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Beginner!!


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Along with the books you may also try the blacksmith organizations in your area. I have found, at least in our area, that the blacksmiths that attend these meetings and events are very sharing with their knowledge and skills.
Good luck,
Jerry

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I highly recommend Lorelie Sims book 'The Blackyard Blacksmith' and can be found at Lorelei Sims - Artist Blacksmith / Welcome to the Vortex of Hot Metal. Also George Dixson's book 'The Blacksmith's Craft, A Legacy of Francis Whitaker' Vol. 1. Vol.2 is due out sometime later this year, I've been told. ALSO check out this site Blacksmith Guild of Viriginia - Home . A little far for me to attend but this is a VERY active group. I'm sure they would love to have you. Not sure how far of a drive that would be for you... Good luck and glad to hear your son is interested in the HIGHLY ADDICTIC art/craft! Better than ANY drug you can take!

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Glenn beat me to the punch...

I'd suggest the following online sites:

Top 50 Blacksmithing Sites< informative/inspartional

Diamondback Ironworks< good Gas forges

Anvils can be Improv.(Tractor/bulldozer parts) made DIY (Steel plate/slegehammer head in cement *!*not as long lasting as real anvil*!*) Or got from Nortern tool, harbor freight, or NC tool-NCTOOLCO.COM< anvils

Edited by Golden_eagle
Fixing up
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For a beginer, The complete modern blacksmith is an exellent book. Easy to read, easy to understand, beautifuly illustrated, very complete, shows how to improvise any equipment you don't have, insirational. A good follow up would be Bealer's Art of the Blacksmith.

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Mark, my 13 year old son started doing this stuff in early May. We had met a couple of guys from the Arizona Artistic Blacksmith Association a couple of months earlier and they let us know about an upcoming class. The class ran one day per week, 3-4 hours in the evening, for 8 weeks. It was great. They covered a lot of territory, the hands-on was priceless.
They used two books, one was by Mark Aspery, The Skills of a Blacksmith vol.1,
and The Blacksmith and His Art by J.E. Hawley
I also have The Backyard Blacksmith by Sims.
The book by Sims has is nicely done and the pictures are in color. It's a nice initial presentation of the subject and might appeal to a youngster. Mine liked it. But from the standpoint of usefulness later on, the other two books are content rich.
And there are lots of other books that are great too, I just don't know about them.

Try if you can to meet with the local or the closest Blacksmith people or association. I think you will find them to be very helpful to a young guy who is trying to start and a Dad who is picking up the tools.

For videos, youtube really has quite a bit on the topic.
But the easiest full access source when starting out is likely this place, iforgeiron.com

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