When metal is required, it is almost invariably quicksilver, which has two enormous advantages over all other metals: it floats, and it does not corrode in salt water. Bronze, iron, etc. are all unsuitable -- wearing such armor makes the merman sink down into the water, of course. And it will corrode after a while. If you drop your spear with an iron tip, it sinks to the abyss, lost forever.
Another big advantage of quicksilver is that it comes in two forms -- liquid and solid. Merman smiths know how to transform quicksilver from one form to the other. So:
MINING QUICKSILVER
The miner takes out hunks of ore from the sea bottom, or
wherever it is. Then the smith turns all the quicksilver in the ore
into liquid, and filters it out of the remaining dross. This can take
some time. The better the technology or magic of the smith, the more
quicksilver he can recover.
The smith then alloys the quicksilver with whatever other materials he needs. Typically all these materials are liquids -- he might use shark's blood, or palolo semen, or coneshell venom, etc.
The smith then shapes the liquid into the form he desires. This can take a lot of skill, because quicksilver tends to blob together. A carefully-constructed cast can be useful, if well-made.
He then solidifies the quicksilver and hey presto, he's got his metal object.
No fire, no heat, no muss, no fuss. And you get metal weapons and armor for the merfolk.
Sandy P.
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