Found this hoof gauge,not a lot different than the brass gauges that we see today and have seen at least since I started in this business, but there are a couple of things that ,hopefully someone has an explanation for...what is the purpose of the center piece and what would be the use of the set screw along the arm? This is marked. Hood & Heynolds. Boston Appears to be brass plated with nickel ray
Ray, I believe that center piece is a built in hoof pick and the set screw is easy....that's for when the (client, owner, trainer), asks, "did you get him up to 55 degrees?", you just give that set screw a couple of twists and go," yep! see right here on the gauge?" Maybe not, Dave
I don't have a set screw on mine dave. But its really not necessary. You just slide your thumb over and push or pull until the desired degrees appears.
I may have mis read the marking , it may be Hood & Reynolds. Boston I found a listing where it was described as possibly a medical device or possibly a navigational device, at any rate it was the same as the one I have sans the Nickel plating, and marked Reynolds not Heynolds, The info Listed was that Hood & Reynolds were manufacturers of tooth filling materials in Boston in the latter half of the 1800's, If correct they must have decided to diversify! Dave I never thought of the hoof pick,good catch, George, if your correct about the screw for adjusting the angle to show the customer, then with this set up, I could advertise that I m a more precise BSer that you! Ray
Im thinking maybe the set screw is for distortions at toe oe on hoof wall..kinda when we put the gauge on and the pc that lays on the wall hits coronary band and not lay flat on the wall.. the center pc looks tovme like it would lay in the cleft of the frog to line up center...best guess ... its fancy ...ray do you collect yourself or is this justbold stuff you have had stuffed away..
Travis , as to the what and wherefoes of the gauge..... I donno. and have not been able to find literature to get a positive explanation...but that to me is part of the learning process....... what were those folk thinkin that i did nt see, and hopefully you or those guy in Maine might. Collector is too nice a term for me........ just say , I got some stuff, or as I tell my wife, when i die/croak .... she s gonna have a lot of suitors willing to help her get rid of ray s shi..........! ray
Ray, Do you think that the thumb screw might be used to establish a baseline in cases where the hoof is either bull nosed, so the gauge arm can not be set on the coronary band, or is flaired so that the gauge arm does not lay on the hoof wall? I don't know what you would determine the hoof angle to be in either case, but it would give you a reference as to how you changed the angle.. Regards
You guys are really off base on this thing. It ain't a hoof gage. It is a chef's tool used to cut potatoes into quarters to make western fries.
I had a conversation with Lee Liles ,owner of the horse shoeing museum in Ok.. According to Lee, the center leg is for lineing over the center of the frog and the set screw on the arm is for as has been mentioned ,working with a distorted hoof, Ray
I thought the screw was because the coronary band would interfere with the reading on some feet. if you set the screw to keep the arm off the corronary it would be posible to tell the difference between the two front or hind feet. If you calibrated the angle change from the depth of the screw it would also give you the hoof wall angle. PS I love it.
David, I ll not argue the use, your/my /everyone's guess, not sure i smart enough to do all the calculations withot my abbicus! What s neat to me is to see how powerful the thinking was, Ray
