Product Description
The Hammerman in Williamsburg DVD is back from the archives!
Produced in 1973, this 38 minute film features a master blacksmith who explains why the "hammerman" was one of the most vital craftsmen in town. Year-round work for the blacksmith kept the community's tools, farm implements, and firearms in good working order. For this, he needed a keen imagination, great coordination, and superb management skills. The blacksmith and his assistants, a journeyman and an apprentice, explain their tools and demonstrate their skills. With patience, they carefully heat iron objects and expertly forge the metal into an ax, a signpost, and a fireplace crane.
This DVD features an extra feature, The Blacksmith: Forging an Andiron (1999, 25 minutes). Colonial Williamsburg blacksmiths demonstrate some of the fundamental techniques used to shape a fireplace andiron after an eighteenth-century original. They show how each process leaves telltale signs that give wrought ironwork its distinctive character and allow modern-day tradesmen to "read" how an antique piece was made.
This Colonial Williamsburg Production is part of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archive Series: The Trades of Colonial Williamsburg.
