FORGING A FORE SHOE. 145 



length of iron to form the calkin and to bring it to the proper 

 thickness under the sledge. This is bad practice for two 

 reasons : it is wasting energy to draw down the bar and then 

 ' upset it ' again, and the fibre of the turned down portion 

 cuts through and weakens that of the branch of the shoe just 



Fig. 92.— Partly completed hind shoe. 



where it should be strongest, i.e., just at the commencement of 

 the calkin. In turning down the calkin the shoe is laid fiat 

 on the anvil and steadied by the doorman placing on it his 

 sledge while the actual bending is done by the fireman with 

 his turning hammer. Another fault of the bad workman is 

 not to turn over his calkin square, and thus to render the inner 

 margin of the shoe considerably shorter than the outer. 



The shoe is now returned to the anvil, ground surface 

 upwards, and the calkin flattened down under the turning 

 hammer and sledge. The fireman then ' takes out the 

 hammer-marks ' on the beak of the anvil at the same time 

 that he straightens the shoe, if, as is often the case, the toe be 

 too round, and also rounds the quarter or heel to the necessary 

 degree. The better the workman the less of this work will be 

 needed. The nail holes are next stamped, the outside toe 

 nail hole being stamped rather ' fine ' {i.e., near the outer 

 margin of the shoe) but obliquely, and each succeeding nail 

 hole being rather ' coarser ' but more upright than its pre- 

 decessor. The inside nail holes are stamped somewhat finer, 

 but at about the same inclination, or perhaps a trifle more 

 upright than the outer. 



In making a double-heeled shoe the above process is re- 



K 



