The Everyday Blacksmith empowers hobbyist blacksmiths to make simple, practical projects for everyday use.
With The Everyday Blacksmith, learn to make hooks, spoons, and tools of all sorts. This essential blacksmiths reference includes many projects contributed by leading blacksmiths from around the world, each featuring plenty of opportunity for variation. For centuries, blacksmiths were the craftsmen and artists that worked societys most important material-iron.
Blacksmiths were not only a fixture in their community, they helped shape that community through their particular method of making the hinges, hooks, brackets, and tools their neighbors used every day. Blacksmithing today is enjoying a resurgence. Our modern society has discovered that no amount of technical perfection replaces the feeling of picking up a hand-forged object, knowing that it was shaped by an individuals creativity and physical effort. Modern smiths can use the first section of The Everyday Blacksmith as a reference for shop basics: safety, equipment, and techniques. These basic techniques are illustrated through a series of projects.
It also covers methods for finishing pieces. In the second section of the book, you'll find a step-by-step guide to a diverse range of essential blacksmith projects. Projects are structured by category and difficulty. The emphasis is on the accessibility of techniques, functionality of projects, and diversity of design.
The Everyday Blacksmith is sure to become every shops go-to reference.
About the Author
Nicholas Wicks is an artist blacksmith based in Maine. His family has been metalworking for five generations, starting with Nick's great-great-grandfather, who worked on the Statue of Liberty. After apprenticing under the master blacksmith Jim Whitson, in Scotland, Nick started Wicks Forge in his grandfather's garage using homemade tools and his great-grandfather's anvil. Wicks Forge quickly expanded as audiences responded to Nick's products and philosophy—everyday pieces that combined a formal background in blacksmithing with an accessible, DIY mentality.
Nick started helping others join the Maker Movement as a contributing editor for Popular Mechanics, where he writes how-to articles and reviews about which work pants are least likely to catch on fire. Wicks Forge has been featured in numerous galleries and publications, including Yankee Magazine and Connecticut Magazine. Nick is a member of the New England Blacksmiths Guild and the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America. He is the author of The Everyday Blacksmith.
