Hey there blacksmiths

[BillinOregon]

Is the steel/iron in horse and mule shoes useful for anything in particular? How about square nails?

 

[Wildpony]

Well you can prett much make them into anything depending on how much hammering you want to do.

One of my old favorites was to cut the horse shoe in the middle and make a spoon and fork set using the curved ends, with the holes, as handles.

You can make a pretty good letter opener if you are any good at beveling, or a steak turner, etc.

the steel is good enough for any of those purposes. I wouldnt use it for knife steel or anything but a blacksmith us usually only limited by his or her own creativity.

 

[J.D.]

Maybe make trivets out of 'em. Or legs with a penny foot for other items. OR, weld a bunch of 'em together and forge a barrel out of 'em. I know that's a stretch, but you ask. :blah:

Seriously, horseshoes could be made into gunparts,
S hooks, or nearly anything you can dream up.

A friend makes rings out of horsehoe nails. They are a big hit at tourist sites and blackmithing events.
J.D.

 

[ameling]

There's nothing special about the metal in horse shoes. Very old ones could be made from wrought iron, more recent ones are made from mild or low-carbon steel. Their main value in making something else is to leave part of the original horse shoe shape in the final object - to show what it was made from.

Old square nails tend to be wrought iron or low-carbon steel. Nothing special. Modern square nails (also called cement nails) tend to be fairly high carbon - so that they can be heat-treated to be able to be hammered into cement. That's also why you can't "clinch" them over without them breaking. But they do make very good small punches and chisels - because of that high carbon content.

I hope these simple thoughts help.

yhs
Mike Ameling

 

[renovato]

I bet them nails would be great for makin' vinegar stains with.

 

[BillinOregon]

Fellas, thanks for the replies. Mike: I will hve to see if I can find some of those high-carbon nails to fool with. As to wrought or not, I guess I need to start learning how to use the spark test to see what I've got.

 

[twobirds]

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".

 

[Tinker2]

Twobirds

“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".”

That the stub twist barrels?



Tinker2

 

[WRussell]

There were barrels made from pieces of horseshoes, and there were also barrels made from the nails. Apparently it's the source of the iron that was the determining factor in the quality.

There were people (probably mostly kids) who were paid to gather scrap iron and steel and take it to the barrel forgers.

Some of the old barrels, if you etch them, show good size lumps of different metal scattered randomly - no twisting involved. Some famous makers used this method, and made some nice thin barrels. Hard to see how they would be strong enough. I wonder how many went back in the forge after failing proof.

 

[CrackStock]

This is why I like a yellow mustard finish on a gun barrel. It believe that it mimicks that look.

CS

 

[ameling]

Almost all pieces of wrought iron have some "inclusions" of slag and scale in them. The fewer they have and the smaller those inclusions are, the better the iron. When nails are forged up, they are made small and thin. As you forge the nails, any inclusions or flaws would show up pretty quickly, so finished nails would have very few inclusions left, and be very good/pure iron. Large chunks of wrought iron can hide a lot of inclusions inside. So welding up lots of small pieces of wrought iron would make sure that you had some pretty good iron in your finished gun barrel.

Plus, as you work wrought iron in a charcoal fire, you add small amounts of carbon to it - thus turning it into steel - of varing quality. It's a little like case-hardening, but that carbon gets blended into all of the iron as you forge weld the small bits together.

So welding up a gun barrel from horse shoes and nails would give you a barrel with pretty good iron/steel in it.

I'm always amazed at the type, quality, and quantity of work that was done in the past with such simple tools and knowledge.

Just some humble thoughts to share.

yhs
Mike Ameling