of spurs to fit a cowboy's boots.

Together, Pattie and Kelly tell a dual tale of old times and of change: the story of spur making as experienced by one of its more prolific practitioners and the story of cowboys in the early part of the twentieth century. Through Blanchard's experiences, the authors trace the changes of Western life, from horse to pickup truck, from hand-forged spurs to commercial manufacture. Ranch life, the cowboy life, and metalworking in the American West are interwoven through the book, as they were in the real life of Blanchard, who emerges from these pages as a humorous, down-home regional character readers will be glad to get to know.

This is a new release of the original 1959 edition.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Cowboy spurs are a pure form of American folk art. Like the cowboy himself, the way spurs developed was molded by their use and the environment of the range, along with a generous dose of individualism and pride. "Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers" tells for the first time the fascinating story of this western art and the artisans who professional historians, and westerners and valuable reference for identifying spurs used by riders of Texas and the Southwest.
A visit with contemporary spur maker Jerry Lindley, with pictures of him at work, traces the process and mechanics of hand forging spurs and decorating them by the overlay method. Individual chapters are devoted to the most prominent makers of cowboy spurs--manufacturers Buermann and North & Judd, the spur and bit companies of Crockett, Shipley, and Kelly, and hometown blacksmiths such as Bianchi, Causey, and the Boone clan. In lively detail their histories unfold, along with helpful descriptions of their techniques and most representative spurs.
Eighty-five black-and-white photographs and twelve color plates lavishly illustrate the spurs and their makers. An appendix lists many other artisans, past and present, with the locations of their shops and the identifying characteristics of their products. This book will become a standard reference for students, historians, and general readers alike--for everyone who values the important contribution of the cowboy to our cultural heritage and of the blacksmith who shaped the cowboy's badge of honor, his spurs.