At one time, every home had a shoe horn, as essential as a
hairbrush or comb.

But today, even though it is so much easier to ease a dress
shoe on to your foot when using a shoe horn, you would be hard pressed to find
one outside of a shoe store.

A shoe horn is a tool that can be as simple as a formed plastic
scoop or as elaborate as a carved horn of some exotic animal with a long,
intricately fashioned, leather handle. No doubt English gentleman soldiers,
posted to India, carried their shoe horns from the Himalayas all the way down to
the southern tip of India. Their servants of course wielded the shoe horn for
these officers and some of the more elaborate models were real status symbols.

The concept and use of the shoe horn is quite simple – it is an aid
to guide your feet into perhaps tight fitting shoes or boots, and the long
handled varieties accomplish this task with a minimum of bending. How much
simpler to slip on a pair of sandals from an upright position though!

The blade of the shoe horn is placed firmly against the inside back
of the shoe, the wearer's toes inserted into the shoe and then the heel eased
into the shoe. The shoe horn is then slid out from between the heel and the shoe
to complete the operation.

With advances in footwear design and a shift towards
sports shoes
and boots for casual use, shoe horns have become far less common. Today's shoe
horn owner is more likely to use it to avoid excessive bending following surgery
or other medical situation. Putting on shoes may become challenging for the
elderly as well, so health catalogs often promote a shoe horn as a dressing aid
in conjunction with other reach extenders.

Shoe horns are made from any material that can be molded, formed or
shaped into a rounded blade that is curved to fit between the rear of the shoe
and the heel of the wearer. It must be thin enough of course to allow the shoe
horn to be removed once the foot is firmly encased by the shoe. The horn end
resembles the beak of a duck and is sometimes fashioned of ivory and the horns
of other animals, but the more common shoe horns are more than likely made of
plastic or aluminum.

In recent times the term shoehorn has taken on another meaning as
an expression for accomplishing tasks more easily, a somewhat derogatory use.
For instance – the candidate was shoehorned in at the request of his patron,
even though other candidates had superior qualifications.

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