Books are the next best thing to having someone show you what to do, how to do it, and why you should do it that way. Knowledge is power. The best thing to do is get hooked up with a local blacksmithing association and find some people with more knowledge and experience than you have to help you up. Guidance from someone who is skilled and a good teacher is priceless, books are often an excellent source of guidance, and if nothing else inspiration. To be honest when you are just beginning knowledge is more important than what tools you have available. Practice and perserverance can make up for a lot, you can teach yourself by just responding to how the hammerleaves marks on the steel, and adapt, but you don't need to reinvent the wheel, and there is no guarentee that you will get it right;-) How you hold the hammer, how you swing the hammer, and how you work ingeneral can cripple you, or you can forge into your 70's... READ all you can, visit and learn from all the smiths you can... (This is where a dose of humility and meekness can really pay off. After you get some skill, you will inevitably aquire with it a sense of your own importance and competency;-) If you decide someone has less skill and write them off, you will never learn anything from them, and they might have some gems of knowledge hidden in with the other stuff you don't respect. Be polite, be gracious and wait for something useful;-)
Christian
Husband
Father
Blacksmith
farrier
farmer
the rest just keeps getting in the way... ;-)