Blacksmithing Blacksmithing is traditionally working of "black metal". These black metals were generally iron and steel, but often included copper and bronze. In different times and places a differentiation was made between those who worked tools and implements for the common man, and those who made weapons of war. Blacksmiths then traditionally became those who crafted more utilitarian every day items. Still later, the art of casting iron came about, and a new distinction was made. Those who used hammer, forge and anvil to pound and shape molten metal into shape retained the title of smith, where as those who made and poured liquid iron into molds became known as bellfounders. Hence, in the parlance of out game system, a blacksmith is a artisan who crafts everyday items, implements and tools from ingots using the forge, hammer and anvil.

The Smithy

The smithy is the most important element in the production of metal goods aside from the smiths of course. Working metals requires good protection from the element because the metals and tools are susceptible to rust. Another serious concern is wind control which can stoke the forge or carry small cinders that can spread fire to local buildings. A smithy must be properly equipped with forge, anvil and tools. Smiths of all kinds including blacksmiths, armorsmiths and weaponsmiths require identical smithies and implements.

Facility- The actual building for smiting metal is very important. Both the walls and ceiling need to be fire resistant because of the great heat and air born cinders can set nearby combustibles afire. For walls, brick, stone, and flagstone are the preferred building materials. For the roof, clay shingle is the best. Because a smith needs many tools, fuel, a forge and anvil, a smiting facility must have 150 square foot of floor space per smith working there.

Tools- A smith requires a wide varieties of hand tools to do their job. The most common implements are hammers, tongs, chisels, swages and fullers, each in several varieties. A given set is known collectively as smiting tools. For a smith to work metal, he must have his own set of Smiting Tools.

Anvil- An anvil is a manufacturing tool, made of a hard and massive block of metal used as a support for chiseling and hammering other objects, such as in forging iron and steel items. Because the anvil is central to all of a smiths, work, each smith must have his own anvil.

Forge- The centerpiece of any smithy is the forge. The forge is where fuel is burned to heat the metals red hot, making them malleable. Most forges are simple stone or brick retaining pits that can hold a blazing heat. Many incorporate venting systems to circulate oxygen and heat as well as a vent for smoke. Each working smith requires his own forge. Each forge requires 40 units of brick, stone or flagstone and 5 units of mortar (10 units of mortar if flagstone is used). Crafting the forge requires 10 hours of labor from a stonemason of at least Poor rank. You can make larger forges to accommodate multiple smiths, but it requires an even multiple of materials and labor for each smith the larger forge can accommodate (You can make 1 big forge for 5 smiths that has the exact material and labor cost as 5 individual forges).

Blacksmiths are the skilled artisans who primarily work iron and steel into useful everyday products. In many ways, blacksmiths are some of the most important craftsmen in a civilization due to the importance of their tool making roll. Like other professionals, a blacksmith can only produce a particular amount of products in a given amount of time. How much work a blacksmith can do is represented in "Blacksmithing Units", or BSUs. Any given product will have a BSU cost with indicates how much of the maker's time will be used up in it's fabrication.

It should be noted that this is how many BSUs a blacksmith of a particular rank can produce. Armorsmiths and weaponsmiths can also engage in blacksmithing items, but do so as if a blacksmith a rank lower than their professional rank.

Producing Forged Metal Products

There are four primary factors to be considered for any given product you desire your blacksmiths to manufacture. First is the Blacksmithing Unit, or BSU, cost. This represents how much labor time a blacksmith must dedicate to making the item. Secondly, "Materials Required" specifies what base materials in what quantities are needed to produce various blacksmithed goods. Third is fuel. Forging metals requires a great deal of heat and fuel to heat to a consistency at which it is malleable. Each product indicates exactly how much fuel smiting it will require. Lastly is the required rank of the smith. Some objects are simply difficult enough to manufacture that only a smith of at least a particular rank can make it properly. Blacksmiths below the required rank are not allowed to manufacture those products.

* A note about metal quantities- In most other sections of this system I have tired hard to use even numbered quantities and fraction of units to make math easier. In this section, because many products require such a small portions of a unit of metal, I have decided to represent fractions of a metal unit in decimal format. 1/10 a unit will then be .1, and 1/100 .01

Products listed below each include "Materials Required" to fabricate them. Each includes a quantity of a metal that is most commonly used. This metal will generally be copper, bronze, iron, or steel. Each of these metals have applications that they are more or less appropriate for. When you want your blacksmiths to manufacture items, be sure to say what type of metal they will use. You do NOT have to use the exact metal type specified if you do not want to. Manufacturing copper lanterns is fine, but making them from steel could be considered a waste of expensive metal (But produce perfectly functional lanterns none the less). Making tools from copper that should be iron can result in substandard quality tools which will lower productivity.

Soft Metals and Fuel

Lead, tin, copper and bronze are seldom the ideal metals to forge items from, but they were used long before iron even though iron is more common. This is because those four metals can be heated and worked with the cooler fire that comes from wood burning as opposed to the hotter fire of coal. If you decide you desire or need to forge items from these other metals, you may use firewood rather than coal or charcoal. You must however increase the quantity of fuel required by 150%.

Hard Metals and Fuel

Nickel and Steel are unusually hard metals with very high melting temperatures. Nickel is brittle and not a good choice to use unless absolutely necessary. Steel as a wonderful metal to forge nearly anything from, but is difficult for smelters to produce. Using either of these hard metals with high melting points requires the use of Charcoal as fuel rather than coal.

An Option for Reducing Fuel Costs, "Furnace Forging"

The information provided in the production section above assumes that blacksmiths are working from cooled ingots and having to heat them up from room temperature again in order to forge them. There is an alternative to this that we will call "Furnace Forging". What this technique assumes is that smelters work in close proximity to the blacksmiths, and metal is taken right from the smelters furnace and smithed into products from there without ever being made into ingots first. In order to practice "Furnace Forging", your people must be smelting the metal to be smithed locally. This practice is not allowed with imported ingots, or with ingots that have been sitting around unused. Furnace Forging also does not substitute a blacksmith's necessity to have a forge or his own facility. If you choose to make metal products using Furnace Forging, the fuel requirements are halved. The BSUs of the smiths doing this kind of work are also halved because of the inefficiency of them having to schedule their work around when batches of appropriate metal are made ready by the smelters.

Example

The city of Hastings has 3 adept ranked smiths, and the town is in desperate need of all the horseshoes they can get. The three adept ranked smiths can each generate 300 BSUs per month for a total of 900 BSUs. A set of horseshoes only requires 2 BSUs, so 450 sets of horseshoes could be manufactured if that is all the 3 blacksmiths did all month. Fabrication those 450 sets of horseshoes will consume 45 units of iron ingots and 900 units of coal.

From the example above, you can see that a single blacksmith can forge a considerable amount of metal goods, particularly compared to the speed at which smelters smelt and miners mine. Let's say the average blacksmith can make 150 sets of horseshoes a month, using up 15 units of iron ingots. The average smelter can only smelt 5 units of iron ingots a month, so it takes 3 smelters to keep up with a single blacksmith. An average miner can also bring about 5 ingots worth of iron ore from a bell pit mine in a month as well form an average iron deposit. That makes another 3 miners to keep the 3 smelters busy. It can take approximately 6 other workers to keep a single blacksmith supplied in metal to work at full capacity. Fortunately the coal fuel is considerably faster to mine and doesn't require refining. A single miner can extract about 112 units of coal per month. It therefore only takes about 2 and a half coal miners to keep up with the single smith.