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Watched a farrier at the Goshen, Indiana horse auction bend a shoe with his hands and no hammer
Stopped by the auction last Saturday and this older guy had a little propane forge set up on his trailer tailgate. He pulled a shoe out at a dull red and just worked the heel with his tongs and a big pair of nippers, no anvil involved, maybe 90 seconds start to finish. I have been hammering on a 125 lb anvil for two years and I never thought to just... shape cold-ish steel with leverage instead of beating it. Anyone else do touch-up work without a full heat, or am I about to ruin a bunch of shoes trying this?
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blakem374d ago
Watch his hands a little closer next time, because that shoe was not cold. Dull red on a shoe is still around 1000 to 1200 degrees, which is plenty soft enough to move by hand with tongs and nippers. That is the whole trick of a farrier's setup: you do not need to bring it up to a bright orange heat that will scale and burn the steel, and you don't need an anvil for small tweaks. Your 125 lb anvil and a real forge heat will still be there for anything bigger than a heel tweak. Try bending a truly cold shoe like that and you will just kink or crack it.
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