Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

[Oudeis]

I realize no one (or at least very few people) put a lot of effort into Allomancy-proofing their houses; they were even arrogant enough to wear metal jewelry.

Still, if someone wanted to make a mirror without any metal, how does anyone think would be the most effective manner? Obsidian backing, perhaps? Black marble?

[firstRainbowRose]

Just popping up to say very clever title. You have impressed me...

[tecslicer]

well my understanding is that aluminum is the modern method. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvering

during the final empire aluminum was very expensive when they knew about it at all(if i remember Vin's metallurgist was able to find a full set of silverware made out of aluminum so not completely unknown...) so maybe if you alloy it with lead or silver you could find an allomanticaly inert alloy that would not use too much aluminum.

other than that... maybe a really smooth piece of glass that has been smoked on the back?

[Inkthinker]

Silver was the method, I think, prior to cheap aluminum manufacturing. The glass is just to protect the metal paint or surface from dulling or scars.

And I don't know about allomancy-proofing homes, but the people of Scardrial do some things that reflect the existence of Allomancy in their lives, like wear wooden buttons almost exclusively (nobility can afford carved stone, bone or gems). The most common gentleman's weapon is a weighted wooden stick, capable of cracking skulls but utterly inert to Allomancy. Leather armor is more popular than steel amongst Hazekillers, and almost everyone learns how to tie a common knot that can be almost instantly undone by pulling the loops... specifically used on money pouches in the books, but there's no reason not to extend it to armor and weapons as well.

Bear in mind as well, even though we deal with them as a matter of common lore, Misting skaa were not all that frequently encountered by normal old downtrodden workaday skaa, especially since most skaa Mistings lived in secrecy or even ignorance of their power and noble Mistings can afford to care.

Full Mistborn were very rare amongst the population as a whole, and you could go your whole life in a major city without interacting at all with either. Common people did not need to worry about being Pushed or Pulled on during their daily lives, and most guards and armsmen were worried about common, traditionally pointy threats rather than magical ones.

A Misting or a Mistborn might go to the trouble of Allomancy-proofing their lives, but a common skaa has neither the resources nor the general need to do so.

And a good thing too, or there'd be nothing for heroes and villains to fling around and off from.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Inkthinker

[happyman]

Sounds like a time-dependent thing. In the final empire, I'm guessing that Inkthinker's covered the general bases. You're much more likely to be jumped by a thug in an alley with a wooden knife or be attacked by a rival's armed troops then you are to face a full Mistborn, and so metal usage would be perfectly Earth-standard at their technology level. Allomancer-proofing your life would have been an exercise only for the most powerful or paranoid, and definitely only for the wealthy. Mirrors would seem to be no exception.

As for AoL time frame, using Aluminum seems the safest bet. I'm thinking that the alloy wouldn't be nearly as expensive as for making guns or bullets, and I don't think most mirrors use that much of it (a thin layer works.)