Cowboy boot soles are traditionally pegged in the shank area with little square wooden shoe pegs. Even though I sometimes make shoes now, like this pair, I build them on cowboy boot lasts and finish them like cowboy boots. Did you know that in the mid-1800s wood shoe pegs were so cheap and so plentiful that feed merchants would adulterate cattle feed with shoe pegs? Compare t...

The boots in the book (“Art of the Boot” by Tyler Beard) image were made by Lucchese; Gene Autry had a pair although the boots in the image aren’t his. I have always particularly disliked them, so one day I thought, “I wonder if I’d like them better if I used them as inspiration for a shoe?!?”

The answer is no. I still don’t like them. However, I used perfectly good...

Introducing: “How Blue”

Butterflies are a common and traditional theme for cowboy boot top designs, probably because their outstretched wings fill the space so neatly. Usually they are stylized, drawn for shape and color more than accuracy. This butterfly, however, is the endangered Karner Blue butterfly of the American northeast. It feeds exclusively on the Wild Bl...

Tips on shaping a steel shank so it fits the curve of the boot.
1.) Hold it in place with your thumb and whack it with the edge of your hammer where it needs to curve. This is one of the few places where you deliberately use the edge of the hammer instead of the face.
2.) Don’t hit your thumb.

This bracelet was commissioned as a retirement gift. The recipient spent most of her life in either Oklahoma or Texas, so it features Bluebonnets and Indian Blankets, the official flower and wildflower of Texas and Oklahoma, respectively.

When they commissioned it they originally said they wanted two bracelets, one with each flower. I told them I was willing to do t...