Enamel

Enamel is a product produced at an apothecary and purchased by iron mongers. This second level material is used in the production of swords to add color to them. The color of a sword changes the colors of the drop pattern. Blue, green, and purple enamels when used on the hilt flip the drop pattern so that left is right and right is left - this is noticable on swords such as the saber and cleaver.

History
Originaly, iron mongers and apothecaries both used herbs for the production of color material (the only thing an apothecary could make at that time was dye). This lead to price wars where the iron monger could eaisly outprice the apothecary for the herb and an herb shortage across the ocean. Additionaly, an iron monger could not use a single unit of madder to color two swords.

In mid July, Tedv suggested a concept called gilt which was to move all herb purchasing to the apothecary. In addition, the production of what is now known as enamel was to produce more units of enamel than herbs that was used to produce it (2 units of herb produce 7 units of enamel).

Links

 * The original glit thread http://www.puzzlepirates.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=9583
 * The second take at it, where the term enamel was introduced http://www.puzzlepirates.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=150233