As long as there have been cowboy boots, there have been “border boots”…only now our borders are halfway around the world. (No subscription is required to read this Christian Science Monitor article.)
Category Archives: Cowboy Boots
Pegs
So, do you want to know a secret? Sometimes I go into western wear stores just to see what boots they have sitting on the shelf…and when I do, I do what everybody else does and I pick up a boot and turn it over. I look for the pegs. The pegs are hammered into the sole of the boot and they run along the underside of your foot’s arch and under the boot’s heel where you can’t see ’em.
Only I don’t stop there…oh, nooo…not me. Then I take my thumbnail and scratch the layer of black wax off the top of the pegs, and double check something. Most of the “pegged” shelf-boots are now using these kinda rectangular peg-shaped brass nails instead of the traditional wooden pegs. Ugh. The beauty of the wooden peg is that it absorbs water and swells along with the sole of the boot when it gets wet. Yeah sure, today’s glues are strong enough to outlast any leather or stitch…but that’s not the point. When I see a row of wooden pegs I see craftmanship and skill. For every peg on a boot’s sole an awl is dipped in wax, a hole is punched, and a peg is hammered in…and the magical thing is that the hole you punch with your awl is round and significantly smaller than your peg. Square peg into a round hole…get it? You do it wrong and your peg goes halfway into your leather sole and snaps off at an angle. Experienced bootmakers have a special hammer, one with a textured face to grip the peg, and the hammer is set into a rhythmic motion…one light tap to set the peg in place…then a harder one to drive it in….over and over.
Big bootcompanies like using brass nails because they are fast and foolproof. If they can make a boot faster, it’s the same as making it cheaper. I understand this. I just don’t like it when they are square…it’s misleading. People have learned to turn a boot over and to “look for the pegs”…like thumping a melon in the grocery store.
Yeah…go ahead look for the pegs, but bring your reading glasses.
TylerBeard.com
At the start of my friendship with Tyler I’d get these notes, typewritten with lines of XXXXXXXXX through the mistakes. Ah, those were the days.
Now…I get handwritten notes in the mail and it takes me no less than a couple hours to decipher each one. I keep old examples of “cracked code” in a folder as reference material. Once, I even tried sticking one of Tyler’s postcards under the wiper blade of my Ranchero…figuring if I stood back from it ten or fifteen feet, maybe the letters would come into focus. Nope, no such luck.
Don’t hold your breath for an e-mail address (Tyler may never get one)…but don’t miss the “Grand Opening” of www.tylerbeard.com. You can get first edition and signed copies of his cowboy boot books available nowhere else.
Bootmakers in the News – Bo Riddle 2
Put all the rumors to rest….here’s a swell article which recounts the life and work of Mr. Bo Riddle. (Bonus!!—Click here to listen to a sample of “A Song to Boot.”)
Cowboy Cookies
(chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies)
These cookies are my favorite. The brown sugar-oatmeal flavor is very pronounced. The cookies freeze well…the recipe below makes about 4 dozen. (This recipe can be easily doubled.) The recipe comes from a cookbook written by Jeanne Lemlin called Vegetarian Pleasures, (1986).
1 cup unbleached white flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cups (1 & 1/2 sticks of butter), softened
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats (non-instant oatmeal)
1 cupchopped walnuts
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a cookie sheet (or use parchment paper).
- Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Cream together the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the flour mixture and mix well.
- Beat in the oats, nuts, and chocolate chips. (You might have to do this step by hand.) The dough will be crumbly.
- Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Be careful not to burn them. Thoroughly cool on a wire rack before storing in a tin.
