I get up early in the mornings, so spend some time in the shop making shoes. One of todays.

5/16" x 1" x 12 1/2" steel.

Not real good pic of roll toe & clip. Hammer pulled clip.

Pic of nail holes

Top view of nail holes and set.

Mikel

What a pretty shoe!

Nice Work!

OK everybody it's time to sing along . . .

All I want for Christmas is my two front shoes. My two front shoes. My two front shoes . . .

Very nice Mikel!!!

Re: The Photo of the foot surface with nails inserted . . .

. . . Nice Nail holes. The nails look like they are growing out of the shoe,
like a tree out of the ground.

Tight Nails = no loose shoe after 3 weeks

P.S. Nice pitch

I just noticed you mark left/right Different

Up here most of us mark a shoe;
one mark inside branch for the right,
two marks inside branch for the left,

When I was a newbie that was a good system
as the mark for the right shoe is on the inside branch
and on the right end of the steel as you lay it out.
Kind of flows.
and I came up with a ryhmish to be able to remember;

There is always, only one right one,
And there may be two left over.

Just one of my ways to help myself to flow insted of trying to remember.

But we each have our ways, that work for us.

Last week another farrier and I were discussing the same issue. We all mark them differantly from what I see. I mark my fronts on the toes outside webs and the hinds on the outside heels. My friend marks his on the inside webs, at least when we stand in and cover each others work, we know which shoe fits which foot.

I usually only mark one side or the other (outside branch). Not usually both shoes.

Nice shoes by the way!!

I mark the inside web of the lateral branch of the front shoes between the first and second nail holes, and the inside web of the lateral branch of hind shoes between the third and fourth nail holes.

Nice work Mike.

I also made a shoe today. 12" 3/4"X5/16". The pitch of the nail holes are not very good. Just starting to put the whole process together, toe bend, heels, seated out, turning branches and punching nail holes. Punched for for E head (MX-50).

Nice shoe Phil. One thing was always easy for me to do is the pitch on the first couple nails. I remember before I did hotshoeing I would get so P.O.ed as the nail holes sometimes. Now I just fix 'em and move on.

Thanks for the comments. This is the result when I take the time to really lay out the shoe. I have tried to just make shoes without first marking my first nail holes - never works.

I got talked into going to a shoeing compitition in March here in Denmark. This is the shoe I have to make. Will have to make a pair in 55 minutes. Now I got to work at working faster. So every morning I get up a little earlier and out to the shop and build a pair. Hopefully by march I will have all things figured out.

Mikel

Hi Mike, I am struggleing with makeing a crease. I am conflicted with what heat to work with. I keep thinking if it too hot I will ruin my creaser where I am not fast enough. You made a nice crease in that shoe. Are there any tricks to practiceing this? I have already ruined a creaser, I don't want to ruin another one.

Rick Burten wrote:
I just mark the lateral branch...period...and when a right is very different from the left I might not bother at all. It's not often that I need a mark to tell me the difference between a front and a hind.

Phil Armitage wrote:
Pratice utill you you get it. That is the trick.
I work at a red heat and have ruined alot of steel and some tools along the way.

Phil Armitage wrote:
Phil,
A couple things I do.
1. I mark my steel where I begin and end my crease. This way gives me a start and end point to aim for.

2. Don't worry about hitting so hard, work on getting the crease the same distance from the inside edge of the shoe. Do a marking crease - hitting real lightly so you can follow it later.

3. I use bee's wax to cool my creaser. It also helps the creaser to slide on the metal.

4. I work hot. The cooler the metal gets the harder you got to hit. When stricking I use the round end of my hammer, this focuses the force of your hammer into one small point thus giving you more stricking power on your creaser.

5. Also check what kind of creaser you got. Some are for making creases when the branch is already shaped, some are for when the branch is straight, then bend after the crease.

I am by no means a pro, there are guys on this site much better than me, but these are some of the things that helped me. Oh and lastly - practice. I also have ruined lots of iron and some tools, but that's life.

Mikel