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TOOLS OF THE TRADE The retired Hooverville Elementary School teacher, who started tinsmithing in his basement, has spread out. The building behind his house now holds about every tool you’ d have found in any old tinsmith’ s kit— nothing like today’ s machinery that manufactures pieces of metal or stamps out piercings or a crimped look. Scouting for the tools is as much a part of the craft as the handwork itself. Over the years, Bob found a few dealers around Pennsylvania, and tracked down a handful of veteran tinsmiths or their widows who’ d held onto their forming stakes, crank machines and other supplies.
But Bob got hold of his first couple of pieces around the corner from home, when he trudged up a hill to the now defunct Brezler shop. This was shortly after he’ d stripped a turpentine can in his basement and cut it apart to make that very first lantern. Originally a tinshop, Brezler had evolved into a heating and air-conditioning company, with some old tinsmiths on board. Ductwork had become their livelihood once their trade faded.“ The folks working there had some of the materials I needed and could talk to me about tinsmithing,” Bob says.“ I got leftover sheets they had used to make boxes for sending candies and cookies to the World War II troops. And I used the sheets to make candle dishes for my students at Hooverville.” That was his Christmas present to the children. They were little tin dishes with crimped edges painted red with a white candle and tied with green ribbon.
FROM STUDENT TO TEACHER Bob’ s specialty is piercing, he says, walking over to a lamp in his living room that has a shade smattered with tiny, cutout specs.“ Piercing is done with a sharp tool to make holes of different shapes. I make what I call dots, slots and moons to make borders. If you used a nail to punch a hole, I’ d call that a dot. To make a sunburst pattern that includes slits or slots, I use a sharpened chisel or screwdriver. And I make the moons with a curved chisel.” While he’ s picked up plenty toying around in
A delicately patterned tin lantern( left) demonstrates Bob’ s specialty, piercing; Bob’ s shop is now filled with tools of his trade( right), which he gathered from a variety of old shops and former tinsmiths.
his home workshop, he did seek help along the way— and not just from the ductworkers at Brezler. He spent four years taking private lessons from a 90-year-old master tinsmith in Lancaster, I. Eugene Smith.“ We worked as an apprentice and a master, and he was right at my elbow as I learned … Eugene used to say,‘ There is a limited number of operations and an unlimited number of applications.’ And he showed me most of them,” Bob recalls.
Now Bob teaches the craft himself. The journeyman has traveled from Central Pennsylvania to North Carolina and West Virginia, showing children and adults how tinsmithing is done. And he has taught at Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster, a summer institute offering craft workshops. Locally, Bob has taught at his own shop and at Renfrew Institute. The classes have been well received.“ Adults and kids alike who come here have shown a real interest in heritage crafts— what people did 200 years ago to provision themselves when they, for instance, couldn’ t just go to a department store and buy a night light. Or tinsmiths would pierce the front of pie cabinets so air could circulate to keep the pie fresh,” says Melodie Anderson-Smith, executive director of Renfrew Institute.“ Folks seem intrigued that working with minimal tools and no electricity, crafters created such durable, practical and artistic interpretations.” n
Tinsmithing 101 For information on upcoming classes with tinsmith Bob North at the Renfrew Institute, visit www. renfrewinstitute. org.
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