A time‐dependent concentrated force applied obliquely on the surface of a plate generates elastic waves in the plate. The determination of the location, orientation, and time history of the force from the transient wave records is referred to as the inverse source problem of elastic waves. This paper presents an iterative method of deconvolution which determines the orientation and time‐dependent amplitude of the force from the transient response of the plate surface at a minimum of two locations, the source location being given. Numerical results are presented for forces with various orientations and time histories, and for synthetic data both with and without noise.