WTF is "cold iron", and why's it so special?

[Runesong42]

I realize this is probably answered in a pdf somewhere, but I thought I'd ask the pros in-house.

I recall seeing some creatures in the old D&D game having a weakness to "cold iron". Other than iron that is cold, what makes it stand out? Is it because weapons are normally made of steel? Or is there some sort of folklorish explanation?

 

[Frostmarrow]

It's folklore. Britons used to believe fairies had a weakness against cold iron.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

In some versions of the folklore, cold iron means "cold-forged iron", and I seem to recall this means iron which isn't heated very much before it's shaped.

 

[glass]

In D&D terms, cold iron is iron which has been forged using special low temperature techniques, which supposedly makes the iron more 'natural' than normal iron or steel. Hence it's anti-fey and demon properties.

The term 'cold iron' comes from a poem (by Kipling IIRC). It didn't really mean anything other than iron, the word cold was just inserted to make the line scan AIUI.


glass.

 

[Starglim]

It's iron that was found in a pure state (either meteoric iron or an especially rich ore) and hammered into shape without being smelted.

In folklore "cold iron" means the same as "iron". Faeries and their magic are vulnerable to any iron weapon. That would make the game less interesting up until the widespread use of guns.

 

[S'mon]

In D&D terms, cold iron is iron which has been forged using special low temperature techniques, which supposedly makes the iron more 'natural' than normal iron or steel. Hence it's anti-fey and demon properties.

Which is the opposite of the folkloric origin - iron tools being 'unnatural' and therefore inimical to the fairies.

Personally IMC cold iron = iron (or steel). So a regular sword works fine against most demons.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Metallurgy in D&D is borked, be very careful of it. There was a thread about bronze weapons which contains useful input on this, but I couldn't find it with a cursory look through.

The idea of cold-wrought iron is just nonsense and putting it in your game is opening yourself up to a world of hurt if you have a player who asks awkward questions... Explaining how the iron got out of the rock without being smelted is an exercise in creativity that I just don't need, and meteorites don't help at all, unless you decide that your game world has lumps of metal falling from the sky without getting heated up in the process.

If it's iron, it's been hot at some point. "Cold iron" just means that it's cold now. If you want to make cold-wrought iron special and different without making a really horrible mess of the metallurgy, it's best to decide that you're talking about cold iron but not cold steel. (The cold iron's presumably been magically treated by some wizard to stop it sundering every time it gets hit by a properly-forged weapon).

 

[cmanos]

cold iron is not iron that was not smelted out of the ore... a cold iron weapon is one that is forged at a lower tempoerature. it is still forged in a hot forge, but at a lower temperature. Steel weapons are hot forged and thus would not be useable against demons and faerie.

 

[Kylearan]

Iron, Cold: This iron, mined deep underground, known for its effectiveness against fey creatures, is forged at a lower temperature to preserve its delicate properties.

Hope this helps.

Kylearan

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Medieval smelting techniques don't produce iron, they produce high-carbon steel (because the iron ore is smelted in charcoal which obviously impregnates the resulting alloy with carbon). Unfortunately this means that it is fallacious to say that iron is forged at a lower temperature than steel.