My own house is full of those surprises. I'm the guy who fixes it for a living and still can't get it right at home.

Look, I get the romance of a hand-forged shoe, but calling it a rebellion feels off. Most pre-made shoes today are excellent and solve 99% of problems just fine. The real skill isn't in the forging, it's in the trimming and the nail placement. Spending hours on a custom shoe for every client would mean seeing half the horses, and their care would suffer. I save the forge for the true oddballs where nothing off the shelf works, and that's just smart business.

Yeah but that stuff is crazy expensive for what it is. I've had the cheap tubes work just fine if you prep the surface right.

My garage paint collection is basically a weird art project waiting to happen.

Doubt it's always worth it, sometimes you just get lucky.