Stumbled onto a farrier workshop in Kentucky that changed my approach to forging

I was driving home from a family visit near Lexington and saw a sign for a working farrier shop off Highway 68. Stopped in for 20 minutes and ended up staying 2 hours watching this old guy shape a shoe with a cross peen hammer I've never seen used that way. He showed me a trick with the anvil's heel edge to rough out toe clips in about 3 swings instead of the 10 I usually take. Has anyone else picked up a weird regional technique from just wandering into a random shop?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor124d agoMost Upvoted

That old farrier on Highway 68 sounds like a true character. My own experience with random shop wisdom ended with a guy in Missouri showing me a way to set the nail holes that left me with a hammer bruise on my thumb for two weeks. I still can't decide if he was helping me or hazing me. The one-hander for toe clips is something I've heard about but never seen done cleanly in person, most folks I know just make it look like a wrestling match with the anvil. Glad you got the full show instead of just the bill.

ray_campbell464d ago

The cross peen trick on the heel edge sounds wild. I picked up a similar one-hander for toe clips from a shop outside Nashville once. I keep meaning to go back and get the full demo but just never made the time.

noahmartin4d ago

That one-hander for toe clips is exactly the kind of thing I ran into down there... the old timers really have their own shortcuts that just feel more natural once you try them. I spent a whole afternoon practicing that heel edge trick until it stuck, and it's cut my prep time in half for every pair since. Sometimes the best lessons come from just letting yourself get sidetracked off the highway for an hour or two.