New York City is offering a six-figure income for a blacksmith
By RYAN GORMAN
New York City is looking for a new blacksmith, no really.
A listing posted on the city's job board shows New York is seeking to replace longtime blacksmith Larry Hagberg, and is willing to pay top dollar to the right person.
Hagberg called it quits this July after three decades on the job, according to DNAinfo. His replacement stands to earn a six-figure income.
The city is offering a $100,752.12 salary to a person who can "forge and shape angle irons, bridle irons, tools and automobile parts" and "repair existing metal structures and fencing, play equipment, vehicles, metal parts of carts, enclosures, sweepers and other equipment as needed."
Amateur blacksmiths need not apply. A successful applicant will have five years of blacksmithing experience in the last 15 years or a combination of more than two years of full-time experience plus significant training as a blacksmith's apprentice, says the ad.
Whoever joins the city's Parks Department has some pretty big shoes to fill after the high bar set by Hagberg.
"[Larry] was a skilled blacksmith and used his unique skills to create ornamental fencing, make repairs, locks and special hinges for historic buildings, latches, basketball hoops, and special sledge hammers," a Parks Department spokeswoman told DNAinfo.
"His metal wreaths also became a fixture at the Arsenal Gallery's annual wreath exhibit."
The skilled craftsman also spoke four years ago to PBS about his work.
"You can take a piece of steel that doesn't want to be moved, you can heat it up in the forge, put it on the anvil under the hammer, it's gonna move the way you want," he said.
"It's gonna do what you want. You can form immovable objects. That's why I like it, I guess."
Hagberg found his way to the city in 1984 after learning to make horse shoes while growing up on a horse ranch. His first job in New York was with the carriage horses that take riders around Central Park.
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