Reddit mentions of The Complete Modern Blacksmith

This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Weygers
Wrote a book called "The Complete Modern Blacksmith":https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Modern-Blacksmith-Alexander-Weygers/dp/0898158966
It has good information on making wood and stone-working hand tools.

Backyard Blacksmith like Raeladar recommended, by Lorelei Sims
http://www.amazon.com/The-Backyard-Blacksmith-Traditional-Techniques/dp/1592532519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341272167&sr=8-1&keywords=backyard+blacksmith

The Complete Bladesmith by Jim Hrisoulas has a TON of detailed info like forgewelding (important throughout blacksmithing, not just bladesmithing)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Bladesmith-Forging-Perfection/dp/1581606338/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1341272167&sr=8-4&keywords=backyard+blacksmith


and The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander Weygers has good info as well
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Modern-Blacksmith-Alexander-Weygers/dp/0898158966/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

my library is growing from these books as well as the forge I'm putting together.

Don't get too caught up in buying a London pattern anvil. Remember, the ancients used rocks for anvils. Check out the book "The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander Weygers. In it, he talks about other items that can be used for an anvil. Go to the nearest scrap metal yard--one that will allow you to walk the yard--and see if you can find a large chunk of steel off of old machinery. I currently have a piece of RR track that someone had cut shaped into an andiron. Its not the prettiest, but it works.

The point is to just start pounding hot metal, and add tools as you can.

Awesome! Glad to see another person interested, smithing is fun! Getting started is actually pretty easy as long as long as you aren't planning on crafting gorgeous blades right off the get-go. You really only need a few things:

• A forge (these can be built surprisingly cheap if you are inclined)
  
• Coal or charcoal to fire the forge (not bricket charcoal)
  
• A smithing hammer
  
• An anvil (can be as simple as a piece of railroad)
  
• Steel (I recommend starting with 1095, railroad spikes, or rebar).
  
• A bucket of oil or water (depending on the steel) to quench the blade in.
  
• A magnet. Those ones on the long extending stick are the best. (This is for checking the heat of the steel when tempering it)
  
  An anvil can be pricey, even used, if you get a real one but a piece of railroad can be obtained pretty cheaply though not always easily. Don't pay more than $2-4 a pound for an anvil if you buy a used one. The heavier, the better but starting out it should at least weigh 60+ lbs, preferably 150+. Don't try to use a jeweler's anvil or a cast iron anvil. There's some good videos covering types of anvils and where to find them. Everything else will be easy and cheap to obtain.
  
  You can find all the info you need to get started by searching YouTube for knife making or knife smithing. Walter Sorrells in particular has a good channel with some high quality videos. He focuses more on making knives from steel blanks than on forging, but he does have a couple of good forge videos and happens to have spent some time studying under Japanese smiths so he has some decent info on forging Japanese swords and knives if you are interested. Honestly, for a normal knife/sword the forging isn't that hard, it's the finishing part that takes all the time, effort, and skill. (Not to downplay the skills of most medieval smiths, they had to be much more precise in their smithing than we do today because we have power sanders and grinders to quickly fix mistakes). Most YouTube channels will focus on smithing knives instead of swords and I recommend you start with the same even though swords are awesome. It's the same techniques and process, but knives are cheaper to practice on and swords are more difficult to get right.
  
  If you want or prefer a book, there are a few good ones for sale on Amazon. The Backyard Blacksmith, The Complete Modern Blacksmith, The $50 Knife Shop, How to Make Knives, and The Wonder of Knife Making are all great beginner books (only the last two deal with actually making knives). When you get some practice under your belt, Jim Hrisoulas has a couple of books on bladesmithing that are designed for experienced smiths who want to build better blades and deals with swords specifically.

get a piece of forklift tine, strike with hammer repeatedly, rinse repeat.

If you're doing backyard DIY stuff than any good high carbon steel will do, I've used pieces of grader blades before, I used a tree stump one time too but that was to win a bet.

There is a good step by step tutorial in The Complete Modern Blacksmith for cutting, shaping and hardening a piece of railroad rail into an anvil.

I am by no means an experienced blacksmith, but I found this book to be fairly enlightening when I was first getting into it: The Complete Modern Blacksmith.

It covers stuff like the forge /u/ColinDavies outlined.. and gives a very good intro into the "bootstraping" nature of blacksmithing (IMO :D)!

Was it this one?

Yep, but a solid iron anvil and a iron hammer with a bit of hardened steel forge-welded on to the face is much better than a big stone bolder and a stone hammer, as it was abandoned as soon as possible.

Think of a light anvil of maybe 50 pounds of iron. Now think how much work it took to make less than an ounce of iron.

Anvilfire.com
Iforgeiron.com
hammertyme.com
reddit.com/r/blacksmith
/r/blacksmithing
/r/bladesmith
/r/metalworking
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Blacksmithing-Alex-Bealer/dp/0785803955
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Modern-Blacksmith-Alexander-Weygers/dp/0898158966
http://www.anvilfire.com/bookrev/
Those are just a few to get you started.
ALSO. Start learning metallurgy as soon as possible.

Get, read and absorb the following:

• The Complete Modern Blacksmith
  
  
• Step by Step Knifemaking
  
  
• The Complete Bladesmith
  
  
• This one is arguable, but I've enjoyed my 1977 copy. How to Make Knives
  
  The knowledge is more important than the tools. That said, don't scrimp on the anvil, the vise and the flatter hammer.
  

Start with this book. It's cheap, and perhaps the best smithing book available.

I'm a bit of a generalist. I always have lots of projects going on at once, each in a different state of completion. The books I have listed I do own, and read and pick through the most often.

The first two are generalist books. I say that because they both have such a breadth of information it's hard to describe them. The third is more specialist in that it covers only a single subject, but does so in such detail and in a recipe type format that it's easy to follow along. It starts with how to build a blacksmith shop, what tools you need, and how to use tools you make to build bigger tools to help build other, bigger tools.

https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Country-Living-40th-Anniversary/dp/1570618402

https://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Life-How-Live/dp/0756654505/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FR7BRBKJ9CA3XRWW1N8H

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Modern-Blacksmith-Alexander-Weygers/dp/0898158966/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473081102&sr=1-15&keywords=blacksmithing

Thanks! I'll see if I can find it online.

Edit: Here it is!

As well as buying that book, i also bought this book from Amazon.

The Sims book is a great resource for getting started. She walks you through the very beginnings and I loved her photos.

The Weygers book is just insane in terms of what you come to understand a qualified blacksmith is actually capable of creating. It's not as polished, but I think that you could pretty much maintain a small society with the information in that book and the proper skills. He has a special focus on tool making (he's a wood carver and looks to have made each of his tools) as well.

A book by Alexander Weygers, "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" is good. I've read it and use it as a guide to get started. For a cheap start, I'd buy some stock and coal locally, building my own easy forge with materials I have on hand or can get cheaply. Instructables has some good stuff too and there is some to-do-for gas forge gear sold on eBay. Personally when I have some money I'll go there. Getting used equipment on eBay is possible, but there will be competition, especially by people collecting "old" equipment as decorative or collecting items. I'd buy a few hammers online or in local stores depending on which was cheaper and more convenient, buy your first pair of tongs and make some of the rest. I don't have any pictures of my work but I'd be glad to share some of my metalsmithing results if you're interested. Don't buy an anvil online... shipping is killer. Also, as far as I know the anvils sold at say, harbor freight are pieces of crap that won't last very long. Try to find a farrier locally to buy an anvil from. Craigslist usually has an anvil or twenty for sale depending on your area.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Modern-Blacksmith-Alexander-Weygers/dp/0898158966

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Weygers