George Geist

Yes sir, definitely. When horses were sharp shod in that manner the heels were oftentimes turned perpendicular to each other as they are in an attempt to protect a horse from injuring himself if he stepped on his opposite foot. Crosswise like a race plate sticker would be on the lateral or outside. Inline or parallel would be on the medial or inside. George

Sheep flock together but Eagles fly alone. Keep yourself out of such situations. Sounds like a real Chinese fire drill That geing said, such a cluster-you know what in my view would also tend to create a lot of unnecessary safety issues. When it comes to working there is NO SUCH THING as Acceptable Risk! George

Is this group still active? Went out to their shop last month and it was all locked up. Anything happening with these guys? George

It is what appears to be a muleshoe with unfinished heels. It was an early kegshoe. Cant say what the logo meant other than it being a company makers mark. Unfinished heels enabled the horseshoer to turn calks, weld bar shoes, or cut off for an exact fit. George

Horse bits are best made of copper with sweet iron running a close second. Yes, sweet iron will rust but not if its wiped off and kept clean. Reason for these materials is to encourage the animal to salivate. This helps keep a good soft mouth. Stainless can be dangerous to weld or forge due to the hexavalent chromium. OSHA recently lowered the permissible exposure levels of the stuff. I'd recommend guys do their homework on the stuff before messing with it. George

It a jump welded hind bar shoe. Looks like it was shod sharp for ice at least by the heels. Cant tell from this view if the toe calk is sharp or not but I suspect it probably is. Being made of iron it is an old one. George

I know most of you guys have probably seen this old vid from the Westinghouse works but for those who haven't it shows a bridge anvil in use at about the 4:20 mark: George

They were primarily used in railroad shops. Plenty of heavy work done there. If I were to take a SWAG at the usefulness of the shape I'd figure it to be for bending track or other long sections of stock. George

Looks like a horseshoer got a hold of it and did some unnecessary mods. Thankfully they didn't weld on any turning cams At least is still in good shape and very useable. George

I knew a guy who liked forging stainless a lot. He developed bad health problems that eventually killed him. I'd recommend learning as much as possible about working with hexavolent chromium especially if planning on having employees. OSHA has recently lowered the permissable exposure limits as research is showing this stuff to be far more dangerous than previously believed. https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hexavalentchromium/index.html Unlike others on here I do like the OPs idea. I think if he's a good businessman he can pull it off. Just be aware of the risks and go the extra mile toward ensuring safety. George

Nice one, I like it. Is also the fact that years ago hardening and tempering were very difficult to get right on an anvil. When hardening under waterfalls and such the thinner corners would get hard and brittle while the inner body would stay softer by holding heat a lot longer. There'd be no way to tell when it left the factory but after some use the brittle edges would start to chip. It wasn't always necessarily operator error but was best one could expect from those old manufacturing methods. That being said, there's nothing wrong with new made modern anvils. Folks who think they need something a century or more old need to understand that those chipping problems come with them.

Among other things marking shoes cold with a sharp corner instead of an anvil devil, hardy or center punch. Cold shoeing can be hard on equipment. George

I believe the hardy holes were made tapered on the bigger anvils. Over a certain weight on old British. AIA talks about it if my memory serves me right. George

That's a Fisher horseshoers model. A very good one. If is too much for you let it go. Somebody will buy it. Seller won't have to wait too long. George

Mr Powers is correct. The clip horn has been taken off. Nonetheless it's a great score. Enjoy it! George