Written as a text book by Thomas Francis Googerty one hundred years ago at the end of the horse drawn era and begining of the modern industrial era. Googerty was born in Pontiac, Michigan about 1863 to a barely literate Irish immigrant family. He taught blacksmithing at Illinois State Reformatory starting about 1889. In 1938 the Chicago Daily News captioned a front page story about Tom Googerty with the phrase, “Iron Worker With Dreams Helps Forge Men at Pontiac.”

Beginning in 1910, Googerty spent seven years at University of Wisconsin-Stout teaching forge work. Googerty wrote several books on metalworking and received both national and international prizes for his artwork. At the time of his death in 1945, Googerty was described as one of the nation’s greatest craftsmen in decorative wrought iron work.

The illustrations in Googery’s books are landmarks of blacksmithing process. Many have been reproduced or copied in other works. Where other books of the era showed tools and equipment Googerty’s books show processes as well as examples and layout methods.

This is a classic how-to book of the time and one must adjust the methods to modern sensibilities. The book calls for use of lead and other materials we now avoid in the home shop.

Much of the work, especially the lamps are classic Arts and Crafts style work.

The Table of Contents and complete List of Illustrations of this book has been replicated in HTML. Thus it looks similar to the original but is also conveniently hot linked to the chapter and illustration pages listed.

Instructions – How-to

Unlike our previous eBook Working in Metals this is written for adults in a classroom situation. This how-to text is not for babies that do not know how to light a match to build a fire. There is no backyard make-do. It assumes the reader knows which end of the hammer does the work. It was written for people with some experiance working with their hands and using tools.

Googerty assumes the standard tools are available but nothing extra. However, Googerty also includes instructions for making tongs, specialty hammers and other tools when appropriate.

While the book is small it covers a lot of ground by keeping to the subject and not over explaining details. This has been a standard blacksmiths’ reference for a century and will continue to be so.

For more see Creating the eBook

Continue to the eBook Hand Forging and Wrought-Iron Ornamental Work