What do you think?
Rate this book
Practical Blacksmithing: The Four Classic Volumes in One
The blacksmith’s ABCs—learn metalworking as taught by the old masters!
The forging of metal gave birth to the Iron Age, and Practical Blacksmithing is the classic primer on the craft that shaped modern civilization. Featuring more than 1,000 illustrations, this foundational text describes every aspect of working with iron and steel, and is essential for both the do-it-yourself backyard blacksmith and the professional metalworker.
Originally published in four volumes in the early 20th century, this hefty, single-volume, new edition of Practical Blacksmithing is different from similar books in that it includes contributions by working tradesmen. In addition to its clear and concise instructional material, the book’s editor collected the actual words of old-time blacksmiths offering their best methods, unique how-to’s, original techniques, and arcane knowledge.
Industrialization and mass production may have led to the disappearance of the blacksmith from everyday life, but the art of metalwork never died. It smoldered like hot coals in a forge, and today those coals are red hot as craftsman taking up blacksmithing as a hobby or art form seek to learn the foundational aspects of the trade.
Proving that what may be old can actually be new and useful, Practical Blacksmithing describes all the important smithing processes: welding, brazing, soldering, cutting, bending, setting, tempering, fullering and swaging, forging, and drilling. It also includes the early history of blacksmithing and describes tools used since ancient times. In addition to thousands of other useful facts, the modern blacksmith will be introduced to old tools and learn how to make them, and can even learn how to build a retro blacksmith shop with detailed do-it-yourself plans!
The forging of metal gave birth to the Iron Age, and Practical Blacksmithing is the classic primer on the craft that shaped modern civilization. Featuring more than 1,000 illustrations, this foundational text describes every aspect of working with iron and steel, and is essential for both the do-it-yourself backyard blacksmith and the professional metalworker.
Originally published in four volumes in the early 20th century, this hefty, single-volume, new edition of Practical Blacksmithing is different from similar books in that it includes contributions by working tradesmen. In addition to its clear and concise instructional material, the book’s editor collected the actual words of old-time blacksmiths offering their best methods, unique how-to’s, original techniques, and arcane knowledge.
Industrialization and mass production may have led to the disappearance of the blacksmith from everyday life, but the art of metalwork never died. It smoldered like hot coals in a forge, and today those coals are red hot as craftsman taking up blacksmithing as a hobby or art form seek to learn the foundational aspects of the trade.
Proving that what may be old can actually be new and useful, Practical Blacksmithing describes all the important smithing processes: welding, brazing, soldering, cutting, bending, setting, tempering, fullering and swaging, forging, and drilling. It also includes the early history of blacksmithing and describes tools used since ancient times. In addition to thousands of other useful facts, the modern blacksmith will be introduced to old tools and learn how to make them, and can even learn how to build a retro blacksmith shop with detailed do-it-yourself plans!
912 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1889
56 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 25, 2020
Right in the beginning chapter the author presents the argument that the hammer was a more important invention for mankind than the wheel. And along with the hammer we must consider the anvil that he beat his hammer on, the two best known symbols of the blacksmith.
My wife's Great-grandfather was a blacksmith, and we once visited the rundown building where he once had his shop. I wish I had taken pictures.
After reading this book I now realize just how important the blacksmith was to not only America, but the rest of the world as well. Blacksmiths built their forges, made their own tools, though the best anvils came from England, and made just about anything needed in the American West. Plate armor for the mounted knight was a thing of the past, yet if a locomotive needed a part fixed or replaced, one didn't place an order back east, by telegraph or pony express, and then wait for the FedX guy to load one into his wagon, hitch up the teams, and then set out over the open trails. No, the blacksmith made one in a matter of days or hours, depending on the size or complexity of the piece.
As I looked at the illustrations provided, I was amazed at the ingenuity that went into designing the various hammers, tongs, drills, and all the other tools used in the trade. Suggestions were provided for laying out a shop and building the all important forge.
Though 'Practical Blacksmithing' originated with a work published in 1889, I would not be all that surprised to learn of a modern day blacksmith consulting this work. You see, most of the basics are covered here, as well as advice for more advanced work. If you have ever seen a Rambo movie you probably know that metal is heated red hot, beaten with a hammer and then cooled in water or oil to make it hard. But does Rambo know what fuel is best to make the fire, which hammer to use, or how to cool it? This is almost a lost art. Back in the old days before they had lasers, a blacksmith would look at shadows formed on a piece of metal to see if it was flat. If not, he would fix that.
Did you know that in 1889 a tire was not made of rubber and full of air but rather that metal strip on the edge of the wagon wheel?
This was a great read from my private collection. Blacksmiths are still around, shoeing horses and making good money creating custom pieces for those with money.
Before closing I would add a bit of trivia. An American soldier is known as a GI. That means either 'government issue' or 'galvanized iron,' like the garbage can. Anyway, equipment and instructions need to be GI proof, that is built to last or take a beating. (I don't know how true this is any more.) It was said that if you give a GI an anvil in the middle of the desert, he would have broken it in three days!
My wife's Great-grandfather was a blacksmith, and we once visited the rundown building where he once had his shop. I wish I had taken pictures.
After reading this book I now realize just how important the blacksmith was to not only America, but the rest of the world as well. Blacksmiths built their forges, made their own tools, though the best anvils came from England, and made just about anything needed in the American West. Plate armor for the mounted knight was a thing of the past, yet if a locomotive needed a part fixed or replaced, one didn't place an order back east, by telegraph or pony express, and then wait for the FedX guy to load one into his wagon, hitch up the teams, and then set out over the open trails. No, the blacksmith made one in a matter of days or hours, depending on the size or complexity of the piece.
As I looked at the illustrations provided, I was amazed at the ingenuity that went into designing the various hammers, tongs, drills, and all the other tools used in the trade. Suggestions were provided for laying out a shop and building the all important forge.
Though 'Practical Blacksmithing' originated with a work published in 1889, I would not be all that surprised to learn of a modern day blacksmith consulting this work. You see, most of the basics are covered here, as well as advice for more advanced work. If you have ever seen a Rambo movie you probably know that metal is heated red hot, beaten with a hammer and then cooled in water or oil to make it hard. But does Rambo know what fuel is best to make the fire, which hammer to use, or how to cool it? This is almost a lost art. Back in the old days before they had lasers, a blacksmith would look at shadows formed on a piece of metal to see if it was flat. If not, he would fix that.
Did you know that in 1889 a tire was not made of rubber and full of air but rather that metal strip on the edge of the wagon wheel?
This was a great read from my private collection. Blacksmiths are still around, shoeing horses and making good money creating custom pieces for those with money.
Before closing I would add a bit of trivia. An American soldier is known as a GI. That means either 'government issue' or 'galvanized iron,' like the garbage can. Anyway, equipment and instructions need to be GI proof, that is built to last or take a beating. (I don't know how true this is any more.) It was said that if you give a GI an anvil in the middle of the desert, he would have broken it in three days!
October 14, 2019
An essential for anyone even remotely interested in blacksmithing. The first volume of Practical Blacksmithing was first published in 1889 by Milton Thomas Richardson, he also published 3 more in later years after the success of the first volume. This version is the four volumes compiled into one massive encyclopedia for all things metal working. Richardson spent an ridiculous amount of time creating detailed illustrations of all things from the humble punch to diagrams of how to build an efficient, Japanese style forge. Richardson also breaks up the potential monotony by using history to show why things were done the way they are. An example of this is his extensive prologue about the door hardware across Europe and how to tell the period that the hardware was made in just by looking at what imagery the smith used. A product of the time that the original volumes were published is the use of hand tools instead of the modern tools like power hammers or hydraulic presses. These modern tools are not essential to the craft and many people who are interested in blacksmithing are scared away by this. What Richardson shows is that one does not need all the luxuries of a modern smith to create a range of functional and beautiful tools and hardware. This book is recommended for anyone who has or is thinking about getting into smithing, the illustrations are often more than enough to show a new smith how to create anything that they want.
July 28, 2019
Meant more as a quick reference and historical methods of forging tools, plowshares, wagon tires, etc.
July 18, 2023
Once upon a time, the village blacksmith was as ubiquitous as the local car mechanic is today. In fact, a good portion of what your friendly neighborhood blacksmith would do, is fix the various metal parts of your carriage when they broke or wore out. But, while one could claim that the village blacksmith _was_ the car mechanic, it is not true that the modern car mechanic is your blacksmith, because blacksmiths also fixed (or made in the first place) your plow, your bob sled, your tools for whatever craft you needed to do, and the nuts, bolts, etc. that you needed to do it. Obviously, given all of this variety in what blacksmiths had to work on, it took a while to learn it all. And, to judge from this book (taken from a magazine written by and for blacksmiths), they learned a lot of it from each other.
There are a few essays in here, on the history of smithing, etc. but the bulk of it is written by one or another of many local blacksmiths, using nomes de plume such as "G.W.P.", "B&S", "Old Tire", "Frank", or "Jersey Blacksmith". There are copious (as in, several per page for several hundred pages) illustrations to make more clear what is to be built/repaired and how, and I am just going to admit that often I spent a lot more time on these than I did on the text.
For one thing, I was not as educated in the lingo of smithing as the intended audience, so for example it took me a bit to figure out that by "upset" they did not mean what I would mean if I were to use the word. Their intended meaning is found in wiktionary as "To thicken and shorten, as a heated piece of iron, by hammering on the end.". There was a lot of this sort of thing, for example:
"...I keep the steel bared nearly all the time, watching it closely and just before it comes to a sparkle I cover it and give it three or four good heavy blasts, then take it out and strike as rapidly as possible upon the several lips or splices".
I'm sure all that meant something, but I would not be able to perform it from that description, not that I would have been likely to in any event. But, I do have to say that there was a distinctive manner of writing which made it easy to imagine the author, his thick-callused hands grasping the pen as he wrote out for others in his craft how best to make a buggy spring, then mailing it off to the magazine which he received on a monthly (I am guessing) basis.
"I will give my way of welding a spring which I learned from a tramp six years ago, have used ever since, and have never had a spring break at the weld".
"Get a good heat and don't lose a second's time and you'll have a good, sound, neat job."
"...I then go back to the fire and get a good soft heat, weld down on the mandrel, finish off with the swage, then cut the end and repeat the process. If the turn-buckle is to be finished up extra nice, you can use the same swage for the sides."
There is also some occasional snarkiness, as one smith writes in to say that a previously printed smith's advice is ill-founded, and will lead to poor results. I am not qualified to judge as to the accuracy of such critiques, but I know a testy forum thread when I see it, even if it dates from a century before the internet.
I'm trying to formulate a joke about "flame wars" that would work in reference to smithing, but it is not coming together for me. Perhaps I need to upset it.
You might, if were previously unfamiliar with my reading habits, wonder why on earth I would spend time on a weighty tome such as this, when I have neither talent, disposition, nor motive to take up blacksmithing. I'll admit it, mostly for the pictures. But the glimpse into how previous centuries and subcultures shared the tricks of their trade, in the absence of Stack Overflow or any other online resource, was educational in its own way. I was happy to have stumbled across it.
There are a few essays in here, on the history of smithing, etc. but the bulk of it is written by one or another of many local blacksmiths, using nomes de plume such as "G.W.P.", "B&S", "Old Tire", "Frank", or "Jersey Blacksmith". There are copious (as in, several per page for several hundred pages) illustrations to make more clear what is to be built/repaired and how, and I am just going to admit that often I spent a lot more time on these than I did on the text.
For one thing, I was not as educated in the lingo of smithing as the intended audience, so for example it took me a bit to figure out that by "upset" they did not mean what I would mean if I were to use the word. Their intended meaning is found in wiktionary as "To thicken and shorten, as a heated piece of iron, by hammering on the end.". There was a lot of this sort of thing, for example:
"...I keep the steel bared nearly all the time, watching it closely and just before it comes to a sparkle I cover it and give it three or four good heavy blasts, then take it out and strike as rapidly as possible upon the several lips or splices".
I'm sure all that meant something, but I would not be able to perform it from that description, not that I would have been likely to in any event. But, I do have to say that there was a distinctive manner of writing which made it easy to imagine the author, his thick-callused hands grasping the pen as he wrote out for others in his craft how best to make a buggy spring, then mailing it off to the magazine which he received on a monthly (I am guessing) basis.
"I will give my way of welding a spring which I learned from a tramp six years ago, have used ever since, and have never had a spring break at the weld".
"Get a good heat and don't lose a second's time and you'll have a good, sound, neat job."
"...I then go back to the fire and get a good soft heat, weld down on the mandrel, finish off with the swage, then cut the end and repeat the process. If the turn-buckle is to be finished up extra nice, you can use the same swage for the sides."
There is also some occasional snarkiness, as one smith writes in to say that a previously printed smith's advice is ill-founded, and will lead to poor results. I am not qualified to judge as to the accuracy of such critiques, but I know a testy forum thread when I see it, even if it dates from a century before the internet.
I'm trying to formulate a joke about "flame wars" that would work in reference to smithing, but it is not coming together for me. Perhaps I need to upset it.
You might, if were previously unfamiliar with my reading habits, wonder why on earth I would spend time on a weighty tome such as this, when I have neither talent, disposition, nor motive to take up blacksmithing. I'll admit it, mostly for the pictures. But the glimpse into how previous centuries and subcultures shared the tricks of their trade, in the absence of Stack Overflow or any other online resource, was educational in its own way. I was happy to have stumbled across it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews