The Mad Ramblings of a Blacksmith: Shoe Horn

We were given the task today of making a shoe horn

out of a peice of 300mm of 25 by 6 bar.

I will be doing this guide in two parts.

Part 1

Heat up the bar and offset it at 45 degrees to a long point, the materail thickeness will constantly change so constantly take it back in with work on the sides. Use the edge of the flat of the anvil so not to hammer the corner of the hammer into the anvil.
Clench the point so you dont burn it off during the next stage, using the end of the bick knock the neck of the point down.
Using the large end of the bick draw down the neck more constantly hitting the bar on the top on three sides to create a section of round, this may cause bends so keep placing on the flat of the anvil and knocking straight.
Below the round section place on the large peices of the bick and start hammering down to draw out the bar. Make sure to keep the bar square at this point.
Hammer it down evenly not to create a ditch in the bar making it alot weaker.
The easiest way to draw down a bar is to heat sections and draw it down section by section instead of one long piece, a long heat is very difficult to keep and even more difficult to keep even.
After hammering it down around half way begin to work on the semi circle on the opposite side, first start with a half hexagonal shape on the end by hitting the hammer at a 45% degree angle at the end of the flat pieces.
While hammering it down it will keep fattening up the metal so be sure to keep putting it on the flat of the anvil and flattening it back up.
Hammer the sides on the very end to start building a more cicrle shape.
Now begin to taper up the rest of the bar to curve, dont reduce the bar work up to the curve.

At this point you want to be working at about 25mm.By this point it should be coming together, this is when you should start working on the end of the point to make it up into a leaf (Check following guides for good leaf techinques)