brucerdn Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Hey there all you Gentlesmiths; I have been asked to get some more blacksmithing books for the club I belong to. I was wondering what some of your choices would be. The criteria I was given to select books by was anything from beginner level to mastersmith level , as long as they deal with the craft of blacksmithing. thanks in advance for the information and guidance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 so have you checked out the book reviews over at anvilfire? What books do you have already? Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgtonblacksmith Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Buck, Of the ones that I have, I'd recommend: "The Art of Blacksmithing" by Alex Bealer "A Blacksmithing Primer" by Randy McDaniel "Professional Smithing" by Donald Streeter Alex Bealer's book is a great read for the beginners although I find some of his descriptions of processes hard to visualize without a sketch or picture. Still, a good book. Randy's book is really great as he has many good pictures along with the text AND he teaches several processes by using a nice project to develop your skills on. Also, he has cleverly published the book with a spiral binder so you can take it right out into the shop to refer to as you try his techniques. Donald Streeter's book is good in the fact that he shows the "old style" of running a shop and gives several examples of projects to build. I have several other 'smithing books also, but I need more time to read them before I can give a good review. Hope this helps to begin your search, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucerdn Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 I have Alex Bealers book and The New Edge of The Anvil and yes I have checked out anvilfires book store. I'm looking for opinions on what has served people best and the ones they don't like as well before I purchase any. Because I know there are good books as well as bad and I really value your opinions, you folks have yet to steer me wrong again thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irnsrgn Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Plain and Ornamental Blacksmithing by Schwarzkopf is an excellent book and is a bedside reader for Frank Turley I believe. This book was actually written to be used as a classroom book to be used to teach blacksmithing. And the Cosira books from England are excellent for pictures and text to any basic or intermediate smith and are what I patterned my Blueprints after. The Blacksmiths Craft Wrought Ironwork The Blacksmiths Manual Illustrated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolano Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 I have "The Complete Modern Blacksmith", which really is a fantastic book. Oh, and by the way, the Bealer book isnt a very good book. it seems that whenever you get somewhere, something important has been left out, or something like that. I dont really trust it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Skelton Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 Bealer's book is as trustworthy as they come.... He didn't write the book to be an instructional. It was written to preserve information about what was being made by blacksmiths from the middle ages to the early 20th C- covering as many topics as could be covered in as little space as possible. When he wrote it there was no ABANA or other local blacksmithing clubs- for all intents and purposes blacksmithing was dead. So he'd see something that had been forged and guessed at the construction if there wasn't better information available (i.e. there wasn't an "old timer" around to ask how something like that would have been made). He was an historian who, like a lot of folks in the late 60's/early 70's who were throwing off the modernity of mechanization and the birth of a global economy, loved old crafts and the old techniques for making things; he has another book about colonial wood crafting that is similar in approach to "...Blacksmithing". It was in large part because people were able to get their hands on a book like that that they figured they'd give it a try, and that's how we got to where we are. And it's an important work because there is a lot of information there, but it doesn't hold your hand and tell you how to go from raw material to finished product like most other smithing books do; that was never his intention. IRNSRGN: I found a book called "Plain and Ornamental Forging" by E. Schwartzkopf.... is that the same book? Complete Modern Blacksmith was written by a gent who needed to make custom chisels for his stone carving. So a lot of his projects are geared toward simple tool making and not "traditional" blacksmithing projects. I really like it though for his "out of the box" thinking and his love of scrounged materials :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Gold Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 I am personally the most fond of Percy W. Blandford's Practical Blacksmithing and Metalworking -- I have Bealer's book, had "Complete Modern Blacksmith". Really DIDN'T like CMB because it seemed to be lacking in real smithing projects, although the drawings were good. Bealer's is more good for historical stuff than real technique stuff, although I have learned some good things from it and it comes in handy from time to time. Practical Blacksmithing and Metalworking is also pretty cheap... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one_rod Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 A book that I found very interesting is "The Artist Blacksmith" by Peter Parkinson. It's one of the few books that really goes into the asthetics and design considerations of modern artistic ironwork. Some beautiful photos too. It's a UK publication, but should be available over there, (I got my copy through Amazon). one_rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irnsrgn Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 kristopher that is the book, sorry I didn't get the title right, its an age thing. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Skelton Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 :D That's good actually I was thinking I had TWO more books to buy, one being super-rare and the other more common. It's actually in the newest Lindsay Books catalog with the other blacksmithing books, so I may have to place an ordeer....darn.... Thanks for checking in and confirming the title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolano Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Well, let me rephrase what I said. The Bealer book is not a good book to pick projects out of. If you just want a good collection of blacksmithing books, then its one to include. But if you want a book to really tell you how to do things, then it may not be one you would want. But its a moot point, because you have it already. And while I dont have The New Edge of the Anvil, I've heard its an excellent book, and it looked good while I was flipping through it at the library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWE_Karl Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 1: how to make knifes by Richard W. Barney 2: The tactical folding knife by Bob terzuola 2 realy good book about folding knife and regular knife (not folding knife) SWE_karl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 If you are thinking of bladesmithing then "The Complete Bladesmith" by James Hrisoulas is a must---but it's not a book to start with, it's much better if you already have a background in smithing and want to go on into bladesmithing. Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWE_Karl Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 If you are thinking of bladesmithing then "The Complete Bladesmith" by James Hrisoulas is a must---but it's not a book to start with, it's much better if you already have a background in smithing and want to go on into bladesmithing. Thomas agree about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucerdn Posted January 24, 2006 Author Share Posted January 24, 2006 Thanks for all the replies so far Gentlesmiths. You've definetly been a big help so far and I really appreciate it. Anymore suggestions are definetly welcome. Again thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 Bill Epps has his book on how to make things from angle iron for sale in the IForgeIron store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Authentic Iron Works Posted January 26, 2006 Share Posted January 26, 2006 The best book I have ever read on blacksmithing is "A Blacksmith's Craft" The Legacy of Francis Whitaker. This book is essentialy 137 pages of Blacksmithing techniques. "BEAUTIFUL IRON" The Pursuit of Excellence By Francis Whitaker is also an excellent book and is a pictorial history of this man's life work. "Samuel Yellin,Metalworker" By Jack Andrews was also impressive. The Pictures in this book blew me away. The Ironwork fabricated out of Yellins shop was unbelieveable. I look at these pictures and think, how did they make that? I really believe we are starting to loose this craft to the ages and surely heading into the age of mediocrity. Most of what I see today is machine made and not very interesting. Just recently I have realized that it's forums like this that help keep this art alive. KEEP THE ARTS ALIVE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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