Blacksmithing Book

[David]

Just an FYI for those of you thinking about purchasing the following book;
A Complete Working Guide for the Beginning Blacksmith

[Glenn]

You want to write a review of the book or at least tell us why?

[David]

For instance the chapter on BUILDING A FORGE...Since it is a beginning blacksmith book one would think that that chapter is going to give you some suggestions and/or photos on forge building. This entire chapter is about one page long and does not give any specifics on forge building. Most of the chapter covers the chimney then it ends with a suggestion to purchase a forge on Ebay or other auctions. There is one photo of an old Buffalo Forge Co. Forge.
A lot of the information in the chapters quotes other blacksmithing books...mainly PRACTICAL BLACKSMITHING by M T Richardson.
The cover states that there are 21 lessons in the book...well there are some lessons in there but either no photos or poor quality photos of the process accompany the scant written instructions.
Many of the photos are POOR quality computer graphics of the process and/or blacksmithing tools used. Also, there is a lot of the following statements from the author...."I've never tried this but.........."
I could give more examples but I didn't want to write a novel.
In my opinion novice blacksmithing students would be better served by purchasing another book that would actually be helpful to a beginning blacksmith.
I don't have an "ax to grind" with the author because the book was shipped to me promptly and as far as I know he is a great guy but maybe he is better at actual blacksmithing than he is at writing a book about blacksmithing instruction. This book appears to be hastily put together to capitalize on the current interest in the blacksmithing art.