He says he's interested in new CNC machinery eventually. The company builds its own dies for customized parts, too. The remaining parts, like pins and bushings, are created with a Piranha ironworker and turret lathe. In 2014, it made about 4,000 bits and 500 pairs of spurs.įor finishing, Balding faces flat surfaces with three different grades of belt sanders. Balding makes and stocks roughly 400 different parts. Most of the parts will get tumbled for two or three days, which burnishes and deburrs. In the shop, there are three lathes, six Miller Syncrowave welders, jigs and finishing tools. Balding and his crew hand bevel everything into shape and use secondary machining operations for finer cuts and finishing. Tom Balding Bits and Spurs outsources raw material cutting (up to 1/2 in. Country Western singers Lyle Lovett and George Strait are a few of the well-known users of Balding’s hardware. Factors like rider build, horse temperament and whether they’re riding in a rodeo or polo match dictate the type of bit and spur combination to use. Strong demand from Europe in particular keeps business thriving as serious riders tend to pay for high-end gear. That trip inspired his appreciation for just how big the market is. He has traveled to China and witnessed lower-cost parts made around the clock by hundreds of people. We’re the most copied bit and spur company.”īalding says bits and spurs add up to a $1 billion industry, of which his company is a fraction of the market. “We call it the tuxedo look, using the two metals together. “No one had used those two metals as a design element before with this method,” he says. Balding has a registered trademark for welding stainless to mild steel and inducing a finish he calls rust browning. Some of the pieces border on high-end jewelry, with drops of stainless steel welding rod, as well as brass, silver and gold overlays accentuating the visual appeal and various oxide finishes. Some assemblies require as many as 30 parts.

But Balding’s bits are cut from mild and stainless steel and can be custom-measured to a rider’s specifications. Most mass-produced bits are assembled from cast metal parts.

Now, with five full-time employees and an annual revenue of under $1 million, the company has earned the esteem of the equestrian community for durable, American-made bits, spurs and tack with aesthetic appeal to match. Balding started working from out of a salvaged mobile home. In 2014, Tom Balding Bits and Spurs celebrated its 30th anniversary. The next day I drove into town and had business cards printed.”

“I fixed her bit, and that evening I went out into the shop and put together my first bit with scrap sailboat parts. At that moment, his welding experience came back into the picture. “She’d heard I could weld anything,” says Balding. In 1984, a few years after he settled in Sheridan, Wyoming, a woman knocked on Balding’s door with a broken bit-the metal mouthpiece for a horse’s mouth that lets the rider communicate with the horse. He’d perform welding repair jobs, fixing trailers and rebuilding engines for people around town. He learned to ride a horse, and got by as a ranch hand. As idyllic as it may sound, Balding was drawn to the cowboy lifestyle. In 1980, he set down his torch and boldly left Southern California for the wilderness of northern Wyoming. I thought, ‘Someday I’ll make a product where people admire the welds,’” he says. “I grew frustrated by the fact that these beautiful welds would be buried, unseen, in the bottom of the sailboat or plane. Tom Balding Bits and Spurs welds its way into a successful niche of equestrian componentsįebruary 2015 - After almost two decades of welding aircraft parts, sailboat components and other precision TIG welding jobs, Tom Balding was burned out.

Solder bits and spurs