Dating Horseshoes?

[New Romantic]

Does anybody now how to date horseshoes, ie if they are from the 20th, 19th, or 18th centuries?

 

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[mastereagle22]

Well you could start by offering to by it a drink........


OK SORRY, but I just couldn't resist!!!

I have wondered this as well since I have several I have found over the years.

Hope someone can help you out.

 

[creekhunter]

I did some searching a while, as I have found many as well, couldn't find much of anything. I will start a new search and see if I can "dig" anything up.

 

[Kentucky Kache]

I was gonna say that I've never dated a horseshoe, but they ARE shaped kinda nice.

 

[New Romantic]

Great sense of humour guys, something I've noticed on this forum!

The only resource I have is "A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America" by Ivor Noel Hume. The book mentions that there is little reliable information on the subject. An illustration depicts various horseshoes from the 17th century through the late 19th century, each horseshoe with a date. While the drawings show the differences b/w 17th century and later horseshoes, the horseshoes from c. 1750-1862 seems a bit muddy to me.

Info on the internet concerning horseshoes doesn't seem to be available.

 

[stefen]

First off, shoes are manufactured or are hand made by a farrier or blacksmith.

Secondly, there are thousands of shapes, weights and varieties.

If you had a stadium full of modern day ferries, you would find no 2 would BE alike. Its a matter of craftsmanship.

The only manner to determine a date is to find the alloy, and this is not always accurate. Steel made in the rust belt might be different than the steel produced and alloyed in the midwest or west during the same period.

 

[New Romantic]

First off, shoes are manufactured or are hand made by a farrier or blacksmith.

Secondly, there are thousands of shapes, weights and varieties.

If you had a stadium full of modern day ferries, you would find no 2 would alike. Its a matter of craftsmanship.

The only manner to deternine a date is to find the alloy, and this is not always accurate. Steel made in the rust belt might be different than the steel produced and alloyed in the midwest or west during the same period.

Absolutely and this is why I think it's a challenge to pin an approximate time for these items, and other generic horse related items.

 

[stefen]

New Romantic,

Great question and I'm glad you agree on this issue.

This subject has been discussed numerous times with the\ same or similar results.

Some things are near impossible to identify.

Another issue that is a personal butt-burner is when someone posts pictures of a rusty mass or some piece of junk and wants to know what it is. First off, I think they post stupid questions just to be posting stupid questions.

Jeez, you need to be Karnac to even begin to identify a majority of the items.

By the way, welcome to TN. Hope to see more of your posts.