The Book of Blacksmithing (Setting Up Shop, Essential Skills, and Easy Projects to Get You Started), by Michael Cardiff.
ISBN-13: 978-1610045773
I’ve known Mike Cardiff for a couple of decades, and can vouch for his competencies as a smith. He moves surely, wastes no effort, and turns out functional tools, blades and accoutrements in short order. I helped him find a publisher for this work, and am very glad to see it in print.
I’m quite impressed by the outcome. Mike’s writing style is simple, clear and straightforward, and the illustrations by his brother are likewise very easy to understand and follow. This slim but surprisingly dense book first addresses safety, setup of a smith including choices of forge types, anvils and tools. It then does a detailed breakdown of various types of hammers, tongs, punches and chisels, shaping tools, and accessories like drills and grinders. Each major tool is accorded a description on how to select and use it, across a panoply of striking, gripping, bending, punching and abrading tools.
He covers buying and scrounging material for different purposes, and finding tools, or items that can be converted into tools, from various sources.
Then it’s on to how to build a fire (coal, gas, and charcoal, possibly the most versatile and available fuel for grid down or economic crisis scenarios), maintain it, heat and work steel. How to control the hammer, the shape, how to heat treat and temper for tools, and how to weld ferrous metals with a forge. He does not cover horse shoeing, which is the specialty of a farrier. He does cover the manufacture of basic hand tools.
Next, there is an entire chapter on problems and how to troubleshoot them—misshapen metal, split, cracked or twisted stock, and problems judging metal mass.
The last part of the book is devoted to very clear, beautifully illustrated instructions on making various items, including shop tools (hammers, punches, hardies, tongs, nail forming tools) and several small household items that will give the beginning smith a good workout in the essentials of shaping metal.
The Book of Blacksmithing is available from Paladin Press, from Amazon.com and and other outlets.
Disclosure and Disclaimer (per FTC File No. P034520): I was furnished a free (damaged) copy for review.