June, 2004
(Please note that only the articles from the Newsletter are presented here.)
This month's article was written by Michael McNutt, a Certified Journeyman Farrier from New Concord, Ohio.
It's becoming hard to aid newcomers in shoe making, and nail placement seems to be a big controversy. I show them one thing, and when they go to contests or clinics they are told something else.
Well, I guess we all deal with opinions. However, I think it safe to say that most farriers agree that a nail should start in the white line and exit through the hoof wall. If a nail starts in the hoof wall and exits the hoof wall, there is a real good chance of cracking and later breaking the hoof wall. If a nail is started in the sole there is, of coarse, chances of invading sensitive tissue, "sore horse."
Maybe the difference in opinion is the location of the white line, so how we trim horses and dress hoof walls affect where we punch nail holes? There is also a difference in discussion between the ground surface and hoof surface of the shoe. Example, if somebody said, "The nail should be punched in the center of the web," do they mean the ground surface or the hoof surface? A toe nail is pitched a lot more than a heel nail.
Correct nail pattern should be judged, not in terms of coarse or fine unless there is a hoof involved. At shoeing competitions where there are specimen shoes and the judge has a hard decision between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I assume the nail placement closest to his or her specimen shoe should win. For the sake of the article, the phrase correct nail platter means where the nail holes are located in the shoe. Nail hole placement or position will mean how coarse or fine.
I have difficulty sorting through the rules of thumb or the in-general statements that I have been taught. Just to name a few. In horseshoeing school the first rule of thumb in making shoes was, punch the heel nail in the middle of the web and graduate inward of coarser towards the toe nail. In a forging clinic I was taught to punch toe nail in the center of the web and graduate outward or finer to the heel nail. In other clinics I have been told to punch or crease a shoe the same from toe to heel on the ground surface. Then by pitching the toe nail to match the hoof wall and punching the heel nail straight up and down. Turn the shoe over to the foot surface; the toe nail will be coarser than the heel nail. I have also been told that choosing the correct size steel that your nails will be in the middle of the web. There again, do they mean foot surface, or ground surface? The trouble with this is I see small feet like 00 to 0 with heavy hoof walls. I'm not going to use 7/8" or 1" on feet that small. The other reason I don't like this is because sometimes I like to add traction to a horse. It can be done by using narrow web shoe stock on bigger feet. Sometimes the nail holes need to be extremely coarse to be in the white line, but there will still be a correct nail pattern.
I got tired of hand making shoes and fitting a well forged shoe just to discover my nail holes were too fine or too coarse. I started trimming the foot. Then I dress the hoof walls straight from the hair to the ground. Then take the size steel I was going to use and lay the end of it on the hoof wall and white line at the toenail area and see exactly where to punch the toe nail. In learning to make handmade shoes, the correct nail pattern is a very difficult thing to achieve. In normal feet where the medial side is a little more upright and the lateral side a little more sloping and we are looking at the foot surface of the shoe. It may be safe to say that a toe nail should be coarser than a heel nail and the lateral branch could be slightly coarser than the medial branch. This to me establishes a correct nail pattern.
How coarse or fine? Our correct nail pattern is more of a habit that is dictated to us by how we trim feet, dress hoof walls, and fit our shoes.
Fall Contest/Clinic
The Fall Contest/Clinic will be held at the University of Findlay Center for Equine Studies on September 24-26. Bob Marshall will be the judge/clinician. More details will be in the next newsletter. Contacts are Michael McNutt (740) 826-9919 or Steve Muir (740) 967-7463.
Video Library
MEFA has a very comprehensive video library available to our members. If you are interested in borrowing a tape, contact Toby Burdette at (740) 323-0303. Also, if you have any tapes out that you've had awhile, please return then to Toby so others can view them.
Return to the Newsletters Index page.
Return to the Mid-Eastern Farrier's Association home page.
