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 our game system, a blacksmith is a artisan who crafts everyday items, implements tools, weapons and armor from ingots using the forge, hammer and anvil.

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 elements 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.

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.

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.