Southwestern Colonial Ironwork: The Spanish Blacksmithing Tradition

Authors: Marc Simmons and Frank Turley
Published in 2007 by Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM
ISBN: 978-0-86534-601-7
199 pages with many drawings and photographs; the appendix includes a Glossary of Spanish Terms, Bibliography, and a detailed Index.

This book is a collaboration of a historian, Marc Simmons, and a blacksmith/farrier, Frank Turley. This is a great combination. You get the expertise from both fields. The book is divided into 2 parts. The first part presents how ironworking moved from Spain through Mexico into the American Southwest (Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas). The second part covers the colonial blacksmith, his equipment and the ironwork he produced. The book also covers the role of Native Americans in the Southwestern blacksmithing traditions.

Living here in Maryland, we tend to be exposed to and focused on colonial ironwork and traditions, primarily coming out of Great Britain. So this book provides a refreshing alternate view of our craft. Since Frank originally was a farrier, and given the importance of horses to the Spanish conquistadors that came to the Americas, the book provides a good insight into the importance of horseshoes and the role that a supply or a lack of horseshoes played in exploration of the new world.

Overall, this is a book, very well written and an enjoyable read.

[[This book review originally pubished in the July/Aug 2011 issue of BGCM's newsletter: The Hammer and Tong.]]

-- AlbinDrzewianowski - 07 Jul 2011