Hi,
Can anyone recommend a good book for making furniture, gates, plant pots
etc. from wrought iron?
Seen several on Amazon but they don't have descriptions about what's
First off, unless you have a secret source, you can't get wrought iron
anymore. You'll have to settle for forging mild steel. Wrought iron is
just too expensive to make.
It's really hard to learn blacksmithing from a book. There are some good
books out there. I like "The Art Of Blacksmithing" by Alex Bealer. I also
often check out the books by Cosira from my local library. They go into
detail on making gates, anyway. I assume you mean plant pot *stands* - I
saw a bunch of forged pot stands in Europe recently. There isn't much to
making those, once you get good at drawing tapers and doing scrolls and
collaring you can make anything like that you want to.
Furniture is wide open, and advanced (difficult) work. I doubt you'll find
much out of a book. But try your library!
Most blacksmithing books are bought cheapest at Centaur Forge.
Grant Erwin
Kirkland, Washington
Homer wrote:
I find that _The New Edge of the Anvil_ by Jack Andrews is a very
good book on blacksmithing, _The Complete Modern Blacksmith_ by
Alexander G. Weygers is also good. A couple of good websites are Artist
Blacksmith Association of North America (http://www.abana.org ) and Anvil
Fire (http://www.anvilfire.com /). From there you should be able to find
out just about anything you need to know (or they can tell you where to
look).
Ken
Minor disagreement: buy your books from Norm Larson
( snipped-for-privacy@impulse.net). Norm is a fine guy to do business with and has
most every smithing book in print, and some that aren't.
Non-disclaimer: I know Norm, he is a good friend. I highly recommend him.
Steve Smith
Grant Erwin wrote:
You'll like this URL, Grant.
http://www.realwroughtiron.com /
Your next assignment is to figure out how to economically import their
products.
I have also seen some wrought iron from Germany. It's unusual in that
it doesn't have the typical grain you see in the old stuff. I'm told
it's made in a vibratory furnace and if therefore more homogenous.
One of my favorite books is "Plain and Ornamental Forging" by Ernst
Schwarzkopf ISBN 1-879335-95-6.
My absolute favorite for decorative work is "Die Kunstschlosserei" by
Max Metzger. It's hard to find, last printed in 1986 from a 1927 copy.
The first edition is from 1908. IMHO the Germans had the best pre-art
nouveau ironwork with the exception of Jean Tijou's work in England.
It's in German of course but has enough pictures to make it
worthwhile. A German-English dictionary is handy but German grammar is
beyond me.
I have heard that a couple of sections have been translated and are
currently sold as a volume by themselves.
Cheers,
Kelley
On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 00:17:27 -0800, Grant Erwin
The best I know is Peter Parkinson's
"The Artist Blacksmith"
<(Amazon.com product link shortened)>
A review is at:
<(Amazon.com product link shortened)>
I was so impressed by this book that a friend and I booked a smithing
course with the author. I'd thoroughly recommend that too - a few
pictures are at:
<http://www.livejournal.com/users/quercus/30028.html
Bealer's book is hard to avoid. It's thick and it's cheap. He was an
observer of smiths though, not a smith,
<(Amazon.com product link shortened)>
Weyger's book is rubbish. If you're reading this ng. you probably
already know far more than this book will ever teach you. One thing
it's certainly not going to teach is smithing. A fuller review is at:
<(Amazon.com product link shortened)>
--
Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
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