Horseshoe Forge (1950s)

[Music] only a stone throw from this famous statue of the minute man in the center of Lexington Massachusetts is another reminder of the past horseshoe Forge where hammers clang on anvils and the forge Roars red hot but where no horses are allow this Pony is making a donation giving up his old shoes to be turned into household ornaments [Music] Paul River on his Midnight Ride rode past this spot to warn everyone the British were coming but horses are seldom seen here nowadays so the blacksmiths of horseshoe Forge have to get their horseshoes from all over the country mainly from the West it all started because a man named fton Brown liked to broil Stakes over a black Smith's Ford he'd been in the soap making business and his hobby was having friends over to his house for a barbecue using a forge for cooking one day he threw a piece of iron Into the Fire and it fascinated him so much he forgot about the [Music] steak Brown put $100 into equipment for his new hobby making Hand Forged articles from Horseshoes and other miscellaneous iron and within a few weeks he was making a profit selling them to friends these two horseshoes welded together are being covered with [Music] leather and they wind up as a gun rack for the wall of a hunter's [Music] home when he opened for business 6 years ago fton Brown was the only man in the shop and this was his first product two horseshoes connected by two bars of strap iron a pair of stable brushes were screwed To The Ends facing inward the clever Gadget was an instant success and brown received so many orders for them he had to quit the soap business and become a blacksmith yes it's a boot scraper still one of Brown's most popular [Music] items today horseshoe Forge turns out a wide variety of articles in color if you like and irons door knockers paper weights Garden Bells utility hooks tie racks lamps and just ordinary horseshoes with name plates The Secret of his success says filon Brown is that everything he makes is forged from a [Music] horseshoe people have come to Horseshoe Forge with ideas about increasing Brown's business most of them suggesting he stopped going to all the trouble of collecting real horseshoes Brown turns them all away what else but a fine steel horseshoe could be made to ring like a bell and bring him so much luck [Music]