Im a bit fed up with steel and stockholders at the min. They want £18 for a 16 foot length of 3/4 3/8, thats four sets of 12 inch shoes. It only costs £24 for 5 sets of shoes in a box.!! The nail holes are my biggest complaint. years ago you could buy shoes with a decent tight nail hole with pitch. Now the nail holes are just to big instead of being pitched. This means you have loose rattling shoes if the horses does any work worth mentioning on a firm surface, big nails arnt an option on most feet. we make shoes for feet that need a sweet nail hole and pitch.
Correct!!!! The manufacture's ARE NOT horseshoers; they are investors buying into a business to make pre-made horseshoes the cheapest with the cheapest labor and to make with the machines ~~~ and turn a profit for their shareholders, NOT what is in the best interests of the horse's hoof; and if we go back to making all of our own shoes; that is the BIGGEST threat to the keg shoe manufactures profit margin; and it also causes the barstock steel to go up; since they will not be buying in long tons for the manufactures to make. The barstock suppliers need to make so much profit margin in order to stay in business; and there is not enough farriers who can or want to make their own shoes and buy enough barstock ~~~ to offset what the huge manufactures can buy to make the profit margin happen for the barstock suppliers.
Cheeeeeap! We pay $38 for 4m (~13ft). enough for 3 sets and a hoof pick .. can't even get 7/8 x 3/8 (or bigger) now. Although can get flat bar 3/4 x 3/8 $19 for 20ft 5 sets of comparable readymades $82.50 :-O
Would you prefer to buy your nail holes separate?............by that i mean non punched shoes, if so make that a suggestion to your supplier, it may not lower price because the machines are set up but may improve your quality in that you will have bought the steel roughly shaped and the holes will be within your realm of quality control. a # of years ago, np was an option, but very few farriers wanted them that way, i know when i was making sliding plates, some farriers asked if i could offer blanks so i made an assortment of 5000 prs drop forged blanks, can probably find 4990 pr. or so . since steel is a commodity, and trades on the world market, i d suggest that the difference in prices from GB to NZ or anywhere else is taxes and transport, and i m willing to bet a pint that your stockist has given up trying to explain those. your complaint should not be with the stockist but with your tax man, which eventually comes back to you since supposedly the tax collected is spent on what the society needs! ray
Don't carry them around in your jeans Ray. You'll have holes in your pockets. A fellow that used to come on the boards, said he worked for a company that moved manufactures from the U.S. to Mexico. Most of their costs went up, but they made their profit in tax savings. The U.S. now has the highest corporate tax in the world, which just gets passed down to the consumer. Out here it costs me more for bar stock than keg shoes, plus a couple hours to build them and another hour of grinding.
Correct!...........and we now have the highest corporate tax of 33% for all items made in the USA; but is given a tax break {have} if the jobs are shipped off seas to other countries; then a manufacture only has to pay 10% corporate tax for shipping the goods back to the USA. it's part of the NAFTA agreement that our ex-president Bill Clinton signed into law in the 1990's.
sorry plater your posts don t carry much value to me if you can t/won t carry out what you start! suggest you get back to the contest and do your part .........then post ray ps try calling Eric and ask for the help he offered
Last week I bought 60 ft of 3/8 X 3/4 barstock...I paid 50 and change...when I hand make a SIMPLE liteshod shoe I charge $125.00 a pair.. best investment ever..
