Ironworks & Armorsmithing
Ironworks & Armorsmithing is an educational text written for novice and untrained blacksmiths. It details basic techniques and includes an appendix of lab exercises designed to help a novice practice their craft.
Renditions
Many books have shared this title over the years. The origin of any one is, generally speaking, unrelated to any other. They are rarely written by dwarven smiths (who favor hands-on, master/apprentice relationships when it comes to training). However, the books are nonetheless well-researched and approachable.
Their purpose is generally the same: to educate an untrained smith (at a remedial level) who lacks access to a true master or teacher.
Lorna's Version
During their first meeting, Lorna told Murmus Bigtoe that his family's crest had seemed vaguely familiar to her. She mentioned this shortly after observing [what she perceived] to be the unfamiliar (and even peculiar) style of his armor. She couldn't be sure, but believed that she recognized it from a textbook she'd had as a youth (but which she no longer possessed).
After falling short at the Witchmill library, she suggested that perhaps her mother--being a sentimental person--may have kept her copy in her home in Kor Ellin.
While investigating Mathilde's apparently abandoned home in Kor Ellin, Grihymm Phrahdrandon located an old chest containing items that had belonged to a young Lorna. Finding inside a stack of books tied together with twine, he delivered the chest to Murmus. Murmus, out of respect for the presently emotional Lorna, took the stack with him instead of perusing any right away.
Contents
Upon finally opening the book he had sought, Murmus found that it was most assuredly very old... and was likely very old when Lorna first acquired it. The inside cover of the tome included a number (2177|06|05) that Murmus recognized immediately as a date. Murmus knew beyond doubt that this referenced the fifth day of the six month of the year 2177. When a confused Lorna reminded him that it was only 1166, Murmus found himself unable to remember how he was certain, just that he was. Lorna responded that she still thought it was just an identification number of some kind.
The contents of the book were primarily--as remembered correctly by Lorna--descriptions and instructions intended for consumption by novice smiths. A number of sections were almost painfully basic for Murmus to scan. However, flipping through its pages, he noted some detailed drawings of armor that prominently bore the Bigtoe symbol. Each had captions mentioning the Bigtoe family name (though not Murmus himself) and seemed intended as examples of masterworks to inspire the novice reader.
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