I need to be able to test a horse shoe while it is on a horses foot. I need to know what type of metal it is made out off, specifically steel or tungsten. The only idea I have is by the magentic properties, but I don't know if I can do this without rmoving the shoe. Any help would be greately appreciated.
I use magnets that telescope down to something like a pencil, and extend out to almost 3 feet from your hand. They are good for ppicking up small dropped parts made of steel... not tungsten though.
You could sweep this magnet by the horses shoe and see if it sticks. No need to take the shoe off, or to get too close.
An alternative is to buy a mining magnetometer for several thousand dollars and be able to do it (detect magnetic iron) remotely and display high tech at the same time.
Jim
How about removing the horses leg and testing the show that way without removing the shoe?
Here's a wild-assed guess (I'm not a farrier, although at least one posts to alt.crafts.blacksmithing) -- I'm going to say there are _no_ tungsten horseshoes out there.
What's a tungsten horseshoe for ? Horseshoes are steel, old ones are iron, racing shoes are titanium and I imagine that light aluminium alloys have been used in the past. Tungsten has three notable characteristics; it has a high melting point, it's unworkable by mere mortals, and it's dense. You don't need the melting point unless you're shoeing Sleipnir, I've never seen a farrier with a portable sintering press, and why would I want my valuable horse to be hobbled by extra-heavy shoes ?
If there's some complicated veterinary reason for heavy shoes, then please enlighten me. But as a reality check in a metallurgy newsgroup, I just don't think you're going to see any.
If you're guessing Ti vs. steel, then use a magnet on a stick. But watch out for steel nails in there, and maybe even non-magnetic stainless steels (which are less unlikely than tungsten).
Or what about removing the ground, that the horse is standing on? Then there´s more space below the horse, that you can stand on while you test the magnetic properties of the horse-shoe?
Med venlig hilsen / Best regards Martin Jørgensen
If you have a portable grinder power tool, and the horse will let you, grind a little bit away. If the sparks are yellow-orange, it's probably some kind of steel. If the sparks are brilliant white, it's either titanium or some other type of light metal alloy (2000 series aluminum, or maybe magnesium-lithium?). The magnet test is easier, but many stainless steels are nonmagnetic so this may be inconclusive. Other thing you might try would be basic heft-steel shoes are almost twice as dense as titanium shoes. Best of luck.
-Lou
I've done that with a cow, but there's no way I want to be standing next to a horse and scaring it with an angle grinder.
BTW - Wih cows the trick is a long extension lead and an assistant. You first switch the noisy grinder on a long way in front of the cow, then walk towards it with it running. Don't park yourself on the undercarriage, then switch it on.
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