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Filming - How It's Made Tom’s reputation for superior craftsmanship has spread worldwide. In 2011  the film crew for Discovery Channels How It’s Made documented the elaborate process of hand-crafting a belt buckle, bit and spurs. Three segments were captured on film and have been aired within the United States. The segments are slowly being released worldwide in a multitude of translations. The segments are currently up on You Tube and can be viewed on our Video Tour page.  After we received confirmation the film crew from Discover Channel would be visiting us, we drew up some designs and started creating 'step' pieces. Since the film crew would only be with us a short time, these pieces would be used to show each step of the process as quickly as possible.     They arrived in a small white van, that was deceivingly spacious, and unloaded a large about of expertly packed equipment. The crew was efficient and extremely professional as they captured each process in HD. Every detail from lighting to angle was skillfully adjusted to perfection. The work spaces were tight so we all became friends fairly quickly. They even humored us taking photos of     them during the whole...

Summer 2014 Events - TBBS - Sheridan Wyoming        

Building a business for half your life...   Tom has been building Tom Balding Bits & Spurs for half his life! It was not always an easy path to forge. You can learn the basic history of the company at COMPANY HISTORY.  This blog entry is dedicated to the little known stories that paint the picture of Tom's journey and background.  Tom's family was full of outdoor enthusiasts and he was raised backpacking, camping, and immersing himself in mother nature. His uncle would take him and his cousins up into the California wilderness for weeks at a time.  His immediate family traveled all over camping from their car, catching fish, and enjoying each new adventure that came their way. This is the base that has created Tom's desire to backpack, hike, mountain bike, and snowboard that to this day is a   center point of his life.    As a young man he delivered papers in Ontario California to raise a little pocket money. He would slowly peddle by while delivering the morning paper to Hooker Headers  (now owned by Holley) and dreamed of the day he could work there. He practiced welding in the family garage, using his fathers work equipment,...

So Many Say It Better Then We Do... We have been very fortunate to have many articles written about our company. Sometimes we have found others can say it better then we can. We recently had the following article published in Western & English today. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did! We also have many of the articles here on our site: http://tombalding.com/index.php/articles      

Is This Bit Legal? We are often asked if a bit is legal for a particular association. We don't mind finding out for you! In fact we have accumulated a mini data base of what is legal right now in certain associations and thought we would share it with you. Below you will find answers to all your bit related questions for the NRCHA, NRHA, and AQHA. If we have missed your association please let us know and we will complete the research and get it posted as soon as possible. We have many buy it now options on our website for both shank bits or snaffle bits. We hope you are able to find the exact bit you are looking for. However if you have any questions or cannot find a particular bit online please give us a call at 1-307-672-8459. Thanks!   NRCHA (taken directly from the 2013 NRCHA rulebook): 5.2 A spade bit or a bit having the following characteristics must be used in any of the bridle classes. Said characteristics shall be: one with an unbroken bar mouthpiece with one inch or higher port measured from the bottom of the bar to the top of the...

Native American Jewelry Did you know that we carefully hand select every piece of Native American Jewelry we have in our gift shop from a buyer that scours the country for the highest quality out there? I guess you could say all of our Native American Jewelry is double hand-picked, the best of the best, vetted, top notch, fitting for royalty, or otherwise thoroughly examined before entering our show room. Because each item is one of a kind, and usually does not stay in the store for very long, we are not able to put everything up on our website. So stop in and check out what we have that day or let us know what you are looking for and we can send you images of the items we have that match. Each handcrafted piece of jewelry is truly a work of art from many talented Native American jewelry makers across the western states. As a true testament to the quality of the pieces; a fair number of them end up going home with the office staff! If there is a particular style or piece you are looking for and we don't have it in the shop we can...