Tinsmith tools and its uses

From simple bends to complex shapes, we have the right equipment for any job. Built with the quality and high-exacting standards that our customers have come to expect from us. The AutoMax series sheet metal brakes are our American made long folders with capabilities of folding specialized long products with high repeatability and accuracy.

Solid and Reliable additions to any shop for years to come. Home, Sweet Home. Over nine decades of manufacturing excellence with Tennsmith metal forming machinery, made right here in America.

Long Folders 2. Karl and his family signed up. For Karl, this was the beginning of a new adventure. Historical Tinsmithing tools. He found tools and hand-crank machines on Ebay.

Tinware by Karl Schmidt. In June , Karl met William McMillen, arguably the best-known and most accomplished historical tinsmith in the country. Tinsmith Karl Schmidt working with period tools. With excellent training under his belt and a tin shop full of tools, Karl began to make tinware and demonstrate his craft. He continues to demonstrate his craft each summer in historical dress, using his 19th century tools.

The middle class demanded affordable yet beautiful goods to imitate those of the upper class. The creation of tinware was also relatively low maintenance compared to other metalworking professions like blacksmithing that required large workspaces and heavy equipment.

In contrast, a tinsmith could work over a small, lightweight anvil with basic tools like hammers, tin snips, punches, shears, and soldering rods. Colonial tinsmiths learned their trade through apprenticeships starting at around age Although tinplate was physically easier to work than large pieces of iron, an adequate knowledge of tinsmithing required math, precision, and aesthetic know how in order to shape flat sheets of tin into three dimensional, functional, and beautiful items.

For these reasons, tinsmithing apprenticeships usually lasted around four to six years. These hammers feature flat faces, rounded peens, and sharp claws to create a variety of shapes into sheet metal.

All of these hammer types allow tinsmiths to apply force to the workpiece with ease. Tin snips are hand tools that are used to make smooth, straight cuts into pieces of sheet metal with the ease of regular scissors cutting into paper.

Like the previously listed tools, there are different tin snip blade shapes available to satisfy the specific needs of different cutting applications, but straight blades can be used for a variety of general purposes. Seaming pliers or seaming tongs are other hand tools that are used to firmly grip, bend, and fold over the edges of sheet metal.

These pliers feature wide, flat faces that can be straight or offset from the handle in order to improve the angle of the grip. This particular tool is often used in roofing or plumbing applications that involve bending sheet metal to fit with other components. Tinsmithing stakes are tools used to form metal workpieces. The tin or other sheet metal piece is typically placed on a stake and formed with a hammer so that it bends along the shape of the stake underneath it.

Stakes can be flat or curved, which allow a tinsmith to create a variety of angles and rounded shapes with a tin workpiece. These forming stakes are available in different shapes and sizes to be used in many types of applications. Soldering is a process by which two metals are joined through the melting of a filler metal in a joint. This is a common practice in many tinsmithing projects, which is why a soldering iron is considered one of the essentials tools of tinsmithing.

A soldering iron is specifically the tool used to melt the solder that will be joining the two metals.