A Blacksmithing Primer: A Course in Basic and Intermediate Blacksmithing

2nd Edition
Author: Randy McDaniel
2004, Hobar Publications, Minneapolis, MN
ISBN: 0-9662589-1-6
174 Pages, appendix and index

The book is divided into 3 sections:

• Section 1 covers tools: anvils, forges, hand tools, setting up your shop etc.
• Section 2 addresses the basics: safety, hammer control, metal, fire management.
• Section 3 presents a wide variety of projects and lessons: hooks, hardware, making tongs, forge welding, dragon heads, etc.

The inside back cover has a very useful color plate showing forging colors with their associated temperatures and the same for tempering colors which correlates the temper colors/temperatures needed for different types of tools.

The first edition of this book was published in 1998. ISBN: 0-9662589-0-8. One nice feature of the 1st edition, was that it was spiral bound which allowed the book to easily lay flat, open to a particular page. A cursory examination shows few differences between the two editions.

Randy has produced a set of 3 CDs (also titled A BLACKSMITHING PRIMER) which present the same information in a 6 hour long video format.

Randy's website is: http://www.drgnfly4g.com

-- AlbinDrzewianowski - 25 Jan 2009