Hammer In: Blacksmithing Weekend

Join us for a Hammer-In! Blacksmiths from across the country will be coming to the Frontier Culture Museum to showcase their skills and sell their wares. This event will be Saturday, November 18, from 9 AM – 5 PM and is a general admission ticketed event. The event will also feature a forging contest and an iron in the hat raffle. We also have a number of presenters and blacksmithing vendors participating in this special event.

Presenter: Shel Browder

Shel Browder began metal work in the welding and sheet metal shop that was part of the family hardware business.  After discovering that he was not fond of working behind a desk, he returned to that work in 1980 and began doing demonstrations at local schools and craft fairs.  In 1985, he built a blacksmith shop at Tryon Palace in Newbern, NC.

In 1993, the went to work at the Anderson Blacksmith Shop at Colonial Williamsburg where he earned his journeyman status.  After retiring from there in 2011, he has worked in his own shop and at Historic Jamestown.  Shel and Steve Mankowski built a blacksmith shop there on the site of the first English blacksmith shop in the New World.

Shel has reproduced many iron objects including locks and keys, cooking utensils, edge tools, and swords.  Oh yes, and hundreds of thousands of nails. He has taught and demonstrated at many sites as well.  He is also a teller of old tales.