Metallurgy

Metallurgy was the science of the behaviors and properties of metals and their extraction from their ores. It studied the processes of producing objects made of metal, including quarrying, mine construction, and smelting. The Onderonian Shas Dovos, later known as the armored Dark Jedi "Warb Null," was a devoted metallurgist.

Raw metals were brought to workshops known as forges, where they were heated and wrought in order to shape things out of them. Primitive metalworking required the use of fire in a furnace and a hammer to strike the cooling metal. On planet Tython, the first members of the Je'daii Order crafted their swords in the Vur Tepe, a forge located along the mouth of an active volcano.

The apparition of simple metalworking was considered one of the necessary achievements to reach the feudal technology level. The Defel from Af'El had developed a high level of technology based on metal—the were excellent miners and metallurgists, but never developed agriculture. The Mon Calamari from Dac were shore dwellers, and while their ancestors quickly developed rudimentary farming, technological advances were slow because of the difficult time they had in extracting metals from the planet's crust, and thus achieve metallurgy.

Text and facts from the “Metallurgy/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.