Branding Barrel

One thing Vernon and I discovered last branding, was that bending over to pull the irons out of the fire was hard to do on a big long day. When the boys helped the neighbors brand the next week, they admired their branding setup. There are many people who use propane in a horizontal tube to heat their branding irons, but that’s never been attractive to us because you have to listen to the roar of the propane all day long. Our neighbors had the same setup but made bigger to hold a wood fire.

Vernon requested one similar, and Brandon has spent some time building us a new branding “barrel”.

The fire will be in the barrel and the irons will lay across it and rest on the twisted pipe. It is separate from the base so two men can move it easily. It has a grate in the bottom, so ash can fall through to the ground.

There is an opening on top to drop in the wood and to help regulate the heat. It has an adjusting lever.

We won’t get to use it until June when we finish branding our last little bunch, and it will be interesting to see how it works. It sure looks like it will save our backs!