This collection of interviews with blacksmiths, old and young, male and female, challenges preconceived notions about practitioners of this ancient craft. Among the nine working smiths within a 100-mile radius of St. Louis, Richard Reichelt finds a wide range of personalities, backgrounds, work created, and reasons for being a blacksmith. Consider just three blacksmiths included in this book. Les Ostendorf is a farm blacksmith who sees smithing...