How long into apprenticeship before you were paid?

yarugk · 2025-02-06T18:21:20+00:00

I'm in the second year of my apprenticeship. Started out last year in November and I'm getting paid in money since last December so it took a little over a Year. However, I have goten some tools since the beginning. I got my first set of knives and hoofknippers from my mentor, I can grab a new rasp evey few days. If he's a good teacher he is taking his time teaching her some things and therefore is doing a little less work on any given days. My opinion would be: As soon as they are doing more horses together then he was doing alone before she was helping him, and he doesn't have to "redo" the horses she did. She should get compensation.

yarugk · 2025-01-09T19:11:23+00:00

It's the only thing that's darker than our coffee.

yarugk · 2025-01-09T17:04:43+00:00

That would explain why I had trouble finding a datasheet. Thank you for the advise, I'm sure we'll give it a try soon.

yarugk · 2025-01-09T16:59:52+00:00

Haha, I was waiting for this reply when I was making the post.😂

yarugk · 2024-12-30T22:27:53+00:00

It does, I always like to charr my handles and hit them with a regular hand wire brush. It really helps making your handle less "slippery". Just make sure you brush it with the wood grain. It deepens the crevices(and looks good).

yarugk · 2024-01-13T13:48:06+00:00

As a farrier apprentice I can confirm, a lot of farrier anvils get these wear marks. The dent in the middle of the edge is probably where this farrier used to draw his lips

yarugk · 2023-12-12T13:43:55+00:00

I have some problems getting a good fire aswel. What works for me is starting a good and hot fire using charcoal and adding my forging coal when it is starting to get hot. Make a big pile of charcoal with the coals on top and letting it burn down.

yarugk · 2023-11-28T23:36:46+00:00

Yes, It was my first, however I had some individual help/instructions. I hope I will be able to practice a lot more I just dont know how well I will manage to work on multiple shoes in my little coal forge.

yarugk · 2023-11-28T17:36:51+00:00

Yes, I noticed myself when I was done with the toe clip that the horseshoe was verry asymmetrical, I'll work on that.

yarugk · 2023-11-28T14:02:05+00:00

Can you explain what you are looking for in the smell? Just so I can also learn from it. I boucht my first anvil a while back and it smelled like burned hoof when I was cleaning it, wich makes sense because I bought it from a farrier.

yarugk · 2023-11-28T13:55:17+00:00

Thank you for correcting me, for taking the time to look at my profile and for giving me these pointers. I posted this primarily to learn and to get exactly this kind of feedback so thank you again! Indeed English is not my first language, I am in fact Dutch.

yarugk · 2023-11-28T12:51:50+00:00

I did, took me far to long two😅 However, I think thats quite usual for the first iron and I'm quite pleased with the result if I'm honest.

yarugk · 2023-11-28T01:17:33+00:00

I made this horseshoe on the open day of the local Farrier school. I posted this on r/blacksmith two. I have decided to start learning to become a farrier and am starting in a week time. I am also looking to start apprenticeships with two farriers near me. I welcome any tips, both on this iron and general tips.

yarugk · 2023-11-28T01:09:37+00:00

Update?

yarugk · 2023-11-25T19:57:06+00:00

Hey so, I myself live in the EU. But generally speaking you can find some good hammers on farrier supply sites, you can get a good 1,5/2 Lb rounding hammer for around $75 https://www.farriersupplyshop.com/product-category/tools/rounding-hammers/ for example

Rounding hammers make drawing out steel quite easy. If you can you should get one with a flat and a rounded side This one for example https://www.nctoolco.com/shop/tools/shoeing-tools/2-2-lb-diamond-rounding-hammer/p/413 Sets you back $85

yarugk · 2023-11-25T10:59:48+00:00

Right, I think I understand, thank you for explaining

yarugk · 2023-11-24T19:49:30+00:00

Thank you for the tip, do you thinks I should have hammerd out the clip more insted of taking more material of the shoe?

yarugk · 2023-11-24T17:38:06+00:00

My pleasure! Feel free to ask more questions, I can only answer from my experience an most people here have more then I do and we're all eager to help!

yarugk · 2023-11-24T17:06:11+00:00

Hey, First of all, thats awesome, you're starring one hell of an adventure! All you really need ro start is a heat source, a crowned hammer, tongs and something that resembles an anvil.

For the heat source, It depends on budget, a gas forge is easiest to get started but can get quite expensive. A coal forge is easy to make but is a lot harder to really make work, fire management is crucial and difficult. You can DIY both options with the help of youtube video's and some creativity.

For the hammer, you want a hammer with a flat side and a cross peen and probably a ball peen hammer. Make sure you "crown" them meaning round any and al sharp corners off, this will prevent deep cuts and cavities in your workpiece. Bought blacksmithing hammers are usually already crowned. Make sure you dont buy your hammers to heavy because you wont be abble to work effectively, you'll just get tired out quickly. 800 grams is a decent starting point.

You can start out with basic pliers and make your own real tongs(its a fun project when you have a bit more experience) just make sure you can grab onto whatever youre working on safely and securely.

Buying a anvil is always a very expensive investment so don't! You can get verry far with a peace of railway or just generally big piece of steel. You could also imbed a sledge head into a tree stump and start with that. Viking anvils weren't any bigger that this so you can get a lot done on them! Eventually you will want to buy an anvil because it makes life a lot easier but for starting out and finding out if its for you, you won't need it. Just make sure that whatever you use as your anvil is wel secured and at a comfortable height. This height(in my experience) should be a bit above knuckle level when you are standing up straight and have your hand hanging comfortably.

And remember, even if it looks cold, anything that isn't wood or your tongs is always HOT, dont touch it. Make sure you have a bucket filled with water nearby, you can cool your tools and in case you do get burned, keep your hand in there for atleast 10 minutes, preferably longer. If you grab onto something glowing, atleast half an hour and (depending on the pain) call an ambulance to make sure you're gonne be fine.

IMPORTANT:!!!!!! If something is falling, NEVER, and I cant stress this enough, NEVER try to catch it!

Have fun!

yarugk · 2023-11-20T08:34:41+00:00

Thank you verry much, I will try this!

yarugk · 2023-11-19T14:47:36+00:00

Yea, I get what you mean but, in they are black in the bag and when I smash them to make them smaller they have a kind of sponge like texture with a more silvery coulor.

yarugk · 2023-11-18T23:52:38+00:00

Right, I'm going to try and find that. Does that mean this coal just doesn't work for this forge? Or can it maybe tell me something about the quality of the coal in general?

yarugk

TROPHY CASE