Book List | Rocky Mountain Smiths

This is a reprint of Buffalo Forge Company's 1916 equipment catalogue.

Tools - Catalogs

Publisher Jim Fleming Publications. 50 pages

Reprint of the original 1909 printing of this catalog; in comb binding. Large black and white illustrations of forge equipment. Reprinted by Centaur Forge Ltd.; Blacksmith & Horseshoers' Supplies in Burlington; WI.

Tools - Catalogs; Tools - history

Publisher Centaur Forge Ltd. 1909. 36 pages

Tools - history

Publisher Applied Arts Publishers. 1973. 32 pages

M.T. Richardson's four classic books on blacksmithing are back in print in two; easy to handle volumes. Together; these books provide an invaluable basic resource for the modern day practitioner of this ancient craft. The carriage owner or restorer can; with Richardson's help; understand how pieces were originally made and fitted together; and how they can be replicated today. The tool user and collector will relish the discovery of old tools and equipment; some no longer available commercially or even in current use. Historians and Americana enthusiasts will be able to glimpse the past with a better understanding of the mindset and aesthetics of an earlier time. And the blacksmith; through Richardson's emphasis on technique and craftsmanship; and his straightforward prose and illustrations; will be better able to understand smithing's central processes.

Part One (Volumes I and II) begins with an account of the tools and equipment of blacksmithing and continues with shop plans; diagrams demonstrating various smithing techniques; and discussions of iron and steel. Finally; there are the detailed; yet simple; practical descriptions of smithing's central processes; including drilling; fullering and swaging. 528 pages. Fully illustrated. 6" x 9". Soft cover.

Blacksmithing; Tool making and equipment building; Tools

Publisher Gramercy. 1987. 1061 pages

The Blacksmith and Wheelwright Shop at the Shelburne Museum preserves the tools of an art form which has helped make possible our present and advanced way of life. Most of the tools preserved in the Museum's shop are shown. Those selected reveal the type of work done in a shop where the blacksmith combined his work with that of the wheelwright and carriage builder. The Shelburne Blacksmith & Wheelwright Shop is typical of the kind once found in a small American community.

Blacksmithing - History; Tools - history

Publisher The Shelburne Museum. 1966. 272 pages

this book; written by two of the World's foremost experts in the field of percussion tool technology; succeeds in its avowed task of making sense of an implement that ranges from the simplicity of a stone on the end of a stick to the complexity of patented special purpose hammer that only an inventor's mother could love. Divided into two distinct sections; the book begins with a pictorial analysis of hammers of every sort; and includes photographs of mallets; double claw hammers; stoneworking hammers; tack hammers and many; many; more. The second section; and the one that will prove most worthwhile to collectors and dealers; features an index of all known hammer patents together with the original patent drawings as submitted to the U.S. Patent Office. Included are patents for hammers for the one-armed man; nail holding hammers; double claw hammers; combination tools of every sort (including a hammer/wrench combination that is an insult to the integrity of each of its components) and much more. If you have an interest in tools; "The Hammer" will open the Door of Discovery to an interesting and infinitely variable world. An essential reference. The purpose of this book is to identify and classify the great variety of hammers that have been developed; adapted; invented; or simply evolved through the centuries; and to pay homage to those ingenious individuals whose creative minds conceived and whose talented hands fashioned those hammers which appear within these pages. It is our hope that after studying the hammer photographs and patents in this book and appreciating their diversity; the reader will have no doubt that the hammer is indeed the King of Tools.

Hammers; Tools - history

Publisher Baird and Comerford. 1989. 352 pages

Iron artifacts; which chronicle day-to-day living in early New England; have been brought together for the first time in this remarkable book by author/collector Frank Barnes. Says John Hamilton; Curator of Americana at the Museum of our National Heritage in Lexington; Massachusetts; "In this pageant of New England ironware; we are stimulated to develop a rewarding awareness and appreciation of forgotten Yankee crafts and folklore. Admittedly; many questions remain unanswered; yet here in this unique collection; we have a workable point of reference for further study of Yankee wrought and cast iron. From cover to cover; this book is filled with captioned illustrations of New England Iron.

Hardware - Catalogs; Implements; utensils; Catalogs; Ironwork - Catalogs; Tools - Catalogs

Publisher Christopher Pub House. 1988. 237 pages

The first thing that catches your eye on opening the book is a beautiful color painting commissioned for the book called "The last anvil makers"; by Nathan Green. The book starts with your usual anvil basics illustrated by dozens of photos by the author (which; by the way; were well taken and reproduced with skill). Postman then goes on with a history of anvils and reproductions of hundreds of original anvil ads and fliers illustrated by even MORE of Postman's photos. He also reproduces important historical patents and patents for strange oddball anvil "systems" that may or may (more likely) not have been manufactured. There are numerous lists of makers marks and anvil stories collected by the author. The book also includes all kinds of anvil miscellany. Ads and trademarks using anvils; miniature advertising anvils and the hilarious Christmas card images created by Gill Fahrenwald; "Caught in a shower of anvils" and "Roasting marshmallows over an open anvil" There is also a smattering of vise; swage block and other forging/blacksmithing tools and equipment shown. This book description was excerpted from a review by David Poppke at Anvilfire.com. Please click on the link below to see the review in its entirety.

Anvils - History; Blacksmithing - History; Forging - History; Tools - history

Publisher Postma Pub. 1998. 552 pages

With the help of this unique book; all the fascinating properties of iron and other metals can be creatively explored. 52 color plates and 717 b/w photos and drawings present the ideas and examples visually. After a short history of ironwork; the author discusses the ironworking shop; forge and tools; including anvils; vises; hammers; tongs; punches; centrifugal blowers and machine tools. She presents information on building; lighting; and maintaining a fire. Forging procedures are explicitly shown: drawing out; flattening; bending; upsetting; twisting; splitting; punching and drifting; hot cutting on a hardy; and joining and finishing techniques.

Page 2 of cover contains last page of index.

Blacksmithing; Blacksmithing - pictorial/inspirational; Ironwork; Metal sculpture; Tool making and equipment building; Tools - history

Publisher Schiffer Publishing. 1999. 312 pages

A summary of the the art of the blacksmith together with a history of the role of the tomahawk in Indian life. Also; personal accounts by Milford Chandler about his experiences in the midwest watching smiths turn out tomahawks for the Indean trade. Accompanying these accounts is the most extensive visual record of tomahawk types yet published. More than 300 specimens are illustrated.

Ironwork - History; Knife making; Tools - history

Publisher Rutgers Book Center. 1994. 254 pages

Reprint of the 1907 original. The scope of this book embraces practically the whole art of working metals with hand tools and with such simple machine tools as the small engineering shop usually contains. The tool outfit of the average metalworker does not generally include anything more ambitious than a lathe with or without slide-rest; overhead motion; etc. and it is with this limitation in mind that the whole of the contents of this book have been prepared. Even withing such limits; the scope is extensive; and has been made to include a large and pleasing variety of work. Nearly every aspect of metalworking of every sort is covered in great detail in this comprehensive reference; as are the tools used in those trades. A wide range of subjects are brought more clearly into focus thanks to Hasluck's well written explication and a series of period line drawings. See "Notes" below for contents description.

Contents include: Foundry work; Smiths' work; Surfacing metals; Polishing Metals: The machines and processes; Annealing; hardening; and tempering; Drilling and boring; Taps; screw-plates; and dies; Soldering; brazing and riveting; Forging iron and steel; Working sheet metal; Repousse' work; Oriental decorative brasswork; Finishing; lacquering; and colouring brass; Lathes and lathework; Spinning metals on the lathe; Tools for measuring and testing metalwork; and lots more. Many illustrations.

Metal working; Metal-work - History; Tool making and equipment building; Tools - history

Publisher Lindsay Publications Inc. 1994.

Industrial trade literature - the catlaogues; brochures; bulletins and fliers issued by manufacturers - can be an extremely useful resource for both historians and craftsmen. Often such publications contain valuable bits of company and local history; while revealing stages in the development of mechanical designs. Product lines are exhaustively and often beautifully illustrated. The information found in trade literature is especially helpful to craftsmen who restore; contemplate and use machines from times past. Since some background information is extremely helpful in appreciating trade literature; each item is preceded by a brief introduction. Another of the pleasures of old trade catalogues are the fascinating original prices. To make these figures more meaningful; the introductions include a conversion factor (based on the historical Consumer Price Indexes) to render the original prices in today's dollars. In some cases the results seem surprisingly correct; in other cases; we marvel at the considerable investment represented by these tools in their days.

Tools - Catalogs; Tools - History - Sources

Publisher Mingus Mountain Machine Works. 2001. 288 pages