Is the steel/iron in horse and mule shoes useful for anything in particular? How about square nails?
“This is perhaps a rather useless sidenote. In his book "A History of Spanish Firearms", James Lavin discusses the popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries of forging gun barrels from old horseshoes, quoting a gunsmith who reported that the iron from horeshoes in the Biscayne region was the best, being more ductile and having fewer imperfections (flaws) than new steel. Alonso Martinez is credited with having forgea a barrel entirely from horseshoe nails, "something no one has imitated to this day because of the extreme cost and tedious labour".”
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