Benefits Eligible - Yes - Starting Rate - Salary Commensurate With Experience - Additional Benefits - Costumes - Type of Position - Full-Time - Work Hours - Variable hours (typically 40 per week) with days, weekends, and holidays included - Requires Valid Virginia Drivers License - Yes - Minimum Age - NA - City - Williamsburg - Zip Code - 23185 - Apprentice Blacksmith - -- - Job Description: - An Apprentice Blacksmith supports the Education and Preservation Mission of Historic Trades and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation through physical work and interpretive programming. This work is accomplished in a public venue that recreates an active workshop of the colonial period. Traditional ironwork is manufactured with eighteenth century technology for use in the Historic Area, or for private commission work. The apprentice will provide a pro-active interpretation of the work, the state of technology, and the people who populated Williamsburg workshops. The apprentice participates in research and preservation of the trade skills. Interpretation: - Provides historical information about blacksmithing, its products and services within the community, region, and world. - Provides information about the technology, process, skills, training, organization, and business practices within the trade. - Provides biographical information about Williamsburg blacksmiths, and the social and economic environment in which they lived and worked. - Recreates the work environment of an eighteenth-century blacksmith shop using the clothing, tooling, materials, and work space to provide appropriate products and services. - Presents pro-active, thematic interpretations of historical information to a diverse audience. - Adapts content and presentation to the interest and abilities of the audience. - Actively expands on basic information, and incorporates information specific to James Anderson and Williamsburg. Trade Skills: - Learns and develops proficiency in the skills of working iron and steel with eighteenth-century methods under the direction of the master. - Applies those skills to the demonstration of the trade and the manufacture of period reproductions. - Becomes increasingly proficient in skills of forging, finishing, surface grinding and filing, welding, brazing, lathe turning - Refines skills through repetitive work to meet quality and proficiency standards set by master of the shop. - Adheres to safety and security procedures for work, workshop, tools, and people within the shop. - Works from basic prototype and instructions provided to complete assignments in a timely manner. - Thinks creatively and experiments with appropriate period technique to solve problems, while following instruction of the master. - Maintains a record of new process and product instructions including prototype drawings and construction notes. - Assists with seminars, workshops, and lectures related to the blacksmith shop. Research: - Studies historical documents and information about the trade and its practitioners in the community, region, and world, to become proficient in the knowledge and understanding of the period and people. - Studies and documents objects and process to become proficient in the knowledge and understanding of manufacturing and material culture, especially for ironwork in common use in the Chesapeake region in the eighteenth century. Additional responsibilities: - Works with members of other Colonial Williamsburg departments in a One Foundation effort to accomplish common goals. - Participates in training and assists with seminars. - Ensures that all safety and security procedures are followed. - Professional conduct consistent with Colonial Williamsburg code of ethics - Performs other duties as required - Job Requirements: - Physical Requirements: - Ability to stand for extended periods of time - Ability to safely perform repetitive work with traditional hand tools - Ability to work under extreme weather conditions with temperatures below freezing and above 100 degrees F - Ability to work in dusty and smoky environment - Ability to perform physical activities including standing, sitting, kneeling/squatting, lifting up to 75 pounds - Fundamental knowledge of eighteenth-century blacksmithing with emphasis on techniques and history