He Makes Furniture Out Of Old Horseshoes

He makes furniture out of old horseshoes AG WORLD Ag World 15-4-20 When illness forced rural Iowan David Limkemann, to quit his full-time welding job in 1983, he started looking around for a productive hobby. By coincidence, his daughter lost her riding horse about the same time and they kept the horseshoes around as a keepsake. Just for fun he made a mini statue out of them depicting a cowboy roper, using four shoes to form the arms, legs, body and base. It turned out so well he started making caricatures of all aspects of ranch life, including "The Thinker" in cowboy style, a one-horse sleigh, bull fighter with a protective barrel, bull rider, team ropers, and more. He had so much success making figures out of the shoes, Limkemann decided to tackle a bigger project - making full-size, functioning furniture. The experiment was successful and Limkemann has so far built from scratch a 4-poster bed with canopy, a dressing table with bench, and a very comfortable rocking chair with footstool. All three pieces reside in a spare bedroom as a treat for unsuspecting guests. He has also made a 60-in. dia. glass top table with benches, a grandfather clock, and a smoking stand. Limkemann gets a steady supply of shoes from farrier friends who save worn shoes for him while working at various horse racing tracks. He heats the shoes with a gas torch to bend them to the shape he needs and then welds them into place. Once completed, he cleans the furniture or caricature completely of dirt or rust and then paints it flat black. Creating with horseshoes is a hobby that Limkemann says he doesn't plan to turn into a business. "I'd rather build to my fancy and when I'm tired of it sell it. If! took orders I'd worry that it did not turn out as expected." Right now Limkemann is collecting horseshoes to build a gazebo for his back yard. Contact FARM SHOW Followup, David Limkemann, 109 Main, Plainfield, Iowa 50666 (ph 319 276-3132).

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