Tatara and Smithing

Overview

Wash iron sand gathered by rivers and smelt it into tamahagane in a tatara. Alongside mining ore, river materials offer a route to forging katana and naginata.

Things to enjoy

From river sand to steel

Separate iron sand in a washing sluice, then fuel a tatara to make tamahagane. Build a workshop from gathering through smelting.

Forge useful gear

Tamahagane becomes katana, naginata and shinobi gear to take on your travels.

Connect the ironworks

Both washing sluices and tatara furnaces work with hoppers, allowing connected material feeds and collection.

Key items

Iron-Bearing SandSand carrying iron grains, generating in the sand of river beds and waterlines in clumps of three or four — where the tatara line starts.
Washing SluiceA launder that washes river sand apart into iron sand and plain sand; the spoil returns in the byproduct slot.
Iron SandIron sand washed out of river sand; the tatara furnace turns it into tamahagane with charcoal.
Refractory ClayFired earth kneaded back into raw clay to make a body that stands up to fire.
Tatara FurnaceA clay furnace that blows tamahagane out of iron sand over a charcoal fire — the only source of the steel the blades are worked from.
Charcoal
TamahaganeThe steel the tatara furnace blows out of iron sand; the blades are worked from this and nothing else.
KatanaA blade worked from tamahagane — quick to swing, but it does not sweep.
NaginataA curved blade on a long shaft — longer reach, and it sweeps.
NinjatoA short straight blade — the quickest swing of the three.
ShurikenA small blade thrown without drawing — better at stopping someone than at killing them.
CaltropsThree-pointed spikes strewn on the ground — they sting, and they drag at whatever is standing in them.