annieb123's Review of The Beginner's Guide to Blacksmithing (New Shoe Press)

by Lorelei Sims

Clear, photo-illustrated instruction for learning the practical and artisanal craft of blacksmithing

Keen on making your own custom cutlery? Want to make your own fireplace tools or even your own garden art? The Beginner's Guide to Blacksmithing, adapted from The Backyard Blacksmith, introduces you to everything you need to know, from the tools and basic techniques to a variety of different approaches to this old-school trade. Whether your interest is practical, like fixing broken rails or tools, or artistic, like sculpture and decorative art made from metals, you will find all the instruction you need to be successful in this essential reference.

This easy-to-follow beginner's guide features:

Clear instructions that make learning easy-Like having a master blacksmith at your side, detailed, step-by-step, full-color exercises teach all the universal skills and techniques used to forge iron.
Accessible content for absolute beginners-Learn to find and salvage the right kinds of steel, set up your shop, collect the essential tools, and work safely, then explore the properties and characteristics of hot metal and how to shape it successfully.
Beautiful and functional projects-The book includes beautiful and functional projects organized by level of difficulty, allowing you to progress at your own pace, and master the skills you learned in earlier chapters.

Blacksmithing is a rewarding craft that you can enjoy in your backyard or home workshop, and this book makes learning the basic skills easy and fun. Set yourself up for success with this indispensable guide.

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Beginner's Guide to Blacksmithing is a beginner friendly guide to metalworking with tutorials by Lorelei Sims. Due out 16th Aug 2022 from Quarto on their New Shoe Press imprint it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a basic manual for getting started with metalworking in a home/hobby forge. The book's intro is thorough and step-by-step and includes shop setup, tool acquisition, and safety. The author has an accessible and easy to understand style of writing. In fact much of the book reads like a well organized one-on-one workshop. Safety is paramount throughout and the author emphasizes methods, attention to detail, and a good and well organized workspace at every step.

Equipment is explained in detail along with abundant photography of both the necessary gear and the processes. I really liked that the action tutorial photos are taken without hands or other tools obscuring the shot (not a trivial detail - as most of the action in smithy occurs with hands and tools in the way). Special tips and tricks for processes are located throughout the book in highlighted text boxes called "tricks of the trade". These provide short and digestible tips for getting the best results.

This is a very good short but comprehensive manual which will get the absolute beginning metalworker some competence and familiarity with the basic processes.

Five stars. This would be a good choice for public and school library acquisition, as well as for the home DIYer, activity groups and makers' spaces, and smallholders. The tasks and tutorials in this manual aren't specifically slanted toward any particular group, but there is a wealth of relevant info and lots of inspiration to be found here.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The Beginner's Guide to Blacksmithing (New Shoe Press)

by Lorelei Sims

Reviewed by annieb123 on Aug 3, 2022

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