[Anders]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I know why it happened in the real world.

I was just making the point that in a fantasy world where metallurgy was already at a similar level to our 17th century, it is unlikely that there is any great mystery involved with making strong gunbarrels.

But they wouldn't have any experience of making strong gunbarrels, would they? While it's great to have the materials, you still have to figure out how to use them for a specific application. Unless there's a large body of physics, it's likely to be trial-and-error.