I have been taking pictures for my dad’s articles for a long time and suggesting different ways to do some of the shoes. For the toe-cap bar shoe, he wanted to come up with a different way of making the shoe than he used in a toe-cap shoe a couple of years ago. I suggested jump welding and Dad said I should write an article on jump welding the toe cap.

I started with a bar shoe and jump welded the cap on the shoe. 

I suggest bumping 3/4 to 1 inch into the toe of the bar shoe. After you get the bar shoe done, make the shoe fit the horn (Figure 1). Then take a straight piece of bar stock and mark where you want your first nail (Figure 2). Slide the shoe on the horn and mark about 1/8 inch away from the line you just made. This is seen in Figures 3 and 4. Measure from one mark to the other (Figures 5 and 6).   

Next, run a piece of 1/4-by-3/4-inch stock down to about 1/8-by-5/8 inch (Figure 7). It will make it easier to get a seamless weld by beveling the ends and edges as shown in Figures 8 through 10. Cut the piece at the spots you just measured with the beveled edge of your fuller toward the cap piece (Figure 11).

Be sure to make the cut so that you can break the toe cap off easily. The finished product can be seen…