Welcome!

If there's one we thing we understand, it's hard work. Our mission is to help you protect that hard work and investment, tie together your operation with a distinct symbol, and have FUN with the branding process, since that's the experience we wish we had gotten. As part of that mission, we guarantee each and every iron we sell. 

Flying 45 is a small family business that was founded by the Smith Family (Travis, Laura and our daughter Katie) after we struggled to purchase our own brand for our small herd of horses and cattle. We had worked so long to build our herd, and were excited to begin, only to discover the process for brand design and creation to be frustrating and nearly impossible. Despite those hurdles we fell in love with the art and science of branding, as well as the design and creation process. Branding is truly an old world fail-safe to mark livestock and protect an investment. That's where the business term "brand" originated from, to literally imprint your investment or your product, and build a reputation around that mark. We're proud to play a small part in the development and use of our customers' brands in building and protecting their capital. 

We are asked occasionally who we use to manufacture the branding irons we sell, which always makes me chuckle. Although it's a valid question since the vast majority of small branding iron companies act as a middle man and tie back to one manufacturer, the answer when I'm asked will never change. It's me. And my husband and daughter. We're a three-person company that decided early on we would refuse to sell and stand behind a product we didn't create. We have many years and dollars of investment and trial and error in our product, and we take great pride in that fact. It was an uphill battle to develop our own style and type of iron, and we're the only direct manufacturer that not only hand-makes, but also regularly uses and refines our own branding irons. We feel that's the very best way to give our customers a beautiful, lasting symbol that represents all the labor they've put into their operation.

That's our company in a nutshell. Curious about just who is hand-making and custom creating your branding iron? We're just two high school sweethearts that have been blessed with the opportunity to build our lives around farming and ranching. We have two children, our daughter Katie built Flying 45 with us, and recently graduated college with a business degree, while our son Zane is ten years behind his sister but with the same love for a challenge and ranching that we all share. We reside on a small farm in the little log cabin we built by hand, and are living as close to the land as we can.  We both hold full time jobs on top of taking care of the farm and running Flying 45, so we stay busy, but the branding iron business fills our evenings and weekends with incredible work that we truly love. We're awfully proud of our Flying 45 brand that symbolizes all we've worked and striven for, and we are grateful for each and every customer, friend and person that places their trust in our little company.  

Sincerely, 

Laura Smith
Travis and Laura Smith photo