Sick of Horseshoes! & RR Spikes!

[blacksmithpete]

Looks Like Randy has come out of the closet and made his first HORSESHOE


Caleb went down the shed I had a piece of hoof the same as in your pic but I must have chucked it out in my last big clean up
not too sure about the race horse question but I would guess they would have used lighter HORSESHOES on them plus they would have been weighted BUTIDOSTANDTOBECORECTED
But I never had much to do with the race horse side of HORSESHOES

Going by the pictures of all the HORSESHOES in the shop they wouldnt have used any of them on a pacer or trotter

B S Pete

[Frank Turley]

I don't think our microcosmic bunch of smiths is going to change the way Americans think about us, culturally. We're going to be thought of as shoeing horses, like it or not. Ella Mae Morse sings "The Blacksmith Blues" and it begins, "Down in old Kentucky where horseshoes are lucky..." and it talks about the horseshoer.

The horseshoers have a World Blacksmiths' Competition and it's all farriery. You would think they would know better.

How about smith and smithy? Tom Bredlow told me once, "The smithy's the kitchen; the smith is the cook." And this Chestnut tree business. If a smith stood under a tree all day, he'd never get any work done!. Longfellow had it right. He said, "...the smith, a might man is he with large and sinewy hands." Don't blame Longfellow.

The U.S. populace gets lots of misconceptions from the movies, casting a sword and quenching in a snow bank, for example. There is also the speed in which things are done in fiction. I used to watch the Western, 'Gunsmoke,' and the Marshal's friend was a blacksmith. He would tap on the lifted foot a couple times and say, "There ya' are Mr. Dillon, your horse is shod." So people got the notion that a horse was shod in two seconds. Ane he didn't clinch the nails!

How about the shop size? Museum folks lots of time think that the shop is a teeny tiny cubicle with maybe a Western style false front on it.

The list goes on. I roll with the punches. On the other hand, I say to myself, "How much do I know about other professions and their teminology?" Not always very much.

[peacock]

Trotter and pacers are ask to make speed at a gait that is not there choice for speed. A gallop would be used in nature. A good blacksmith and trainer could get together and change the way a horse foot traveled by chanding the type of shoe, the angle of the foot front to back or side to side. The blacksmith would put creases, heal calks. toe grabs, toe weights. side weights 1/2 round 1/2 swedges, trailers, square toes, diamond toes, well the list could go on and on. All this is an attempt to either stop a horses feet from hitting themselves or otherwise increase there speed. Different tracks sometimes required different shoes. I am sure Frank, Eric, and others could write volumes about the different things they have seen and/or done. I will be at a blacksmith meeting (BAM) for the next couple of days so I will leave you all to kick this to the curb. PS I know I have left some of you horsey type blacksmiths off the list but I'm not sure it is OK to give up your names. I don't want to step on your toes as you get enough of that allready.

[Yetti]

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-history/foot-operated-leg-vise-search-195799/

I found some pics of some other nice foot vises

[Frank Turley]

Caleb, Peacock is correct. The shoes were specially forged for the trotters & pacers. The breed of horse is called "Standardbred." The shoes were of steel and were hand turned, and they were light in comparison with carriage and everyday riding horse shoes. The swaged shoes were run through a bottom swage to give them a vee shaped nail crease. but the crease could extend beyond the nail area. The crease filled with packed dirt. The old timers said that "Dirt on dirt traction is the best kind of traction." A book titled, "The Horse" by D.J. Kays came out in the 1950's, and it has photos of beautifully made harness track shoes.

[Montana7]

Got it. Thanks Caleb.
Thanks Yetti for those pics.

[HWHII]

Over $7000 of my income last year was by making railroad spike bottle openers and steak turners, I think I'll keep making them.

WOW! I need to get busy. Thats great!

[Woody]

My opinion is explained here http://hansoncustomk...onstration.html

And my Grandfather really was a blacksmith, if you can find a book called "Iron Spirits" about blacksmiths who made cemetery crosses in North Dakota, his work is in there, his name was Conrad Segmiller.

[DKForge]

I started blacksmithing before I went to Farrier school. My business card says Farrier and Blacksmith as I do both. It is funny though because if I say I am a Farrier to a non-horse person they usually say "what is that?" and if I say I am a Blacksmith they say, "oh you shoe horses?." Of course the best was when an older woman asked what I did and I said I was a Farrier, she said "what is that?" and I said "I shoe horses"... she said..."why in the world would you shoot horses?" I started laughing.

[ThomasPowers]

To which the answer is "It's too hard to get them on the grill if you don't!"

[Frosty]

Shoots them out of a cannon, they're circus horses, obviously. <sheesh>

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

In 1990 I bought my first Champion triphammer from a farrier who still made all his own shoes from bar stock.

I had asked about buying it a week earlier but he said he was still using it; but leave my number. Then he called back and told me his wife had said he'd been kicked in the head by one too many horses and he was officially retired and I should come and get it!

So even fairly recently some farriers still made their own. He wasn't a specialized (orthopedic or race course) farrier either.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I purchased everything that a retired farrier had for sale on Craigslist awhile back, and he had one tool box filled with flatstock that he used for his blanks. The JHM Journeyman anvil I got from him had the turning cams on the back of the heel.

If I get asked about shoes I just explain that that is what a Farrier does. Down here where I live there are tons of horse owners, we have a rodeo here at the fairgrounds, and in Las Vegas there are lots of horses as well as the PRCA rodeos, and awards ceremonies. So, most of the time when I mention that I dabble in blacksmithing, they know the difference. The most common reaction i get from my fellow artists is "That is so cool!" .

I am not biased against RR spikes- have a 5 gallon bucket of them, nor horseshoes. Matter of fact I need about 1,000 or so of them for a project I have in mind. I would think that modified horseshoes, and RR spikes would sell decent out here due to the local history, so I may have to look into making something from the ones I have to sell.

[Robert Yates]

I have past this up for a long time dur the the post . However , spikes and rebar are esential for newbies for learning and forging it is So cheap "free in most cases" that a new forger can use the material to train on for form and function . IE hammer control, drawing , twisting, blade form, and the list goes on . as Master Blade smiths to take the air out of the sails of a New Smith / newbie is to Kill the art its self ! yes! I have seen so many done I tend to not look at them right off but do any way just to see what the next gen is doing with them. so I'll ask you as i was told by a ol Gentalman help the new guys and keep the art alive or what you have done is all in vane as a smith.

Sam

[ThomasPowers]

On the other hand I've been able to find free scrap that is better size and shapes and alloys than free rebar and RR spikes that take a whole lot more work to use. Even buying stuff at a scrap yard if finding something closer to the final form saves you 3 hours of fuel and work how much is that "worth"?

[gerald brostek]

I prefer to call myself a metalsmith as I work with metal, all sorts of it, hot and cold, and shy away from the b-word. very seldom get asked if I shoe horses.

[Randy]

Just got back from doing a weekend demo in Tucson. Great time! So i'm just catching up.

blacksmithpete, nice try. Glad the photoshop was pretty crappy. :blink: It wouldn't have been my first shoe anyway. I have 3 shoes of special meaning to me in my smithy. One was from the first time I saw a smith at work. It was John Algood in Williamsburg, VA, I was about 2 years old and he stamped my name in it. The next one is one of the first ones I made. A miniature one that I was taught how to make in my first class. And the third one is the project that Frank Turley taught us. It's a horseshoe sandwich. Take 2 shoes straighten them up, fold one in half and put the other one in it and forge weld them together to make a new shoe. Precious memories. But they're on a shelf, not on the wall. If they were on the wall it would be the 1st thing anyone would see and I don't need to feed that fire any more.

Oh, that blacksmith on Gunsmoke was Burt Reynolds.

[Montana7]

I purchased everything that a retired farrier had for sale on Craigslist awhile back, and he had one tool box filled with flatstock that he used for his blanks. The JHM Journeyman anvil I got from him had the turning cams on the back of the heel. If I get asked about shoes I just explain that that is what a Farrier does. Down here where I live there are tons of horse owners, we have a rodeo here at the fairgrounds, and in Las Vegas there are lots of horses as well as the PRCA rodeos, and awards ceremonies. So, most of the time when I mention that I dabble in blacksmithing, they know the difference. The most common reaction i get from my fellow artists is "That is so cool!" . I am not biased against RR spikes- have a 5 gallon bucket of them, nor horseshoes. Matter of fact I need about 1,000 or so of them for a project I have in mind. I would think that modified horseshoes, and RR spikes would sell decent out here due to the local history, so I may have to look into making something from the ones I have to sell.

On a knife forum I frequent, knives made out of RR spikes are big sellers & go quickly. Just a suggestion for some of them in that 5 gal bucket.

[ThomasPowers]

I ran across one of those Williamsburg shoes with my name on it recently form back in the 1960's as I recall...I was a bit older than 2 though; but still in single digits...

[bigfootnampa]

There is an Amish smith in the Springfield MO area who still makes horseshoe blanks. I know a farrier there who uses them pretty much exclusively. They are heavy half-round barstock. Roughly 7/8" diameter. My farrier friend shoes mostly Standardbred horses with them. EXPENSIVE horses, mostly in at least 5 figures!

[Tupcakes]

i think this sums it up, no?

[Bentiron1946]

I, too, have quit calling myself a blacksmith and have gone over to metalsmith. I did it mostly to confuse the folk with horses I guess. I am a sculptor that works with the tools of a blacksmith and a foundryman and a coppersmith and a tinsmith but I'm not really any of those things and I work with silver too but I not a silversmith since I don't make any serving items for the dinner table. Also I''m not a jeweler but I do make jewelry and a friend of mine who is a jeweler says I should call myself a goldsmith since I make adornment for the body. So I guess I'm a metalsmith since I work with metal of all kinds, sort of a jack of all and not really a master of any of them but I do a fairly good job at all I have turned my hand too. One thing I am diffidently not though is a farrier. Now I now fellows who are right good blacksmiths and right good farriers too and also very fine jewelers but they like me are more general metalsmiths but prefer to go by either blacksmith or farrier thinking that "metalsmith" sounds kind of pansyish to them, not manly. I guess it really don't matter what they calls you as long as you get paid for your work and not stiffed for it. That's what I hated the most, NOT getting paid for my labor. That's what really hurt.

[MOblacksmith0530]

My favorite answer to teh do you shoe horses is "nope I can make the shoes but you have to put them on"

[eric sprado]

No it doesn't sum it up. She is NOT a farrier. She is part of a new fad of "barefoot" trimmers. Doesn't shoe,not a blacksmith.Just a cute hoof trimmer...
When folks ask me if I'm a barefoot trimmer I say: Oh no,that's REALLY unsafe,I always wear stout leather footwear when I'm trimming.

[metalmangeler]

Looking at her tool box and the nail ends on her stand magnet I think she is likely a farrier holding the hoof with her hand as much as she does I would guess not that many years of practice.