Valentine Beck.
I don't think he ever worked at Christiansbrunn--there is no evidence that he did--though I suspect Bob L would disagree about my conclusion. Beck does indicate in his lebenslauf (spiritual memoir), I think, that he worked, probably briefly, at his trade in Bethlehem itself.
One of the things I am convinced of after studying the Moravian trades generally (and gunsmithing in that context) is that there was little work for a gunstocker to do in these communities--some work for Native Americans (early) and some work for neighbors. Gunsmiths were working only on demand, not making product/inventory to be sold later. And so, often the problem for authorities is what to do with the gunstockers that they had: they were looking for other things for them to do to fill their time. Gunstockers were needed, to service Native American needs and to train the next generation (to service Native American need), but they were not needed in the way that shoemakers or butchers or preachers or carpenters were needed (i.e., constant work for them).
Valentine Beck... In Bob L and my article on the gunstocking trade at Bethlehem and Christiansbrunn, I argued that (sorry for the long quotation):
The irregular demand for the work of a gunstocker left Moravian authorities puzzled about what to do with another European-trained gunstocker, Johann Valentin Beck (1731–91), when he arrived in Bethlehem in October 1761. Beck worked for a while at his profession in Bethlehem, perhaps releasing Albrecht from traveling to Bethlehem for gunstocking activities for a time—and then, Beck recalled in his Lebenslauf, he moved to Nazareth to serve the children in Nazareth Hall. It is possible that those guns stocked “in the best Manner” or “genteely” were Beck’s work or were influenced by him, applying the latest designs and techniques from Europe, though the charges for these fine arms occurred after he moved to Nazareth. It is possible, too, that while Albrecht was busy with his teaching responsibilities, Beck fulfilled orders in the gunstocking shop. But both gunstockers, living at Christiansbrunn, worked primarily among children.
While Beck would have had the opportunity to work alongside Albrecht and his apprentice Oerter—this would have been an impressive gathering of talent—authorities treated this concentration of gunstockers not as an opportunity but as a problem: too many men in a trade for which there was little work. On March 22, 1762, authorities proposed moving Beck from Christiansbrunn to Bethlehem to work with the children—and, at the same time, pondered “carrying on the gunstocking shop here [Bethlehem] in the future,” probably as a privatized trade once the communal economy ended in June. Beck, however, remained at Nazareth Hall with the children he taught and gunmaking remained in Christiansbrunn. It was not possible (unless circumstances changed) within the Moravian economic system for Beck, or Albrecht, to work full-time in the profession in which he had trained. Beck found work with the children burdensome at first, but he accepted his assignments. Authorities continued to search for a place where Beck could “establish” the trade of gunstocker and “sustain [himself ] with it.” They assigned him in February 1764 to Lititz (to which he never moved, because a replacement was not found for him at Nazareth Hall) and later to Bethabara, North Carolina, where he arrived in October 1764 and set up as a gunstocker.
So, it's an argument. No Moravian records, in pondering what to do with Beck, mention Albrecht or the Christiansbrunn gunshop (begun only in August 1763); that is, it does not seem as if they thought of these matters as connected. So no evidence that Beck did ever work at Christiansbrunn, but no certain evidence that he didn't.
Scott
