The Art of Blacksmithing

If you want to know how an eighteenth-century iron hinge was made, or how an intricate trivet was formed, or how a muzzle-loading rifle barrel was welded, The Art of Blacksmithing has the answers. If you would like to set up a blacksmith shop, this book describes and illustrates the equipment and the techniques developed in more than six thousand years of working iron by hand. For the lover of history and the person who admires the ingenuity of common men, this books reflects respect for the specialised skills of the smith, and creates nostalgia for the colour and excitement of the village smithy, which so recently disappeared from the Western world. Indeed, this unique book covers every aspect of a fascination and little-known art, the fundamental craft on which the civilisation of the Iron Age was built.