Marty,

This is great stuff!  Yes I consider New York part of the
Mid-Atlantic...unless you are a Mets fans!  Thanks I would very much like
and appreciate a copy of your report. I will also make those contacts.

Thank you so much!

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marty
Pickands
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 11:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Blacksmith or Wheelwright Shops in The Middle Atlantic Region

Bill,
 
I'm not sure this qualifies as "Mid-Atlantic," but we here in New York tend
to identify ourselves as either "Mid-Atlantic" or "Northeast," depending
upon whichever suits us at the moment.
 
I am currently editing a volume for the online series New York State Museum
Record (http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/publications/record/) based on the
articles from a symposium we had here in 2010 called "Iron in New York."
Several of the participants, including me, had done work on blacksmith shops
and/or wheelwright shops. One was Dan Seib of the Public Archaeology
Facility at SUNY Binghamton, who is also an amateur smith:
[log in to unmask] and another was Ann Morton, who was has been working on
two very different smithy sites in New York: [log in to unmask] I
myself did a data recovery on a country blacksmith shop in Parishville, N.Y.
An article based on part of that report was published in the New York State
Museum Bulletin No. 513:

 http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staffpubs/docs/20232.PDF 

I can send you a copy of the complete report if you like. Because my smithy
had been stripped clean of all usable metals after abandonment, the focus of
my report was primarily on how it is possible to identify work areas on a
dirt floor using features and small debris.
 
My interpretation relied heavily on the help of four historically
knowledgeable smiths, without whom I would have been at a loss to interpret
much of what I saw, in particular Ken Schwarz, Master Blacksmith at the
Anderson Blacksmith Shop in Colonial Williamsburg and Steve Kellogg of the
Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, both of whom visited the site during the
excavation with two of their colleagues from the local area.
 
Ken, in particular, is knowledgeable about blacksmith archaeology and has
studied most, if not all, of what's available. He is extremely busy these
days overseeing the rebuilding of the Anderson shop (partly on the basis of
archaeology), so I don't know if he would have much time to spare, but he is
a great source of information and historic photos of shops.
 
Feel free to contact me off-list if I can help in any way.
 
 
 
 
Marty Pickands
New York State Museum