When the smoke cleared on Discovery Channel’s latest episode of “Master of Arms” George Cramer, the owner of Gloucester’s Village Blacksmith, emerged victorious.

Cramer began forging his career at age 14 when he learned welding. Six years in the Navy and seven years of teaching the trade at the Advanced Technology Institute drove Cramer towards blacksmithing. In 2015, he would open his current venture, The Village Blacksmith off Main Street in Gloucester Court House.

Months of talent searching and vetting led the producers of the Discovery Channel show to select Cramer along with two other blacksmiths following a series of Skype interviews and questionnaires. Cramer was contacted in January, then underwent interviews in March before filming began in April in Pennsylvania.

Filming took a total of seven days and challenged the contestants to “see who could replicate his weapon using the blacksmithing techniques of that era,” a press release stated.
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