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I Forge Iron

What to forge from horse shoes and railroad spikes?


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Someone gave me a bucket full of horse shoes and railroad spikes, trying to think of what to make with them.. i could probably make a few hearts with the shoes.. what do you guys think? 

Edited by jacbow2
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Horse shoe usage is endless, me make coat hooks, bridle hooks, tack washing hooks, hoof picks, napkin holders, boot scrapers, hinges, wine bottle holders, we've made lamps made one as a door mats to get heavy dirt off boots before getting to the wiping mat.  Have a farrier that drops off a 5 gal buckets once or twice a months, good things to give to people starting at forging, makes them think, they can forge them or weld them endless, Spikes same thing makes you think and endless possibilities  just look at this sight fully 100s of examples of spikes and horse shoes, you need to read & research before asking for help. Right Frosty!

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20 minutes ago, notownkid said:

hinges

any pictures? that would be interesting to see, never made/seen them made into hinges.

                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith

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Unfortunately my pictures, the ones not already lost are packaged for or already shipped to new farm and will be a while before they rise to the important thing to do today list.  I think I have seen a picture of one .on IFI here in the not to distant past.  envision rolling the heals into a hinge design for the pins, spread the shoe heal as needed.

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Littleblacksmith, here are some hinges made from horseshoes.  I copied mine from one of our member's outhouse next to his smithy.  The original outhouse hinge belongs to Richard Ross (credit for stealing his idea).  Mine are the pair on the placemat.

 

 

Horseshoe hinge 640 x 480.jpg

Horseshoe hinges first set.JPG

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arkie, those look easier than I thought, thanks for sharing.

                                                                                            Littleblacksmith

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55 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

arkie, those look easier than I thought, thanks for sharing.

                                                                                            Littleblacksmith

A tip for finishing up the hinges.  Where the loops are formed on the shoes, make one loop closed to fit well, not loose or rattley and leave the other loop partially open so as to slide the pin of the other shoe(s) into it.  Then close the last loop and your set to go.  Much easier than trying to bend a shoe and force the pins into closed loops.  My shoes weren't bent into as tight a curve as Richard's were...wish I had done that.

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If you have access to Pinterest or some such thing, even just Google images, just put in "horseshoe art" and a zillion options come up.  I also got a box full of horseshoes recently, had a blast making some items from them though I was mostly welding, not forging.  

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9 hours ago, arkie said:

Much easier than trying to bend a shoe and force the pins into closed loops

I tried to made a door knocker basically the same way as a hinge but tried bending the  shoe into the holes, lets just say that I never finished it and it is currently in the scrap pile. LoL

                                                                                        Littleblacksmith

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