The Home Blacksmith


Book Description

As more and more people join the do-it-yourself revolution, they are breathing new life into many time-honored skills and crafts. Blacksmithing is among the trades that are enjoying a resurgence for both practical and artistic uses, yet there isn’t an abundance of readily accessible information available to beginning blacksmiths to help them get started and understand the craft. Author Ryan Ridgway, a veterinarian and blacksmith with more than 15 years of metalworking experience, hopes to fill that void with this comprehensive volume geared toward answering the many questions that new blacksmiths often have. By explaining the physics of moving metal, the different styles of anvils and forges, and alternative fuel sources, Ridgway sets his book apart from less detailed volumes. Forty practical, easy-to-follow projects are presented, showing aspiring blacksmiths how to make tools, such as hammers and chisels; farm implements, such as gate latches and hoof picks; and items for home use, including drawer pulls and candle holders.




The Art and Craft of the Blacksmith


Book Description

The Art and Craft of the Blacksmith is a visually stunning introduction to the tools, techniques, and traditions every modern smith needs to know.




New Edge of the Anvil


Book Description

The tenet of this book is provide a tool for artists/blacksmiths and metalworkers. It tells how to work metal: heating it, cutting it, upsetting it, drawing it out, twisting it, forge welding it and shaping and assembling it. It tells about metallurgy and tool making, metal finishes and corrosion, sources of information and supplies, charts and guidelines for many tasks. It explains the process of design, how to use the computer in metal design, how to set up a business and how to manage it. Providing an inspiration for all blacksmiths are portfolios of the wrought iron work of Martin Rose and Samuel Yellin, two of America's premier metalworkers of the past. To further inspire and to show the new focus of blacksmithing in the metal arts, six contemporary metalworkers show a series of demonstration pieces of their iron work. This 256 page book is bound with an improved binding system (Otabind) that allows the pages to lay flat.




Cognition and Tool Use


Book Description

Janet and Charles Keller provide an account of situated learning based on the ethnographic study of blacksmithing.




Farm Blacksmithing


Book Description




The Backyard Blacksmith


Book Description

The Backyard Blacksmith takes the mystery out of blacksmithing, but not the magic... There is an increasing interest and revival in the art of blacksmithing as a hobby and art, and both men and women are becoming at-home blacksmiths. Blacksmithing is a simple, rewarding craft anyone can enjoy in their backyard or home workshop -- even beginners can produce useful and beautiful projects on their first try. The Backyard Blacksmith shows you how blacksmithing can be easy to learn, and a rewarding hobby, with some patience and a working knowledge of metals, basic tools, and techniques. Through instructions and illustrations, readers will learn to make simple tools and useful items, such as nails, hinges, and handles, and also an interesting mix of artful projects, such letter openers, door knockers and botanical ornaments.




The Art of Blacksmithing


Book Description

With more than 500 illustrations, this book is perfect for craftsmen who want to set up a blacksmith shop, and for lovers of history and craft alike. This book describes and illustrates the equipment and techniques developed in more than six thousand years of working iron by hand.Indeed, this unique book covers every aspect of a fascinating and little-known art, the fundamental craft on which the civilization of the Iron Age was built.




Forged


Book Description

"This book will teach you to hand build a knife using the traditional method of blacksmiths of old-forging. Traditional forging of a knife blade is a process which uses the ancient techniques of moving hot steel with hammer and anvil alone into a knife-form that is ready for filing, heat treating and sharpening with no or very minimal electric grinding. Almost anyone with basic hand tool aptitude can learn to make a knife by forging. Forging skills are not outside the average person's facility or capacity. If this is a new encounter for you it will necessitate your swinging a hammer; not at a nail but at a piece of hot steel, learning and applying some ten or twelve blacksmithing techniques and secrets, and experiencing some trial and error. I have probably taught hundreds of men, women and a few children to do this and I am confident you can learn to do this too. As a wise man said: "Life is trial and error, mostly error". I make errors every time I go to my anvil. So will you. This book also teaches traditional fit-and-finish skills with hand tools alone. It explains an ancient riveted full-tang handle construction system that surpasses modern methods. This book is designed for both first-time, back-yard beginner smiths to experienced knifemakers and any general blacksmiths in between wanting to build a knife using these ancient ways"--