How to clean a horse shoe?

[ArklePig]

Hello!

I've not been on in a while, can hardly find a minute these days. Anyway, I've taken two of Finbar's shoes for my wedding (v common in Ireland, curious if horse shoes at a wedding are a thing where you all are as my Canadian sister in law had never heard it before?) and was wondering if anyone had any tips for cleaning them up? Bonus pic of the best boy-things are going really well with him!

 

[silv]

I would try steel wool, or perhaps brillo

 

[SpotsandBays]

There’s a company on Facebook called “polished shoes” that take old shoes and make them sparkle! Really really lovely work!

 

[Britestar]

Ask the farrier to heat it up and scrub with a wire brush.
Once cooled, you can give it another scrub, then spray with silver paint.

 

[LouisCat]

Soak them in Coca Cola maybe and then wire brush them?

 

[lottiepony]

I had loads of horse shoes at my wedding, used to hold down the balloon table decorations etc. No idea how to get them clean as I just had all mine shot blasted at work so they came up a treat, not shiny mind you.

 

[Keith_Beef]

When I get back home, I'll take a picture of the shoes I've cleaned up and hung over the door in my shed workshop.

I use a rotary steel wire brush, either in the chuck of a drill or in a bench top motor (I think most run at 3400rpm for 4" wheels or 175rpm for 8" wheels).


I think mine are about 4" diameter. You need to wear eye protection when you use one of these, and a dust mask is a good idea, too; cleaning throws off a lot of rust dust and occasionally one of the wires will break and fly off (but at low RPM, there's not enough energy to break skin). I don't advise wearing gloves, because the brush can grab at the material. If by enormously bad luck to happen to touch the brush with your skin, you'll never do it again.

If you don't have a bench top motor, the easiest way is to clamp the shoe to a table top or workmate, and use a drill.

I don't try to get anything like a mirror finish, so the wire brush is enough for me.

If you want to get all the scratches out, you'll need to either use files or some kind of abrasive (flap brushes, Scotch-Brite wheels, etc.) followed by hard felt wheels with different grades of buffing compound.

Once the shoe is nice and clean, I give it a wipe over with Ren wax.

 

[Kaylum]

Wirework brush and then paint with hammerite metal paint, there are lots of different colours. Silver is nice.

 

[AdorableAlice]

My farrier gives me a shoe when I lose a horse, he simply re fires it and polishes it in the forge.

 

[Birker2020]

My Dad used the same type of thing as Keith Beef, he cleaned up mine using his lathe (I think).

Anyway he then painted it with silver Hammerite paint and it looked really nice. Can't for the life think what happened to it after that.

The farriers I know have always been reluctant to give me my horses shoes, I think it might be because they get reused.

 

[pansymouse]

I've done it a couple of times and have used my Dremel mini drill with various wire cleaning heads followed by polishing mops. The last one I did was for a Saudi Arabian bride - my husband was working there and was invited to a colleagues wedding and wanted to take a traditional British wedding token. I included an explanation of it's significance so it didn't seem such a weird gift!

 

[Meredith]

OH cleaned horseshoes with a wire brush as KB. I washed them to get rid of debris and dried them in the sun. Fortunately it was a very hot day! They were painted silver with spray car paint. They were used as weights for wedding table balloon centres. Many guests took them home. I have a box with the remaining shoes upstairs and apart from a few scratches nearly 15 years later they look fine.

 

[Keith_Beef]

You can get an interesting effect by heating the iron then brushing with a brass or bronze wire brush. There's a thread about it here.

 

[huskydamage]

I did one the other day I just soaked it in boiling water then cleaned the dirt out. Then polished it with that silvo stuff in the tin. I looks nice enough that I don't think I need to paint it.

 

[Sanversera]

angle grinder, then paint with Hammerite.

 

[Cowpony]

If you want to paint them, spraying gives a neater finish than painting, unless you are really good with a brush

 

[ArklePig]

Thanks for your help. Sorry I'm just catching up now, I got vaccinated and have been a bit off colour today! Lots here to try to clean them up, will think about spraying them depending on how they come up after cleaning

Hopefully having a shoe from a horsey I love brings extra good luck!

 

[Keith_Beef]

Hopefully having a shoe from a horsey I love brings extra good luck!

If you're thinking of nailing it to the wall over the bed-head, make sure the shoe is from a stallion, not from a gelding.