This book is a solid introduction to blacksmithing. It takes you from the very beginning right through actually forging a variety of objects, and it teaches you a wide variety of skills and techniques.
Learn from the old masters
Blacksmithing was a vital craft for most of the history of America. Blacksmiths were very much in demand and they often were a central figure in small communities. They were called upon to keep things in good repair -a whole array of things. They were also tasked with making lots of things. And over generations they passed down, through apprentices, practical skills on how to efficiently forge all kinds of useful objects.
The Industrial Era changed that. America's ability to quickly and cheaply mass produce items, including iron and steel items, almost finished off the whole craft of blacksmithing. We almost lost that accumulated knowledge of how to forge.
Luckily the craft didn't die out completely. And in recent years it has experienced a re-birth. It is now experiencing a rapid growth. Blacksmith shops, and blacksmith classes are popping up all over the country.
And this book is a great example of how the craft has been preserved. With this book you get a wealth of accumulated blacksmithing knowledge as it was used in practical every day matters.
What's in the book?
The title of the book is "Blacksmith's Craft" and the sub-title is "An Introduction to Smithing for Apprentices & Craftsmen". This sub-title tells us exactly what this book is. A guide to really learning how to blacksmith as an apprentice would learn it.
It is broken down into four distinct sections.
In the first section you get an overview of the tools and techniques of the blacksmith, the fire and how to maintain it, and the metals that a blacksmith works with. This section gives you a good basic understanding of what blacksmithing is and how it is done. It gives you a solid foundation for getting things done at the forge.
The Second section is a series of lessons in hands-on blacksmithing. This section takes you through a series of small practical projects that teach you how to manipulate steel. They include projects like a pipe hook, a gate hook, U-hook, scriber, and chains. The techniques you learn include drawing down, pointing, curving, upsetting and fire welding. To make most of these projects you use light stock, usually round stock, around 3/8 inch in diameter. So you get easy projects, clean techniques, and easy stock to work with. There are twelve projects in this section and each gives you new blacksmithing techniques.
The third section takes things a bit deeper and works with thicker and heavier metals and it also shows you how to make calculations. For example it shows you step-by-step how to make a ring, how to calculate the size of it, and how to close it. This section also shows you various methods of welding including top scarf welding and side scarf welding.
You also punch holes and learn how to use swage blocks. You make a series of projects including harness and trace hooks, 'D' shackles and mushroom headed shackle pins.
The fourth section includes advanced topics and examples like how to calculate radius bends and how to do advanced techniques like cleft welding, glut welding and t-pocket welding.
The book ends with the perfect project of making a pair of blacksmithing tongs which is a project that brings together many blacksmithing techniques.
An important point here
Any apprentice program means that a master shows an apprentice how to do things. And this book is no different. It "shows" you how to make the various projects and how to do the various techniques. It does this with pictures all along the way. Each step of a process has a picture so you can see how the piece is placed on the anvil and how the pieces are assembled and shaped. There are also illustrations to show you the overall building of the projects and how they assemble.
All in all this is a terrific book. It is a no-nonsense guide that takes you from knowing nothing about blacksmithing to performing more complex tasks like creating rings to exact dimensions and scarf welding together the ends. And in the end you get a very nice pair of blacksmithing tongs too!
I highly recommend this book. It is easy to understand and it is laid out in a very common sense way with functional projects that teach you a whole spectrum of blacksmithing techniques.
If you have some blacksmithing experience and knowledge
Don't assume this book is just a beginners or "apprentice" level book. It covers a lot of basic things that every blacksmith should know that sometimes are holes in our experience. Things like how to do the simple math to get a radius or bend exactly where you want it and how to use swage blocks or create a glut weld or a cleft weld.
GET THE BOOK HERE:
The book is available at Fox Chapel Publishing right here
And while you are on the Fox Chapel website I suggest you look around. It is a publishing company with a whole lot of great books covering many subjects like metal working, wood carving, pyrography, crafts and more.
It is also available on Amazon.com here: Blacksmith's Craft: An Introduction to Smithing for Apprentices & Craftsmen
Want More? Check out my reviews on the other books in the series.
 Will's review of Wrought Ironwork
 Will's review of Decorative Ironwork
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