Customer Reviews

Samuel Yellin, Metalworker

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Samuel Yellin Metalworker was originally published in hard cover and has been out of print. I am pleased to see it released again in soft cover and at a reasonable price. This book is sort of a history of the Samuel Yellin organization and a tribute to the man's genius at creating beautiful ironwork. I especially like the quotes on the back cover of the book: "The true craftsman should know every branch of his craft and a piece of work can only be either good or bad. If one small part of the grille is bad, the whole grille is bad. For a piece of craftsmanship to be good not the smallest part should receive adverse criticism. And even though twelve men work on one pair of gates, they must appear when completes as though they were made by one man." That is requiring pretty exacting work from all of his help in his shop and is no wonder that he achieved such great stature as an Art Metal Worker. With this sort of attitude about the work from his shop, it is no wonder that this man achieve so much stature in only 55 years on earth. The beginning Chapter talks about Yellin's shop and business. The second chapter talks about and profusely illustrates the Yellin Wrought Iron. The next chapter presents Yellin's views on Craftsmanship being a reprint of a talk that he gave before the Architectural Club of Chicago on March 9, 1926. Interesting stuff. The next chapter is a group of Wrought Iron Selections that shows the great variety and wide range of the metal art that was created in the Yellin shop. This chapter alone is probably worth the price of the book because of its content of so many different types of objects. Through viewing such objects, one's mind becomes inspired and makes one able to do what Yellin says, "There is only one way to make good decorative ironwork and that is with the hammer at the anvil, for in the heat of creation and under the spell of the hammer, the whole conception of a composition is often transformed." I would say that this transformation takes place because of images that the ironworker has seen in the past, which tend to influence the way in which he or she sees the current project. By viewing many fine works, your mind can take on an appreciation of such work and help you to also produce similar works. Yellin urges the ironworker to "look to the past at fine works, but not to copy them." The final chapter talks about the Yellin Job Cards and shows a graph of jobs, job cards, and number of employees. It appears that Yellin's number of jobs peaked in 1923 and his number of employees peaked just before the stock market crashed about 1928. Everything sort of went down hill from there probably because of the great depression of the 1930s. Yellin died in 1940. An excellent book that every blacksmith and decorative metal worker should have in their library.

Reviewed by: Fred Holder, Editor Blacksmith's gazette

Samuel Yellin, Metalworker by Jack Andrews

This is a new release of one of the two books that have made Jack Andrews a household name in the blacksmithing community.(The other is the "New Edge of the Anvil.") While this book has been around for some time now the new release offers the title in a more affordable paperbound cover. Samuel Yellin is the king of the blacksmiths and a true inspiration to virtually anyone who has ever swung a hammer. at piece of hot steel. His accomplishments as a metal artist are thing to be grasped at and never achieved by the mere mortal. Andrews does and excellent job of capturing the spirit of this man who organized teams of immigrant blacksmiths into a shop in Philadelphia spread ironwork across the country. In this work you will learn the history that is the Yellin legacy, including the formative years before he was a household name. A time line gives important dates in his history. Of special interest are the historic photos of Yellin and those under his employ. Even better are the many pages of his work, each piece speaking volumes on its own. There are gates, railings, keys, locks, fireplace sets, lighting devices, whimsical creatures and more. Now that Andrews has brought this book back at less that ..., there are not excuses for not having it in your library. Just owning this book may make you a better blacksmith! Get one before the are all gone.

Jim McCarty

Jack Andrews and Skipjack Press have done us all a favor by republishing this book in paperback. Samuel Yellin's work remains an important subject of study, not only for blacksmiths, but for artists, architects, interior designers, and anyone who works with or enjoys ironwork. Jack Andrews worked in the Yellin shops at Arch Street and is deeply familiar with his subject, and his expertise shows throughout this book.

Of course, the many examples of Yellins work is enough reason to add this book to your library.. As usual, the scale of the works is sometimes immense, and requires the labor of fifty smiths to execute... but that's not what most people are after. The details shown in these works can give you a myriad of ideas to try in your own shop.

But there's more than that. Yellin's business practices are a lesson to us all, especially the way he documented all of his work. In a sense, this practice of Yellin's made books like this and the study of his work possible. He used job cards and took photographs of every piece of ironwork that went out the door. We should all document our work so well.

Yellin's thoughts on design and the artistic nature of forged iron make great reading as well. I keep going back to Yellin's discussion of "Craftsmanship" again and again, each time finding a new and interesting point to consider.

When you add all this with the fact that this reissue costs twenty dollars, you've got a real bargain. This book should be required reading for anyone with an interest in metals.

I learned of Samuel Yellin through the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia. They have some wonderful examples of the work produced by him and his workers. This book was on display there and it gives a wonderful description of his works and his business. I wanted a copy to continue my research. The photos especially are wonderful and give you a sense of the life of metalworkers in the Philadelphia area. Also a great record of the actual works. Although it is unclear the status of some of them today.

Feel very lucky that I found a copy of this book on Amazon

While the content of both the hardcover and paperback is the same, the paper quality of the handcover is much better which leads to better photo quality. If this seems like an important book to add to your library I would recommend splurging on the hardcover.

A great description of commercial blacksmithing in its most successful era. Excellent pictures of some of his completed works with enough details to allow you to make them.