PREFACE 



^HAT prompted the author to prepare this 

 book was the of t - repeated question, by 

 blacksmiths and mechanics of all kinds, as 

 well as farmers: "Is there a book treating 

 on this or that?" etc., etc. To all these 

 queries I was compelled to answer in the negative, 

 for it is a fact that from the time of Cain, the first 

 mechanic, there has never been a book written by 

 a practical blacksmith on subjects belonging to his 

 trade. If, therefore, there has ever been such a thing 

 as "filling a long-felt want," this must certainly be a 

 cas3 of that kind. 



In medicine we find a wide difference of opinion, 

 even amongst practitioners of the same school, in 

 treating diseases. Now, if this is so where there is a 

 system, and authority for the profession, how much 

 more so must there be a difference of opinion in a 

 trade where every practitioner is his own authority. 

 I shall, therefore, ask the older members of the black- 

 smith fraternity to be lenient in their judgment if my 

 ideas don't coincide with theirs. To the apprentice 



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