Published: March 23, 2008 10:51 pm            

Grim has positive approach to work

OLIVE HILL — Danny Grim’s first saddle was an old coffee sack.

“My dad put me up on a horse’s back and led me to the house,” he recalled. “I’ve fooled with horses all my life.”

For several years, Grim has been crafting saddles, which are recognized as some of the best in the business, from his Circle Bar G Saddlery in Olive Hill. He uses the lessons of a lifetime to make each of his saddles the right seat for the distinct uses of his customers and their mounts while taking the time needed to do the job right.

“A busy year for me is maybe five saddles. For a basic saddle, it takes about two months of work,” he explained, pointing out the customer is involved with the fitting process as each saddle is born.

The first question he asks is about the type of horse the saddle will go on.

“By the time they come to pick it up, it will fit them and the horse, Grim said. “If both of those are in sequence, then you’re out for a comfortable ride, and you’re not twisting and squirming.”

A saddle by Grim is not an inexpensive thing.

“With the increasing cost of leather and materials it is about $3,000,” he said. “Ten years ago it was $1,500. It has doubled price in 10 years.”

Most saddle makers set up shop in the western portion of the United States, although people such as Grim and a handful of others still make and measure things according to their own quality standards.

Grim said he is unaware of anyone who approaches saddle building the way he does.

“The Lord gave me my talents, and I give him credit for it,” he said, concluding that conversation.

In addition to his saddles, he also makes tack equipment, pistol belts and holsters, rifle scabbards, knife sheaths and hand-tooled hand bags.

“I only sell what I make,” he said. “In other words, I custom make anything I sell.”

Grim was born and raised in the Sitka community of Johnson County and savors many memories from his childhood in the rural community, mostly related to work horses and “old razor back mules.”

“I remember the first time dad let me drive a team,” he said, remembering an old road along a creek bed. “I was maybe 8 years old. I thought I was on cloud nine.”

He graduated from the old Flat Gap High School and married his wife, Judy, in 1965. A year later he enlisted in the Army just before he was delivered an induction letter while sitting at a graveyard.

“I was trained for a missile crew and then got an opportunity for on-the-job training for cooking,” he said with a grin, adding he received his discharge papers in 1969 and returned to the Paintsville area.

“Then I went to work in the coal mines and spent about five years with Pontiki up Wolf Creek #2 in Martin County,” he said. “I still have my old miner’s hat out in the shop.”

Through family history he was aware of an uncle, James Monroe Slone, who was a well-known saddle maker. Grim never met him but had an uncle who was the saddle maker’s nephew, Edmund Slone, who spent a couple of weeks introducing him to leather working in the early 1970s.

“He got me started in the basics of it, making belts and billfolds and hand bags. Handtooling — it takes a few years to master that,” Grim said, adding leather carving, stamping and braiding to the skills he learned in those early days. “I always wanted to do what my great uncle did so I got an old saddle and tore it down, made a pattern and reassembled it. Believe it or not, it came out half decent. It wasn’t long after that I started making them from the tree up.”

A tree is the basic frame that supports the rider and cradles the horse’s back. Traditional saddles use a wooden tree, while many modern versions have plastic foundations instead.

“Nothing like that goes in one of my saddles,” Grim said of the plastic parts.

A man of many talents, Grim has also been building black powder rifles for roughly 30 years.

“I always liked the Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton period of history — especially Simon Kenton. He was my hero,” he said, suddenly laughing and adding, “He was uglier than a mud fence, but I liked him.”

His historical interests have also given him an appreciation of America’s natives and their tribes. Among his artwork one will find a war club saluting the Lakota Sioux tribe, made in tribute to the memory of Crazy Horse.

A nature lover, Grim also recently received 1,000 prints of his painting “The Kentucky Bugler,” which features an image of a Kentucky Elk, an animal he always wanted to hunt using a rifle he had built himself.

About two years ago, Grim had an emergency situation he said made a lasting impact on his view of life.

“A blood clot broke loose and went through my heart and into my lungs. I almost died in my back yard,” he said.

“It makes you appreciate life a whole lot more. Of course, I know who brought me through it,” he said, explaining his doctors couldn’t tell him what kept him from dying. “I told them it was the Lord.”

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2651.

        

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