Whitesmith

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A whitesmith is a person who works with white or light-colored metal (such as tin) and does finishing work, such as filing and/or polishing, on iron to remove black oxides.

Whitesmith can also refer to the person who polishes or finishes the metal rather than forging it.

Whitesmith also refers to those who work with 'black metals', such as iron. The major difference between a blacksmith and a whitesmith is the use of the forge. Blacksmiths work mostly with hot metal. Whitesmiths use the forge to shape the raw materials, but do the majority of their work on cold metal. At some points in time, it was illegal for a blacksmith to craft any sort of armor, as the blacksmiths produced shoddy, inconsistant plate armor. 'Allwhyte' armor took longer to make (and was therefore not as profitable), but provided greater quality of protection. When armor started becoming obsolete, the faster blacksmithing method came into common use again for armors, which served more as decoration than protection.