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Over a century ago, William J. Loth began the tradition of craftsmanship and fine design that has distinguished Virginia Metalcrafters for over one hundred years. In the Fall of 1890, Loth, having spent years learning the foundry trade, formed the Waynesboro Stove Company; a year later, after constructing a new foundry, he and his craftsmen celebrated the casting of their first stove. The addition to the company of Loth's nephew, Richard J. Clemmer, 25 years later was pivotal to the future of what was to become Virginia Metalcrafters.
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It was Clemmer who came up with an ingenious method of advertising for the company; he had the foundry produce miniature cast iron frying pans with the company's name on the back. A local hotel was intrigued with these unique miniatures, and asked if a quantity could be made with the hotel's name. Clemmer obliged, thus launching the gift and souvenir line. By 1938, the company began selling a line of gifts and decorative accessories under the name Virginia Metalcrafters. Fifty years after the introduction of gifts and decorative accessories, along with acquisitions and intensive product development, VM has created a line of over 750 products. While the days of making cast iron stoves are long past, VM has maintained an unerring commitment to quality by continuing to utilize the age-old craft of sandcasting, a method of hand pouring molten brass, cast iron, and other metals.
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It is in this method, perhaps more of an art than a science, that our skilled craftspeople spend years learning and perfecting. Just as our casting method is authentic, our brass "formula" was specially developed to duplicate Colonial period brass as closely as possible. The result is a richer, more golden color than the "red" brasses commonly seen today. Most handcast brass and cast iron products begin with a meticulously handcut and shaped wooden pattern. This pattern is then pressed into finely-textured sand to create the hollow mold for a casting.
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Ingots of solid brass are melted at a temperature of 1,800 to 2,100 degrees for pouring into individual sand molds. After the molten metal cools and solidifies, the mold must be broken apart, revealing a rough casting which hardly resembles the highly polished, finished product. Brass castings must go through many steps before they can be brought to VM's beautiful finish. Parting lines, formed where the two halves of the mold were joined together, have to be ground away. The rounded surfaces of some brass castings are further shaped on a lathe, an operation where an electric motor and machine-held cutting tool replace the water wheel or foot treadle of an earlier age. Brass castings are then polished and buffed. Hand polishing is performed using sanding belts of increasingly finer grits. Next comes buffing with cotton wheels, followed by the final step, a skill-intensive technique called "coloring." Jeweler's rouge is used to give a depth and richness to the finish that cannot be accomplished by other means.
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Skilled hands and trained eyes then perform a white glove inspection - literally - on every piece created by our craftspeople. This inspection, which will be repeated before the product is packaged, checks an array of characteristics. Nowhere is the pride of our craftspeople more jealously guarded than in the hands of our inspectors. Ultimately, the beauty in Virginia Metalcrafters products comes from more than graceful contours and gleaming surfaces; these products reflect the intrinsic value of something shaped and finished by hand.
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Find out more information about the many important historic restorations, such as Colonial Williamsburg, which have licensed Virginia Metalcrafters to reproduce the items from their collections.
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