(Part 3) Top products from r/Blacksmith

For any beginner, I highly recommend Traditional Blacksmithing by John Holstrom.

Holstrom wrote this book, originally released as Modern Blacksmithing, which is a compilation of notes he took while he was working, in 1904. This is not a guide to techniques and methods of Blacksmithing; this a book of wisdom. Holstrom begins his book with a discussion of what it takes to be a good smith. According to Holstrom,

>"the smith [in the old days] was a well-liked person in society, respected and even admired for his skill, his gentlemanly behavior, and good language".

He discusses the importance of a well maintained shop, and upholding a good work ethic. Alongside this, you will find a wealth of tips and tricks to use around the anvil and forge. Overall, it's a great little book and definitely worthy of a good read.

I would suggest picking up a book or two in that case. I highly recommend "The Complete Bladesmith" by Jim Hrisoulas and 'The Wonder of Knifemaking" by Wayne Goddard. I have both and they are very good at laying down the steps for making a knife. Also, make sure you learn about knife steel. You won't find it in a local store, but will need to be purchased online (most of the time). Pick a simple steel like 1080/1084 and start using that. Get good at heat treating it, and the move to something else. 5160 is also good to start. Both are forgiving.

I read 3 books, one which was not very good and 2 that were phenomenal.

My favorite was probably The Backyard Blacksmith. It had great information and detail. I couldn't have been happier.

The Home Blacksmith was pretty good and has given me some projects for the future.

The one I did NOT like was The DIY Blacksmithing Book. It was garbage. It was little more than a pamphlet. looking around in google and youtube provided MUCH more useful information than this book. For a few dollars more the other books were MASSIVELY more helpful. The "DIY Blacksmithing Book" was a complete waste of money.

If anyone is interested this book explains brain mapping and how we learn and improve our hand eye coordination and may other ways the mind and body work together.

https://www.amazon.com/Brain-Has-Mind-Its-Own/dp/0517880806

There are four others that I know of. There is the Foxfire Christmas book, Cook book, Simple living, and Stories. I know you can get them on amazon or at the Foxifire fund website. I wish there were other book series that almost act like an encyclopedia of the area. Also who ever designed the 12th book needs to be slapped. Why would you suddenly put the number in the middle of the spine when every other one was at the top.

The phrase in it's complete form, "I am not a number, I am a free man", is from a very unusual television show of British origin which aired first in 1967 in the U.S. The show was called, "The Prisoner" and starred Patrick McGoohan.
The line can be heard here, in the beginning of the show. The entire program appears to be available on youtube and I recommend it highly, despite it's age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW-bFGzNMXw

Many people believe, and I count myself in that group, that The Prisoner was essentially an extension of a television show McGoohan previously starred in called ,"Secret Agent", in the U.S. and ," Danger Man", elsewhere. This theory is supported by the last lyric in the Secret Agent theme song," They're giving you a number, and taking away your name". This figures prominently in "The Prisoner" where all the characters in the show are referred to only by numbers.

The show enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the eighties when the local public television station in the S.F. area resurrected it and showed all the episodes again along with a separate 1/2 hour program discussing each episode, much like,"Talking Dead", does today. The Prisoner is an astonishingly good program which bears watching even today, 50 years after it first aired.

All that said, the hammer you are considering buying would be a poor candidate for converting into a rounding hammer. If you want to do that, you should probably start with an Engineers hammer, something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-56-804-4-Pound-Hickory-Engineer/dp/B00004UDMM/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1495380526&sr=8-7&keywords=engineers+hammer

although clearly, you should look for one somewhat lighter than the one in my link. In the U.S., Harbor Freight sells one that would be very good for this purpose. This one would be a great starting point:

https://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?dir=asc&order=EAScore%2Cf%2CEAFeatured+Weight%2Cf%2CSale+Rank%2Cf&q=engineers+hammer

Your best resource is the resident blacksmith. But here are the books I've taught myself with:
* The Backyard Blacksmith by Lorelei Sims

• The Art of Blacksmithing by Alex Bealer
  
• The Blacksmith's Craft by Charles McRaven
  
• Practical Blacksmithing by M.T. Richardson
  
• Practical Blacksmithing & Metalworking by Percy W. Blandford
  
• A Blacksmithing Primer by Randy McDaniel
  
  I am incredibly jealous of your opportunity, that living history stuff always seems like a blast.

You think a scotch-brite grinder pad would beat the shit up out of an anvil? https://www.amazon.ca/3M-Scotch-Brite-Fine-Finishing-Sander-9416NA/dp/B00004Z4DK/ref=asc_df_B00004Z4DK/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=292947999281&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3299399380207924122&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001489&hvtargid=pla-436221069745&psc=1

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I don't smith, just interested in metal working, so I'm just asking questions and don't really have any idea what I am talking about

My forge is actually raised up from the table on legs, so I just put a piece of sheet metal underneath to stop any burning on the wood and it works great for me. For the wheels on the anvil, I used workbench caster wheels. They have levers on them to raise and lower the bottom surface of the log, so it can be set in position once you want to forge and roll away when you want to pack up. They work really well if you need your smithy to be be put away once you’re done. Here’s the link for the ones I bought-


https://www.amazon.com/SOLEJAZZ-Workbench-Retractable-Capacity-Construction/dp/B07V6X2LNB

Here's a really good book on the mastermyr find: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0965075516/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=KNSRDVK24FVX&coliid=I33J3KPJMLCFM9

I would add:

• Blacksmithing Basics for the Homestead by Joe DeLaRonde
  
• Volume I:
  Mastering the Fundamentals Of Blacksmithing by Mark Aspery
  
  And I would second
  > I am incredibly jealous of your opportunity, that living history stuff always seems like a blast.

http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-3388-12-Inch-Bolt-Cutter/dp/B000NPXHXE%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q%26tag%3Dduckduckgo-d-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000NPXHXE

put nail in jaws and toss a small piece of cloth over the top to catch flying pieces.

This, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N323Y0/ref=gno_cart_title_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I don't remember where I saw this but it was from a professional knife sharpener that worked for a butcher. They said that while carbon steel started out sharper it dulled faster when cutting read meat. It has something to do with a chemical reaction to the iron in the meat reacting with the blade metal. So the overall outcome was that stainless held an edge better for a longer time than a carbons steel blade even though the carbon steel started out a bit sharper. With that in mind have you tried a ceramic knife?

edit: I think it was a book and I think that book was The Razor's Edge Book Of Sharpening. John Juranitch worked a lot with butchers and his sharpening techniques focus on that application.

Buy some good 3M ear muffs, something like this: http://www.amazon.com/3M-Peltor-H10A-Optime-Earmuff/dp/B00009LI4K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451625456&sr=8-1&keywords=3m+ear+protection

They're cheaper than noise cancelling headphones and you really shouldn't be listening to music or any other distraction while you're working with hot metal. It's just a bad idea. Focus on your work or risk injury.

I was in this bind for a while too. The easiest, cleanest, and fastest way I ended up on was to get an angle grinder and pick up one of these scary little things. I got these two holes roughed out in about 5 minutes, and if you're gentle with it you shouldn't even really need to sand.

The only downsides are that it's a little costly, and it's about one of the most scary bastard hybrids of dangerous tools you can handle. Read the instructions like scripture.

Terrible advice, that. On both accounts.

If you plan on simply sticking the ax head in a fire to burn the remainder of the previous handle out, you're in serious danger of losing the temper on the head and subsequently ruining the edge when you attempt to use the ax after re-handling. Much better to drill a majority of the wedge wood out, and then pound the old handle wood out with a drift (a dull fullering chisel will work in a pinch) and a hammer.

It's also not entirely "straight foreward" either, an ax needs to be hung properly to really make it an effective and lasting tool. I would suggest a fair amount of study first. A shoddily put-on head is both incredibly dangerous and a real pain to work around.

Here's the section on re-handling in an ax in a manual from the FHWA archives, it's a pretty good explanation from what I can glean. If you'd like a little more in-depth publication, i'd suggest The Ax Book by Dudley Cook.