The General Blacksmith by Malcolm Paine has just been released in Western Australia and I can truly recommend it to any knife maker thinking of turning to the dark side and forging blades.

The book is a complete work on general blacksmithing with more than enough information to get an absolute beginner started on the path to successful smithing or equally provide many interesting insights to the blacksmith’s craft for those who have some experience. The writing style is concise and quite straightforward being more than adequately supported by simple line drawings and numerous colour and black and white pictures. The end result is a clear and easy to follow set of instructions on how to complete the processes required in general blacksmithing, from making charcoal and making and lighting a forge through making tools, punching holes and designing and making art-works in steel... A small amount of history, tradition and myth relating to blacksmithing makes the book a really enjoyable read, whilst at the same time providing a really useful text book and ready reference on blacksmithing.

The book is published and printed in Western Australia on excellent quality paper, in fairly large print and is spiral bound for convenience and long life.

In short, I think, the best book of its type that can currently be found and will in time become important as both a “workshop manual” and a record of general blacksmithing methods accumulated over the 60 plus years that Malcolm has been practicing and quite obviously thoroughly enjoying his trade.