Smelt Natural Metals (sage ability)

Smelt Natural Metals is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Alchemy

which grants the character a rudimentary understanding of extracting metal from naturally occurring ores. This knowledge is primitive, relying on techniques that date back to the Bronze Age rather than the more advanced metallurgical methods of the 16th century. The process is crude and inefficient, requiring a small clay or stone furnace, a steady supply of charcoal, and a means of producing high, sustained heat, such as a manually operated bellows.

The process of extracting non-magical, known metals from ore. Metals that were discovered to exist later than 1800 are considered to be unknown to the character with this knowledge. See Anachronism.

Small amounts (less than 8 ounces) may be produced in the character's laboratory, but proper manufacturing will require the creation of a foundry. Those metals that can be smelted include impure placer deposits of gold, silver and copper, as well as their ores, along with tin, lead, iron, mercury, antimony, bismuth, chromium, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, platinum, tungsten, vanadium and zinc. Other metals, particularly adamantium or mithril, require a greater level of knowledge.