Complete Modern Blacksmith

Alexander Weygers

Reviewed by:

Sean Yates

Alexander Weygers was a man of many talents.

http://www.alexweygers.com/Alexbio.html

This book is a compilation of three separate texts Weygers wrote in the early 70’s. “Metalworking with an Emphasis on Recycling Materials and the use of Appropriate Technology” would perhaps have been a more accurate title. The polarity of opinions on this book reflects the dual nature of the blacksmith’s role. While there are Old World traditions and apprenticeship training and craftsmen-artists like Samuel Yellin, blacksmiths were and are called upon to make and repair anything and everything, and time, price and resources always enter into the solution. Consider the chaps discussed in this PDF document:

http://sofablacksmiths.org/documents/bahrainblacksmiths.pdf

Weygers’ emphasis is on modifying what can be found, scrounged, or bought cheaply to make useful items from tools to candle sticks. This is an excellent resource for the beginning metalworker. It would not be a serious blacksmiths only book, but it was never intended as such. Weygers taught a variety of people, from high school students to nuns how to forge tools that would cut stone and that along with his training as an artist and engineer in the early part of the last century is very much reflected in this text. The author’s surfeit of diagrams is an essential part of the projects. At times, the volume of writing and circles and arrows around the illustrations can be confusing and some of his ideas might strike some as strange or even dangerous. Among other things he talks about sharpening files with battery acid, making your own anvil from a section of railroad track, setting up shop with old washing machine motors, rebuilding a power hammer, and making tools - pliers, screwdrivers, wrenches, cold chisels, carpenter’s chisels and gouges, hammers, tin snips, nail/wire cutters…In short, he covers a LOT. Again, it should not be anyone’s only blacksmithing text, but it is a good investment for the novice.

For what it's worth, Ray Larsen describes this book as “The ‘Holy Trinity’ of guerilla tool making. I’m still using many of the tricks I gleaned from Weygers years ago.”