Art of Coppersmithing: A Practical Treatise on Working Sheet Copper into All Forms

Rating:
Summary: Deserves much consideration
Review: This book I believe deserves much praise. The Astragal Press have here reprinted a book written in 1893 which highlights skills that in my part of the world have essentially disappeared. With the technological progress that has sweep across the western world since this book was written you would I suspect have to travel to India, Iran or maybe Eygpt to see this sort of hand skill in use today.
In the authors day copper was the metal of choice for making the Glue Pots and Tea kettles, the Stock Pots, Frying Pans, Tallow Coppers and Brewing Coppers to name just a small aray of items listed in this book. Today the vast bulk of these would be manufactured from either Stainless Steel or may Aluminium.
So the author desribes with words and some outstanding drawings how these items could have been constructed during this period. Pattern Development of some of the items is also covered. The universal subjects of Soldering and Brazing do get good coverage as does the subject of Tinning a copper to be used for cooking purposes. He has included formula for working out some of the blanks required to start from and some good descriptions of the hand tools and stakes etc. to form the work with and on.
A previous reviewer has said that this book is mainly a historical text and of little practical worth today. This is valid only up to a point. It is my belief that this book does have a practical worth and anyone who is looking at this book will be looking precisely for what this book delivers on. That is that this book is about crafting and the art of working metal. The skill to plastically deform a metal to a desired shape is very well covered here and I think that there is a movement, even if a small one, to relearn some of the skills lost in the last few decades with the march of technology. I work in a sheetmetal fabrication shop and no one has these skills anymore and some will say "so what!". But when a job comes in with compounding curved surfaces it is to books from this generation that we must return.
The book itself has been well manufactured though I would have perferred a hard cover. Both the Table of Contents and the Index are clear and concise.
I therefore give this book 5 stars and believe that if you want to do some serious metal working in your job or at home as a hobby then this book will serve you very well.

Rating:
Summary: No other book even comes close in this topic.
Review: This book shows how to make every kind of pot, pan, still, kettle, teakettle or brewry gadget that you would want to make out of copper. Big and small. Household and industrial.

Although, dealing exclusively with copper, most of the techniques shown can be applied to other common sheet metals.

This book doesn't deal with raising from the whole, as in silversmithing, but with piecing something together, and using dovetail joints along with soldering to make a whole.

Lots of woodcut illustrations and concise text. There is some obscure and obsolete terminology; such as 'spelter'. Do you know what that is?

Spinning, dies, power presses and such are not delt with in this book. Hand hammering, stakes, charcoal firepots; that is what you will find in here. This is like blacksmithing for copper.

If you are interested in working with copper sheet, or brass,I have not seen another book out there as good as this one. Especially if you want to make utilitarian objects. The book is packed with information.

If you are interested in artistic copper forming you will still find the basic techniques in here as to how to work the copper.

Rating:
Summary: Written by the pilgrims
Review: This is a book which may be of historical significance but is of little practical value today. It was originally published in 1894. Do not get this as some kind of how-to guide or you will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Written by the pilgrims
Review: This is a book which may be of historical significance but is of little practical value today. It was originally published in 1894. Do not get this as some kind of how-to guide or you will be disappointed.