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Polishing our line of English Riding Stirrups

1999

I am the inventor of a newly patented English riding stirrup. It is my understanding that riding stirrups are vibratory finished and then possibly hand polished afterwards. My US costs are very high at approximately $7/stirrup. My competitors are building and polishing for the most part in the far East.

Obviously, a riding stirrup will be exposed to water, dust, horse sweat, sand and grit and be left in exposed situations. The product will need to last for many years.

Currently, I am planning on having the metal poured and machined in Oklahoma, just due to the fact that it is a reputable firm and stainless steel foundries are hard to find.

Thanks so much.

Martin D. Cohen
Monterey, California

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We make stainless steel marine hardware and have had to go through a similar set of hurdles to get our products to market. I would suggest you make your stirrups from 316 stainless investment castings. A large bowl type tumbler will work, but a centripetal disk or harperizer is much faster. You probably do not need to electropolish the 316 as it tumbles quite well and is quite corrosion resistant. A final tumbling in walnut shell media ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] gives a good luster. We now do all our own tumbling as the logistics of sending heavy castings from vendor to vendor is quite a hassle.

Tim Tylaska
1999

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