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I Forge Iron

Free Blacksmithing books on the web


habu68

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well...Im was researching a bit for a Damascus Steel "definitions" article when I found that, I'll be linking all the sources for a blueprint supposedly)


in the meantime the recipe for a modern recreation of a real Damascus steel
" making a real damascus steel knife." (Internet Archive pdf) by John D. Verhoeven & blacksmith Alfred H. Pendray, Scientific American January 2001

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well...Im was researching a bit for a Damascus Steel "definitions" article when I found that, I'll be linking all the sources for a blueprint supposedly)


in the meantime the recipe for a modern recreation of a real Damascus steel
" making a real damascus steel knife." (Internet Archive pdf) by John D. Verhoeven & blacksmith Alfred H. Pendray, Scientific American January 2001


Wow, not that i've read or should have known any better but I thought damascus steel was always forge welded layers of different types of steel. I had no idea that real damascus was caused by microscopic alignment of crystals in the steel like this. Amazing...
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Just bloody wonderful :-) I was surfing this morning and came across this site. It's a on-line copy of the Joseph Stokes blacksmithing books. This is part of what I think of as the tri-group of blacksmithing books. These are the how-to books I recommend.(just my opinion) Three different groups of books by British authors on blacksmithing. All of the authors are/were apprenticed smiths and when I write apprenticed, I mean under the old systems. I can not over emphasize what this means, a passing on of skills from as far back as you can go in time. Everyone of these books are filled with no nonsense, practical how-to blacksmithing.

The first group is the Cosira books. The intent of the authors of these books were to provide the rural smith with guidance in making the transition from purely agricultural smithing to the area of decorative smithing.
Craft publications

The second group are Mr. Stokes books. Their purpose was to help the third world smith make his craft economically viable in a land with limited modern resources*.
Workshop Report on the integration of population education into programmes for rural youth in Zimbabwe

Agricultural engineering in development
I'm not finding volume three, but copies of all these books can be bought from Norm Larson in CA.

The last are the Mark Aspery's book with two more volumes to follow.

Between the Mr. Stokes and Mr. Aspery's books, there isn't much left to say about hand forging of tools.

*Responding to a ad, Joseph Stokes was hired by the United Nations to teach machine shop in Africa. When he got to the location, he realized that what was needed wasn't machine skills, but something far different. What they needed was to learn metalworking skills that would help them become self-sufficient. With that began the UN's agricultural blacksmithing program. Mr. Stokes went on to write the three volume set of books for the UN's program. His idea was to teach rural smiths how to make tools out of scrap metals* and then to use those tools to make farming tools. The next progression was repair of farm equipment. Off and on over twenty years, Mr. Stokes returned to Africa and taught classes. He did his five year apprenticeship right after WWII in Oswestry, Shropshire, England, UK in a shop without electricity.

*He joked with me, that after he taught a class, no truck or car left on the side of the road, was safe.

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  • 6 months later...

Hi all,
Just a quick note about a couple of books,
firstly
Medieval decorative ironwork in England by Jane Geddes most of you have probably heard of this one, however I have just recieved the july E-mail from Oxbow books and they have put this on special offer

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I love old books and own more than a few myself. My thanks to those who searched and posted the links. I downloaded many new books. I have an electrical engineering book in my library that I used in college. It does not not contain the word "transistor". I keep it to remind me to revere the old but stay current!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh, re: if Gutenberg has any Smithing books, not really, but there are a few which may be of interest to some who might want to make their own furniture for the workshop, The one on Glasswork more as a novelty, but hey, if yer' temps can make it that high,,,
So many of these are for noveltys sake, but some like Mechanics for Boys can have some useful tidbits. Sorry if this list is too far from the particular topic of this thread, but I'm sure most books will hold some relevant & helpful info, or at least make up for it in novelties sake.

Advanced Search - Project Gutenberg

Cat # & titles:

23319 -- Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught, by Joshua Rose

15622 -- Handbook on Japanning: 2nd Edition, by William N. Brown

10998 -- A CATECHISM OF THE STEAM ENGINE
IN ITS VARIOUS APPLICATIONS TO MINES, MILLS, STEAM NAVIGATION, RAILWAYS, AND AGRICULTURE.
WITH
PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE MANUFACTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF ENGINES OF EVERY CLASS.

12655 -- The Boy Mechanic

22298 -- Practical Mechanics for Boys, by J. S. Zerbe

22766 -- Electricity for Boys, by J. S. Zerbe

22657 -- Steam, Its Generation and Use, by Babcock & Wilcox Co.

20763 -- Carpentry for Boys, by J. S. Zerbe

20846 -- Handwork in Wood, by William Noyes

21531 -- Woodwork Joints, by William Fairham

22784 -- On Laboratory Arts by RICHARD THRELFALL, M.A. (Glassworking)

12299 -- THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD

14664 -- Things to Make

14873 -- Instructions on Modern American Bridge Building circa 1874

15460 -- A COURSE IN WOOD TURNING By ARCHIE S. MILTON

20195 -- Wood-Block Printing, by F. Morley Fletcher

22107 -- Wood-Carving, by George Jack

23666 -- Mission Furniture,pt 1 by H. H. Windsor

23770 -- Mission Furniture,pt 2 by H. H. Windsor

23991 -- Mission Furniture,pt 3 by H. H. Windsor

******************************************

I've got a list about equally long of books on Gardening and agriculture from the usual turn of the previous Century circa. if anyone's interested, just haven't sorted & listed titles as yet.

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  • 3 months later...

Diderot's classic Encyclopedie is the father of all encyclopaedia,The 9 volumes were written in the 17th century, it covers every trade and industry of the time with exquisite engravings of shops and workers at their trades. I found some blacksmith pages starting around volume 8 page 0100. I have seen other excerpts of shops and workers that i have not found in this site as yet.
Encyclop

Edited by habu68
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in a nutshell.. you simply find a public proxy located in the states... go to that site... then copy n paste the web address of the site you want to go to..

eg.. did a google search for proxy and came up with this
Proxy.org - The Proxy Authority

then picked a proxy on the right side of that site... which was:

ProxyBoxOnline

then you just enter the web address of the googlebook in that box on that site and click browse...

and googlebooks now thinks you are in the states... and allows you to download their stuff..

G;)

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Hathi Trust - Multi-College version of Google Books!
Look in various college catalogs for lots of books. Some are full PDFs, others give you 10 or so PDF pages at a time.
Access to HathiTrust | www.hathitrust.org (some books are not complete at the moment)

Gauge, Jig, etc. (seems incomplete?)
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89071905731

Forging and Welding
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006062122

Basic Machines - Navy Training
Basic Machines - Intro to machines and motion theories

P N Hasluck - Metalworking: Tools, Materials & Processes
Metalworking: Tools, Materials & Processes

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