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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (51529)	5/31/2000 7:39:00 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

That's what I was wondering when this came up the first time we discussed these spikes... A horseshoe nail is made that way and that's what makes it turn "outwards" towards the outside of the horse's hoof when you start to drive it into the "white line" in the sole of the horse's hoof. It it didn't "bend", it would go straight up into the deeper area in the white line and cripple the horse. When it curls and comes out through the side of the hoof, the blacksmith uses a tool to twist the sharp point off of the nail to shorten it and then "clinches" the nail (kind of a bending/crumpling effect) which makes the nail grip the outside of the hoof so that it can't slide back into the hoof and loosen over time. When it's time to remove the shoe, the blacksmith just nips off the clinches, or shears them with a chisel and uses a set of nippers to pull the shoe away from the sole of the hoof... Not to say that a railroad spike works exactly the same way, but my guess is that it actually does... (Croc imagines DAR population's eyes glazing over during this little soliloquy.. better stop...;-}