[Cf. WHITE a. 2 b. and BLACKSMITH.] a. A worker in ‘white iron’; a tinsmith. b. One who polishes or finishes metal goods, as distinguished from one who forges them; also, more widely, a worker in metals.
1302. in Cal. Pat. Rolls, 50. John son of John le Whytesmith.
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1735/4. Joseph Carles of Birmingham in the County of Warwick White-Smith, having … received several Edge-Tools to be mended.
a. 1708. T. Ward, Eng. Ref., III. (1710), 2. For not a White-Smith nor a Black, Could frame such things as he would lack.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), Swindon, Staff. … is one of those places which have blade-mills, where scythes, axes, reaping-looks, &c. after being prepared for it by the white-smiths, are ground to a fine edge.
1826. Scott, Prov. Antiq., 104. He was a white-smith, and published various lucubrations under the title of the Tinclarian Doctor.
1833. [see below].
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxiii. 603. The brass was sometimes served out to the whitesmith to be manufactured.
1886. Fenn, Patience Wins, xii. I arn’t a blacksmith, I’m a whitesmith, and work in steel.
Hence Whitesmithery, the occupation of a whitesmith.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 124. A modern whitesmithery establishment generally comprises the … conveniences requisite for the production of every description of work, from what is called blacksmithing … to … machine-making or engineering…. A first-rate whitesmith is not only required to understand generally the qualities of common iron and steel, and the methods of … working them; he must likewise have a competent knowledge of the principles of mechanical science.
