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Blacksmith

Members of the Historic Foodways department prepare food in the kitchen of the Governor's Palace.

In a scene from Colonial Williamsburg's Electronic Field Trip "A Day in the Life," an apprentice learns the blacksmithing trade.

Items made for homes and other tradesmen

Blacksmiths in Williamsburg fashioned items from iron and steel for the their fellow tradesmen to use in their work and also made things for household use.

Among the tools blacksmiths used were the following:

  • forge
  • anvil
  • hammer
  • tongs
  • vise
  • file

New and repaired items kept shop busy

With forge and anvil, hammer and tongs, blacksmiths made agricultural tools for farmers and iron rims for wheelwrights. They also repaired many iron objects used by Williamsburg residents. Their skills with vise and file served customers as diverse as the miller, saddler, coachmaker, and planter.

For the householder, blacksmiths cast, bent, welded, and riveted fireplace racks, andirons, pothooks, locks, utensils, and decorative wrought iron.

Coal fire heated iron bars

A blacksmith's forge, like those at the James Anderson Blacksmith Shop, consisted of a raised brick hearth outfitted with bellows to feed its soft-coal fire and a hood to carry away the smoke. The forge heated bars of iron yellow-hot. With his journeymen and apprentices, the blacksmith used sledges weighing as much as 12 pounds to hammer the heated bars into various shapes.

From steel, he made tempered cutting edges for axes and smooth faces for special hammers.

Flames, heat, smoke, and noise contribute to the blacksmith's challenging work environment.

Flames, heat, smoke, and noise contribute to the blacksmith's challenging work environment.

Blacksmith works with tools of his trade.

Blacksmith works with tools of his trade.

By the natural light from the window, a blacksmith in the Anderson Shop puts finishing touches on a piece held in place in a vise.

By the natural light from the window, a blacksmith in the Anderson Shop puts finishing touches on a piece held in place in a vise.

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