Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-27130828-20161220224154/@comment-27130828-20161221002558

Thorin Stonehelm wrote: This is a pretty good suggestion, very in depth, however, there is one thing, Mithril and True silver were two names for the same thing, the metal itself is given several names in lore, amongst them, Moria silver, true silver, Mithril, and another name used by the Dwarves only that's never mentioned. True silver was simply the mannish name for Mithril, and Mithril the elvish name for it. The quote you cited even states that, though in a somewhat confusing way, the 'metal light, yet harder than tempered steel' is simply saying that they could smelt the ore the same way that a blacksmith smelts Iron ore and then forges it to make steel.

Like I said though, other than that point, it was an excellent suggestion, and I love new ideas for smithing systems. I understand what you mean. But, there are still three distinct metals. I only use the different names because saying Mithril and True silver was easier than saying Mithril and light, hard metal. Because the book does not say how this light, hard metal was made, I took some liberties and added what I thought to be a good idea. It is essentially making an alloy of dwarven steel ( the best known steel in Middle Earth) and the original pliable mithril. I thought that this makes sense. You reference steel, but steel is just iron that is smelted in the presence of carbon. Steel is essentialy an alloy of carbon and iron. Most of the useful metals are some sort of an alloy. Thanks for your support and thanks for making me clarify! I don't always explain what I mean in the most clear way. : )