I have been shoeing for 22 years now. A lot of that time was spent cold shoeing and coming home, leaving day behind. I feel like I have become a "born again horseshoer". In the last several years I have been shoeing hot and making shoes. I passed the AFA CJF on my second try in 2009. When I would work in the shop I was watching the clock to see how fast and how many pairs of shoes I could make. The only thing I accomplished is making the same mistakes in record time. I now regard shop time as my time. There is no clock. Yesterday I spent four hours in the shop and I made three shoes. I am spending lot of time working on hammer blows and techinques. I am trying to get more from my hammer rather than my rasp or grinder. I am making everyday shoes to put on the truck. My goal is eventually to do nice work effiiciently and to do some competing this summer. I would like to know how everyone else's shop time used. Do you spend a lot of time on one shoe(s) to get it just right or do you time yourself? I can imagine the answer is both, but how do you spend the majority of you shop time? How many days or hours a week do you work in the shop? Thanks
Jeff - Last week I spent figuring out the Madison specimens. This week I'm just trying to make nice shoes that match the specimens. Next week I'll start making both specimens at the same time and getting done in each heat what I expect to get done and I'll check my time to see where I'm at. The week after that I'll cut out and combine steps to to make sure I'm getting done in time. Between then and Madison I'll be working on getting done with each class in 45 mins. How I spend my time in the shop depends on what's on my mind. If I'm screwing something up I'll slow up and keep looking to see where/ when it happens and then figure out how to fix it. I also believe you need to cruise through some shoes to get your eye up to speed. If you take all day to mark your fullering and then just barrel through your fullering you'll notice there's probably not much of a difference in the finished product. After a dozen times your eye will catch up and you'll wonder how you went so slow.
When I'm trying to figure out the shoes, I'll slow down and figure out my steps for each heat. Once I learn my steps, I try my best to get them all done in the heat. I think one should build one or two good shoes, instead of a pile of sh?#ers, but you should also try to use your heats effectively. I try to be in my shop a least 3-4 nights a week until about 3 wks before the contest, then its every night. I don't start timing myself until the last 2 wks, just so I can make sure I can get done in time. Everyone I've talked to practices differently, so you just have to figure out what works best for you and stick to. Keep on Keeping On! Hope to see ya at a contest this summer.
I am so looking forward to this summer. I will be setting up my very first shop on my property here in Texas. All the years I have been shoeing, unless I was at a clinic or contest I did all my forge work out of my truck. Sharon has 4 buildings on this farm and I turned one into a feed room and tack room, Another one I turned into a goat milking parlor and chicken incubator room and on the opposite side is a stall for a horse if we bring one up from the back pasture, one houses a tractor and the other half is a shelter for the goats out in the back pasture. I built a rabbit shed, (my nephew and older brother built it, but I gave them the plans). The last shed IS MINE !!! It was Sharons grandfathers work shop and is ideal for a blacksmith shop. I have been pulling up all sort of plans for a coal forge and almost bought a nice old anvil already on a stump (it went for way too much so let it pass). I want/need to improve my shoe making skills and I WANT to be able to do some competeing. The little I did in Vermont was so much fun. I finally have reached a point in my life where I can do something for ME !
Jeff this is a good thread and this is a question that I have wondered about quite a bit. My practice has been all over the board. At times I would spend forever on one shoe and at other times I would make a pile of shoes no matter what they were turning out like. I still have not figured out what the best means of practice is for me but there have been some good ideas put forth here. I asked Dusty Franklin about this very thing when we were in Eureka and he told me that after he got the shoes figured out then he would concentrate on making them as close to perfect as he could get after that. He said your first one would be slow but the next one would come faster, then faster and so on. I asked Hooter how he prep'd for a contest last year at the Classic up at Mitch's and he just looked at me, blinked and said, "I made 1200 shoes last year" I guess you can go about it in many different ways but I do wonder how people practice. I've been to a lot of clinics over the years but I don't think that I have ever been to a clinic on the best ways to practice, and how to use your practice time to achieve the most results. Like you said there is no point in practicing making the same mistakes, just doing them faster. I would be curious to know how people like Trnka, Moon, Milster, Crothers, Beane, and the like spend their practice time.
Thanks you for the replies. This helps me a lot. As I am paying more attention in doing things as right as I can, I am starting to get more done in one heat. It is very humbling to back yourself down and start from scratch to undo a ton of bad habits. There are some cool contests coming up later this year in the Southeast. My goal is to get to some if not all of them and get this started.
Jeff come to a WCB event and compete get started in division 1 if you want .That way you get a striker in every round that you are in that will help you and show you.
