Doug's Swordmaking Info-On-Paper Sources

You can read my

Mostly e-mail comments I've made to other or potential swordmakers.

Most books with appropriate information are about knife making. The first two on the list do each have a chapter on swords. Read all the books you can find on shop metalworking, sheet metal work, jewelry making, art metal work (covers sinking and raising, for bell guards and clam shells), blacksmithing and knifemaking. Almost any library will have books on some of these subjects. Don't just go out and buy whatever books you can find; read as many as you can first so that you can recognize the better ones when you see them. Here are ones that I recommend:

• The Complete Bladesmith, by Jim Hrisoulas
• The Master Bladesmith, by Jim Hrisoulas
• ("Custom Knife Making" ??) by Tim McCreight (not sure of exact title, my copy is loaned out)
• The Complete Metalsmith, by Tim McCreight (intended for jewelers)
• Books by Alexander Weygers on tool making and blacksmithing.( There are 3, now combined into one larger volume called "The Complete Modern Blacksmith."
• A very good beginning book about metalworking in general is "General Metals" by John L. Feirer. It's a school metal-shop textbook and covers forging, bending, welding, wrought iron work, sheet metal forming, art metal work and jewelry (silversmithing), heat treating, tempering, foundry and machine shop. My copy is an old second edition from 1959 but many libraries have it in one edition or another. It's worth looking for.
• I've mentioned "The Best of the Hammer" book series elsewhere. They were published by Raymond's Quiet Press, PO Box 35118, Albuquerque, NM 87176 in around 1985. I bought Volume 4 from Centaur Forge and later on found Volumes 1, 2 and 3 at a sort of flea market at Pennsic War, the annual national convention for the Society for Creative Anachronism. The books are a compilation of several years' issues of a newsletter for SCA people about armor and weapons. 'The Hammer' was written, edited and published by Brian D. Flax, Sir Polidor Haraldson. I'm trying to find out if the books are available anywhere, but meanwhile I've scanned some articles from Volumes 2 and 3. They're stored as GIF files and range from 22 to 52 k bytes each. Except the hilt ones, which are 83 to 168 k.

• Knives Illustrated 1-800-999-9718
• Blade Magazine 1-800-258-0929

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