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A fourth-generation silversmith, Sample was born in 1903 on the Allegheny Indian Reservation in Pennsylvania. His father was a Scottish silversmith and his mother was Iroquois. His great-grandfather was also a silversmith and made silver and gold chalices for the Vatican during the 1800s.

In the mid-1920s, Sample started working for Swedish craftsman Edward H. Bohlin at Bohlin’s shop on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Bohlin had tapped into the Hollywood cowboy business making intricate Western silver, saddles, bridles and anything else that stood out on the silver screen. Sample also worked with other talented craftsmen, including the journeyman silversmith and fellow tool- and die-maker Philip Fredholm.

When the city of Hollywood said they could no longer use a forge in the shop, Sample became skilled at making “box spurs” with sheet silver. This involved cutting out the profiles of the spur blank and rolling/hammering the silver around the steel blank. Many silver-screen cowboy stars wanted shiny, larger-than-life spurs that accented close-up shots when they were horseback. Additionally, Sample designed some “softer” spur rowels, rather than those with pointy edges. The additional surface area was gentler on horses.

In 1970 Sample moved to Buellton, California and, about a decade later, he opened C.L. Sample Metal Arts in Paso Robles, California, which constructed and assembled metal sculptures for artists. One of his most notable constructions is artist John Jagger’s sculpture design Dandelion that Sample fabricated and installed in Los Angeles, California, on Wilshire Boulevard.