Brothers find niche in metal market crafts

HOISINGTON, Kan. -- Sparks fly as Bruce Bitter guides the white hot tip of a plasma cutter through a sheet of steel.

A computer-directed cutter sits in the B & B Metalworks shop, used for a table instead of cutting metals. Bitter prefers using a hand-held plasma torch to make the intricate cuts required in his metalwork designs.

"Anybody can stamp out computer-cut items," Bruce said.

Bruce has been cutting designs from a variety of metals for 10 years, moving into the work full-time more than four years ago. Bruce's brother, Brent, who works full-time as a supervisor, helps with support work while Bruce travels to shows throughout the western United States. It's a gypsy lifestyle for Bruce. He travels to 50 shows per year, from Kansas to Las Vegas to Oregon.

Tailoring products to customers and regions, Bruce introduced victory spinners, a swirly gig-type ornament powder coated in Kansas State University purple, at the 3i Show.

The Bitter brothers hold a cooperative license for the Big 12 team logos. At the Las Vegas rodeo finals, Bruce sells items depicting ranch life and takes custom orders for ranch signs. In Oregon, he displays scenes of mountains and lighthouses.

The brothers work together in the shop when Brent's schedule allows. Bruce's wife, Carrie, also helps out, working on items for the upcoming shows, leaving to pick up their children from school. Everyone in the family is involved in some aspect of the business.

Bruce began cutting shapes from metal as a hobby. After going to his first craft show and making enough to pay for the $20 fee, he was hooked. He began working in a farm shop, eventually purchasing a lot with two small buildings on it with his brother.

They added a large shop to the original buildings, welding the steel beams and constructing the building themselves. Some of the original items Bruce cut, comic longhorns and a simple cactus and coyote, are still mainstays in his business. More intricate custom work is where the two brothers excel.

Last year they took an order for a massive chandelier for the largest indoor arena in Montana. "They bid it out and we got it because we could do the custom work," Bruce said.

The only chandelier pieces the brothers did not construct were the electrical sockets.

Picking up an experimental piece left over from the project, Brent pointed out the details in the chandelier rim. The project included figures from each rodeo event, including bronc riding, roping and barrel racing. Each lampshade, trimmed in barbed wire, contained intricate cuts depicting rodeo animals.

It took between three and four months for the pair to complete the light fixture. One of the more difficult tasks was balancing the chandelier so it hung correctly. That is where Brent's talents are put to work.

Although steel is the most common metal used for designs, customers may choose from copper and brass. Stainless steel and nickel are available if the customer is willing to pay the higher price. Showing a foot-long cutout of a stagecoach, Brent called attention to Bruce's precision work.

"See the sharp point on the horse's ears? Most people would round that off," Brent said.

Pride in their work and custom design distinguishes the Bitter Brothers in a world where the norm is replication of thousands of identical mass-produced items.