From “Modern Blacksmithing”, 1905

Hints to Blacksmiths and Horseshoers
Don’t burn the shoe on.
Don’t rasp under the clinchers.
Don’t rasp on the outer side of the wall more than is absolutely necessary.
Don’t rasp or file the clinch heads.
Don’t make the shoes too short. Don’t make high calks. Don’t pare the frog.
Don’t cut down the bars. Don’t load the horse down with iron.
Don’t lose your temper. Don’t hit the horse with the hammer.
Don’t run down your competitor. Don’t continually tell how smart you are.
Don’t smoke while shoeing. Don’t imbibe in the shop. Don’t run outdoors while sweaty. Don’t know it all. Always be punctual in attendance to your business. Allow your customers to know something. No man is such a great fool but that something can be learned of him.
Be always polite. Keep posted on everything belonging to your trade. Read much. Drink little. Take a bath once a week. Dress well. This done, the craft will be elevated, and the man respected.

Advice to Horse Owners
T is cruelty to animals to raise a colt and not train him for shoeing, and the horse-shoer must suffer for this neglect also. Many a valuable norse has been crippled or maltreated, and thousands of horse-shoers suffer hardships, and many are crippled, and a few killed every year for the horse owner’s carelessness in this matter. A law should be enacted making the owner of an ill-bred horse responsible for the damage done to the horse-shoer by such an animal. Every horse-raiser should begin while the colt is only a few days old to drill him for the shoeing. The feet should be taken, one after the other, and held in the same position as a horse-shoer does, a light hammer or even the fist will do, to tap on the foot with, and the feet should be handled and manipulated in the same manner the horse-shoer does when shoeing. This practice should be kept up and repeated at least once a week and the colt when brought to the shop for shoeing will suffer no inconvenience. The horse-shoer’s temper, as well as muscles, will be spared and a good feeling all around prevails.

Horse-raisers, remember this.

Advice to Young Men
In every profession and trade it is a common thing to hear beginners say: I know, I know. No matter what you tell them, they will always answer, I know. Such an answer is never given by an old, learned or experienced man, because, as we grow older and wiser we know that there is no such thing as knowing it all. Besides this we know that there might be a better way than the way we have learned of doing the work. It is only in few cases that we can say that this is the best way, therefore we should never say, I know: first, because no young man ever had an experience wide enough to cover the whole thing; second, it is neither sensible nor polite. Better not say anything, but simply do what you have been told to do.

Every young man thinks, of course, that he has learned from the best men. This is selfish and foolish. You may have learned from the biggest botch in the country. Besides this, no matter how clever your master was, there will be things that somebody else has a better way of doing. I have heard an old good blacksmith say, that he had never had a helper but what he learned some good points from him.
Don’t think it is a shame, or anything against you, to learn. We will all learn as long as we live, unless we are fools, because fools learn very little. Better to assume less than you know than to assume more.

Thousands of journeymen go idle because many a master would rather hire a greenhorn than hire a "knowing-it-all" fellow. Don’t make yourself obnoxious by always telling how your boss used to do this or that. You may have learned it in the best way possible, but you may also have learned it in the most awkward way. First find our what your master wants, then do it, remembering there are sometimes many ways to accomplish the same thing. Don’t be stubborn. Many mechanics are so stubborn that they will never change their ways of doing things, nor improve on either tools or ideas.

Don’t be a one-idea man; and remember the maxim, “A wise man changes his mind, a fool never.”

Be always punctual, have the same interest in doing good work and in drawing customers as you would were the business yours. Be always polite to the customers, no matter what happens. Never lose your temper or use profane language. Don’t tell your master’s competitors his way of doing business, or what is going on in his dealings with people. You are taking his money for your service, serve as you would be served.

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