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Farrier Tool Maintenance
Farrier Tool Maintenance
There is an old proverb that says a good tradesman never blames his tools. The reason for that is a good tradesman knows the value of their tools.
Farrier tool maintenance wasn’t something that was reinforced in my early days as a farrier. Most of the tools I used when I started were hand-me-downs. I guess you don’t value something until you have to work hard to buy it yourself.
I was lucky that later in my career I was able to work with some great farrier tool makers and that helped me to appreciate the work that goes into making great tools.
By learning how to make farrier tools, I learned what aspects of tool making to focus on to facilitate good function and how best to maintain it.
That said, this article is not about farrier tool making. There is a wide variety of farrier tools available to us these days negating the need for making them, however they still must be maintained.
This blog is aimed at giving you a few tips to consider when maintaining your valuable farrier tools.
Invest in a Wire Brush
Firstly, the one thing that will dull or blunt rasps, farriers hoof knives, or hoof nippers the most is the dirt and small pebbles in horses’ feet. The easiest way to prevent this is to invest in a wire brush. By ensuring that you thoroughly clean out the feet and removing these foreign materials, before attempting to trim feet will increase the life of your farrier tools.
Similarly, old spent nails that are present and still in the hoof will chip your nippers! Nippers are made and designed to cut hoofs not nails! You may have seen some salespeople promoting the fact that their nippers cut straight through nails.; This is not what they are designed to do, that is what nail cutters and pinchers are for.
Storage in farrier tool boxes
Storing your farrier tools properly is another easy way to increase the life of your tools. By storing them individually, in a farrier toolbox or similar, preferably on a soft material, like leather, wood or plastic will ensure you extend your tools' life.
I personally cut lengths of plastic PVC pipe and use that in my farrier tool boxes to stop tools knocking against each other. I find this the best way to protect them every day.
But you may also like to check out some of these products:
Cleaning your farrier tools
Cleaning your tools regularly is imperative for farrier tool maintenance and safety and to prevent disease transmission. This is not often mentioned but should be of utmost concern. The transmission of diseases from horse to horse and from horse to human should not be forgotten.
A disease that can be transmitted from an animal to a human is called a zoonotic disease. More than 60% of human pathogens are zoonotic. This includes a variety of bacteria, viruses, and fungi. There are around 10 zoonotic diseases that can be passed on, including ringworm and Hendra, however the one most horse people and hoof care professionals should be aware of is tetanus! Horses are known to be the most vulnerable species to Tetanus. The organism responsible, Clostridium Tetani is commonly found in soil and animal manure and enters the body through flesh wounds.
Cleaning your farrier tools regularly will help reduce the risk of disease transmission and help in everyday tool maintenance.
Hoof Nippers
Hoof nippers are one of our most important tools. Maintenance should include regular lubrication of the rivet to allow ease of movement. To facilitate the best function, nippers should have one flat surface on the top and a tapered edge on the inside. Sharpening should be done from the inside leading edge, ensuring that there is no shoulder on the edge that will render it hard to cut through the hoof.
Sharpening nippers should be done regularly while paying attention to the tapered edge. You can use a fine file or dermal in conjunction with a diamond sharpener or similar honing device.
As the nipper’s wear, it is sometimes necessary to slightly file the boss on the inside of the rasp near the joint where the rivet is. This will allow the cutting edges to come closer together.
The cutting edges should not but up against each other. There should be a very small gap between each edge, just wide enough so you can cut a piece of cardboard.
Hoof Knives
Similarly to nippers, your hoof knives should have one flat edge and one tapered edge. Sharpening knives should be done regularly with attention to the tapered edge again like your hoof nippers. You can use a fine file or dermal in conjunction with a diamond sharpener or similar honing device.
Rasps
Your rasp is the most used tool in your kit. Regularly cleaning out the dirt and grime after and during every horse with a wire brush will help to reduce blunting the rasp. Storage again is extremely important to promote the long useful life of your rasps, thus reducing your operating costs.
Using a leather sheath or a soft material to wrap the rasp in, particularly your dressing rasp, will do much to prevent the teeth chipping or becoming blunt.
Additional cleaning can also be undertaken by soaking your rasp in a coffee wash (regular instant coffee ½ jar & cold water) that will clean off the surface. Then you can simply spray clean with a degreaser.
Rasps can be sharpened on a bench grinder using a sisal mop and metal cutting compound, however, it has been my experience that once you start sharpening rasps this way it must be done every few horses.
Farrier Hammers
Farrier hammers don’t require a great deal of maintenance, however, you should ensure that the leading face of your hammers are not chipped or mushroomed. This requires grinding or machining the face of the hammer on occasion.
It is possible for your farrier hammer handle to come loose. This usually happens in dry hot conditions when the hammer shaft has shrunk due to lack of moisture. The easiest thing to do is to sit the hammer head in a shallow dish of anti-freeze overnight. This will enable the shaft to moisten up and expand, the advantage of antifreeze is that it won’t rot the wood. Alternatively, you can purchase separate hammer handles to replace your current one.
Mallet
Using a nylon mallet instead of a hammer on any buffers or toeing knives is the best way to reduce damage on these tools while removing clinches or excess sole. This will reduce the chances of your hammer mushrooming or the need to grind out chips that will occur when a steel face hammer is used. This also has the advantages of reducing the danger of injury from chips of steel flying off and is also much easier for the horse to deal with.
To finish up on this topic I would like to add that when purchasing farrier tools, it is always smarter to buy the best you can afford. There are many producers of farrier tools worldwide but even though some of the tools you see online may look similar, buying well-known name tools that have stood the test of time will usually make your job much easier! In the long run, spending that bit more will save you money and time. The tools will last longer and perform better. I hope you find something you can adopt in this article until next time, best of luck.
Dean Lewis AWCF