Bladesmithing: Beginner + Intermediate + Advanced Guide to Bladesmithing: Knife Making Compendium for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Bladesmiths

I gave this to my husband for Father’s Day. He’s been reading thru it. He tells me there it so much info and can’t wait to use it. He just bought a forge but hasn’t got it set up yet.

Ive been bladesmithing for a year now and I bought this book to increase my knowledge. You do not need pictures to learn, but this is a hobby where visual aids are tremendously helpful (especially when describing damascus patterns), but this book has none whatsoever. I have read The Complete Bladesmith, The Master Bladesmith and The Pattern Welded Blade by Jim Hrisoulas. Written in 1987, The Complete Bladesmith just completely blows this book out of the water. Jim has given the reader an incredible amount of information and visual aids for a complete comprehension of all the aspects of making your own knives. Plus, there are pictures of completed works that really inspire the reader to push themselves. I highly recommend The Complete Bladesmith over this book.

This book is written with poorly chosen language, and terrible grammar. For instance, the author uses the work "tactile" instead of "tactical" multiple times. These are VERY different terms, obviously, when describing a blade, or anything else! As the author says in the introduction, "The goal of this book is to spend as less time reading....and start making knives." What???. Yikes. "..as less time.."?? You just sold me a $35 instructional book and you're telling me you're keeping it short and simple to save me time? I thought I was purchasing information and guidance. Guess not!It also glosses over many important areas of process, where specific detailed instruction and explanation should be focused on. Anyway, don't waste your money. I only wish I could return it. $35 is a bit to choke on for a crappy book. Just do some internet research instead!

KNIFE MAKING COMPENDIUM? More like vague overview.1) There was no proofreading done on this book. The spelling and grammatical errors are non-stop. On numerous occasions the text was so incoherent that I had to re-read several times before I THINK I knew what was trying to be conveyed.2) There is not one picture in 225 pages to help illustrate points the author is trying to make.3) Material is redundant and painfully vague. Step by step instructions mean 1 think of a knife 2 design the knife 3 make the knife...I learned more about knife making from my first episode of Forged in Fire!4) Author seems pretty impressed with himself - quote from section 2 'there are now numerous excellent books on the subject of bladesmithing and knife making, with this book being one of the very best out there!' I DON'T THINK SO!!There ARE numerous excellent books out there......THIS ONE IS NOT ONE OF THEM!!!

This is quite possibly the worst ‘published’ book I’ve tried to read. It reads like a poor translation from a language other than English. Enough people have already mentioned the lack of images to support the text, but it’s worth a mention here too; since the text is poor, images may have at least made some sense of it all. I’m not casting any doubt on the authors subject matter knowledge; he quite obviously knows a lot about bladesmithing... maybe hire an editor?