The Beginner’s Guide to Blacksmithing is a wonderful resource and beginners guide it has a fantastic overview and needed tools for several projects. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the art of blacksmithing.

An excellent book on the once ancient age of making with iron and fire. Black smithing has never really gone out of fashion, mostly due to our horse population. More recently, there has been a resurgent of the art by craftspeople, who want to make items from iron via the use of a hammer, a forge and fire..
This book has a wealth of information beginning with a chapter about the Smithy, and followed by Tools and equipment, Iron, Preliminary skills, Tool usage and Forging techniques, Forge welding and assembly techniques and Making your own tools. The final chapter has a series of project to try. The book is very well written, easy to understand and well illustrated. A great guide. Thanks you NetGalley and the publishers for the DRC

I thought this book might give me a head start before a blacksmithing course I am due to attend. It does that and much more. The eight chapters take you from safety and equipment, skills, techniques and, finally, a good selection of projects. It has plenty of photos and diagrams to guide you. I particularly liked the safety tips which run through the entire book. An excellent guide for the beginner.

Lots of detail and great pictures. I have no precious black smithing knowledge to compare it to but it seemed well laid out.. I appreciate that the author is a woman.

The Beginner's Guide to Blacksmithing is a beginner friendly guide to metalworking with tutorials by Lorelei Sims. Due out 16th Aug 2022 from Quarto on their New Shoe Press imprint it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a basic manual for getting started with metalworking in a home/hobby forge. The book's intro is thorough and step-by-step and includes shop setup, tool acquisition, and safety. The author has an accessible and easy to understand style of writing. In fact much of the book reads like a well organized one-on-one workshop. Safety is paramount throughout and the author emphasizes methods, attention to detail, and a good and well organized workspace at every step.

Equipment is explained in detail along with abundant photography of both the necessary gear and the processes. I really liked that the action tutorial photos are taken without hands or other tools obscuring the shot (not a trivial detail - as most of the action in smithy occurs with hands and tools in the way). Special tips and tricks for processes are located throughout the book in highlighted text boxes called "tricks of the trade". These provide short and digestible tips for getting the best results.

This is a very good short but comprehensive manual which will get the absolute beginning metalworker some competence and familiarity with the basic processes.

Five stars. This would be a good choice for public and school library acquisition, as well as for the home DIYer, activity groups and makers' spaces, and smallholders. The tasks and tutorials in this manual aren't specifically slanted toward any particular group, but there is a wealth of relevant info and lots of inspiration to be found here.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Ms. Sims is obviously a master at blacksmithing and shares her knowledge in this extremely comprehensive book. With a pleasant and practical layout, this beginner’s guide is easy to read and take in; you’ll learn what you need, about different types of metal, and what you’ll need to do during blacksmithing along with some projects to try once you’ve got your setup together.


Strongly suggested for those interested in this skill that has withstood the test of time.



PDF kindly provided by New Shoe Press / Quarto Publishing Group - Quarry and NetGalley. Opinions shared are my own.

The perfect guide to get you started in blacksmithing. All you need is the space a few tools- because you can create your own tools! Includes patterns and project ideas.