How was the first nails made...does anyone kmow how or what they looked like ..and has anyone ever made they own nails and shoes to nail up..I have seen smiths make a regular nail but never a horse shoe nail..can someone do it and post it..would love to them made and nailed up..
Thanks, Smitty, you're a treasure. Now I have to spend the afternoon tomorrow adjusting stamps and pritchels, it seems much depends on that, much more than I thought. What do we do with concave in the case of the last photo, when there's no pitch and the outside of the nailhead is not in contact with the fullering ? Any problems with leaving it like this, or should we attempt to close the gap ?
christos nothing is perfect just get your tools in order and you should make better nail holes when you come back to shoe a horse in 6/8 weeks and the shoes look solid and you dont have a clench up you know then your nail-holes aint to bad
That's encouraging, Smitty, thanks. I never have any clenches up and the shoes are actually too solid at the end of the cycle, they're a pain to remove. May be even stronger than in the day they were applied, no kidding. Could be the rust in the nails, lately I use the smallest possible and I notice some nails break when I pull the shoe with the clinches cut.
I've posted a couple, but no need to go looking for them, I'll take some fresh tomorrow and post them, no problem.
*My post is written between the questions of Travis' post* *It's really not that difficult to make a horsenail once you figure out the metallurgy and tensile your looking for, but it's not fast, don't tell Bill Adams, but it can be done cold but not any faster in my opinion!* Regards Ray Steele