[TheForge] Books etc.

Sun Oct 30 17:06:05 EST 2005

Way to go Frosty,
I've been teaching basic blacksmithing courses for about eight years and one 
of the things that I preach constantly is that you should go to every 
hammerin and talk to every smith you can. Find out how they do it and try 
it. Somewhere along the way you will find the method that works best for you 
and you can go from there.
Bob M.

>From: "Jerry Frost" <frosty at customcpu.com>
>Reply-To: Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
>To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
>Subject: Re: [TheForge] Books etc.
>Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 18:08:55 -0800
>
>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)
>
>
>
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