[@MacabreFox]

With the C96 it's actually called a stripper clip, which you push the rounds off of and into the gun, which will then hold them and push them up to be fired.

And that other GM was quite right, the 1878 is probably the best choice for someone like him in this setting.

As to metalworking - I do indeed! I don't actually have a full on forge set up yet or anything, so I won't be making pattern welded swords anytime soon (I'd need even more stuff for that though). But I do make some choppy things or little trinkets - for example, as a birthday present for someone I'm planning on making a beer mug out of dark oak and mahogany, and cinching it tight with little steel rings that I would forge by hand. (There would obviously be a metal insert on the interior to actually hold whatever was in the thing)