Secrets of the Forge

In this fascinating and useful project book for beginning and intermediate level blacksmiths, twenty-four Italian master blacksmiths share their techniques with you on a great variety of jobs, ranging from the basic and simple to the more complex and artistic.This large 250-page hardcover book measures 9-½-inches x 11-¼-inches and contains 48 different blacksmithing projects. The individual steps of each job are clearly illustrated with high quality close-up color photos.Secrets of the Forge begins with basic smithing jobs such as twisting bars and making spearhead shapes and scrolls. As you progress through the book the projects become more difficult and complex and involve forging truly artistic iron sculptures such as a duck in flight, a snail, flowers, a dragon, a nude, and more.The book concludes with two highly specialized projects: making a Damascus steel blade, and the construction of a fully functional hand-forged lock.There is a wealth of knowledge in this excellent book. Experienced professional smiths will get as much from it as novices. Antonello Rizzo is also the author of The Blacksmith's Project Book: Intermediate & Advanced Projects from European Masters which picks up where Secrets of the Forge leaves off.

Antonello Rizzo’s first company was founded in 1983 and dealt with the distribution of blacksmithing books in Italy. After twenty years of experience, Antonello created Mediaprojet Editore, a publishing company with which he published a CD-ROM and two hardcover books that go by the titles of Cancelli d’Italia Vols. 1 & 2 (sold in the USA and abroad as “Gates and Railings Volumes 1 and 2”). Thanks to the on-line market, these works were sold throughout Europe with excellent results. Six years later Antonello closed "Mediaprojet" and began the “Rizzo Editore” publishing house. With Rizzo Editore he published two new hardcover books: “Ferri Maestri” (sold in the USA and abroad as “Gates and More by the Masters”) and “I Segreti della Forgia” (sold in the USA and abroad as “Secrets of the Forge”). The first book was a continuation of his “Gates and Railings Volumes 1 and 2” and features Italian ironwork forged between the years 2000 and 2007. The second title was something completely new. It is an instructional book that was written in collaboration with 24 artist-blacksmiths who allowed Antonello into their workshops to document all the processes and techniques and take all the photographs necessary to create a large, heavily illustrated, step-by-step hardcover manual with nearly fifty blacksmithing projects. (Editor’s note: In December, 2017, “Secrets of the Forge” will be re-published in the USA in an all-English edition complete with new technical editing). In 2009, in collaboration with “l’Associazione Fabbri d’Arte”, Antonello contributed to the publication of “Fabbri d’Arte” (sold in the USA and abroad as “Italian Artist-Blacksmiths”), a photographic book that focuses on the works of the 31 members of the association and includes a summary of the creative process behind many of the association’s creations. In 2010 Antonello published, Damascus, a book on damascus steel forging, that features bilingual (Italian-English) text. In 2012 he started publishing blacksmithing articles in “D’A” magazine which specializes in fine arts and craftsmanship. In 2015 he published a photographic book that features bilingual (Italian-English) text entitled "Fabbri Italiani Contemporanei – (sold in the USA and abroad as “Contemporary Italian Blacksmiths"). In 2017, after 4 years of research and extensive travelling he completed and published his new book on blacksmithing techniques: “The Blacksmith's Project Book".