Blacksmithing
and Cutlery
by Gérard HEUTTE
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How to start?
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Knifemaking calls upon many techniques.
It is essential to combine theory and practical.
This is the practice which will allow the realization and the
improvement of the gesture. But it is the theory which makes
possible to progress on the heart, to understand what we do and to analyze our failures...
Theory
The mandatory bases are:
(1) Concepts of cutlery mainly assemblies of knives, materials used.
(2) Concepts of metallurgy, mainly to try to understand the impact of the various heat treatments.
For that, all the sources of information are good. I personally have a small weakness for books...
I would advise to begin with the following works:
> C'est en forgeant...
: An excellent (French!) book covering the fields of blacksmithing and
cutlery. For a beginner, it is an excellent work!
> Custom Knifemaking
: A global vision of what an amateur can easily do.
> $50 knife shop
: A fantastic book with good advices to make your cheap workshop and your
first knives.
> The Complete Bladesmith
: A reference book, serious and complete.
> Les couteaux d'art
: A panorama of the cutlery. It is not that which I prefer, but it is
one of rare in French.
> The complete modern Blacksmith
: A true bible on blacksmithing with much tricks.
> Comment un amateur peut travailler
les métaux par le feu: A small nice book with the basic methods for
blacksmithing.
Practical
An old french proverb says :"It is whileforging that one becomes blacksmith".
It expresses perfectly the reality.
It is necessary as soon as possible to pass to the practice.
The ideal is to work under the supervision of an experienced person. The time saving is then
considerable! In the opposite, it is necessary to wotkalone and test...
Especially, do not stop due to lack of
equipment.
One needs few things to start.
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