NAIL HOLES. 745 



when filled with the nail is as capable of resisting wear as any 

 other part. 



Ordinary horse-shoes are made with the fullering at an equal 

 distance from the outside edge all round the shoe ; hence the nail 

 holes have, of necessity, to be punched with little or no reference 

 to the thickness of the horn their respective nails are intended to 

 pierce. This faulty method of fullering is a consequence of the 

 adoption of the labour-saving plan of making shoes out of straight 

 bars of iron, in which the groove that represents the fullering is 

 parallel to the sides of the bar (Fig. 196, p. 741). Supposing, 

 therefore, that the farthest back nail holes are at the proper 

 distance from the outside edge of the shoe, the nail holes in front 

 of them will be too close to it ; hence, to obtain sufficient hold for 

 the nails, the shoeing smith will be obliged to set the shoe within 

 the circumference of the wall, so that there is a rim of born left 

 round the fore part of the shoe, which rim, for the sake of 

 appearance, has to be rasped down. We have here the explanation 

 for the all-but-universal use of the rasp on the lower part of the 

 wall, among ignorant shoeing smiths, who, having accepted a 

 false system of fullering, are forced, in order to keep the shoe on, 

 to fix it in a manner which necessitates the use of the rasp on the 

 outside. Shoeing smiths who adopt this faulty system of fullering, 

 obtain increased hold for the nails by directing the point of the 

 nail more to the inside in the thicker portions of the hoof than in 

 the thinner parts. If, for convenience' sake, the fullering has to 

 be ready-made in the iron and we do not wish the toes to be 

 shortened (p. 737), it would be well to have the fullering marked 

 out for each shoe, and made with reference to the varying thickness 

 of the hoof. A better plan would be after cutting off the requisite 

 length of iron from the unfullered bar, to fuller for each separate 

 nail hole, and not to carry the fullering all the way round ; for the 

 more the shoe is fullered, the weaker does it become. 



For a foot with a full amount of horn , y^^ths of an inch will 

 be about an average distance that the nail holes should be from 

 the outside edge of the shoe on its foot-surface : a little more 

 towards the toes, and a little less towards the heels. 



As a rule, the nail holes should not be punched before the foot 

 is ready for the shoe to be applied to it ; so- that the smith may 

 avoid the parts of the crust which may have been pierced by old 

 nails, or which may have become chipped or split. 



Fitting the Shoe. 



The external margin of the shoe should accurately Coincide with 

 that of the hoof, except when the toe is shortened. If that portion 



