He Makes Old-Fashioned Sherpherd's Crooks

He Makes Old-Fashioned Sherpherd s Crooks AG WORLD Ag World Scottish Blackface sheep have lost popularity for meat and wool as other breeds gain faster and do better on pasture One place where the hardy Scottish Blackface sheep still excels is for making traditional walking sticks and shepherd s crooks Dick Harward has a lifetime of experience making sticks with Blackface horn beginning with boyhood training in Scotland where stick dressing schools for shepherds were held in the winter
Blackface have good massive horns that are ideal for traditional Scottish sticks says Harward Dorset horn can also be used and South Country Cheviot have a jet black horn referred to as ebony but neither of them have the size
Harward once had plenty of horn to choose from as he has kept as many as 3 000 Scottish Blackface ewes He was raised in Scotland but as a young man he came to the western U S to work as a shepherd Over the years he worked for many of the great sheep breeders in the West and once helped drive a flock of 4 000 ewes from Arizona to Alberta
Now he keeps a small flock of Blackface Ironically he gets requests from cousins in Scotland for ram s horn to make sticks with Though there are many more Blackface in that country the habit of using a blowtorch to spread ram s horns to prevent them from curving into the skull often ruins them for carving The high heat can create bubbles in the horns
You want a horn from a ram of at least two years and preferably three explains Harward If a ram is too old the horn often has started cracking and if too young there isn t enough solid inside the shell
The natural spire of the horn has to be taken out before it can be worked Harward prefers to soften his horn by boiling it in hot water until it is flexible enough to shape Others use blowtorches hot air guns or other devices He then plunges it in cold water to set the shape
You have to decide where to cut it depending on how much you want to use and if you are going to carve a shape into the horn or keep it as a plain stick says Harward That determines how much you file it down to get it smooth A horn that s 5 to 8 in in diameter may be only half that once it has been filed down smooth
Harward keeps the core in his horns though others prefer to remove the core and flatten the horn before affixing it to a stick
If you are going to carve a traditional Scottish thistle the national flower or a dog or fox head or family crest you need to heat the horn tip and roll it back on itself to carve on he says Once you get it shaped and carved the way you want you fit the horn to the stick
Harward prefers Scottish hickory or ash sucker growth for his sticks cutting them in the winter when sap is down The straight sticks are laid flat and seasoned for a year or more He disdains using heat to straighten a stick as curves may return over time
A rod or bolt is drilled into the ends of the horn and stick and a strong epoxy is used to hold them in place
When I was a boy I would use sap from a tree to glue them together but now we have fantastic glues says Harward
Although some horns will revert back to their natural shapes over time Harward still has sticks he made 60 to 70 years ago that have retained their shapes
Even though he no longer makes sticks he still collects them A Scottish cousin will send him a finished stick for each two horns Harward sends him While most shepherds today will use aluminum or plastic sticks with their sheep handmade sticks are used at sheep shows and sheep dog trials In Scotland Harward says there are stick-judging contests with classes for different types of sticks
In this country they ve become collectors items and can sell for as much as $300 to 400 each he says The same stick may sell for only $40 to $50 in Scotland
Though Harward says he doesn t sell ram horns for stick making he can provide a list of Scottish Blackface breeders
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Dick Harward The Scottish Blackface Breeders Association 1699 H H Hwy Willow Springs Mo 65793 ph 417 962-5466 spsba @fidnet com

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