Farriers and Horse stuff

Any of the horseshoers on the board have any interesting and/or hand made driving hammers? It days gone by a lot of shoers forged tools as well,especially the old school racetrack horseshoers when every track had a shop and quite a few had home shops as well. As I find mine when I get my 2 seaboxes moved I’ll post pictures of some of mine. Being in the mid-atlantic all of mine were made in the wva/va/md/pa quad state area with the exception of my newest hammer that was forged for me by my good buddy Gary Huston across the pond. Here’s one out of my shoeing box. It’s 5/6oz,I’ve had it Since I was a kid. It was made by John Calcinore up in Pennsylvania,loosel…

Yesterday, over the course of the day, I watched a prairie dog slowly push a horseshoe out of it's den (clearly, it was spring cleaning). I'm a huge fan of 1800's history and was thrilled at my find. I've been trying to research it's age with little luck. However, I realized, one main determining factor of age is whether it is wrought iron or steel. Which leads me to my question- Can I tell the type of metal by the way it rusts? This horseshoe is all rust and most is flaking in layers like shale rock.

It's amazing how 1 mile can change your attitude. 15 degrees here yesterday morning, wth a biting breeze. Normally I would stay home at that temp but I had some horses that really needed to get done so off I went. First stop had 6 trims that didn't stand too well, and the girl holding them wasn't too much help. By the time I got done my feet were pretty cold, my back was kind of kinked, and while driving away I was thinking how nice it would be to cancel the next stop and just go home. Well, just one mile down the road I drove past a dairy farm where they had just pulled the sump pump out of the manure lagoon (which is every bit as disgusting as it sounds) and were…

I stopped to chat with my closest shoeing friend last week and got to pondering the "organized chaos" in his shoeing trailer. He's the kind of person who is pretty meticulous about almost everything - except his work trailer. Think piles of shoes everywhere; heaps of grinding/forging slag; and pads stuck in any crevice that will hold them. So I built him one of my pad racks as a belated Christmas gift - and I'm going to hound him about using it! Matt.

I like making coat hooks etc with large draft shoes. I generally don't keep my drafts shod so have run out of shoes. A friend gave me a box of them and they all have Borium. What is the best way to remove the Borium. I thought I had it all off the shoe by beating in the forge and wire brushing it off but some must have imbedded in the shoe and Borium pitted my anvil a bit. Any ideas?

Hello all. I’m new here. I’ve never worked with metal but think it’s an interesting craft and appreciate the work and artistry involved. I’m hoping someone either is familiar with or has a suggestion where to look for information. I have an old horseshoe or maybe muleshoe that while plundering in in my great grandfather’s old store building. There was a small wooden barrel full. On the curve it’s stamped with a heart shape and a H below. Along the left side the word Germany. I think it is interesting and would like to know more about when it was made, who made them and what the heart H means. Any help given would be really appreciated. I also found a cast iron old tobacco…

What is the difference between the sleigh bells, saddle bells, and Russian bells on a horse harness? What was the original purpose of adding the bells to the harness of horses used to pull a sleigh in the snow? Do the bells have or try to achieve a specific musical tone?

Yes I know I can hunt down a farrier and find used ones. Yes I know you can find them on FaceBook and pay shipping. Neither of these is efficient. Plus I can buy an 18" hoof rasp on Amazon for around $15 with free shipping. (Yes, probably Chinese made. Don't care.) My question is what would be a good way to dull a hoof rasp so that it is useable when forging? I can think of a number of ways, some draconian, some labor intensive, etc. I'd like to how you would go about dulling a hoof rasp to suit your forging needs.

Some folks seem to have a lot more trouble with this than others. Being the old dinosaur that I am I still lace these things with nails as we did years ago as well as making a shoe designed to stop expansion. (clips, barshoes etc) Here's a good vid from Ian McKinlay, one of the best crack specialists in the business. How do you good folks deal with Quarter Cracks in your parts of the world? George

What metal makes the best sound for spurs? Don't like jingle bob's, but want the spurs to sing a little on their own.

I found this horseshoe today hiking in the Blue Ridge. It was pretty well buried in the mud on the side of a mountain in a place I couldn't imagine a horse being (mule maybe but also unlikely). Not knowing much about horseshoes was wondering if anyone could shed any insight as to age, etc.

Not sure if this has ever been posted on here, maybe someone knows who it is/was?

Hello blacksmithing folks, I found a horseshoe in up state New York near the Hudson river while metal detecting yesterday. I located these forums in hope to get an opinion on a date range for it. Any ideas/thoughts are appreciated! John Jenkins

Well, over the last few years I've been giving semi lessons over Facebook messenger to another guy.. He reached out to find out my method of forging a hoof knife.. Gave him (Brett M)a few lessons and such.. My original knife was pretty worn out at 5 years old and feeling not like making a new 1 I asked the guy for a new knife.. He sent me a knife and used it till the blade snapped in half.. I liked the knife but it had more flex then I like.. His handle design I really liked.. After the knife broke I was still working and carry a Hoop knife so just switched to that and used that until I was at a barn and a horse acted up and boom.. The knife disappear…

I am trying to make horse shoes but I am having the hardest time finding the right steel to buy online. I read steel that is 11-13 inches long and 5/16 x 3/4 works but I cannot find steel by those dimension on online stores. Can anyone show me the way! I would eternally appreciate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cIUkZ_VV78

I have heard 7 nails per shoe, but have read numbers from 4 to 10 nails per shoe. The number may change with the breed of horse, heavies using more nails than a small horse, and the type work the horse is expected to do. How many nails are used to attach a horse shoe to a hoof? And why.

Evening folks I’ve been asked to make a cinch block for shoeing horses from a hoof rasp can anyone point me in the right direction please. cheers, Jason.

I'm not a farrier or even a blacksmith to be honest. But I've been gawking at anvils all over the web. I keep seeing farrier anvils with something called a clip horn. I did a youtube search and I got stuff for hair clips, and one video of a guy drawing a "clip" over the edge of the anvil. That guys anvil had what I think is a clip horn, but he didn't use it at all. So what's the deal with clip horns? Does anyone actually use them? What for? Does anyone have any video they could show, or book that explains? Even an illustration would suffice. Thanks very much for any information.

I've been watching farrier videos and notice almost all farriers dip their nail hole punches in some kind of lube each and every time they punch a hole. I cannot see what they are using or get someone to tell me what the lube is made of. Does anyone know?

Yeah how one person would Shoe an Ox.

Granted I know most folks have never heard of this, just the same I heard a lot of old timers talk about this 40+ years ago when I was beginning to learn the trade. Thing I'm referring to is drilling a hole through the hoof wall in the toe area of a hot founder. Blood would spray out like a firehose at first while it relieved pressure. Soon as pressure was relieved blood would drop out in a more normal fashion till it clotted with the horse noticeably more sound. The late Burney Chapman was known to have experimented with this treatment but it's been many years since I've heard of anyone doing it. Any of you have any experience with this and if so how did it wo…

Hello all - we found this horseshoe type item recently and we cannot seem to identify it. It is made of iron and seems to be quite old. Is it a horseshoe or some other implement or tool? Any input would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ual0LgNzKsM

Ok. So if anyone has seen my work, you'll know I like to make things from horseshoes! I have a lot of them and I'm having a hard time thinking of new things to do with them. I make hearts, S hooks and the occasional door handle. Forged some that got welded on to a beer keg hand truck to help move chicken tractors. Also have tried a couple of candle holders, but not very successful. I am coming up short on ideas. If you have ideas or pictures you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd love to read or see. Western motif would be especially helpful. Thanks in advance