Our first order of Tim McCreight’s new Complete Metalsmith arrived
today. The best one yet, bound perfectly for shop use and
illustrated in color. This is a got-a-have reference! Check with
your favorite supplier. Bill
Reactive Metals Studio, Inc.
PO Box 890 * 600 First North St. * Clarkdale, AZ 86324
Ph-928/634-3434 * Ph-800/876-3434 * Fax-928/634-6734
E-mail- info@reactivemetals.com
Catalog- www.reactivemetals.com
The new edition is not $10! It is 299 pages in a hardback spiral
bound, lay flat book.
Complete Metalsmith, Professional Edition
http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books/us/product/1929565054.htm
Tim McCreight
Media: Spiral-bound
ISBN/ASIN : 1929565054
Manufacturer : Brynmorgen Press
Release data : February, 2004
Go here and take a look http://www.brynmorgen.com/CMpro.html
Bill
Reactive Metals Studio, Inc.
PO Box 890 * 600 First North St. * Clarkdale, AZ 86324
Ph-928/634-3434 * Ph-800/876-3434 * Fax-928/634-6734
E-mail- info@reactivemetals.com
Catalog- www.reactivemetals.com
I received the new pro-edition a week or so ago and have spent
quite a lot of time going thru it. The text needs to be edited again
to correct mistakes and to get the illustrations in the correct
places. I was surprised with the number of editing errors
considering this is the third time around. The included CD has some
small java programs to help the metalsmith, I found these to be
poorly conceived and poorly executed. For example the routine for
determining casting weights returns exactly the multiplication
product of the specific gravity and the wax weight without taking the
needed surplus for a button into account. It doesn’t even mention a
button. There are mistakes in the routine that gives material
properties. I own the entire collection of The Complete Metalsmith
and quite a few of the other McCreight texts, I think they are great
and we require them in our program and will continue to do so. But I
hope in the next printing these editing errors can be corrected.
Maybe a section on the Brynmorgen press website for purchasers to
submit instances that might need corrections. The format of the new
texts is very well conceived and the new binding is quite nice.
Regards,
James McMurray
One thing I might add about Tim’s newly revised classic is that
there are more than one version. There are three versions. The
student, professional, and professional plus. The pro-plus also has
a searchable CD together with the professional edition book. The CD
has software that can be installed on your computer or PDA. Very
cool. It was on my father’s day list, but got overlooked. I guess I
have to buy it for myself.
James S. Cantrell CMBJ
For example the routine for determining casting weights returns exactly the multiplication product of the specific gravity and the wax weight without taking the needed surplus for a button into account. It doesn't even mention a button.
Maybe that is because you don’t need a button. A button is a total
waste of metal, take a look at the physics. It does not increase
pressure on the casting and by the time the button is filling the
casting is already solidified so it does not provide shrink filling
ability. It is just a bunch of metal to melt and recycle.
Jim Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
Phone (360) 756-6550
Toll Free (877) 408 7287
Fax (360) 756-2160
@James_Binnion
Member of the Better Business Bureau
Thank you, James, for your review of Tim McCreight’s updated version
of The Complete Metalsmith. I use the book with my classes, but
have always wished I knew where to send a critique of p. 177,
“History of Metalsmithing.” Anyone who has followed the recent
thread on ancient metalworking will know that the first third of the
"history" is incorrect. I love anyone who includes history in
their presentations, but more work is needed on McCreight’s
timeline. The beginning phrase is also troublesome: “Bronze first
smelted.” It should read something like, “Deliberate alloys of
tin-bronze first made.” Smelting is the chemical process of gaining
a metal from its ore. Alloying is a physical process of melting
metals together. Obviously, things are a lot more complex than that
(I’ll not discuss the early arsenic-bronzes that were used in the
Ancient Near East), but for a timeline, I think that phrase would
be a lot better. The rest of the phrases down to about 500 BC need
re-working, too.
On p. 144, McCreight describes the “Basic Etruscan Chain,” and
mentions that examples are found in many early cultures. But he
omits any mention of Mesopotamia, where so many “firsts” in the
world’s history are found. There is a silver “Etruscan” chain
found at the Syrian site of Tell Brak which dates to the
mid-third millennium BC, nearly two thousand years before the
Etruscans.
I’ve never found an e-mail address for Tim McCreight, but I’ve never
actually searched for one, either. I really like all of his books,
and I won’t stop using them, and I hate to carp on this one issue,
but why not get it right?
Judy Bjorkman