Hand Forged Gifts & Homeware

Posted on 18th March 2019

Why upcycle Why repurpose

Hmmm we do wonder that ourselves… especially when we see horseshoe items made from new shoes that, to be honest, are so cheap. It’s a tough one. New shoes are a ready prepared blank canvas. Instantly forgable, weldable, personalisable. Thus saving a heck of a lot of time.

So believe us, we have asked ourselves, why are we using used?

It is a hell of a job cleaning used horseshoes up. Heating, banging and scraping out the compressed dirt, grit, straw and surface from the fullering. Removing toe clips and rusted in nails. (Good job I like power tools!)

On a really rusted and dirty shoe you can spend a good ten minutes total on cleaning a single shoe. That’s before any forging, personalisation, welding… anything. That is simply the prep work of cleaning the shoe.

 

But… and it is a big but… We love old things!

We’re the sort that if we see an old outbuilding, cottage, even a shed, our hearts hurt. Hey, if it’s roof is falling in and a door hanging off it’s hinges, we’ll probably love it all the more!

I’m the kind of girl that when I visit castles, I feel if I will it hard enough, I’ll go round the next spiral staircase and bump straight into the original occupants from centuries before.

Barry is fascinated by old shoes and farriery in years past. Shoes that were handmade, with whatever tools were to available, shoeing horses that were intrinsic to people’s livelihoods.

We could quite happily spend an afternoon browsing vintage books and poetry or strolling around a reclaimation yard. Yep, we love Salvage Hunters!

 

Used Horseshoes are vessels of memories.

Footfall after footfall they are struck within.

Place a used shoe in front of us and Barry will speculate on the size and type of the horse. How it may have moved, what ailments it may have had, foot or joint related?

Me? I’m ever the artist. I’ll be building a picture of it’s colour, it’s age, it’s character.

Was He or She loved? I always hope so. I think often of what joys or what tears may have come to pass while the horse or pony was wearing those shoes.

 

Used Horseshoes are a keepsake of a precious friend.

Without a doubt they are indeed.

We are requested often to create from client’s shoes.

And, being horse owners and lovers ourselves, we know how much those shoes can mean to you. We feel exactly the same way about our four footed companions.

It is extremely humbling for us to be entrusted with your horse’s shoes, often they are from horses that have passed on, and the responsibility of their care is keenly felt. For each and every person they are a unique connection to their equine friends.

 

What of that is within a new horseshoe?

With all we do and all we make, we hope, we aim to retain a story. Be that your story from your shoes, or from our own used stock of shoes.

Retain it, but all the while give it a new form and a new lease of life. That is why we clean up each individual shoe. That is why we put in that extra time and effort. For the love, for the memories, the history and the nostalgia.

That is why we, use used.

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