Hmm. I had the idea that there are two approaches to gathering metals. One is mining -- digging in areas rich in metals (mostly the sites of major GodTime battles). These are large-scale productions and are supported by specialist cults (don't remember the names offhand, but they appear in _Tarsh in Flames_). Clan-level metal collecting would be done by Ernaldans, I would think -- both because the metals are usually found in the ground and because of the gathering the dead functions of Ty Kora Tek. Smiths probably have a role to play in the seeking, but the work is done by the Ernaldans.
One advantage to this is it plays up the interconnectedness of clan life -- the smith is always male, but if he does not make contacts with the female specialists, he will have supply problems and serve the clan less well. Smiths in towns buy their raw metals (or get it second hand from their clans) and have a much more commodity-driven approach to their craft, perhaps as far as seeing the metals as more raw material and less the bones of the gods.
Another thing -- I imagine that metal is pretty precious for the clans. Not as much so as for the Praxians, but there should be a lot of recycling -- broken swords, old pots, fixtures of various sorts are probably melted down and reused on a very frequent basis. There might be some sort of advantage or prestige to using raw, virgin, unworked, etc. metal over recycled stuff. Enchanting pre-worked metal, for example, might be difficult, impossible, or subject to unintended results (your torc bearing the Bronze-Skin blessing was made with metal from the sword Trollslayer. Unfortunately for your, the Uz can still sense the faded echoes of the sword's nature...).
Anyway, there's my cents.
Peter Larsen
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