Can we talk about how hot forge work gets in the summer?

I was shoeing a draft horse in Alabama last July and the heat coming off the anvil was brutal. Does anyone else set up a fan or work early mornings to deal with it?

3 comments

3 Comments

colescott7d ago

Quit complaining and just deal with it. This is the job. You knew what you signed up for when you started shoeing horses. A little sweat never killed nobody. If you can't handle the heat, maybe you should find a different trade like AC repair or something. Early mornings are for people who can't hack it in the afternoon like the rest of us.

simonk987d ago

My buddy Mike out in Colorado tried the afternoon shift for like three weeks last summer. He said the thermometers in his truck hit 115 one day and he almost passed out while bending a shoe. After that he switched to 4 AM starts and had to wear a headlamp just to see the hoof. He told me the early mornings were peaceful until the first fly swarm hit at sunrise. He ended up buying one of those misting fans and said it was the best money he ever spent for his shop.

miasanchez7d ago

July in Kentucky here, I had a Percheron that took forever to finish and by noon the shop felt like a pizza oven. I set up two box fans pointed right at the anvil and still had sweat dripping off my nose onto the hot steel. Switched to starting at 6 AM after that and it helped a ton, but the flies were worse in the morning. Even with the fan, the radiant heat off the anvil and the horse combined made it feel like standing next to a furnace.