Theory: Aluminum's Properties are one of the "changes" made by Harmony

[Swimmingly he/him]

Harmony reportedly changed some aspects of the Metallic Arts upon Ascention, and the effects of Aluminum don't turn up until AoL era. What if Harmony changed that? What else might he have changed?

[king of nowhere]

he changed the snapping mechanics, in aol era people no longer need to be near death to use allomancy.

 

No idea if he also made aluminium allomantically inert, I don't think we have any proof either way, but I see no reason why he would.

[MathEpic he/him]

I assumed that aluminum always had the properties displayed in AoL, we just didn't see them because aluminum is so expensive in a pre industrial society.

Let's take stock of the properties of aluminum:

1 Alomatic-Vin burns it near the end of TFE.

2 Feruchemy-This is never demonstrated, but every Alomatic metal is also Feruchemal. I suspect if Sazed know about this metal earlier he may have had a reserve of his old faith to draw on in HoA.

3 Blocking alomancy-I assume this is the property referred to in the original post. My feeling is that here is no reason to believe that this property did not exist in the first trilogy, and it does noyt seem to be the sort of thing Sazed would feel the need to do. Sazed feels enough compassion for people that I can see him changing the snapping rule out of a desire to eliminate the beatings, but I don't see the motivation for creating an alomancy blocking metal.

Edited February 22, 2014 by MathEpic

[DoctorWh0m he/him]

I doubt he would have needed to; aluminium was all but unknown in pre-Ascension times, and there would be extremely few people who could burn it (one have to be both a natural Mistborn and part of the Canton of Inquisition, as regular Inquisitors wouldn't have it due to aluminum Mistings being almost impossible to find for the spiking process). But then again, if they had access to it, it seems odd they wouldn't use its Allomantically-inert properties, so who knows. Could've been that Preservation's messing with the system made it affectable by Allomancy. 

Basically, if anything, Harmony changed it back to being Allomantically inert.

Edited February 23, 2014 by DoctorWh0m

[Aminar]

Aluminum needs Electricity in it's refinement.  I'm not even sure how the inquisitors and Vin got ahold of any, let alone enough to notice it can't be pushed or pulled on(etc.)  Also, does Aluminum not get easier to move via Pewter strength?

[Moogle]

Aluminum needs Electricity in it's refinement.

 

Not necessarily! While the Hall-Heroult process (where electricity is used) is the cheapest process we've found to manufacture aluminum, the original way aluminum was produced was by heating bauxite ore with sodium or potassium in a vacuum. It was ridiculously expensive but I think that the incredibly rich Lord Ruler could have managed it.

[DocHoliday he/him]

Not necessarily! While the Hall-Heroult process (where electricity is used) is the cheapest process we've found to manufacture aluminum, the original way aluminum was produced was by heating bauxite ore with sodium or potassium in a vacuum. It was ridiculously expensive but I think that the incredibly rich Lord Ruler could have managed it.

Quite true! Map Napoleon ate with Aluminum silverware specifically because it was more expensive than gold at the time.