Chapter 8

Never kid yourself. There is a certain amount of magic involved in metal-working. Sure there are scientific advances ... but the rifle barrels of Hawken were either hand forged around a form or bought premade from Remington. Remington sold a lot of barrels. Deep hole drilling wasn’t invented yet and rifiling was just scratches not even a millimeter deep.

The best homebrewed barrels were hammered from a block of iron with a factory hole in it. Put a steel rod in the orange/yellow heated block and beat it with a hammer ... it’ll stretch and form around the rod. That’s if you’re gonna do your own. Damascus barrels are ok for shotgun tubes but won’t stand the pressures of a tight fitting round ball. Welding barrels with wasps nest is kinda iffy.

The book Foxfire tells of barrels so soft a guy could use a drawknife for the flats.

Just collecting the ‘prills’ (round balls of metal small enough to pinch between ones fingers) requires several technologies. (And any sufficiently advanced technology as to be out of the understanding of the common man is perceived as magic or witchcraft.)

The technology to produce fire on demand. ’Fire is a gift of the gods. Who do you think you are?’

The ability to make leak proof baskets.’Baskets leak ... you are messing with tradition.’

Pottery. Well ... that’s interesting but it’s not what we are used to.

Realizing the orange mud is full of rust and rust can be made into iron. Ha Ha Ha ... so?

Charcoal. ’You want to waste MY heat?’

Burning blackrock.

And the big one ... politics. ‘Dealing with the boss. He who holds the power of life or death.’

Every single step frought with danger and superstition. To end up with an iron bar with a hole from end to end? An iron bar that would make a hundred arrow heads or three spear points?

“Wowie Zowie” said the headman... “off with his head.”

I wonder about the fate of the Chinese witch who made the first black powder. Alchemy!

Alchemy ... another form of witchcraft.

Combine three ingredients and blow up the castle.

You hope you didn’t live through the blast!