Author: Otto Schmirler

Publisher: Ernst Wasmuth Verlag Tubingen, Germany

Originally published: 1981, reprinted 1999

ISBN: 3 8030 5040 5

128 pages, table of contents, but no index

This book is a must have for the advanced beginner and intermediate smith. Over the years, as I attended various hammer-ins, many a demonstrator has recommended this book as a great source for tooling and ideas. The book was originally written in German, but there are English and French translations of all the text. However, you almost don’t need the text, the little that there is. It is the drawings and photographs, which are the treasure in this book. There is a table of contents, which will help get you to a particular section. But with only 128 pages, it doesn’t take long to find a particular section simply by flipping through the pages.

There are extensive treatments on traditional European tooling and processes; lots of great ideas for designs. I find myself often going to this book for ideas and inspiration.

If there is one draw back to the book, it is that much of the tooling is the traditional anvil tool/top tool combination, which assumes that you have a striker available. However, if you have a treadle hammer you could still use much of that tooling.

Book review by Albin Drzewianowski

-- AlbinDrzewianowski - 16 Dec 2007