THE doorman's TOOLS. 203 



upright, for which reason flat feet require more frequent atten- 

 tion than upright, whether the shoes are worn out or not. 

 Many owners only send their horses to the farrier when shoes 

 become loose, but, as a rule, new shoes are required every three 

 to five weeks. 



As we have now to consider the work which more especially 

 falls within the domain of the doorman we may perhaps be 

 permitted to digress for a moment to give a short description 

 of the doorman's tools. A slight deviation has been made from 

 the original plan of the book ; hence the tools used by the 

 doorman in shoe-making as well as in preparing the foot and 

 nailing on the shoe are given here. 



The shoeing hammer is used in conjunction with the buffer 

 to cut the clenches, before removing the old shoe, to drive and 

 turn down the nails, and, in many cases, to twist off the points. 

 The buffer is usually made from a piece of worn-out rasp. 

 Some care is required in tempering it so that it may neither be 

 so brittle as to break when struck, nor so soft as to soon lose 

 its edge. The pincers are also made from worn-out rasps. 

 Thev are used in removing^ the shoe, drawing: down the clenches, 

 and cutting off the points of the nails. 



Drawing-knives may be made from old files. Two or three 

 sizes are needed, the smaller being used for completing the cut- 

 ting out of feet, etc. 



A nail cap is best formed of a heavy block of wood sur- 

 rounded by a rim of leather. The base being heavy there is 

 less chance of the cap being upset. The most widely used 

 rasps are ' Turner's,' 15 inches in length, half file cut and 

 reversible. These are cut by hand, but some very useful 

 machine-cut rasps of American make are now in the market. 

 Toeing-knives are often made from old rasps, though in London 

 pieces of disused sword blade are more commonly used, as they 

 need no preparation. The toeing-knife is very useful when 

 judiciously employed, but in many shops its use is altogether 

 prohibited ; it being found that the ease with which large 

 masses of horn can be removed often tempts hasty or careless 

 workmen to use it instead of the drawing-knife, and so to inflict 

 serious injury on the foot. 



Of the tools used by doormen in shoe-making the sledge 

 hammer is of the pattern shown, with one flat and one convex 



