A tinsmith is a person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession may sometimes also be known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profession, though the same word may also refer to an unrelated specialty of iron-smithing. By extension it can also refer to the person who deals in tinware, or tin plate. Tinsmith was a common occupation in pre-industrial times.
A tinsmith at Old Sturbridge Village
Tinware desk lamp, late 1930s, Bandelier National Monument. Made by a Civilian Conservation Corps tinsmith.
Tinsmiths on the roof of Storkyrkan, Stockholm 1903
Contemporary tinsmith who also serves as a reenactor at Fort Ross State Historic Park, standing with an ear trumpet, a 19th-century hearing aid
Tinning is the process of thinly coating sheets of wrought iron or steel with tin, and the resulting product is known as tinplate. The term is also widely used for the different process of coating a metal with solder before soldering.
Tin layer on the inside of a tin can
Treforest Tin Works, Glamorganshire c. 1840