George Geist

Ok guys, I know there's no hard and fast rule to this. Overwhelming majority of smiths have the horn on their anvils to the same side of them as their tong hand. A few prefer to have it the other way but majority is on tong hand side. In my observation, knifemakers for some reason are more likely than anybody else to have their anvils turned around the other way. Anybody know why? Hey knifemakers, why do so many of you guys do that???? George

To best of my recollection NC was started by the same family that ran a horseshoeing school in North Carolina. When they closed up the school they kicked the tool company in the butt and really got it going. Some of their tools are very good. Most especially their driving hammers. Their anvils on the other hand were a whole different matter. A fly by night new class every monday horseshoeing school somewhere in Oklahoma made a deal with NC Tool Company for a lot of anvils. Students got a free NC anvil and set of hand tools included in their tuition. They were purposely only made in 70# weight so they could be shipped by UPS. Entirely too light to do any serious work but could be improved a lot if you bought an NC stand which had a clamping hold down device to hold it fast. At about this time in history more and more women started going to shoeing schools everywhere. Their small size and light weight made them very popular among this demographic group. They were never that great anyway but over time they began to add heel hooking holes and turning cams and other such trash that has no place on an anvil I believe just to annoy me. That's pretty much the history behind them. They're cheap, plentiful and have oversaturated the market due to being given away for free. Not an anvil I'd give any serious consideration to.

Ok, I'm out. Deal with it yourselves. George

I know some people like those girly anvils but I don't think of them too far out of the ASO category.

Don't turn your nose up at anything cast iron either though. All the Fishers were cast and they were excellent anvils. It just depends.

Absolutely

I bought a Mankel anvil brand new for $400 in 1980. I then upgraded to a Centaur (Kohlswa) in about 1990 for $150. Between those 2 anvils I made a living for over 35 years and put myself through college. As I see it that was an awful lot of bang for the buck on a $550 investment. Anvils are cheap at any price folks. They pay for themselves many times over. George

Apologies to Glenn but I tried unsuccessfully to post this poll over here. Although anvils are being made new out there, for some reason in spite of the internet and TPAAAT there are guys coming on here every day looking to buy anvils claiming they can't find one. This is enough to make me think real hard about getting into the anvil selling business. If you could have the most perfect anvil (0 member(s) have cast votes) What weight would be your first choice for an anvil? 100-150 # (0 votes [0.00%]) 150-200# (0 votes [0.00%]) 200-250# (0 votes [0.00%]) 250-300# (0 votes [0.00%]) 300-350# (0 votes [0.00%]) 350-400# (0 votes [0.00%]) >400# (0 votes [0.00%]) What is the best anvil pattern? Horseshoers (0 votes [0.00%]) London (0 votes [0.00%]) Continental (0 votes [0.00%]) Other (0 votes [0.00%]) Best anvil material is Cast Steel (0 votes [0.00%]) Wrought Iron with Steel Face (0 votes [0.00%]) Cast Iron with Steel Face (0 votes [0.00%])

Try Pieh Tool Company in Cave Creek. Aside of that, Railroads, Trucking Companies, The Postal Service, TV, Radio, Internet, Telephones, essentially everything in the rest of the US is available in Arizona. Since statehood it hasn't been necessary to get there by Conestoga Wagon anymore. Go ahead and order an anvil. They're still being made new. George

ASO meaning anvil shaped object. Something not good enough to be called an anvil. Is a good term. Synonymous with POS. Is nothing you need or want. George

Yeah, know what you mean. It happens all the time.

Is not always that simple. I won't publically mention names but will be happy to in a PM. There are some real idiots out there mostly of the barefoot lunatic fringe persuasion putting up some real amateurish trash. They have followings like rock stars. Watch any horseshoeing vid no matter who shoes it or how good it is public comments will always be overflowing with armchair experts saying it sucks. Public opinion is nothing to base intelligent decisions on. People voted for Barrabbas....Democracy in action. For what it's worth pay no attention at all to those comments George

What's ineffective or inefficient about it? It always worked for me. Thinking too deep into this stuff will cause you to complicate the simple. George

I stand corrected on that.

Same thing Chief Justice Warren Burger said about obscenity. "I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it".

Fortunately on the other website I have the luxury of making sure everything that gets on there is good. Unfortunately in an unregulated free for all it's necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff. For some reason people who get to the point of doing first month apprentice work and either figure out how to trim a hoof without causing a leak or get a forge fire going all by themselves oftentimes set themselves up as self proclaimed authorities not just on you tube but often out in the world amongst respective clubs and organizations. Yeah maybe there oughta be a law but all we can do is take whats good and throw the rest out with the trash. This is why I'm a staunch advocate of some kind of a certification program to give the good guys some credibility. George

Yeah I might have some age on me but believe it or not I wasn't around when George Washington was hanging around these parts... I'm thinking maybe some of the Pennsylvanians we have on this forum might appreciate this tune. I believe it was on top of the charts back in late 1700's

Vulcan maybe?

Valley Hot Box. Is one of the better ones. George

This issue is something near to my heart. The British are progressive enough to award "Best Shod" honors to the Horseshoer doing the best job at their most prestigious horse shows. I'd like nothing better than to see something like this get started in this country. Congratulations to Paul Varnam for his excellent job and thanks to Fran Jurga for the write up. Thread I'm posting will have last several years of this competition. What you all think? How many would welcome this for USA? http://horseshoersforum.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/393-burghley-horse-trials/ George

A very nice story from my good friend Fran Jurga: https://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2017/08/day-forge-caved-world-champion-boxer-bob-fitzsimmons-fighting-blacksmith.html#more Anybody out there have one of his signature horseshoes?

I had the pleasure of first making the acquaintance of Ian McKinlay back in '99. I watched the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont which was won by a horse named River Keen. The way it normally works is that trainers win races, horseshoers lose them. 'Nuther words they get the credit we get the blame. This particular race was different. All of his connections were giving Blacksmith Ian McKinlay all the credit for the win. Dropped his name on national tv and everything. I thought that was really cool. Then when our paths finally crossed and I got to meet him, I congratulated him and told him how cool it was he got some well deserved recognition. He told me that race was a real nail biter. He was hoping the job he did on him held together and he stayed sound through the race. He did. Next day he was hopping lame but it didn't matter. He got a gold cup and had the rest of his life to heal up. Later on Ian went on to bigger fame for the job he did on Big Brown and others. Have a look at River Keen and what a good Quarter Crack man can do:

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

That really just depends. At the fly by night horseshoeing school I attended back in my misspent youth there were all gas forges. Was one of the first places to have them. Old Mankel Horseshoers Specials with AC blowers on them. Was before atmospherics became widespread. Anyway, they were hooked up with permanent piping to the natural gas line running into the place. Deal he had with the gas company was that he paid one price on his bill no matter how much gas he used. For this reason he had no problem at all with us practicing all day and night. If those forges burned 24/7 he wouldn't have cared. I always assumed that the deal he had was something he negotiated with the gas company? Since then I've always used propane in my gas forges and honestly I've never been able to tell the difference. I've used gas cooking stoves with both kinds of fuel and have never been able to tell the difference there either. I'd say if the OP has some kind of deal that would make natural gas easier or cheaper for him then by all means go ahead and use it. George

First of all is nothing wrong with natural gas. It'll work just fine but your forge may need to be plumbed a little differently. The steel it really just depends on what you had in mind for a project. What is it you're looking to do? George