A sense of smelt

From: Chris Lemens <chrislemens_at_JvOw1JFIzNK2fnhTcpmXS4yeCx_2TBY67eto2FbgY-Mb9VzeMczhCnHzibRV8hm_>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:03:34 -0800 (PST)

Jorganos:
 
> There is a huge copper deposit in the Wastes, finely ground metallic copper.
 
And yet they don't use to to make anything. I think that the reasons are:

1. Their fires are not hot enough. They mostly burn dung with a few sticks of brush. (The magic of the internet tells me that dung fires in a kiln can get up to nearly 1500 F, but copper does not melt until 1984 F.)
2. They have bone-smithing magic that they use to make weapons that are as good a the copper weapons they could otherwise create.
3. Historically, they didn't really encounter the copper sands until after Waha was gone and they were firmly set in their ways.
4. More prosaically, not all the sand is copper. You would need to get a lot of sand and heat it to the metling point of copper to extract just a little copper. It's enough to make the whole area copper-colored, but that doesn't take all that much as a percent. That sounds like an industrial opportunity, not one for nomads.

 
I bet it would make pretty glass, but for items #1.

The Paps is a special case. There, they have underground sources of pure copper that can be cold-beaten into the right shapes. And they historically had non-hostile contact with the earth termples in Esrolia.

Chris Lemens

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