The complete guide to blacksmithing and horseshoeing

Without doubt the most thoroughly reliable handbook of horseshoeing is the German textbook of Professor Lungwitz, director of the Shoeing School of the Royal Veterinary College at Dresden. The conditions in Germany are almost identical with those in this country, and the Shoeing School superintended by Professor Lungwitz may safely be regarded as the best in the world. Certainly there is none like it in the United States.

But Professor Lungwitz 's discussion of the anatomy of the horse's foot is too technical for the ordinary reader, and his book gives no suggestions on the elementary principles of
blacksmithing, which are prerequisites of any attempt at shoeing a horse. To make the present handbook complete, these directions have been added, and the text of Professor Lungwitz 's
book has been somewhat condensed and simplified. Moreover, a chapter on carriage-ironing, with other general information, has been added, that the manual may be thoroughly practical and as complete as possible.

It is certainly true that every owner and driver of horses, as well as every person who professes to be a horses hoer, should have a thorough knowledge of the horse's foot and the requirements in the way of shoeing. But how many do! Even farriers know no more of the horse's hoof, and the scientific requirements for obtaining the best results in any given case, than they have been able to pick up in the exercise of their trade. This kind of knowledge is notoriously imperfect. It will never improve. And owners and drivers are for the most part so ignorant that they could not tell a front foot from a hind foot, or tell the difference between a job of shoeing that would make a horse lame in a week, and one that would cure the same lameness in even less time. And
this ignorance costs the owner many a hardearned dollar. No better investment can be made than a little time spent in the study of the horse's feet, by the help of a really scientific manual. But it is better not to study any book at all than one that is unreliable.

It is believed that the present volume will meet the popular need better than any other that has yet been issued. The authoritativeness of anything from the pens of Professor Lungwitz and Mr. Adams is unimpeachable, while the publishers have given the volume a practical character which must inevitably appeal to the common sense of the average reader.

The Forge and Blast. This is the term usually applied to the blacksmith's open fire or hearth, where iron is heated by agency of a blast. Fig. 1 shows an elevation of a form of hearth very common in this country. When of the largest size, this hearth is a kind of trough of brickwork, about six feet square, elevated several inches from the floor of the shop. One side is extended into a vertical wall leading to the chimney, the lower end of which terminates in a head, or hood of stout iron plates, which catch the smoke from the open hearth and guide it to the chimney. The back wall of the forge is provided with a thick cast iron plate, level with the hearth.

The bellows should be double, that is, divided by a horizontal partition, which separates the entire bellows into a working or under part, and a regulating or upper part. By lowering the under- part after it has been raised, the valve in its bottom will be forced open by the pressure of the atmosphere, and the lower compartment will fill with air. On raising the bottom, the lower valve closes, and the air in the under part is compressed and forced through the valve in the partition, whence the weight of the top drives it through the tuyere or nozzle.

The Anvil. The tool next in importance to the forge is the anvil (Fig. 4). This is not only of interest as a tool of the trade, but it requires some investigation, since the steeling of the anvil is a matter of importance. Anvils for heavy work are generally square blocks of iron, with steel faces. In many instances, however, it is merely a cast iron block with chilled face. The common smith's anvil is made entirely of wrought iron, and the upper part or face is covered with hardened steel. The making of an anvil is heavy work, as the whole of it is performed by hand. Anvils vary in weight from less than one hundred pounds to over five hundred. For their manufacture two large fires are required. The principal portion, or core of the anvil - a large square block of iron - is heated to the welding heat at a certain point or corner in one of the fires, and the piece of iron that is to form a projecting end is heated at another fire. When the core and the corner have both reached the welding heat, they are wrought together upon an anvil and joined by heavy swing hammers. In this way the four corners of the base are welded to the body in four heats. After this the projection for the shank hole, and lastly the beak, are welded to the core. The whole is then wrought into a proper shape by paring and trimming for the reception of the face. The steel used for this purpose is, or ought to be, the best kind of sheer steel; blistered steel is, however, frequently substituted. The anvil and steel are heated in different fires until they attain the proper temperature.

The steeled anvil is next heated to redness, and brought under a fall of water of at least the size of its face and of three or four feet head. After hardening, it is smoothed upon a grindstone, and finally polished with emery. Small anvils such as are used by silversmiths are polished with a crocus and have a mirror-like face.

The expensiveness of wrought iron anvils has induced their manufacture of cast iron. The common anvil, however, cannot be made of cast iron, for the beak would not be strong enough.