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<blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 9074609" data-attributes="member: 9254">While this has no impact on your friend's game, aluminum isn't rare on earth, in fact bauxite is quite plentiful. Heck, rubies and sapphires are aluminum-based.However metallic aluminum is essentially non-existent and it is incredibly hard to smelt out of ore.&nbsp; We use electric arc furnaces (aka bolts of lightning) to get it hot enough.&nbsp; This is why refined metallic aluminum didn't exist on Earth until 1854 and it took decades for it to come down in price below gold.&nbsp; Now if there were veins of metallic aluminum in dead volcanos or something, it could have been forged or cast without electricity. It needs more than wood or coal fires, but some oils or gases could do it. Plus sides of aluminum are it doesn't rust (more accurately aluminum oxide is harder than aluminum and bonds tightly with the base metal instead of flaking off) and it is comparatively light. If a rust monster is an oxidizer, it would actually make aluminum harder. (Which isn't always good, harder usually means more brittle, but could make the edge of an aluminum blade hold a better edge)Who knows, maybe the secret to forging mithril involves adding rust monster antenna to the metal for hardness.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kigmatzomat, post: 9074609, member: 9254"] While this has no impact on your friend's game, aluminum isn't rare on earth, in fact bauxite is quite plentiful. Heck, rubies and sapphires are aluminum-based. However metallic aluminum is essentially non-existent and it is incredibly hard to smelt out of ore. We use electric arc furnaces (aka bolts of lightning) to get it hot enough. This is why refined metallic aluminum didn't exist on Earth until 1854 and it took decades for it to come down in price below gold. Now if there were veins of metallic aluminum in dead volcanos or something, it could have been forged or cast without electricity. It needs more than wood or coal fires, but some oils or gases could do it. Plus sides of aluminum are it doesn't rust (more accurately aluminum oxide is harder than aluminum and bonds tightly with the base metal instead of flaking off) and it is comparatively light. If a rust monster is an oxidizer, it would actually make aluminum harder. (Which isn't always good, harder usually means more brittle, but could make the edge of an aluminum blade hold a better edge) Who knows, maybe the secret to forging mithril involves adding rust monster antenna to the metal for hardness. [/QUOTE]

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