Shoes are now made by machinery and I buy them when I haven't time to make them. But they, too, must be fitted to the foot, for they come only in stock form.
Now I'm going to show you how to make a horseshoe. I'll make it out of this piece of steel tire from a wagon wheel. We use all this kind of scrap to make the stock shoes. That's why our made shoes can be sold cheaper than the manufactured shoes, if we have the time to make them. Steel is being used in place of iron in all branches of industry. A steel shoe weighing half a pound will wear as long as an iron shoe weighing one pound.
This piece of steel tire which I am using is 1 in. wide and 1⁄2 in. thick. I want to keep the thickness 1⁄2 in., but reduce the width to 3⁄4 in. To do this the end of the piece of metal is put into the forge fire. As soon as it is hot enough, I take it out and place it, edge up, on the anvil, and with the hand hammer draw it out any length I wish. You see that driving down on the edge of the hot bar thickens it. Now turn it over and drive on the flat side. You must keep driving first on the edge and then on the side until it is the right size. This is called stretching the metal out. Now the bar is long enough to bend in the shape of a letter U. Heat about 6 ins. of this bar and then place it on the largest part of the anvil horn. Strike on the projecting end with a hand hammer. It bends easily into the shape.
Take the chisel-shaped tool. The edge of this tool makes the groove to fit the nail heads. Every horseshoe has eight rectangular holes for nails, four on each side. These are punched through with this punch, and are made just large enough to fit the horseshoe nail heads. Now you see a stock shoe, and it is just like the dozens I have hanging on the rafters. But before the shoe is placed on the horse's foot it must have the front piece, called the toe calk, welded on and the ends of the shoe turned up for heels. To make the toe calk I take a piece of iron or steel about 2 × 3⁄4 × 1⁄2 in. The end of this piece is prepared like this:
The little projection is made very sharp so that it can stick into the hot iron. In this way it is kept in place during the process of welding. When the calk is made I heat the shoe and place the calk in the proper position. The calk is cold and the little projecting point is easily driven into the hot iron. Now that it is held in place it must be welded on. Iron and steel are welded together only by the use of a flux. There are many kinds of fluxes used. For this I shall use borax. I buy it by the pound and it comes in boxes like this. Sprinkle a little on the calk, heat it in the fire, watch the fire. When the metal is hot enough to weld you will notice a brown smoke coming from the fire. That tells you the borax is burning. There, see the smoke! Now I must take the shoe out quickly and place it on the anvil. A few quick, light blows upon the calk and the welding is done! The hammering must be done quickly after the shoe has been taken out of the fire, or the cold air will lower the temperature and prevent the metal from uniting. There, it's welded! Now I shape it and fit it to the horse's foot. The heels can't be bent up until I know just how long the horse's foot is. I measure by placing it on the hoof. Then the two ends of the shoe are bent and driven down so that the height of the heels equals the height of the calk. Now, boys, this is a hand made shoe. When you know how to use the fire and the tools it is an easy problem to make a horseshoe.
