Experience the Life
: Trades
: Brass Founder
Interpreters heat scrap brass in the
forge.
Click image to enlarge |
Geddy
family ran brass foundry in Williamsburg
Brass founders like William and David Geddy, and their father James
before them, melted both brass and bronze and poured them into molds
to form andirons, bells, coach and harness fittings, shoe buckles,
sword hilts, furniture hardware, and many other things. The foundry
trade is demonstrated today at the James Geddy Foundry behind the
James Geddy House in the Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg.
Colonial molds made of sand and clay
Molten brass is poured into a mold.
Click image to enlarge |
Colonial foundry men used a method known as "sand casting."
The mold was actually made of a fine sand and clay mixture –
a material that could withstand the 2,000° F-temperature of
the molten brass. The founder began by creating a pattern made of
wood or a soft metal like lead or pewter. Next, he packed the moistened
molding sand over the pattern – first on one side, then the
other. The mold was made in halves so that when the packing was
finished, the founder could open the mold and remove the pattern.
He then cut channels in the sand so the molten metal could flow
into the pattern. Smaller channels let air and gases escape from
the mold as the metal flowed in. The founder then put the halves
of the sand mold back together.
Scrap brass melted to create new items
The finishing sanding, filing, and
polishing and are performed on a brass item made in the Geddy
Foundry.
Click image to enlarge |
The brass – usually scrap – was put into a clay melting
pot or crucible and heated in the forge. When the metal was melted
and reached the right temperature for pouring (which had to be judged
by eye), the founder used a pair of tongs to take the crucible from
the forge and pour the molten brass into the mold.
After the metal had cooled and hardened, the founder opened the
mold and removed the casting, destroying the mold in the process.
Following this dangerous and difficult process, more work still
remained to to finish the casting – filing, scraping, fitting
and assembling parts, sanding, and polishing.
Foundry work hot and dirty
The following description of foundry work was found in an 18th-century
text: "The founder requires a strong constitution and a robust
body to undergo the heat of the fire and etc." And it is certainly
true that heat, dirt, and hard work have always been realities of
the founder's trade.
For further reading:
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Historic Triangle