Book - The Blacksmith: Ironworker and Farrier, by Aldren A Watson

Paperback, 175 pages, 1990. 7.5 x 10 inches. Filled with beautiful illustrations by the author. Very good pre-owned condition with minor cosmetic wear. The front cover is gently curled from use and there's a small worn spot on the bottom edge about the size of a tic-tac (see close-up pic). The edges are also a tiny bit foxed with age, but overall this copy is in great shape. No torn or missing pages, no writing, no dog-ears. Pages are intact and the spine is like new. "A lively picture of the New England blacksmith of the late 1800s, paying tribute to the skill and ingenuity of this versatile craftsman. Includes plans for laying out a blacksmith shop and constructing a forge. The author provides a lot of information, not only on how blacksmiths operated, but what they meant to a community. Oftentimes they not only made and repaired iron products, but had to develop skills in carpentry and handling horses as well." There's so much interesting and practical information here about working with iron--including 160 illustrations to show the setups and the hand tools of the trade. The sort of book that could come in very handy in a post-industrial society. (Say, if technology collapses because a screeching team of flying monkeys has been set loose to randomly dismantle the delicately-enmeshed cogs of an entire national infrastructure. Ya know, for instance.)