In Byzantium chemistry was not studied and practiced in laboratories or research centres. In most cases simple craftsmen experimented with materials; any accomplishments remained within the bounds of the guild they belonged to, and were never made public.

The workshops of the "crude arts and crafts subject to fire levy as they were termed, were not allowed to operate anywhere in cities. They were restricted to certain areas such as the neighbourhood named Chalkoprateion (“Copper Market”) and the arcades to the north of Tetrapylon in Constantinople, and around the Church of Panagia Chalkeon in Thessalonica. The emperors supported the artisans by granting them financial concessions and allowing them to sell their own products.

The raw material for the manufacture of metals (iron, copper, lead, tin, silver and gold) was imported from the East, though from the 11th century onwards production was confined to small mines in the Aegean. Extraction and in situ processing of ores was accomplished using traditional techniques and methods in use since Roman times, resulting in low-purity metals.

In Late Antiquity there were many centres producing precious metals objects all over the empire, though after the 10th century gold and silver artefacts were only made in Constantinople and a handful of other commercial centres. In mid-Byzantine times economic constraints limited production. The West grew considerably at the same time, having developed ore purification technologies which Byzantium was unable to keep abreast of.

Difficulties in finding and processing the ore led the Byzantines to recycle old metal objects and coins. Metal was melted down, cast, forged and made into sheets and plates in special workshops, with manual bellows to ensure furnaces burned at high temperatures. Precious utensils were decorated in goldsmiths, where skilled artisans gilded and burnished silverware to a shine.

Texts inform us that there was a wide variety of metal working craftsmen, such as blacksmiths, coppersmiths, locksmiths, farriers, knife makers, chain manufacturers and, of course, goldsmiths. Archaeological excavations in mid-Byzantine settlements like Rentina have also brought to light the faint traces of forges, with an output not exceeding cottage industry levels.

The people working in such workshops are unlikely to have been familiar with the literature on alchemy. That was based on experience accumulated from the art of dyeing wool and textiles in Egypt, which was then transferred by analogy to altering the physical properties of matter. This in turn led to the idea of transforming stones and metals. The few manuscripts that preserve alchemists’ works show that the Byzantines not only copied old formulas, but also added magical instructions to those already known.