The Making of a Good Snaffle Bit

On the program today, bitmaker Tom Balding is gonna walk us through how to make a good snaffle bit. 

 

"Well, you start with some quality material."

 

"When I had my welding shop in California, I did a lot. I was certified and did a lot of welding on aircraft parts and did a lot of fabricating of government aircraft parts and actually a lot of race car and motorcycles. I bought a lot of my material from kind of a specialized distributor of steels out of Los Angeles, and it's all certified quality steel and different alloys."

 

"Whenever I can, use as much iron in the mouthpiece. I use a mild steel. So you select the 7 16th is the diameter of our standard snaffle mouthpiece, and you would cut it to length and you would grind a taper in it, and then you would machine little slots. We actually weld in the copper." 

 

That was Tom Balding on the old snaffle bit. For more interviews like these and longer extended versions, visit our website at horsemanscorner.com.