The Founder Trade of Colonial Williamsburg

Williamsburg, the 18th-century capital of Virginia, was a center of industry, with a large community of specialized tradespeople supporting everyday colonial life. While printers published newspapers and shoemakers crafted footwear, founders shaped molten metal into essential everyday objects.

Williamsburg’s foundry was unique from the city’s other metalworking shops. Unlike blacksmiths and silversmiths who hammered metal into shape, founders created objects by melting metal and pouring it into molds, creating everyday items like spoons, shoe buckles, and candlesticks.

Founders worked with two distinct categories of metal: low-temperature metals such as pewter and lead, and “white-hot” (high-temperature) metals like brass, bronze, silver, gold, and iron. The metal’s melting temperature determined the type of mold.

For low-temperature metals like pewter, artisans poured the liquid metal directly into a permanent metal mold, which was typically made of bronze. The metal hardened in about 30 seconds.

The founder then separated the halves of the mold to release the newly-cast item. To complete the piece, they had to manually file out any imperfections like visible seams, sand away the file marks, and polish the metal until the item had a smooth, refined finish.

For high-temperature metals like brass or bronze, founders poured the liquid metal at extreme temperatures ranging from 2,000 to 3,000°F. Because these temperatures would have easily melted a permanent metal mold, artisans instead used a process called sand casting to create temporary, heat-resistant molds.

The sand casting process required a specific type of fine sand dredged from riverbeds, which naturally contained the mixture of sand and clay needed to hold a shape.

The founder added water to the sand and packed it tightly into sturdy frames.

Next, the artisan took a carefully carved wooden model of the desired item—called a pattern—and pressed it firmly into the packed sand. When the wooden pattern was removed, it left behind a perfect impression of the object.

Once the mold was prepared, the founder poured in the molten metal. The metal would solidify in just five or six seconds, though it remained glowing orange and was far too hot to handle. The metal had to cool for several hours before the artisan could safely open the mold.

Because the sand would bake and stick to the cooling metal, the mold would break apart upon opening and was for one-time use. However, the founder could reuse much of the sand as well as the original wooden pattern to create matching items.

Unlike today, raw metals were hard to come by. England made it illegal to ship “unworked metals” to its American colonies. This strict regulation meant that local founders could not easily import the materials needed for manufacturing.

Because Virginia mined little besides lead and iron, colonial founders relied heavily on scrap metal. Colonists brought worn-out or broken metal items into the foundry, which the founder purchased, melted down, and transformed into something completely new.

James Geddy Sr., a Scottish gunsmith and metalworker, started a foundry behind his Williamsburg home in the early 1700s. After his death in 1744, his sons William and David continued and expanded the family’s founding business.

Today, visitors to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation can experience this trade firsthand at the Geddy Foundry (shown here), located on the historic Geddy family site.

Here, modern founders use period-accurate processes to craft molten metal into 18th-century-style items, actively preserving the trade for future generations.