Fair Lawn Farm's 18th-Century Trades Fair is an annual living history trades encampment in bucolic Highland County, Virginia, featuring artisans affiliated with the likes of Colonial Williamsburg, The Frontier Culture Museum, The Smithsonian and Townsends. For this in-the-field episode, we will be touring the tents, hearing from a dozen craftsmen-&-women about their historical trades ranging from gunsmithing & engraving, to powder horn making & woodworking. Topics discussed: Indian trade silver; gorgets; tin as 18th-century plastic; how to be an American peddler; the itinerant green-woodworker; bread-baking with "baker's match;" natural dyes made from wood shavings; historical uses of animal fats such as bear grease, deer & cow tallow; powder horns and the origin of scrimshaw folk art; casting lead ammunition; Fort Seybert's annual fort burning festival; the surveyor's compass & the white man's flies; acanthus scrollwork on flintlock firearms & self-taught mastery; and last and most importantly, the potential for a craft revival as the antidote to the AI Revolution. Till next year!

Reading from Colonial Craftsmen: And the Beginnings of American Industry by Edwin Tunis

Check out the Fair Lawn Farm events page at visitFairLawnFarm.com

The Craftsmen-&-women in order:

Tim Duff - Farm Owner/Event Organizer
Mitch Yates - Gunsmith/Silversmith
Historian's Stitch - Tinsmith
Ye Lowfarb Pedlar - Peddler
Stone House History - Bodger & Wife
Simeon England - Engraver/Blacksmith
Mark Bradbury - Horner/Scrimshaw Artist
David Allen - Longhunter/Knifemaker
Paul Parish - Surveyor
Mark Thomas - Engraver/Gunsmith
David Ray Pine - Woodworker/Furniture Maker

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18TH-CENTURY TRADES FAIR; OF BODGERS, HORNERS & SMITHS | Craftsmen-&-women