[TheForge] Books etc.

[Jerry Frost]

Stephan:

Try Norm Larson for all your reading needs.

  larbooks at impulse.net

This is a list of books and links you might find useful. He has some decent 
reviews on the page as well.

http://www.beautifuliron.com/links_bks_smith_beginner.htm

There are more examples of the number of opinions per smith phenomena than 
found on this list. I used to have a book that was a compilation of articles 
from a blacksmithing magazine/journal from around the turn of the last 
century. The articles were written by some fairly famous smiths of the day, 
as I gathered from the intros.

What struck me and leads me to give Bealer the benefit of the doubt where 
"mistakes" are concerned was reading this book. Starting in the late 1870's 
up to the mid or late 1920's (as I recall) there was article after article 
from smith after smith that started with one version or another of, "I think 
that once you've tried my method you'll find it superior." Or, "This is the 
only proper method of doing . . . X."

Virtually no two smiths did a thing the same way and virtually every one 
insisted strongly their's was the only or best way to do it. Some insisted 
only charcoal was useful, some only coal. Some insisted nothing could be 
done with mild steel, some laughed at smiths who still used wrought. Some 
insisted only cold rolled steel could be used, some only hot rolled, some 
insisted either would fail catastrophically if it even got close to a fire. 
Many insisted steel couldn't be forge welded as proof of it's uselessness. 
On and on and on for maybe 700+ pages.

I have no idea what a "french clip" is (though I'm sure I'm about to find 
out. <grin>) but I know they were such a high demand item many smiths cut a 
big, deep, wide, groove across the face of an anvil to make them 
efficiently. I also know that there were hundreds of different ways to make 
them and not a single one was right! Unless of course you did it MY way. 
<grin> French clips were also so prevalent no description of what they were, 
looked like or were used for was deemed necessary. It'd be the same thing if 
we were describing the best way to change a tire; nobody here needs to be 
told what a tire is, what it's for, etc. So it was with the venerable french 
clip.

All these guys were making a living, some for generations and not one was 
worth spit in the eyes of their fellows unless of course they did it the 
"correct and proper" way. The thing is, they were ALL making a living at it. 
All were, to some degree or another, famous enough to make a national 
magazine. And these smiths from the past made our little group on theforge 
look like we're marching in lock step.

So, not only is it difficult to apply written directions without hands on 
help, it's even worse than that. There's only ONE right way to do any of 
these things and evidently, hundreds if not thousands of not quite so 
correct, suitable, efficacious methods. How will we EVER know? <sigh>

This is kind of why I'm interested in what specific mistakes Bealer made in 
his book. I'm not looking to start an argument, play one upsmanship games or 
anything of the kind. I'm just curious if they actually are mistakes or just 
variants. That his book reflects many different smiths techniques, opinions 
and such is a given and not really a factor.

And yes, I'm a fan of "The Art of Blacksmithing" though I don't feel any 
need to defend it or take any of this personally. I do it how I do it and 
I'll tell you all about it. I'll listen to how you do it and maybe give it a 
try. Maybe that's how I'll do it next time too or maybe I'll try something 
else.

Frosty
------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.


From: "Stephen Viola" <stephen.viola at gmail.com>


Hi all,
Well I suppose what I am really getting from this conversation is how
limitied the selection of books are here in Finland. There is an
amazing list of titles mentioned in this discussion and only few that
i have actually heard of. It also seems that regardless of the varied
opinions of Bealers book, there seems to be a general consensus that
he has been a major inspiration to the revival of blacksmithing as an
art form. Especially to newbies like me.
I can suppose that even those of you that are masters in the craft
(Journeymen), still appreciate that there is still a lot to learn.
Which would illustrate the impossible task of compiling the Art of
Blacksmithing into one chunky volume.
So far what has attracted me to blacksmithing is the aspect of problem
solving. Every new project is unique and needs to be planned and
worked through differently. I think Ron mentioned that if I was to ask
the same question to 10 different blacksmiths I would get 11 different
answers. So I can understand why traditionally the trade was passed
down verbally through the generations and not written up in a
professional journal.
At college I wanted to make what the Finns call a 'sipuli' (onion),
Actually I don't know the technical name of it in English.. but there
are various techniques of making these bulbous shapes. And each of the
lecturers there had their own way of making it. Shockingly, one of the
teachers simply said "Se on lian vaikea" (It's too difficult) Funnily
enough he was the most accurate with his advice :o)

Oh another thing I feel I should mention is, taking all this wonderful
information from books and implementing it is not so simple. It is one
think knowing the technique and a totally different matter DOING it.
Knowing where to strike the hammer blows, what the optimal colour of
the heated metal is etc.. these can only be learned by doing and not
reading books.

I realise I am a bit wordy with my replies but it is so great being
able to speak my mother tongue about blacksmithing. At college I have
so many questions but it is often difficult to formulate the question
in Finnish as it is not the 'normal' vocabulary needed.

Enough for now..

Stephen (nattering Wombat)