Mark Aspery's Books

[Charlotte]

I just received Mark Aspery's two books by UPS.

I've spent about 12 hours reading the text and and skimming the photo's

I cann't say enough good things about the content and precision of the explanations for everything in the book.

The binding of the books themselves represents the best available in book binding.

For me the new, second, book will be invaluable. In just a quick read I've already identified 10 or twelve things that I could do which will immediately improve the quality of my work.
From the first book I saw many ways I could improve the tools I've made.

If you used these books as a text book and worked through them carefully you would finish up as and excellent hammer and anvil smith limited only by your own imagination.

I have accumulated may books on smithing over the years. These two books set a new standard for books on metal smithing.

[bigfootnampa]

Thanks for your review Charlotte. I will say that I am not too surprised to hear good things about them... I have seen Mark teaching in person and IMO he has a very rare depth of understanding of this craft and an incredible gift of teaching patiently and with amazing clarity. I am happy to have had the opportunity to thank him personally as even on this site alone he has posted lessons that have much advanced my own grasp of both fundamentals and subtleties of this craft. I will have those books on ,my wish list now for sure!

[Thomas Dean]

Yes, thanks for the review...will be on the TOP of my list, even if I have to buy my own gifts! I had the opportunity to take a couple of lessons from Mark at the '08 BAM conference, and like an IDIOT!! I did not take advantage of that opportunity. That was my first BIG conference and I felt I had too much to see otherwise. THAT won't happen again!
Let's see....hhhmmm, I wonder if my dear wife would like these books for her birthday. Her's is less than a month away....If ya'll don't hear from me after July 23rd you will know that it wasn't such a good idea! ;)

[Steve Sells]

I got a chance to read some of them at JeremyK's hammer-in, Loved what little I was able to read. They appeared well worth the price, but I was sadly unable to read much with all the things going on then.

Edited August 6, 2009 by steve sells

[divermike]

I have both books as well as a week of his tutelage, and I am really a much better smith because of it, and having the books allows me to go back and study some of the techniques he teaches in class. Recently I tried to do one of his projects from the second book, a leaf tool, and posted it here, he was nice enough to send me a message about his thoughts on my piece, he is a gentleman, and the finest smith I have yet met. He seems to be the complete package, teacher, speaker, demonstrator, author, and decent man. Oh how I wish I could say that about more folks in life. Get his books, you will never regret it.

[urnesBeast]

Let me second the motion. These are excellent books. Once the smithy is opperational again, I plan to do a self-study course working through them. The first should be particularly useful since I only have a hammer and anvil right now and need to make everything else after the fire...

[parrish654]

sounds like a very good collection of books. would you recommend them to a starter or is it more for the advanced?

[rthibeau]

I got the books just the other day and have just skimmed them so far. They would be good for a beginner, intermediate, or advanced....something in there for everyone.

[ArtWerkz]

I have Volume 1 and Volume 2 and they are in my opinion the best books available on the craft.
I can't wait for Volume 3, Joinery. It is rumoured to be in the works. I love the fact that the pictures are very clear and the iron cold so you can see exactly what is being taught. I can't imagine the amount of work that went into making these books. If you want to purchase books about the craft and are serious about blacksmithing these are the two volumes to own.
Cheers

[easilyconfused]

I agree that these books have been a long time coming. They are perfect for the beginner and more advaced smiths as well. Most books on blacksmithing rehash the same thing with different pictures but these have tips that can help overcome common problems and make you really think about how you are doing things and the physics behind forging to better yourself, rather than just assuming it will take more practice. I urge everyone to purchase these books, both volumes, and read the whole book, not just skim the pictures. The humour is great as well.

[divermike]

Can't wait for the dvd's!!!

[maddog]

I've been hesitating on buy Aspery's books because of the price. I've spent too much money on other smithing books that in the end were rather disappointing. But after watching some of his YouTube videos and reading the comments here, I am going to have to buy them.

[kburd]

buy these books! I hope someday he gets the last one done on joinery. these are modern day books that utilize modern and traditional techniques. I also have bought numerous books and videos and often fall asleep watching and reading them. not these books you will have them thrown open in the shop all the time checking out the ways he does things and comming up with your own ideas.
I own the whole big blu series of videos and have very much enjoyed them and go back and watch them again and again. If you had a laptop or something to watch them on in the shop while you did some of the techniques it would be great.

[maddog]

Thanks kburd. Gonna buy them. I have three of Amit Har-Lev's videos. They were great to watch and I got something out of them but I found the content a bit disappointing. I should probably write a review.

[Lee B]

I've wasted quite a bit of money on so so blacksmithing books and feel Marks are worth every penny! I had a bit of sticker shock also, but; In my mind they are the best books out there.

[ArtWerkz]

I spoke with Mark via e-mail and Volume 3 is under way. :)

[maddog]

augh! Now I am going to spend more money!

I think shall unload some of my books and DVDs in the tailgating section.

[maddog]

To follow up: I bought Mark's books V1 & V2. This is an expensive set of books, $120. I hesitated to buy them and would have liked more information before I took the plunge. I thought I would add my own review here. I rate myself an intermediate smith. I can turn out a decent pair of tongs.

Vol 1 covers all the basic smithing operations, Drawing, Upsetting, Bending and Welding. Starting with drawing a taper the last few chapters are about making various kinds of tongs.

Vol 2 is primarily about leaf work with emphasis on basic repousse.

The books are written as a series of projects that build on each other, both in forging skills and tools. Probably more than half the work described in the book is about tool making. Each project is describe in much more detail than you would find in your typical smithing how to book and there are ample black and white photographs. This is much more than just a string of projects. It is clear that this has all been thought out very carefully to make it into an integrated, complete course. Mark's style is informal and self deprecating in a very British way. When talking about hammer technique he mentions that his friends used to call him "Lightning" (never hits the same spot twice). There is nothing pompous or pedantic about his writing. The books are hard cover with heavy paper and the pages are sewn in signatures - high quality binding.

None of this is extraordinairy in itself. IMO two things make these books a standout.

Content: Apart from the usual smithing projects the book contains an in depth section on hammers. He discusses hammer technique, the advantages of different hammer styles and how to dress a hammer face all in detail. I've not seen this in any other smithing book and I don't understand why. These are the basics and especially with technique it's possible to injure oneself if done poorly. Also he devotes quite a bit of space to cold work and cold chisels. IMO cold chisels are much neglected in modern smithing and none of my other books give much detail on how to use these tools. There is a project to forge a bending fork out of a single piece of stock which I have never seen before. The book also contains the best basic intro to metallurgy and heat treatment that I have ever seen. He covers the necessary phase transitions and crystal structure in some detail yet he manages to make terms like pearlite, martinsite comprehensible. Finaly, he lays out the calculations for stock measurements in detail - actualy a bit too much for my taste.

Forging: The projects are not only detailed step by step, but unlike any other text I have seen, Mark talks in depth about how the iron is moves and why and how you prepare each step to give the right set up for drawing or bending in the next. Despite over 20 years of playing with hot iron, reading Mark's descriptions of how to move the material gave me a new undestanding of steel and how to forge it.

Honestly, when I got the books and thumbed through them my heart sank. I realized I had just spent $120 on elementary texts. The first starts with tapering and works up to tong making. I KNOW how to make tongs. I certainly know how to draw a taper. The second deals with leaf work which I am not that interested in. But after reading his first forging chapter on drawing tapers, I realized that in fact I have somethings to learn about drawing a taper. It became obvious that if I worked through the whole course, yes starting with tapering, I would be a much better smith. I dont like forged wizard heads either. I think they are ugly. But I am going to do that project anyway for the same reasons.

Criticisms:

Mark's informal style tends to rambling sometimes. His prose is often not that clear and I have had to reread some paragraphs a couple three times. Also there are typos and grammar errors. These issues are worse in vol 2 than vol 1. While these don't detract from the usefulness of the book, it's a shame that the quality of the writing does not do justice to the content. After all the effort it must have taken to put this book together, it would make sense to run it by an editor. The photographs are very good but occaisionaly they are not up to snuff. I still cant make what kind of edge is shown on the finished cold chisel. He devotes a lot of space to simple math. What could have been done in one line can take half a page. If you need remedial math just to figure stock dimensions, I don't see that it's Mark's job to teach it to you. His exposition of the KE formula, 1/2MV^2 is very long winded and I found all this tedious. But then I have a lot of math in my background and others might appreciate his taking the time to lay it out.

In sum, I agree with the reviews above. This book is head and shoulders above other introductory texts. If you are a beginner or intermediate smith these are simply a must have. No matter how proud you are of your skills as they are, you will get a lot of benefit from working through even the most elementary projects. The price is steep by comparison but it's a very profitable investment.

[kburd]

Mad dog

Thanks for the reviews of the book you touched on alot of things that I have thought about in reviewing some of the text. I appriciate the fact that they are hard cover and heavy bound makes them good shop books. I also agree that some of the text gets a little lost in a sort of rambling that I think is just an accross the pond sort of thing. I to started at page one and have worked thru both books making most of the tooling and what not. It definatly is a "curriculum" in blacksmithing I wanted to jump right to a certain project and quicklied failed beacuse 1- I had not made the proper tooling and 2- I was not skilled enough to do it yet.
The one thing that I did notice mark does a lot and this I am guessing is from his farrier background is he uses a rounding hammer more often then not and is constantly working at the "bick" of the anvil. when i first started trying to do the work he was doing on the bick I about thru the xxxx book out the shop door. I just couldnt get the results I wanted and seemed to have no control working at this area of the anvil. So I got pissed took one of my slightly crowned more square hammers "hofi style" and rounded the crap out of that thing went to the pick started pounding away and all of a sudden I was moving metal how I wanted and almost showing signs of looking like the pictures in the book! One warning I will give folks is that marks work always looks so clean the corners are crisp tapers perfect and almost a mill finish look to a lot of his hand hammered items. This pissed me off when I couldnt come close to having these results. Have no fear though just work and work and work and it will come to you. They say it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to become a true master and I believe mr aspery has put in his time.

as far as the content in the big blu videos I agree that some of them left a little to be desired but you can glean alot of info from looking at things in the background or just watcing the little things that they are doing along the way. I have watched them all numerous times and have had questions about this or that when I was working on a project and I dont hesitate to call Dean or Josh at big blu to ask for advice. They could easily say get bent but they always try and steer you in the right direction and take time to actually talk to you. I have bought one of there power hammers and a fair amount of hand hammers and find the workman ship to be of good quality. The hand hammers come in good shap from my experience and only need a little retouching for personal preference.

[ZIG]

I am posting a review on the reviews.
Thank you all for the time to comment on these books. Y'all really answered alot of my questions and wish all books on blacksmithing could Be reviewed this in-depth.
I have always tried to read all I can about everything I buy. More so from internet. But I have Never seen so many well written reviews from so many people.
You can definitely feel the passion Y'all have For the craft And the feeling of obligation to fellow blacksmiths. No matter at What level they may be at. Its as if y'all were giving your thoughts on a gun you bought and had a young boy asking about It.
Maybe a silly analogy. But you can tell. That your trying to not sell books but get the right information into the right hands. Hence the gun analogy. As If saying, you want out grow This gun And you Can't tear it up and.its safe.
I've been waffling on getting them both. And read hundreds of reviews. But yalls were the most informative. So although I've been doing it for over 25 years. I am at a new place in my career And life. So I want the best books That I can carry from the recliner to the shop And They hold up forever.
So I'm really impressed with the honesty but wouldn't expect anything less from the people on this site.
I'm gonna go ahead And get them And intend on taking yalls advice. And start And work my way thru it. And hope I'm a better Smith than before.
Thanks for the time. I enjoyed yalls reviews. Mark should read this thread. And I hope he finishes the 3volume soon. Cause I'm really interested in that.

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Marks website:

http://www.markaspery.net

[DClaville]

his two books will be the next books I buy they have for a long time been high on the wish list but not at the very top as im more into bladesmithing
but now they are at the very top

thanks for the reviews all

[Iron Clad]

Excellent and high quality books. I would recommend them to all smiths. I too have books one and two, cannot wait for the third! They may be a little expensive but heck, it's just money and the learning experience is worth much more.....

[David Einhorn]

I have both his books and consider his books a "must have" for anyone wishing to have their own library of blacksmithing reference books, and/or people who wish to work their way through the skills in the books so as to improve their blacksmithing skills.

Excellent books, I plan on purchasing any additional books that he publishes.