I'm posting this just to prove you should assume nothing when making a commissioned piece.

OK, there's a guy comes along and he's bought a very nice hand plaited whip which he wants to hang on the wall. Doesn't want some crummy plastic hook from K-Mart. He wants something hand made. He's a horseman so he wants a horse shoe with leaves wrapped around to form two hooks that the whip will rest on. Seems starightforward enough. 

I set to and made the one on the left in the picture. Hmmm not too bad. Showed the wife and she said that it was all very lovely but "You can't sell that!"

So I had to return to the forge and make the one on the right. I am not a superstitious person!

 

Looks nice, I bet he would have been happy either way.  Round here the tradition was to hang the horseshoe pointing up on a house but pointing down in the smithy.  How the horse felt about that situation I don't know (grin).

The idea was to point the heel up in order to "catch" the luck and hold it.

For the blacksmith the idea was to point the heel down in order to catch the luck and let it pour down upon the anvil.

 

Sell him the "catch and hold" and put the "catch and pour" in your blacksmith shop. Nothing wasted, and all luck put to use. (grin)

 

Others will know if it is best to use a new or a used horse shoe.

I agree with Glen -- Hmm that reminds me I took mine off when I redid the hood :o

that's why I haven't fired the coke forge up in awile :( the Luck is gone  <_<

& the flue is gone to LOL -  maybe I will deal with Monday propane is so much faster BUT  :D   

Iron Wolfe, 

Problem is the blacksmith is gone. (grin)

Very nice, Ausfire.

 

I wonder how hard it would be to drift one of the nail holes open a bit so the vine could penetrate it and wrap around the shank.

Very nice, Ausfire.

 

I wonder how hard it would be to drift one of the nail holes open a bit so the vine could penetrate it and wrap around the shank.

Now, there's a thought. I did drift a couple of the rectangular nail holes to accommodate screws. It would be easy to make the leaves on a long stem, feed it through and then forge the hook. Food for thought.

 

And incidentally, the shoes were used. We had a farrier doing a demo in my smithy and they were the shoes he took off. The guy who wanted the hooks watched the farrier remove them from the horse, and he asked if I could use one of the old shoes. They were still in pretty good shape.

The idea was to point the heel up in order to "catch" the luck and hold it.

For the blacksmith the idea was to point the heel down in order to catch the luck and let it pour down upon the anvil.

 

Sell him the "catch and hold" and put the "catch and pour" in your blacksmith shop. Nothing wasted, and all luck put to use. (grin)

 

Others will know if it is best to use a new or a used horse shoe.

I'll do that Glenn. It can hold my lucky twisting bar or something! Good thinking.

NAN Glen I am there its just the propane forge is next to the coke forge to easy LOL :)

thats what happens when you weld a table to the coke forge for tools LOL

then park the propane forge on that - then put the tools in the cold coke forge  :rolleyes: OOPS  LOL

I think it is worth remembering that for people who look at horse feet from the perspective of shoeing them see the toe up, if you are just a bystander watching a horse leave or you are driveing a carriage, you see the heels up.

Very nice, Ausfire.
 
I wonder how hard it would be to drift one of the nail holes open a bit so the vine could penetrate it and wrap around the shank.

Vaughn, I decided to do another one of these whip holders and I have adopted your suggestion. Got the shoe the right way up too. Here's a pic.

That does look better, it looks great!

That's awesome, Ausfire.  It looks like some weeds just grew through a shoe that was left on the ground!