THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES.
Horse-shoes are made either by hand or machinery. In this country most
are hand-made--the front shoes from new bar-iron, and the hind from
old shoes welded together and drawn out under heavy hammers. Probably
no method of working iron gives such good results as this in producing
a hard, tough shoe that will withstand wear. The custom of the trade
is to keep a stock of shoes suitable for all the regular customers.
From this stock are selected sizes and forms, which are then specially
fitted for each foot.
Various materials have been tried in the production of horse-shoes.
Leather, compressed and hardened, has been tried, and failed.
Vulcanite was experimented with unsuccessfully. Paper, or more
correctly, a compressed _papier maché_, has also been tested but proved
unsatisfactory. Steel has been pretty largely tried in many different
forms, but it is difficult to temper. As nearly all shoes are applied
immediately after being fitted they have to be rapidly cooled in water,
and steel treated in this way is made so hard that, if the shoes do
not break, they are dangerously slippery on most paved streets. As a
material for shoes good malleable iron has no equal. It can be obtained
in bars of various sizes to suit any form and weight of shoe, and the
old shoes made from it may be worked up over and over again.
The chief objects to be attained in any particular pattern or form of
shoe are--that it be light, easily and safely retained by few nails,
capable of wearing three weeks or a month, and that it afford good
foot-hold to the horse. All shoes should be soundly worked and free
from flaws.
The first shoes were doubtless applied solely to protect the foot from
wear. The simplest arrangement would then be either a thin plate of
iron covering the ground surface of the foot, or a narrow rim fixed
merely round the lower border of the wall. Experience teaches that
these primitive forms can be modified with advantage, and that certain
patterns are specially adapted to our artificial conditions. A good
workman requires no directions as to how he should work, and it is
doubtful if a bad one would be benefitted by any written rules, but it
should be noted that a well-made shoe may be bad for a horse's foot,
whilst a very rough, badly-made one may, when properly fitted, be a
useful article. To make and apply horse-shoes a man must be more than
a clever worker in iron--he must be a farrier, and that necessitates a
knowledge of the horse's foot and the form of shoe best adapted to its
wants.
=Weight of Shoes.= The lighter a shoe can be made the better. Weight
is a disadvantage we are obliged to put up with to obtain wear, for
the frequent removal of shoes is only a little less injurious to the
hoof than working with none at all. It is not to be understood that
the heaviest shoe gives the most wear; on the contrary, a heavy shoe
may have the iron so distributed as to increase the rapidity of wear,
and a shoe of half the weight properly formed may last longer. It is
no uncommon thing to find worn-out shoes still weighing more than a
new shoe which will, on the same horse, give a longer period of wear.
When a horse wears his shoes out very rapidly, the indication to the
farrier is not simply to increase the weight, but to see if he can
obtain more wear by altering the form and distributing the iron in a
different way. A tired horse wears his shoes much more rapidly than a
fresh and active one. Continued slipping wears away a shoe out of all
proportion to the work done by a horse having a firm foot-hold. These
two different conditions may be partially due to the shoes, for a heavy
shoe tires the leg, and broad flat shoes favour slipping. Some horses
wear one special part of the shoe excessively--as a rule, either at the
toe or the heel--and this is better met by turning up the worn part out
of the line of wear than by thickening it and so increasing weight.
Besides, a heavy shoe requires a greater number or a larger size of
nails to retain it securely in position, and this is a disadvantage.
It has often been asserted that a horse "goes better" in a heavy shoe
than a light one, and that this is due to the heavier shoe acting as a
protection to the foot and warding off concussion. If the term "goes
better" merely means that he lifts his foot higher and consequently
bends his knee more, I do not deny the assertion. The reason of this is
not that the horse feels less concussion and therefore goes freer. It
is an exaggeration of the natural movements, due simply to the horse
with weight imposed on his feet having to use the muscles of his arms
more to lift that weight. The same thing can be brought about by tying
bags of shot on to the hoof, which is done to cultivate "action." The
healthy foot requires no artificial aids against concussion, but when
a foot becomes tender from bad shoeing it may sometimes be relieved by
adding to the substance and weight of a shoe.
The following are about the average weights, per shoe, of horses
standing 16 hands high:
Race Horses 2 to 4 ounces.
Hacks and Hunters 15 to 18 "
Carriage Horses 20 to 30 "
Omnibus " 3 to 3-1/2 lbs.
Dray " 4 to 5 "
=Thickness and Width of Shoes.= To obtain the necessary amount of wear
from shoes they must be increased either in thickness or width, and it
will assist us in estimating the relative value of these conditions
if we shortly consider their advantages and disadvantages. I may say
at once that no sound foot requires a wide shoe merely as "cover"
or protection for the sole. Defective soles may sometimes require
protection, but sound ones never, and we may therefore put aside
entirely all claims made for width of shoe under pretence that it gives
a valuable protection to the foot. A shoe should be as wide as the
natural bearing surface of the foot, so that it may occupy the whole
of the space offered by nature as useful for bearing. Even when it is
wider no harm is done until the width is such as to afford a lodgement
for stones, etc., between the concave sole and the web of the shoe.
A thick shoe raises the foot from the ground and thus removes the frog
from bearing--a very decided disadvantage. It also requires the larger
sizes of nails to fill up the deep nail holes, and very often renders
the direction of the nail holes a matter of some difficulty.
The width of a shoe may beneficially vary. It should be widest at
the toe to afford increased surface of iron where wear is greatest.
It should be narrowest at the heels so as not to infringe upon the
frog, nor yet to protrude greatly beyond the level of the wall. The
thickness of a shoe should not vary unless, perhaps, it be reduced in
the quarters. Heel and toe should be of the same thickness so as to
preserve a level bearing. Excess of thickness at the toe puts a strain
on the back tendons, whilst excess at the heels tends to straighten the
pastern.
=The surfaces of Shoes.= There are two surfaces of the shoe which
claim attention, one which is applied to the foot, and another which
rests on the ground. The form of these surfaces may be varied greatly,
but of course the foot-surface presents much less necessity and less
opportunity for alterations than the ground-surface. The foot-surface
of a shoe must be formed in accordance with the requirements of
the horse's foot, and no other consideration should be allowed to
materially modify it. The ground-surface may be altered to suit the
tastes and prejudices of the owner as well as the requirements of the
horse and the peculiarity of roadways.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.--A level, flat bearing-surface.]
=The Foot-Surface.= It is quite obvious that the surface of the shoe
upon which the hoof has to rest should be regular and even; that it
should not consist of hills and holes or grooves and ridges. I should
not have mentioned such a very evident matter but that in large towns,
the cheaper and poorer classes of shoeing commonly possess this very
fault. When shoes are made from thin, wide, old iron tyres they are
"buckled" on one surface, and to hide this the farrier puts that side
to the foot so that it is not noticed until it causes damage. There
are three or four forms of foot-surface adopted by farriers, all of
which have distinctive features, and some of which have very grave
evils. There is the plain flat surface which is given to all narrow
shoes, to hunting shoes, and to some heavier and wider shoes. So long
as the sole is healthy and arched this is a very good form. All hind
shoes have a flat foot-surface, and most fore shoes might have it with
advantage. It utilises the whole of the natural bearing surface, and
must of necessity afford a firmer basis for the foot to rest upon than
a more limited surface. The fore feet are not so constantly arched in
the sole as the hind. Sometimes they are flat and occasionally convex.
If a shoe be intended for use on all feet--on feet with convex and flat
soles as well as those properly formed--a wide flat foot surface would
often cause injury by pressing unevenly upon the sole. To avoid this
injury in less than five per cent of feet, and to save the trouble of
keeping in stock shoes of different forms, the flat foot-surface of
front shoes has been replaced by a bevelled or "seated" surface. (Fig.
33).
[Illustration: Fig. 33.--A "seated" bearing surface.]
This form is very widely used. It consists of a narrow flat surface
next the outer circumference of the shoe, about equal in width to the
border of the wall, and within that, of a bevelled surface, sloped
off so as to avoid any pressure on a flat sole. This "seated" surface
is not positively injurious but it limits the bearing to the wall,
and neglects to utilise the additional bearing surface offered by the
border of the sole. If shoes were to be made all alike no shoe is so
generally useful and safe as one with a foot-surface of this form,
but it is evident that when the sole of the foot is concave there is
nothing gained by making half the foot-surface of the shoe also concave.
There are two other forms of foot-surface on shoes. In one the surface
slopes gradually from the outer to the inner edge of the shoe, like
the side of a saucer. In the other the incline is reversed and runs
from the inner edge downwards to the outer. This last form is not
often used, and was invented with the object of spreading or widening
the foot to which it was attached. The inventor seemed to think that
contraction of a foot was an active condition to be overcome by force,
and that expansion might be properly effected by a plan of constantly
forcing apart the two sides of the foot. The usual result of wearing
such a shoe is lameness, and it achieves no good which cannot be as
well reached by simply letting the foot alone.
[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Foot-surface sloped outwards.]
[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Foot-surface sloped inwards.]
The foot-surface which inclines downwards and inwards like a saucer
acts in an exactly opposite way to the other. The wall cannot rest
on the outer edge of the shoe, and consequently falls within it, the
effect being that at every step the horse's foot is compressed by the
saucer-shaped bearing. This form of surface (Fig. 35) is frequently
seen, and is at all times bad and unnecessary. Even when making a shoe
for the most convex sole it is possible to leave an outer bearing
surface, narrow but level, which will sustain weight without squeezing
the foot.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Foot-surface level at Heels.]
At the heels the foot-surface of all shoes should be flat--not
seated--so that a firm bearing may be obtained on the wall and the
extremity of the bar. No foot is convex at the heels, therefore there
is no excuse for losing any bearing surface by seating the heels
of a shoe to avoid uneven pressure. Fig. 36 rather exaggerates the
"unseated" portion of shoe.
=The Ground-Surface.= As I have said, this may vary indefinitely.
Sometimes it is a plain flat surface, broken only by the holes made for
nails or by the "fullering" which affords not only space for the nails
but some grip on the ground. When a shoe is "fullered" the groove made
should be deep, so as to let the nail-head well down, and wide so as to
afford room for giving the nail a proper direction. If the fullering
be continued round the toe of a shoe by a good workman neatness is
given, but when a clip is drawn the iron is so reduced that some wear
is sacrificed. If only an inch at the toe be unfullered, the solid iron
affords more wear just where it is wanted.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Concave ground-surface.]
The concave shoe, often described as a hunting-shoe, presents a very
different ground-surface from that just referred to. It rests upon
two ridges with the fullering between, and on the inner side of these
the iron is suddenly sloped off. This shoe is narrow and flat on the
foot-surface, and is specially formed to give a good foot-hold and to
be secure on the hoof.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Double-grooved ground-surface.]
A Rodway shoe has two longitudinal grooves and three ridges on its
ground-surface. The outer groove carries the nails, and the inner
groove lightens the shoe and increases the foot-hold. It is not
the number of grooves or ridges that prevents slipping; it is the
absence of a continuous flat surface of iron, and the existence
of irregularities which become filled up with sand and grit. A
four-grooved shoe has no more anti-slipping properties than a
three-grooved, and a one-grooved shoe is as good as either, although it
cannot stand the same amount of wear.
Transverse ridges and notches have also been tried as ground-surfaces
for shoes, but offer very little, if any, better grip than the
longitudinal grooves. Their great disadvantage is that they cannot be
made deep enough without weakening the shoe, whilst if shallow they are
worn out before the shoe has been long in wear.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Ground-surfaces, notches, projections, ridges.]
=A Calkin= is the name given to the extremity of a shoe when turned
down at the heels. Calkins are used on most hind shoes and, in some
parts of the country, on fore shoes. They are supposed to be the
most convenient and effective means of giving good foot-hold. This
supposition is correct when a horse travels on soft ground or on
streets so paved that a space is left between each course of stones.
They are of very little use on asphalte or wood pavement, and not much
more use on roller-made macadam. With light modern carriages and level
modern roads calkins are quite unnecessary, and better means of giving
foot-hold may be substituted. It is a fact that horses when shoes are
new and calkins prominent do their work without slipping, and that
when the calkins are worn down the horse moves with less confidence
and security. This does not prove that calkins are necessary. It must
be remembered that horses possess a power of adapting themselves
to circumstances, but having learned to rely upon any artificial
assistance they are the more helpless, for a time, on its withdrawal.
Calkins assist the horse for a time, but after the calkin is worn
down the horse is in a worse position than if he had never become
accustomed to its assistance. Of course on soft ground, especially
grass, calkins afford a firmer grip than any other contrivance. On the
other hand, their constant use lifts the frog out of bearing and causes
it to waste, thus spoiling the action of the natural provision against
slipping. Level shoes on the hind feet promote sound, prominent frogs,
and give firm foot-hold for all light horses. Even omnibus horses,
now that the vehicles are supplied with effective foot-brakes, may
advantageously be worked without calkins. On country roads, especially
when the district is hilly or the load is heavy, calkins may be
requisite, and must then be made to do as little harm as possible.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.]
The wear of a shoe is affected by the height of a calkin. The more
the heel is raised the greater the amount of wear at the toe. Many
shoes when worn out at the toe show very little effects of wear at
other parts, and the question arises how best to increase the wear
of the shoe without increasing its weight. In Fig. 39 three diagrams
are presented in which dotted lines show the effect of wear. At (_a_)
the shoe is of even thickness throughout--from heel to toe--and the
line of wear shows that when the shoe is worn out a great amount of
iron remains. At (_b_) the quarters of the shoe are made thinner and
the toe is made thicker, so that with no increase of weight but by a
better distribution of the iron, increased wear is provided for at
the part where it is most required. At (_c_) is shown a shoe similar
in form to that at (_b_) but differently fitted. The toe is turned
slightly upwards, and the result is that a larger portion of iron
is brought into wear. In the case of very hard-wearing horses that
scrape out the toe of the ordinary shoe in ten or fourteen days this
form of fitting adds considerably to the durability of the shoe, and
so preserves the foot from the evil of too frequent removal of shoes,
whilst avoiding any increase of weight. Without calkins wear is more
evenly distributed, and the toe is not worn away disproportionately to
the rest of the shoe.
[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Two calkins--the low square one preferable.]
A calkin throws the leg and foot, to some extent, out of their
proper position. A very high calkin is not only objectionable, it
is unnecessary. Not much prominence is required to afford a catch
or stop. Excessive height is usually given to meet wear, and this
can be obtained equally well by increasing the width and breadth. I,
therefore, recommend that when calkins are used they should be low,
square and broad. The further under a foot the calkin is placed, the
greater is the raising of the heel, therefore calkins should always be
accompanied by a long shoe. The further back a calkin be placed the
less it interferes with the natural position of the foot.
Calkins render a horse liable to tread the opposite foot, and the
higher and sharper the calkin the greater the injury inflicted. To
avoid this injury the inner heel of a shoe frequently has no calkin,
but is made at the same level as the outer by narrowing and raising
the iron at the heel, forming what is called a wedge heel. This is not
an advisable form of shoe as it has on the inner heel a skate-shaped
formation, most favourable to slipping, and on the outer a catch--an
arrangement tending to twist the foot each time the catch takes hold of
the ground. If calkins are used at all they should be of equal height
and on both heels of the shoe.
In Scotland, and in the North of England, heavy horses are shod, fore
and hind, not only with calkins but also with toe-pieces, and the
owners assert that the horses could not do the work without them. That
horses do similar work in the South without calkins and toe-pieces
rather shakes one's faith in the assertion, but it must be remembered
that nearly all paved streets in the North have a division left between
the rows of stones in which the toe-piece finds a firm resisting
surface. I believe also that the average load drawn is greater in the
North than in the South. One thing in favour of toe-pieces must be
acknowledged--they, with the calkins, restore the natural position of
the foot and preserve the level of the shoe. On the larger draught
horses the toe-pieces permit a lighter shoe to be used, as the portion
of iron between heels and toe need not be thick to resist wear. It only
requires to be strong enough to support weight and much less iron is
therefore used.
The heavy dray horse of the North, shod with toe-pieces and calkins, is
never worked at a trot. In London all horses are trotted--a proceeding
which reflects discredit upon the intelligence of the managers.
I must mention another objection to calkins. They increase the tendency
to "cut," and many horses will cease "cutting" after calkins are
removed and a level shoe has been adopted.
=Nails and nail holes.= It is necessary to consider these together
as they are dependent on each other. Shoes were first nailed to the
feet by flat-headed nails, and probably it was a long time before the
wedge-headed nail was thought of. When the nail head fits into the nail
hole it may retain the shoe till it is worn as thin as a penny, but if
only the shank of the nail enters the shoe, the head is soon worn off
and the shoe becomes loose. Within the last 20 years the horse-shoe
nail trade has been revolutionised by the introduction of machinery.
Machine-made nails are now almost entirely used, and the three or four
leading brands are as near perfection as were the very best hand-made.
Practically there is no fault to find with them, and as they are
ready-pointed for driving they save time and labour in the forge. They
are made in various sizes, and numbered from 2 up to 16. Only the very
best iron can be used to produce good nails. Nothing is dearer than bad
nails which cause injury to the foot and loss of shoes.
[Illustration: Fig. 41.]
A good nail should present certain forms of head, neck and shank. The
head should not be too broad at the top or it may become fixed in the
nail-hole only by its upper edge, as shown in the middle diagram Fig.
41, and when the shoe has had a few days wear the nail loses its hold,
and the shoe is loose. The neck should not be too thick, as it is then
liable to press on the sensitive foot and to break the wall. The shank
should not be too wide or too thick. The point should not be too long
or too tapered as this leaves insufficient metal to form a good clinch.
There are two methods of putting nail-holes into shoes--by "fullering"
and by "stamping." A stamped shoe is one in which the nail holes are
merely punched at certain distances, so as to leave four-sided tapered
holes of the exact shape of a nail-head. A fullered shoe is one having
a groove round the circumference through which the nail-holes are
punched. Both processes, when well-done, admit of nails being driven
into the hoof with equal safety and ease.
Whether stamped or fullered, there are a few more important points to
remember about the nail-holes. The wall is not of the same thickness
throughout, but becomes thinner towards the heels. The inner side of
the foot is also somewhat thinner and more upright than the outer.
The safest position, then, for the nails is in the front half of the
foot, but should this position not present sound horn they may be
placed further back. The danger of placing nails near the heels is due
entirely to the greater risk in driving them through the thin horn.
There need be no fear of interfering with expansion.
The distance of the nail-holes from the outer edge of the shoe should
depend upon the thickness of the horn of the wall, and therefore be
greater in large shoes than in smaller, and greater at the toe than at
the heels of the same shoe. When the nail-holes are all near to the
circumference of the shoe (Fig. 42 B.) they are described as "fine";
when they are all placed far from the edge (Fig. 42 A.) they are called
"coarse." When the nail-holes are too "fine" a nail has to be driven
high up in the wall to obtain a firm hold, and this is liable to split
the horn. When nail-holes are too "coarse" the nail in driving goes
dangerously near the sensitive foot. The evils of coarse and fine
nailing depend a great deal upon the method of fitting the shoes. When
shoes are fitted full to the foot (when the outer circumference of the
shoe is greater than the circumference of the wall) "coarse" nail-holes
are brought to about their best position. When shoes are fitted close
(_i.e._, when their outer edge is brought within the border of the
wall) "fine" nail-holes are brought to their best position in relation
to the foot. It need hardly be added that the fit of a shoe ought not
to be subject to the position of the nail-holes, but that these should
be properly placed so that fitting be guided only by the requirements
of the foot.
[Illustration: Fig. 42.--Wrongly placed Nail-holes.]
Each nail-hole when properly placed--neither too coarse nor too
fine--should be punched straight through the shoe and not inclined
either inwards or outwards, except at the toe where the slope of the
wall is followed by slightly pitching in. When a fuller is used the
groove made should be wide; then the farrier has more command over the
direction of his nail. If the nail-hole be pitched in, the nail must
take that direction and is liable to wound the foot. If the nail-hole
be pitched out, the nail is prevented from taking sufficient hold of
the horn.
[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Nail-holes "pitched" in and out.]
The position and direction of the nail-hole control the passage of a
nail through a shoe and into the hoof. The man who drives a nail is
usually blamed for laming a horse, but in most cases it would be more
just to blame the man who made the nail-holes or fitted the shoe and so
rendered safe driving difficult or impossible.
Each nail-hole should be as far as possible from the other--say,
from an inch to an inch and a half apart. When the two front or toe
nail-holes are put too far back the whole are crowded, or the last are
pushed back too near the heels.
For small shoes four or five nail-holes are sufficient. Medium-sized
shoes should have from five to seven, and the heavy shoes of big
draught horses must have eight. The number of nail-holes need not
always be increased in proportion to the size of the shoe, because as
the weight of shoe is increased so is the size of the nail, and an
extra strong nail may take the place of additional ones. The fewer
nails in a foot the better, but as a properly-placed nail does no harm,
and as the loss of a shoe may be very serious, it is better to have one
too many than one too few.
[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Machine-made Shoe--Fore-foot.]
[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Machine-made Shoe--Hind-foot.]
=Machine-made Shoes.= Horse-shoeing is distinctly an art requiring
special skill for its proper performance. It is also one of the most
laborious of all skilled trades. Anything which lightens mechanical
toil tends to improve the mental and artistic qualities of the workman,
and all applications of machinery which lessen the heavy manual labour
of the farrier may therefore be looked upon as improvements. Machinery
has lightened the labour of shoe-making in two ways--by supplying
various patterns of grooved and bevelled iron in bars, which only
require cutting into lengths and turning round to form a shoe, and also
by making shoes all ready to be fitted to the foot. Machinery has not
yet turned out a shoe as good and durable and well finished as the best
workman can produce by hand, but it can produce many forms of shoes as
good for all practical purposes, and it has this advantage--all are
alike. Bad workmen make bad shoes, but a machine, once able to produce
a good model, can repeat it exactly, therefore machine-made shoes of
a proper pattern are superior to all but the very best hand-made
shoes. Economy, of course, is on the side of the article produced by
machinery, and all large firms keeping their own farriers find a great
saving by buying the ready-made shoes. Under conditions when shoes must
be fitted without a fire, as in coal mines, or in the case of armies
during a campaign, the machine-made article has the advantages of
regularity of form and a true level bearing surface.
[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Sections of rolled bar iron.]
In little shops where often only one man is at work, either
machine-made shoes or prepared bar iron offer great conveniences.
The prepared bars can be bought seated on the foot-surface and with
a single or double groove on the ground-surface. Very narrow bars
suitable for tips, "Charlier," or light hack shoes are now widely used,
and a special bar--flat on the foot-surface, concave to the ground--can
be obtained which only requires cutting into lengths and turning round
to form a first-class hunting-shoe.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Sections of light pattern bar iron.]
Both prepared bars and machine-made shoes must be judged by their form
and by the material used in their manufacture. Some are better than
others, but all have to contend with a large amount of trade prejudice
which has little basis except in the matter of the hind shoes--here
machinery has not yet reached perfection.