[TheForge] Re: Help with info

Sat Nov 30 01:02:00 2002

> My son is doing a report on blacksmithing due Dec 5, we are having a
> time finding info, can someone help us the time 1800-1840.

See if you can find a copy of _The Village Blacksmith_ by Aldren
A. Watson.  (Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1968 [antedates ISBN])

Readable text but especially lots of excellent explanatory drawings of
tools and methods as well as the smith's products.  

The author references "New England -- 1885-1910" but village smithing
didn't change much in the 19th century in any way that would matter to
the 4th grade reader.  E.g., iron got cheaper and the quality of steel
for tools became more reliable but the rural smith's tasks and ways of
doing them remained pretty much the same.

This was a popular gift book in its day so even a small library might
have it.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada 

[email protected]            
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/