Part two of the Shoe Horn Guide

The first thing that you want to do is too make your point end into a leaf

a guide is coming very soon to show how to make leaves

that will detail how to do it.

After getting your leaf point on one side this walkthrough will show how to get it into

a more of a horseshoe shape.

 

1. Heat up the fishtail end first, get a good even heat acroos all of this end. You are going to be adding texture with a cross pein hammer across the flat of the anvil, this is commonly known as Cross Peining.
2. Striking at 90% using heavy blows texture the fish tail, using the cross pein will seperate the metal to each side, your looking to double this end. Make sure you have got this constant texture across this one side.
3. Using very light blows, tap the sides to keep it in line and straight.
4. Get a good heat across all this end again and place it in the step down on the end of the anvil ear the bick, using the cross pein again hammer it into the gap making a U shape with the metal. Make sure to have the untextured side upwards and the textured side into the gap.
5. Now you want to bring across a wooden block, find a U shape in the wood, heat up the metal and now using a ball pein hammer strike the untextured side into the U shape giving the same shape across your metal. You should end up with a really good curve in the metal.

 This is what yours should be looking like.

1. Now onto the leaf side, you want to clench the curve side as your done with that side and it will make for easier handling. Heat up the section below the round neck of the leaf, you want to hammer this down into a octagon.
2. Strike it on the corners, striking in blows of three along the corner then changing to the next corner. Try and keep your blows to a similar strength so it looks similar all the way round.
3. At this point it should run square up to your octagon section then into a section of round for the neck.
4. About 100mm down from the leaf you want to mark off, heat up that section then strike it over the end of the anvil giving a relative 90 degree bend in the metal. It is essentail you make this first bend because later on it will be incredibley difficult to make this bend.
5. Now heat the entire bent section and place voer the end of the bick, using glancing blows acroos the metal start to tap it into a curve, letting the bick do the work.
6. At this point it should be starting to resemble a circle, keep glancing it across the bick till it makes a full circle, straighten it out and make sure your happy with the circle.
7. Now you want to do the tricky bit of this piece, your going to tap the leaf very gentley round so it is pointing down towards the curved end. Make sure your blows are gnetle so you dont end up putting a new bend in it.
8. If you have followed these steps your should have got yourself a Shoehorn, they make great gifts for your nan im told.

 The top picture is how yours should be looking about now.

The second was my first attempt at it, as you can see i made a few mistakes, the

biggest being i ran to help another blacksmith and left my leaf in the fire

and it burned off.