HISTARCH,
I have a general inquiry about how many HISTARCH members have uncovered 
'blacksmith forgeries' at 18th and 19th Century sites.  We have just 
completed limited excavations of an 1812-1845  Royal Engineer Department 
blacksmith shop at Fort Henry National Historic Site, Kingston, Ontario and 
uncovered six lead plates that had been stamped with impressions of British 
(a penny and shilling) and possibly French coins.  Our hypothesis is that 
they were being used as blanks to create forgeries -specie being in chronic 
shortage in the Canadas during the early 19th C. - but are unsure of their 
prevalence in the archaeological record.  Has anyone found similar stamped 
lead artefacts?

Henry Cary
Parks Canada Archaeological Services
Ontario Service Centre


>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Horseshoes,some ideas
>Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 12:05:39 -0400
>
>Horse shoes ...My favorite subject
>
>Yes, measure the shoe in all directions, length, width, thickness of  bars, 
>space in between bars, height of bars, height of toe, height of  heel, size 
>of calks, nail hole size, the space between nail holes etc.  There are over 
>1200 patents for different types and styles of  horseshoes, plus patents 
>for toe and heel calks. And then another  group of patents for the machines 
>to make them. And yes the machines  left marks that are unique.
>
>Not only should they be measured but look for makers marks, and mold  marks 
>on machine made shoes. On both machine made and hand made look  for special 
>marks made by the horseshoer before he/she installed them  on a horse. 
>These marks could be a simple chisel mark made on a one  side so the 
>farrier can keep track of left and right while the shoe is  in the fire too 
>letters or other embossed symbols so farriers could  keep track of their 
>shoes and not be blamed for the bad work of other  farriers. Areas with 
>strong unions or guilds also used marks.
>
>The first wide use of machine made horse shoes was in the civil war  when 
>the Union calvary started using shoe made by Henry Burden, the  inventor of 
>the first machine to make horse shoes. The south only had  hand made shoes. 
>After the war the US army experimented with some  other types. One was the 
>Goodenough shoe, this shoe was a cast shoe  and had a very different shape. 
>The British army does not appear to  have used full machine made shoes 
>until late in the 19th century.
>
>The basic material used for horseshoes was some form of wrought iron.  A 
>material that could be reheated many times and shaped with out  becoming 
>brittle. Even the cast shoes were poured from similar  material. True steel 
>does not seem to have been successful except in  the case of special shoes 
>for race horses.
>
>Horse shoe nails should also be looked at closely. Hand made nails  were 
>still being used well into the 1870s, even where machine made  shoes were 
>being used. Machine made nails have makers marks!! on the  bottom inside 
>area of the nail head. I have removed nail heads from  100 year old shoes 
>and found a makers mark that I was then able to date.
>
>What can be learned from horseshoes?
>
>The shape and style of horse shoes changed over time and can give us  some 
>additional markers for dating a site. The changes were due to  knowledge of 
>foot structure, technology of iron, blacksmithing skills,  the cost of 
>iron, the value of horses and the jobs being asked of the  horses.
>
>The horseshoe increased the energy out put of horses, mules, donkey  and 
>oxen. The presents or absents and/or type of horseshoes tells us a  lot 
>about energy needs and the economic model of the people who  occupied a 
>site. The attributes of the shoes help us fine tune our  understanding of 
>that model.
>
>I have a ?data form? I use for recording horseshoes, If anyone wants a  
>copy contact me off list.
>
>I would love to hear more about the shoes and nails that you are  
>recovering. I need to obtain data from more areas to include in the  book I 
>am preparing. Any information about horseshoes and horseshoe  nails would 
>be greatly appreciated.
>
>Makers Marks!! Send them to me (both shoe and nail) and where possible  I 
>will give you some date ranges for when they were manufactured.

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