BLAIR, Neb. (KMTV) — Everything has a starting point. In the case of this story, that starting point was a tin cup purchased for $10.

Chris Hagemann was 18 years old when he bought that cup. He carried it around for years, he said, hoping to meet someone who could teach him how it was made.

Today, Hagemann not only knows how to make cups - but he has 148 items in his catalog. He believes he's one of only about a dozen professional tinsmiths in the country.

"Today, we have such uniform manufacturing. And the uniformity has just taken the soul of mankind out of it. So, what we are striving for from time to time is to find something that is made by man," he said of the craft.

Continue reading for the broadcast transcript of this story.

As he hung a pattern from the joists overhead -

"My

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