This was definitely one of my keepers. I loved the flavour and imagery that it invoked, and it gave me a few ideas of how it could be used in a campaign.
I do understand the issue with determining exactly what type of metal something is made of (do alloys count?), and some of the other mechanical stuff (which I actually hadn't noticed either), however this was still one of my favourites.
BTW that picture you included in your post is quite pretty.