E AST O REGONIAN
WEEKEND, FEBRUARY 1, 2020
METAL MAN
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Herb Bork works this week in his Rieth metal foundry, placing bricks on top of fl asks that contain sand that has been packed around molds. The next step is melting ingots and pouring the
metal into impressions of the molds.
Metal caster
started foundry
40 years ago after
education career
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Herb Bork says he
doesn’t have time to get old.
Almost every day, the 98-year-old drives
from his Pendleton home to a metal foundry
on his ranch near Echo where he casts white
bronze. His wife, Nadene, who is 97, fi elds
phone calls from people in need of custom
saddle hardware.
Inside the Quonset hut that serves as his
foundry, Bork casts metal parts much the
way metal casters did it decades ago. While
large foundries mass produce, Bork creates
rings, stirrups, saddle horns, rigging plates
and other saddle hardware for one client at
a time.
“This is the way they did it 100 years
ago,” Bork said, waving his hand around
the voluminous room. “Now all this is auto-
mated and computerized.”
The foundry’s interior is a different
world.
Wooden fl asks, two-part frames in which
sand is packed around a mold, are stacked
high, waiting for Bork to pour molten metal
into them. A mountain of metal dust sits
near a belt sander he uses to grind off defor-
mities. A pile of used belts has formed on
the other side of the grinder. A hill of sand
is across the way. In another area sit empty
frames. Nearby are rugged gloves and tongs
to lift buckets of liquid bronze. Light fi lters
in through a window cut into the Quonset
hut’s rounded roof.
On a recent day, Bork shoveled sand onto
a mold and packed it down fi rmly, moving
with grace that belied his age. When done,
he plucked the molds from the opposite
halves, put the frames together to make one
cavity, secured them and stacked them with
others ready to be fi lled with molten metal.
He placed bricks on top to keep them tight.
Bork looks the part of an old-school metal
caster. His hands are calloused and rough.
He wears a frayed canvas coat, suspend-
ers, jeans, dusty boots and a worn ball cap.
Before leaving the foundry, or “the shop” as
he calls it, he takes off his coat and hangs it
on a hook like Mr. Rogers hanging his car-
digan sweater. He also removes his cap and
replaces it with a felt cowboy hat.
This is Bork’s second or third iteration in
life. He’s Herb Bork 3.0, maybe, or four or
fi ve, but with every version fi rmly included
in the whole man. His 40 years of working in
his little foundry came after serving in World
War II and careers as teacher, school admin-
istrator, leather worker and businessman.
He started out on his family’s homestead
in Flora where he got up early to feed and
water horses and cattle. Bork, the only boy his
1939 graduating class, learned in a one-room
school. After graduation, he enrolled in teach-
ers training, again the only male in his class.
“It was a woman’s world then,” he said,
grinning. “But there was a need for good
teachers. Many were from the bottom of the
barrel — if they could breathe, they’d get
hired.”
It was during the fi rst year of college
when he fi rst met his future wife, Nadene,
who admits she wasn’t really all that inter-
ested in Bork at that time. It might have been
for the best. He left school to join the Army
and serve during World War II from 1942-45.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Herb Bork, 98, carries a load of sand to a sta-
tion inside his metal foundry where he will
pack it over molds of saddle rings.
Herb Bork works in his Rieth metal foundry
where he makes custom saddle hardware.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Herb Bork holds a mold for some saddle hardware he made for the Hamley Saddle Shop.
Contributed photo
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Nadene and Herb Bork pose for a photo
during an early year of their marriage.
Nadene and Herb Bork pose at their Rieth
ranch where Herb does custom metal casting
in a small foundry and Nadene takes care of
the phone and paperwork.
Bork worked with a team of scientists
tasked with keeping American forces from
getting malaria. He helped check several
thousand men for malaria, and surveyed and
sprayed mosquito breeding areas.
“We used a little Piper Cub to spray
straight DDT,” he said.
The soldiers received mosquito nets and
repellant, but many stubbornly refused to
carry them.
“The Marines were tough guys. They left
that stuff on the beach,” Bork said. “They
didn’t realize that if you get malaria, you are
fi nished.”
On June 16, 1943, the sergeant was aboard
a tank landing ship near the island of Gua-
dalcanal, when nine Japanese dive bombers
attacked. They dropped 300-pound bombs
and strafed the ship.
“They just riddled the ship,” Bork said.
“They came in and hit the middle of the ship
— that’s where the cargo nets were. I slid
down the aft anchor.”
Bork, not a good swimmer, realized too
late he was in danger of being sucked into
the ship’s turbine. The crew of a PT boat
(short for patrol torpedo boat) spotted him
and picked him up.
Back from the war, Bork rebooted his
quest to became a teacher. He was placed
at the Granger, Washington, elementary
school to fi nish out the year after the teacher
for grades 5-8 was injured in a car wreck.
When he arrived, he found his future wife
Nadene there teaching the fi rst four grades.
She remained unimpressed with Bork.
After the two returned to school to get
their master’s degrees, however, they sud-
denly noticed one another with fresh eyes.
The couple married in 1947.
Nadine taught 40 years, the last 26 in
Pendleton. Herb taught and later started tak-
ing administrator jobs. He served as princi-
pal of the John Murray Junior High School
in Pendleton until his retirement. While at
the junior high, Bork taught a general busi-
ness class. To teach his students business
principles and to help them earn money to
pay tuition, they started a cinch-making
business. Bork had learned saddle making
as a kid and also how to make cinches out
of horse hair. He taught his students both
the art of cinch making and how to run a
business.
“It was a general business class and cinch
making was the laboratory,” Bork said.
After retirement, he started another cinch
business that he grew to be one of the big-
gest in the country. Bork got into metal cast-
ing after he had trouble fi nding the neces-
sary metal parts for the cinches.
Forty years later, he is still fi nding fulfi ll-
ment in this latest career choice.
The Borks don’t have to advertise his
wares. People have a way of fi nding them.
Pedro Pedrini, formally a master sad-
dle maker at the Hamley Western Store,
recently ordered some hardware for vin-
tage miniature saddles, once used by travel-
ing saddle salesmen who didn’t have enough
room in their vehicles for the full-size ver-
sions. Pedrini marvels at Bork’s abilities.
“Herb is a historian,” Pedrini said. “He
knows more about saddle hardware than
anyone alive.”
There will be a void when Bork is gone,
Pedrini said, but then he gave a quiet laugh
remembering a recent comment by the
metal caster.
“He said, ‘I got another 6 years until I
retire,” Pedrini said.
At an age when some might say they are
living on borrowed time, Herb and Nadene
seem younger than their years. Because of
balance issues, Nadene has started using a
walker, but she remains sharp. Her husband
takes no medications. He credits staying
active for his vitality.
“Getting up in the morning, I know there
are at least 10 or 15 people waiting for their
hardware,” Bork said. “I have a reason to
exist.”
Nadene says they live simply and culti-
vate fresh vegetables from their garden.
“We’ve stayed busy,” she said. “We don’t
have time to be old people.”
It’s all about balance, Herb said.
“You got to eat, sleep and exercise and
you’ve got to keep them in balance,” he said.
“Sometimes when you feel like a day off,
you just have to get busy.”