Forge a hoof scratch

In this project I made a hoof scratch as a gift to a friend - made out of a horse shoe of course.

I do have a few different forges depending on what to forge. The induction forge is great for thick and straight materials such like hammer heads and tongs. One of the greatest benefit is that there is only 30s startup time as it requires no preparations at all.

The coal forge is good for all kind of stuff that requires much bending. It is also the forge that has the "right" feeling. It is simply much more satisfying to feel the heat of burning coal than press a foot pedal.

I do also have a gas forge that I intend to use for knives. The induction heater requires thicker goods and the gas forge is more clean than the coal forge, which is a good thing when you forge-weld.

However, for this project I'm going to use the gas forge.

The process

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the process.

The steps I made where:

Take a horse shoe, cut it in half on the cut hardy.
Start to make a long tip at the cut end.
When the tip is long enough bend it in a nice curve.
Forge a horse head on the other end.
Stamp hair and mouth with a (self-made) cutting tool.
Polish the tip.
Dye a leather strap black and fasten it in the holes.

The result

The hoof scratch turned out nice, it lays nice in the hand and the bend of the tip is just right to get the force where you want it.