The Everyday Blacksmith

Learn to forge 55 simple projects you'll use every day, with multiple variations for styles and finishes

Nicholas Wicks

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781631597121
• eBook ISBN: 9781631597138
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Commercio tecnico e manifatturiero

The Everyday Blacksmith is your essential reference for learning how to make items you’ll use everyday: tools, hardware, utensils, decorative objects, and more. Get great techniques and tips for hand forging, and discover projects contributed by leading blacksmiths from around the world, each featuring plenty of opportunity for variation.

Modern smiths can use the first section of The Everyday Blacksmith as a reference for shop basics: safety tips, equipment, and techniques like spreading, using a chisel, twisting, and finishing pieces. These basics are incorporated through a series of distinctive projects that include a bookmark, spoon, and leaf fob.

The second section of the book features a diverse array of essential step-by-step blacksmith projects, which are arranged by category and difficulty. Projects include accessible techniques, functional designs, and diverse styles.

Among the techniques and projects you’ll discover are:

• How to heat treat high-carbon steels
• Methods for making curved bookends
• Instructions for creating decorative functional pieces such as a towel rack and napkin rings
• How to make unique jewelry and jewelry display items
• Ideas for creating basic hardware, including latches and hinges

For centuries, blacksmiths were the craftsmen and artists who worked society’s most important material—iron. Blacksmiths were not only a fixture in their community, they helped shape that community through their particular methods of making the hinges, hooks, brackets, and tools their neighbors used every day. Blacksmithing today is enjoying a resurgence. No amount of technical perfection replaces the feeling of picking up a hand-forged object, knowing that it was shaped by someone’s creativity and physical effort. Celebrate that individuality with The Everyday Blacksmith.

PART I:

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

CHAPTER 1:

SETTING UP SHOP

This section covers basic blacksmithing concepts. The emphasis is on helping you get started making the pieces in this book quickly. If you are brand new to smithing, it will be very helpful if you supplement this text with an additional reference on blacksmithing basics or take an introductory blacksmithing class. And if you are not already a member, consider joining a local or national blacksmithing association. These associations exist primarily to teach and help new smiths get into the craft. Many blacksmiths may be big and scruffy, but they are also friendly. We all learned our trade from generations before us, and most are happy to share with the next generation.

When setting up your shop, also known as a forge or smithy, there are certain immediate choices to make. This includes what type of fuel source to use and what basic tools to acquire or make. The pros and cons of various options are discussed as well as the range of tools useful for making all of the projects in this book. Blacksmiths are diverse. Depending on your interests, location, and budget, different setups may be right for you. You may not always know what you prefer until you try something out—that’s part of the adventure!

BLACKSMITHING. WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Today’s blacksmiths are quite varied. Some specialize in making tools, others in public sculptures. Some work only with traditional tools and materials, others use modern technology. Many do a bit of everything. Regardless, all blacksmiths are related by the type of material they work (steel nowadays) and the way in which they work it (forging). When steel is heated, it becomes more malleable, allowing it to be shaped by hammering and other means. This process is called forging. While today’s blacksmith may use modern welders and may work in materials in addition to steel, heating and working steel remains core to the craft.

The two most common questions I get when I tell people I am a blacksmith are “Do you shoe horses?” and “Can you make knives?” For the record, although there is often crossover between each trade, farriers specialize in shoeing horses and bladesmiths make knives.

A leather glove on the non-hammer hand and a weightlifting glove on the hammer hand can balance protection and dexterity.

SAFETY

A few years ago, I took a motorcycle safety course. The instructors called motorcycling serious fun—fun because it was enjoyable, serious because you can get seriously hurt without proper safety. The same can be said for blacksmithing. Few activities offer more potential for injury to yourself, others, and property than blacksmithing. Take precautions seriously and it will allow you to enjoy blacksmithing fully.

SHOP

Excited to finally get your shop together? Let’s keep it around for a while by not burning it to the ground. Keep multiple extinguishers about and always be aware of the relationship between flammable materials, the forge, and the hot steel you are working.

EYES

Even though you have two eyes, you don’t have any to spare. A good practice is to always wear safety glasses anytime you are in the shop, regardless of activity. A full-face shield is also useful for heavy grinding.

EARS

Blacksmithing is e...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: Tools and Techniques
• Part II: Projects
• Conclusion Blacksmithing Tomorrow
• Appendix
• Dedication
• Copyright