Modern Blacksmithing, 1904

PREFACE

HAT prompted the author to prepare this book was the oft - repeated question, by blacksmiths and mechanics of all kinds, as well as farmers: "Is there a book treating on this or that?" etc., etc. To all these queries I was compelled to answer in the negative, for it is a fact that from the time of Cain, the first mechanic, there has never been a book written by a practical blacksmith on subjects belonging to his trade. If, therefore, there has ever been such a thing as "filling a long-felt want," this must certainly be a case of that kind.

In medicine we find a wide difference of opinion, even amongst practitioners of the same school, in treating diseases. Now, if this is so where there is a system, and authority for the profession, how much more so must there be a difference of opinion in a trade where every practitioner is his own authority. I shall, therefore, ask the older members of the blacksmith fraternity to be lenient in their judgment if my ideas don’t coincide with theirs. To the apprentice and journeyman I would say: do as I do until you find a better way.

The author has been eminently successful in his practice, and his ideas have been sought by others wherever he has been, blacksmiths coming even from other States to learn his ways.

This little book is fresh from the anvil, the author taking notes during the day while at work, compiling the same into articles at night.

He is indebted to a number of writers for articles in this book treating on subjects belonging to their trades, in which they have been regarded as expert.