Tinsmithing

A tinsmith, sometimes known as a whitesmith, tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker is a person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. By extension it can also refer to the person who deals in tinware, or tin plate.

A whitesmith may work with tin. Unlike blacksmiths (who work mostly with hot metals), tinsmiths do the majority of their work on cold metal (although they might use a hearth to heat and help shape their raw materials). Whitesmiths fabricate items such as tin, water pitchers, forks, spoons, and candle holders and it was a common occupation in pre-industrial times.

The tinsmith learned his trade, like many other artisans, by serving an apprenticeship of 4 to 6 years with a master tinsmith. Apprenticeships were considered "indentures" and an apprentice would start out first with simply cleaning the shop, polishing tools, keeping the fires lit, filing sharp edges and polishing finished pieces. Later he would trace patterns on sheets and cut them out, then soldering joints, and inserting rivets. Finally, he was allowed to cut out and complete objects. He learned first to make cake stamps (cookie cutters), pill boxes and other simple items. Next, he formed objects such as milk pails, basins, cake and pie pans. Later he tackled more complicated pieces such as chandeliers and crooked-spout coffee pots.

After his apprenticeship was completed, he then became a journeyman, not yet being a master smith employing others. Many young tinsmiths took to the road as peddlers or tinkers in an effort to save enough money to open a shop in town.

Tinplate consists of sheet iron coated with tin and then run through rollers. This process was first discovered in the 16th century, with the development of British tinplate address in 1661 with a patent to Dud Dudley and William Chamberlayne. Previously Great Britain had imported most tinplate from Hamburg.

The British Iron Act of 1750 prohibited (among other things) the erection of new rolling mills, which prevented the erection of new tinplate works in America until after the American Revolution. Certificates submitted by colonial governors to the British Board of Trade following the Act indicate that no tinplate works then existed though there were several slitting mills, some described as slitting and rolling mills.

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Wikipedia