FORGING A FORE-SHOE. 143 



vigorously, and once the fire is found to be going well a few 

 shovelsful of damp coal are scattered over all. During the 

 time the first doorman is preparing the fire and heating the 

 bars the fireman and second doorman will have cut a couple of 

 dozen lenoths of iron. 



Forging a Fore Shoe. — As soon as the first pair of bars is seen 

 to have reached a regular bright cherry-red heat, the fireman 

 grasps a bar in his tongs and, withdrawing it, lays one end on 

 the head of a sledge held by doorman No. 1, near the heel of 

 the anvil, and, allowing it to rest lengthwise on the anvil, strikes 

 with his turning liammer near the centre in turn with the 

 second doorman, who, of course, uses a sledge. He then lays 

 it edge up on the flat of the anvil, and the two doormen, strik- 

 ing alternately, and w^orking from toe to heel, draw down the 

 bar and partly form (bend) the shoe. The bar is then trans- 

 ferred to the beak of the anvil, and, still working from toe to 

 heel, is still more drawn down, while, by reason of the manner 

 in w^hich it is held, the foot surface is fashioned rather wider 



Fig. 91.— Partly completed fore shoe. 



than the ground surface, to allow for subsequent dilatation at 

 the ground surface caused by punching nail holes. Shoes 

 to be afterwards fullered must be made much wider, as the 

 fullering drives out the edge of the shoe to a considerable 

 extent. It is at this staae, when the shoe is transferred to the 

 beak, that it acquires the form necessary for a right or left foot 

 as the case may be. By turning his hand outwards, so that 

 the knuckles come upwards, the fireman gives the bevel for a 

 light-sided shoe ; on the other hand, by turning the hand 



