MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

It used to be the case that the name “loriner” only applied to those who hand forged their products. However, casting, drop forging and electro-plating processes have almost entirely taken over from hand forging and “loriner” has now come to mean anyone who is engaged in the production of saddlers’ ironmongery.

Until the end of the eighteenth century, bits, spurs, stirrups and other harness parts were forged in wrought iron. Thereafter steel became the preferred material. Pieces were hand forged, using a hammer, an anvil and a source of heat, from a bar of wrought iron or steel. When the shape had been achieved the article was then filed smooth and burnished, probably using a “plane” and “hank”, a useful tool for burnishing right into the corners and insides of loops.

Most of the tools used by loriners for hand forging and burnishing are similar to those of other types of metal smiths. A good description of the process and some of the tools involved can be found in R.A. Salaman’s “Dictionary of Leather-working Tools”. Salaman obtained some of his information about these tools from a retired Walsall loriner, William Stone. A collection of Mr. Stone’s tools is to be found in the Walsall Leather Museum.

Casting became a more economic alternative to forging after the invention in 1811 of the malleable iron casting process. Brass and later nickel were also cast in the same way. The metal was either tapped from a furnace or heated in a crucible and then poured into a prepared sand mould. The castings were then either filed and polished in the same way as hand forged items or in the case of larger factories, they were polished in the barrel house, or in “mopping” and “bobbing” shops using mechanical polishing machines.

From the mid nineteenth century the plating of cast iron bits with either brass, silver, nickel alloy or tin was common – huge plating vats being used for the purpose. Much of the harness furniture was brass plated while silver plating was in demand by South American customers.

The stamping of sheet brass to make horse harness, harness decorations and the like was also a process widely used. In fact the production of stamped bits caused an outcry among the hand forgers of bits in 1892. They wanted to prevent stamped bits being sold as cheaply as forged bits and demanded that they be sold as cast or stamped bits.

Manufacturers vied with each other to produce a rust free alloy from which to make items of horse furniture, such as J. H. Hawkins’ Genuine “Never Rust”. Many different patents were also taken out in respect of bit and stirrup design.

Experiments with non-metal materials started early. In particular kind mouth pieces for horses with soft mouths were made from rubber compounds. Eldonian famously introduced an 18/8 quality stainless steel for metal work. Synthetic materials, such as nylon and plastic have also been introduced in recent years.

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