Ed Blanchard was known to family and friends as a wild, reckless cowboy long before horsemen of the West recognized him as a noted maker of cowboy spurs. But his years spent herding snorty cattle and cinching his saddle on broncs taught him his trade as both a cowboy and a spur maker.Through Blanchard's experiences, the authors trace the changes of Western life, from horse to pickup truck, from hand-forged spurs to commercial manufacture. Ranch life, the cowboy life, and metalworking in the American West are interwoven through the book, as they were in the real life of Blanchard, who emerges from these pages as a humorous, down-home regional character readers will be glad to get to know.