Second Thoughts

After posting what each of us considered to be a very successful and succinct introductory blog Taylor and I decided that there were still many issues to be decided. The first concrete decision was an amendment to the rules. While I still like rules 1 and 2 we decided that a third rule will help decide tech issues that arise and that is rule #3: Keep it fun, if fun ceases refer to rule #2.

We arrived at this decision through a discussion about charcoal... If we were to wholly embrace the idea of using primitive technologies in the smelting of iron we would face a huge number of obstacles, such as making the charcoal that I feel we will eventually need. While I would like to know how to make charcoal I don't really want to have to do it. That said, another tool I feel will be critical to our endeavors is a bellows. Taylor and I decided that a bellows is something we would both like to make. In short we faced a philosophical quandary. If we were going to allow the use of modern charcoal, yet insist on making a primitive bellows what kind of boundaries could we set?

Fun. That is the long and short of it. Making a bellows sounds fun, making charcoal doesn't. This is not to say that it won't be hard work, because I believe that it will, but at least we now know where we can draw the line.