1331

## **The *Heavy Metal* of Stonehearth’s Blacksmith**

### The Facility

The Stonehearth Blacksmith was opened in **1331**, and it wasn’t simply a shop within Baldur’s Gate Lower City, it was a prototype for a much larger *Stonehearth Company Metal Works*. Here, they could do research, development, custom fabrication and forging, and limited casting runs of just about anything.

This minor Metal Works was divided into three sections: one major and two almost-equal minor. The largest section was dedicated to wrought iron. The two minor sections were dedicated to brass and bronze.

### Ironing It All Out

#### Puddling

Here was where the magic influence on ironworks was apparent: where a purely mundane development cycle would've led to a bloomery (or something like it), they instead built a reverberatory furnace. Likewise, Stonehearth skipped the finery, and even potting and stamping processes, jumping straight into a patented, semi-secret method of metallurgical “puddling”.

#### Shingling and Rolling

In addition to the puddling furnace, the *Iron Division* of the *Metal Works* further treated their product with shingling and rolling. This allowed high-grade wrought iron to be produced and sold inexpensively.

To be sure, this wasn’t what the travelers considered a modern mass-production facility, but it was far beyond anything *in the world* at this point. It was more than enough to get the movement off the ground.

#### The Brotherhood of Iron

The demand for everything was expanding and metals were a good benchmark for it. Baldur's Gate had an iron workers' guild, the Ferroners, but they were largely a welcome mat for the mercenary guild. Further, despite the combined iron workers around the region, they still couldn’t meet the Sword Coast demands, who largely turned to imports.

When Stonehearth displayed the wrought iron ingots, so far advanced beyond anything anyone in the Gate could do – or Faerûn or anywhere else local merchants had been – the Ferroners were sure their livelihood had just disappeared. Instead, Stonehearth ensured themselves a place at the heart of the guild by guaranteeing they’d have access to these ingots.

They were each given a sample ingot – itself a fantastically valuable gift given the rarity. Within a week, House Stonehearth submitted a bill, passed by an Act of the Dukes' Parliament, requiring Companies to prepare ordinances for approval by certain of the city officers over matters such as the preservation of trade secrets, the qualifications of members, the regulation of apprenticeships, domestic matters of the fraternity and the settlement of internal disputes.

As an employer, it was already common knowledge that Stonehearth wages were higher, on average, than what most were making before. Even those that didn’t come to work for them directly now bought his ingots and worked with those to fashion mid- and end-user products (like the bands for cart wheels). While Gate merchants were singing Stonehearth’s praises, local nobility was losing patience with their “lavish” treatment of the commons.

### Getting down to Brass Tacks

Similar to the advanced iron production, this was also based around a coal-fired reverberatory furnace. The water-powered hammers were there, but the biggest element was the use of speltering; the direct alloying of copper and zinc metal (rather than the hit-and-miss method of cementation processes). Further, they used granulated copper and poured molten metal into cold water. This increased the surface area of the copper helping it react and zinc contents of up to 33% more efficiently.

With the "new" emphasis on chemistry, the SMC was already adjusting the alloys, making several kinds of brass. This included the ability to distill metallic zinc…

### The Bronze Metal

Finally, the Metal Works was producing Bronze, with a *very large capacity*. This was a rare-ish metal at the time, and in demand by the shipwrights, but that demand was well beneath the capacity the SMC was building to fill.

*Why* the SMC was building that capacity was still a cause to be a bit coy about…

### The Weight of the Stonehearth Company

When the *Metal Works* was “officially” unveiled, local nobility were invited, but the target audience was really the bustling merchant class. It was producing it’s first ingots within a month of the start of construction.

#### Wrought Iron

The wrought iron bars were passed around the potential customers – and were generating rumors. The Metal Works was already producing, and right now, all the product was immediately incorporated into swords and carriages.

The “merchant bar” or high-grade iron was so vastly superior to what other Sword Coast foundries were creating that the other merchants’ product was immediately obsolete.

#### Brass and Bronze

Similar to the iron, there were brass and bronze ingots available for merchant review – and there was immediate demand.

### The State of the Market

Iron ore or low-grade processed iron was in immediate demand in The Gate – by the *Metal Works* – and it was churning out inexpensive merchant bar that simply had no equal.

This had reverberations as far as Waterdeep within weeks – and had the attention of both the dwarven and elven enclaves. The Gate was now growing a capacity for metal far beyond what her competitors could manage. The smiths, however... *this was like a dream come true*.