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
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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