ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. 81 



shoe is about half worn out the head of the nail is gone, 

 and the shank alone is left in the hole to keep the shoe 

 on. Now, the nails I advise you to use — and yon had 

 better always make them for yourself — should have heads 

 which are straight- sided at the upper part, and gradually 

 die away at the lower part into the shank, so as to form 

 a shoulder which will entirely block the bottom of the 

 nail hole; the point at the end of the shank should be 

 short and broad, to enable you to form good stout clinch- 

 es, which will assist in keeping the shoe firmly in its place 

 till it is quite worn out. Your nails should be made of 

 the very best nail rods yon can get, and they should not 

 be cooled too quickly, but left spread about to cool by de- 

 grees. They should not, however, be allowed to lie in a 

 heap to cool ; the mass keeps in the heat too long, and 

 makes them almost as brittle as if they had been cooled 

 too suddenly. Much time is often wasted in polishing 

 the shoe with the file before it is nailed on ; but all that is 

 really needed is to remove the burs about the holes, file 

 off the sharp edges of the shoe, and round the heels, tak- 

 ing care to apply the file hard to that part of both heels 

 which comes next to the frog, so as to slant it from the 

 ground upward away from the frog; but you must be 

 careful not to make the ground surface of the web at the 

 heels narrower in so doing. Fig. 1 shows the foot surface, 

 and fig. 2 the ground surface of an off fore shoe ; in fig. 

 .1, A is the clip at the toe, B 1 the outer quarter, B 2 the 

 inner quarter, C 1 the outer heel, C 2 the inner heel ; the 

 dark shade represents the seating, and the light the flat 

 surface for the crust to bear upon. In fig. 2, A is the 

 toe turned up out of the line of wear, B 1 the outer, and 

 B 2 the inner quarter, 1 the outer and 2 the inner 



