Smith Craft Specializations
The Smithcraft encompasses most (but not all) manufactured items on Pern. Lists of items made in each specialization are examples and not exhaustive. Other manufacture-based crafthalls include Minecraft, Printercraft, and Techniciancraft.
Written by Sia
Contents
Bladesmith
Bladesmiths specialize in making blades, such as knives, swords, and farming equipment. Bladesmiths use a lot of the same techniques as blacksmiths, but further specialize in woodcraft and leatherworking to craft handles and sheaths. Recent advances in bladesmithing allow for a technique called pattern welding, producing a stronger and durable steel that can be decorative as well as functional.
Blacksmith
The most common specialty in the Smithcraft. The stereotypical smith working in a forge or a smithy, a Blacksmith focuses on making items from wrought iron or steel, though other metals aren't uncommon. Blacksmiths produce items like fixtures, furniture, tools, decorative items, cooking utensils, agriculture tools, gates, and weapons. A Blacksmith heats pieces of metal until it becomes soft enough for shaping with hand tools, such as a hammer, anvil, and chisel. Some blacksmiths focus on only one type of item or sets of items; such as a farrier.
Coppersmith
A coppersmith makes items from copper or brass. Many coppersmiths further specialize in specific items or types of items, such as Technician equipment or ovens. Copper is a soft metal, meaning it can be worked without heating, but is best worked by heating and then cooling in water. Coppersmiths can also repair, clean, and re-tin copper cookware. Some items made by a coppersmith include weather vanes, decorative panels, tins, jugs, vases, kettles, frames, trays, light fixtures, vintner supplies, and ship sheathing.
Glassmith
Glassblowing is the most common method of making glass and involves inflating molten glass into a bubble with a blowpipe and then manipulating the bubble into the desired shape. Skilled glassmiths are able to free-blow and shape just about anything by rotating the pipe and controlling the temperature of the glass while they blow, though many use molds made of wood or metal. Glassmiths make stained glass, window panes, sculptures, pottery, kitchenware, distillation vessels, and jewelry.
Goldsmith
A goldsmith specializes in working with gold and other precious metals, and has some overlap with silversmiths, both because of the type of items created and similar methods of forming metal. As gold is so soft, it is usually mixed with copper, nickel, or zinc to make it stronger. Goldsmiths make kitchenware, platters, goblets, decorative utensils, ceremonial items, and jewelry. While not unique to goldsmithing, it was goldsmiths that first invented engraving.
Lapidary
A lapidarist, or gemcutter, shapes gemstones and other minerals into decorative items. Hardstone carving is done by first sawing and chiseling into an approximate shape and then rubbed with abrasive powder (like emery) and hand-drilled, and can be used to make all manner of decorative items, but particularly small sculptures and ornamental items. Lapidarists cut gems into cabochons (shaped and polished gems), faceted gems, and cameos.
Locksmithing
Locksmiths specialize in making and maintaining locks on gates, doors, and safes. Locksmiths make the entire lock by hand, which involves hours of item hand cutting small and complicated pieces. Lock designs have become significantly more complicated during the Interval, especially now with unrest across both Weyrs and Holds. A locksmith spends a significant amount of time maintaining and repairing locks as well.
Pottery
Pottery involves forming clay and firing it at high temperatures in a kiln. Pottery is divided into earthenware (terracotta), stoneware, and porcelain. Designs and details can be painted on pottery before or after it is fired and glazed. Cooking in pottery has become less popular as metal pots became available, but are still used widely in rural areas and for certain types of meal preparation such as slow cooking.
- Red-figure pottery is a style of pottery where the background of the pottery is painted black while the figures and details are left the natural red or orange color of the clay. Outlines of the figures are drawn with a blunt scraper or with charcoal, which would disappear during firing.
- Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. While it is studied as an art form in the Smithcraft Hall, it is a cultural practice across Pern and has variations between Holds and Weyrs.
Silversmith
A silversmith crafts objects made from silver. Silversmith and goldsmith techniques are largely the same; especially in jewelry making. Silversmaths use either fine silver (pure silver) or sterling silver, which is alloyed with copper to strengthen the silver. Like copper, silver can be hammered at room temperature, but can be heated to be reworked. Silversmith apprentices often work with copper and brass, as those materials are similarly malleable and more easily procured than silver.
