Spent 45 minutes chasing a hot nail that kept bending on me

Working on a big draft cross yesterday in Memphis and every nail I tried on the inside heel kept curling up no matter what I did. Turns out my anvil was sitting on a uneven patch of gravel and throwing my angle off by a few degrees. Has anyone else had a simple setup issue waste way more time than the actual shoeing?

3 comments

3 Comments

garcia.laura18d ago

An uneven ground will mess you up every single time. Shoed a horse in a muddy lot once and spent a whole hour fighting a clip that kept rolling because my foot kept sinking. A piece of 2x4 or a flat paver stone under your anvil base can fix it quick. Also check your hammer face too, a little burr can grab a nail and twist it. Glad you caught the angle before you lost your mind completely.

miles_sanchez18d ago

@garcia.laura nailed it with the paver stone tip. That sinking footing is the worst, makes every strike feel off. Had a similar thing happen with a burr on my rounding hammer once, kept catching the nail head and I thought I was losing my touch. Cleaned it up with a file and it was night and day. Sometimes the simplest fix is the one you overlook.

thea_mitchell2018d ago

My buddy Dave had a cheap farrier rasp that kept clogging and he swore the steel was garbage. Turned out his anvil was sitting on a loose cinderblock that wobbled every time he set a nail. He put down two stacked pieces of plywood and the rasp worked fine after that.