Practical Blacksmithing and Metalworking by Percy Blandford

Blacksmithing and metalworking can be easier than you would imagine. This book shows you how--with some patience and a working knowledge of metals, tools, and techniques--blacksmithing can be a rewarding, inexpensive hobby. Using simple instructions and first-rate, detailed illustrations, Blandford makes it easy for the novice to learn this craft, while offering project variations complex enough to challenge even the experienced blacksmith or metalworker. You'll learn how to:

* use forges and anvils, bellows, swage blocks and mandrels, tongs, and a host of other tools
* work with sheet alloys, iron and steel, zinc, brass, tin, bronze, lead, aluminum, copper, and precious metals
* cut, shape, form, bend, solder, braze, weld, rivet, harden, anneal, flatten, punch, draw, twist split, loop, scroll, saw, shear, file, drill, hollow-out, planish, mold, and cast all types of metals
* make chains and hardware such as nails, catches, bolts, handles, hinges, hooks and latches
* create tools like punches, spikes, chisels, crowbars, tongs, hammers, sets, fullers, swages, stakes
* make built-up assemblies
* apply geometry to the construction of trays, funnels, boxes, cylinders, and more!

Percy W. Blandford is an internationally recognized master craftsman. A full-time freelance journalist and Fellow to the Institute of Journalists, he is the author or more than eighty books, including MASTER HANDBOOK OF SHEETMETALWORK...WITH PROJECTS; MAKING KNIVES AND TOOLS; and THE WOODTURNER'S BIBLE.