The Art of Blacksmithing

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: Bealer is a very important figure in modern US blacksmithing and is credited with sparking a renaissance of the craft. Among US smiths, the Bealer Award occupies a position similar to that of the Nobel Prizes for the sciences. Because of Bealer's stature, this book is treated with undue reverence.

Why undue? The text is long winded and pompous. Bealer was not particularly careful to verify his "research" and some of what he writes is drivel. It is not a tutorial. An experienced smith can read his descriptions and understand how to make the pieces he describes but for a beginner trying to learn smithing this is not the book.

I would rate this book about equivalent to sitting in a bar listening to a master smith after he has had a few drinks. Worth listening to but be a little skeptical. If you are serious about smithing you will want to own this book, especially since the price is so reasonable. If you want a smithing primer, this isn't it.


Rating:
Summary: an excellent primer
Review: Bealer wrote _The Art of Blacksmithing_ over 40 years ago in order to preserve what he felt was becoming a lost art. Blacksmithing has not been lost, but his book on the subject is excellent.

In it, the history of the trade and its gradual evolution is detailed, followed by a few chapters on tools before he gets to the nitty-gritty of blacksmithing. Pay attention - the information he presents here is critical to understanding how metal is fashioned later.

The book has dozens of diagrams, and the techniques are broken down and explained in detail. However, as several reviewers have mentioned, there is no real substitute to the act of working metal. It is a wonderful start, and contains an abundance of information, but there can be no better teacher than experience.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD READING
Review: FOUND THIS BOOK VERY INTERESTING AND EASY TO READ. HAS GOOD PHOTOS.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable read - not a primer
Review: I love this book. There is a lot of interesting information presented in a very readable format.

I would not reccommend the book for a source of learning technical smithing, but I would reccommend it for someone trying to learn lots of background information about a hobby/trade they already love. It can save you from answering a lot of spectator questions with "I don't know".

Rating:
Summary: Great to start with
Review: I read this book after reading the Foxfire book on blacksmithing in my quest to learn more. Bealer goes into great detail about techniques and tools of the trade. I would recomend this book to anybody interested in taking up blacksmithing as a hobby. A word of caution is in order here though; no book can teach you all of this skill. I would recomend, in addition to reading this book, locating a smith or a college with a blacksmithing course near you and talking to them to really learn the trade. That being said, this book is a great and accurate introduction to the art. This book is economical enough that even if you don't pursue blacksmithing as a hobby, you won't be out too much and will still have all of that wonderful knowledge.

Rating:
Summary: superb
Review: The author was instrumental in reviving the almost-lost art of blacksmithing. He takes the reader through every step of blasmithing from smelting the ore to final product. highly informative, detailed, and easy to read.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent resource
Review: This book is an excellent resource, both for those going into the field, and also for those with an interest in learning more about blacksmithing. Every skill outlined in the book, is backed up with scads of historical information. This book was wonderfly written and a joy to read.

Rating:
Summary: A superb reference for smithing and for writers wanting info
Review: This is one of those works that gets overlooked, but is a must for writers aside for anyone wanting more information on metal working and smithing. I especially recommend this as a foundation for anyone wanting to know more about forges in the Middles Ages and a prep for understanding how swords and armour were made. This is a starting point, but also a wealth of information I have not found elsewhere.

Beaton's book starts with a discussion about the Blacksmith. Quickly moves on to the black metal. He discusses the set up of the Blacksmith shop, then into a more details coverage of his tools, tricks and techniques. Once he has that established he go into rich writing how how the metals are formed. Especially helpful, is the home utensils chapter, a back to basics that will be invaluable to writer. Also handled are iron decorations and winds up with weaponry.

This is a must for period writers. You cannot get a better study of this subject. It will add so much to your writings to fully understand the role of this very vital master of the trade who kept people safe and provided them with the means of defence, right down to the care of horses that were so valuable to a man's very life.

Rating:
Summary: A superb reference for smithing and for writers wanting info
Review: This is one of those works that gets overlooked, but is a must for writers aside for anyone wanting more information on metal working and smithing. I especially recommend this as a foundation for anyone wanting to know more about forges in the Middles Ages and a prep for understanding how swords and armour were made. This is a starting point, but also a wealth of information I have not found elsewhere.

Beaton's book starts with a discussion about the Blacksmith. Quickly moves on to the black metal. He discusses the set up of the Blacksmith shop, then into a more details coverage of his tools, tricks and techniques. Once he has that established he go into rich writing how how the metals are formed. Especially helpful, is the home utensils chapter, a back to basics that will be invaluable to writer. Also handled are iron decorations and winds up with weaponry.

This is a must for period writers. You cannot get a better study of this subject. It will add so much to your writings to fully understand the role of this very vital master of the trade who kept people safe and provided them with the means of defence, right down to the care of horses that were so valuable to a man's very life.

Rating:
Summary: Allow me to digress a moment.
Review: What is it that sets man apart from the other animals? What is the basis of society, culture, civilization? Is it language, religion, philosophy? Is it the ability to walk on two appendages instead of four? Is it a larger brain? Lack of hair? Omnivorous dieting? Possession of a thumb?

These things all have something to do with it. But one thing usually overlooked is the ability of man to make a very hot fire and heat a particular dirt in it until metal comes out. And then to take that metal and heat it again in a fire, beat it unmercifully, and then quench and torture it in cold water, to yield a lustrous substance, strong and hard, known as 'steel'.

Admit it; with out a weapon in his hand, man is just a part of the food chain. And down pretty low on that food chain at that. Almost every animal out there possesses some natural defense mechanism. They can bite, kick, sting, spray, and electrocute. And if they can't do any of those things, most any of them can out run, swim or fly, man.

With man's ability to make steel, he can have knives sharper than a tiger's claw, armour harder than an armidillo. Physically weak and inadequate man becomes master of all the animals. Yeah, he could make a spear point out of flint, but nothing beats steel.

With steel, man can plow up the ground to plant food. He can harvest it with sickles made of steel. And cook it in pots of iron.

With steel, man can make saws to cut down trees and saw them into lumber, and make nails to bind the lumber together and build himself shelter. And make a door with hinges and a lock, to let himself in and keep other creatures out.

A measure of a nation's ability to wage war depends today, as it has through most of history, on how much steel they can produce.

Man has lived without electicity, television, automobiles, telephones, computers, refrigerators and washing machines (all of which require steel to make, by the way.) for most of his existence. But he hasn't gone for long without steel.

The 'Stone Age' wasn't a very comfortable one.

The 'Bronze Age' wasn't much better.

And these 'ages' are just conjecture anyway. Metalworking is prehistoric, except for a brief reference to Tubal-Cain in Genesis 4:32, who, it is said, was the first metalworker, and he worked both bronze and iron. Because steel rusts away or is beaten into other utensils, there is no way to prove that man didn't have steel as far back as he had bronze.

Of course, steel also gives mankind the ability to perform much evil.

Steel making is ancient and modern, scientific and mysterious, good and evil, utilitarian and artistic. As much a part of man's being as language, culture, religion, society.

This book describes the steel working methods used before the Industrial Age rolled over us. Good book to have. The skills shown in this book are vital because when the world runs out of fossil fuels, we will be living in the Stone Age again unless someone is around who knows how to pound iron.