One of my characters is going to carry this sword, and if the book sells I'm buying it to celebrate: [link] I still need to pick a sword for my other hero--his probably needs to be a little more fancy/distinctive.

Those of you who've been around awhile might remember my DH's head exploding over my intent to buy a working replica Baker rifle if my last book had sold. He's relieved at the idea of me being sword-toting rather than gun-toting. But I still want my Baker rifle, eventually...

But brass has the advantage that you can make French horns out of it....

Not to mention the optimist's credo: I zinc I can, I zinc I can.

But see bronze has the advantage that you make it out of metals which are found free in nature, which, it turns out, is pretty rare for metals, and you know why? Do ya? Do ya?

Er, sorry. I get excited about new stuff.

But see bronze has the advantage that you make it out of metals which are found free in nature, which, it turns out, is pretty rare for metals, and you know why? Do ya? Do ya?

No, actually. Why?

I now have to go live in a place where random names of things are so melodic.

not to mention that almost any placename in NZ that starts with a WH is actually pronounced with a F... which makes Whakatane, Whakaihuwaka, Whakatu, and Wharengei very fun to say.

Coffee gods are smiling upon me today. Caribou is having a $2.00 off sale on coffee beans and the sun is shining.

Because metals are elements that easily give up their electrons, so they usually occur in combination with others!

Yes, why?

Susan, that's a nice, elegant but workmanlike sword. I was expecting maybe something like a Spanish rapier. Although I do admire the workmanship, I've never been able to get into the elaborate Montoya-style basket hilt stuff. It just seems like spun-sugar candy to me. Of course my blade of choice, as I've said, is hardly better than an unshaped ingot of unrefined metal.

I knew metals were easy.

Emily, are you saying that somebody has to know what they're looking for, find miniscule amounts of it in ordinary rock, and then have to chip and hack the ore from rock and smelt to free and purify it before one can fashion things from the metal?

But still--found naturally, as opposed to combined artificially with other things to make alloys, right?