A plainly dressed woman came out of the house and saw the jar on the table. He asked casually: "Master, what did you buy again? Oh, that's not right. It's not time to pay your salary yet. How can you have money to buy something?"
The boss opened his mouth and smiled: "One pound of tung oil, but I didn't buy it, it was distributed by the yamen."
"Did you get it?" The woman's eyes widened, staring at the man in disbelief, and asked, "You really don't need money?"
The man nodded and said, "It's really free, but when you light the lamp, you have to cover it with a bowl and scrape up the ash. Next time, you need to take the ash to get the tung oil. One or two cigarette ash is exchanged for one pound of tung oil." .”
"Okay, don't worry, head of the family. This has been done in my parents' family before. I know how to do it, so don't worry." The woman became more and more happy, and the more she looked at the tung oil, the more she liked it. If it is true as the leader said, doesn't this mean that we won't have to worry about lamp oil at home in the future?
In the past, women were naturally dissatisfied with the heads of households taking rice grains to work for the yamen in vain. Everyone knows that craftsmen are inferior to farmers. Although farmers have to pay additional taxes and perform corvee labor, their income is actually not low. Even if the land is subject to taxation, farmers can still keep about 60 to 70% of the land. As long as they own more land, the family can still live a good life.
Besides, Lao Zhu is resting with the people. All wasteland reclaimed by farmers will be exempted from all taxes for three years. In this way, as long as farmers work harder, endure hardships, and reclaim more wasteland, they will not only be exempted from taxes for three years, but they can also sell the land, which will give farmers a certain amount of extra income.
Farmers have always been the envy of craftsmen like the woman, but now the woman has a balance in her heart. Ever since the yamen began to pay salaries to the head of the household, they would also give out some things from time to time, like this time tung oil. There is even a time when silver is given out. Last time, I heard from the master that the craftsmen had done a great job and were given ten taels of silver.
The woman is extremely satisfied with her current life. If things go on like this for a long time, her family's life will be no worse than that of ordinary farmers, and they won't have to do corvee labor.
Han Du soaked in the banknote bureau, discussing with the craftsmen how to get ink. Although Han Du had just distributed the tung oil and no craftsman had collected the ashes yet, Han Du was not short of money. Anyway, he was just trying to make ink now, so he might as well just spend money to buy some for experimentation.
Han Du sat on the chair, supporting his head with his arms, watching the craftsmen sitting together to discuss. These were the craftsmen responsible for ink production in the Banknote Bureau in the past.
After a while, the voices of everyone talking gradually became softer until they disappeared. An old craftsman came up and spoke: "Sir, we have discussed it. If we want to achieve what you said, which can withstand blisters, print clearly, and dry quickly, it will be too difficult. We have never done anything like this before, and for a moment, we had no clue at all."
Han Du was not angry. It was normal to have no clue. "It doesn't matter if there are difficulties. We can solve them one by one. Let's talk about the first one first. It can withstand blisters. In the past, ink became blurry like water. , this is absolutely not possible. Baobao is something people hold in their hands and use, and it will inevitably get soaked with sweat."
"I have an idea. Oil is not soluble in water. Do you think we can try using oil to mix ink?"
Several craftsmen looked at each other in confusion after hearing Han Du's words.
Ink, ink, has always been mixed with water. Now Han Du suddenly proposed using oil to mix ink. This was very different from their experience and they did not dare to speak easily.
The one who reacted faster suddenly opened his eyes and said tentatively: "My lord, this is a wonderful idea. Maybe I can give it a try. I wonder what kind of oil you want to use?"
Han Du lowered his eyes and said thoughtfully: "Just use tung oil. Anyway, we have it here now, and it's easy to use."
After the first problem was solved, Han Du continued: "As for the second problem that was printed clearly, I don't know. You can only try it yourself. As for the third problem, I have some suggestions."
"Sir, please speak." Several craftsmen looked at Han Du.
Han Du thought for a while and said: "It's really just a suggestion. You still need to verify whether it works or not. If you want the ink to dry quickly, it seems that you need to add some plant ashes or some animal ashes. You can try it. Right at once?”
Han Du couldn't remember exactly what was added. After all, he is not a printing major. He only saw a sentence mentioned in it when watching a movie, and his memory is a little fuzzy.
Several craftsmen nodded and were ready to try it out soon.
After Han Du finished explaining the matter, he was about to get up and leave when he saw Mr. Huang coming over in a hurry.
"grown ups."
Han Du nodded and asked, "What happened?"
Mr. Huang stretched out his hand and said, "Sir, please follow me."
Han Du followed Mr. Huang out and walked in the other direction.
While walking and talking, Han Du saw that Mr. Huang had a bad expression, as if something big had happened, and asked with a sullen face: "What exactly happened?"
Mr. Huang quickly replied: "Sir, it's like this. Something happened to the printing plate. Today, I followed your instructions and asked the craftsman to use a lead plate to engrave the printing plate. Unexpectedly, the lead plate was too hard and the craftsman's plate was cut directly. The carving knife is damaged."
After hearing this, Han Du looked gloomy and went to the place where the printing plate was carved with Mr. Huang.
"Sir." Seeing Han Du arrive, the craftsman stood up and greeted him.
Han Du nodded in agreement: "Don't be restrained. Is the carving knife damaged? Show it to me."
The craftsman picked up the carving knife and handed it over: "Please take a look, sir."
Han Du took the carving knife and took a look, and sure enough he saw that the blade had been curled. Frowning, he asked, "Why is this happening?"
The craftsman was worried that Han Du would be blamed, so he quickly explained: "Sir, this carving knife is just an ordinary steel knife. In the past, there was no problem with using it on wooden boards. After all, even the hardest wooden boards are much worse than lead boards. . Now it is very inconvenient to use this knife to carve lead plates. After a few carvings, the knife becomes like this."
Han Du threw the carving knife back on the table.
The craftsman was frightened when he saw it, and it was a pity that such a precious carving knife was just thrown away. However, the craftsman soon realized that the carving knife was useless. Even if he sharpened the edge again, it would not take more than a few strokes, and he calmed down the ups and downs of his heart.
"What if we use the casting method? Can we cast the printing plate directly?" Since engraving with a knife is not feasible, Han Du's first thought was to just cast it directly.
The craftsman shook his head and retorted: "Sir, I also know the casting method. I also went to the blast furnace to take a closer look. However, this casting method can only cast rough things. After casting, it needs to be carefully polished. But The patterns on this printing plate are too small and cannot be cast using casting methods."
Han Du understood it as soon as he thought about it. It was just like when he cast the embryo of the waist knife, the blade was polished later.
After thinking for a while, he turned to look at Mr. Huang and asked, "What do you think?"
Mr. Huang was stunned for a moment and replied: "Sir, if this carving knife is not suitable for use, there is nothing I can do. Maybe only the carving knife made of the legendary meteorite iron can be used."
siderite? Where can I find this type of meteorite?
Han Du was confused when he heard this.
Meteorite is something that depends entirely on falling from the sky. If it doesn't fall from the sky, there's nothing anyone can do. Moreover, Han Du has never heard of anyone collecting meteorite. Meteoric iron is regarded as a treasure from heaven and is regarded as the most powerful thing by Taoists. Even if someone has a collection, they will not show it to others easily, let alone give it to themselves.
Maybe Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao have this thing, but Han Du wants Zhu Biao's help now, and he is not willing to give Zhu Biao a free advantage for such a small knife.
Moreover, the magic of meteorite is just a result that the ancients took for granted. To put it bluntly, meteorite is just a lump of iron that has been exposed to high temperatures. Some of them are infiltrated with rare elements during the high-temperature process, and become the magical alloys that people say, while some are actually just like ordinary iron. Just like steel, there's nothing magical about it.
Huh? Infiltrating rare elements?
Han Du's eyes flashed and he thought of a way.
However, his method is of the type where distant water cannot save a nearby fire, and it cannot be relied upon in an urgent situation.
So Han Du kept this idea in mind. At the same time, he shook his head and ordered: "You can't count on meteorite. Didn't Heizi make good steel over there? Let's try it with the one over there first. It doesn't have to be a combination, as long as it can be done reluctantly. Just use it. It doesn’t matter if one knife is broken. Let Heizi make hundreds of them and he can always engrave the printing plate."
Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes.
Since the quality was not enough, Handu simply used quantity to make up for it.
Anyway, the steelmaking over there at Heizi comes out in batches, just a few hundred carving knives, not even a drizzle.
"This is a good idea, sir." Mr. Huang praised with his thumb raised.
The craftsman lowered his head and thought for a moment, and felt that this method was feasible. He just stared at the carving knife on the table that had been with him for many years, feeling a little reluctant to part with it. Things that he once regarded as treasures are now appearing in baskets. But when he thought that the carving knife could be used casually, and he no longer had to be careful every time he used it like before, the craftsman also showed a happy look on his face.
Han Du ordered to go down and took Mr. Huang for a walk inside the banknote bureau.
The Banknote Bureau has now slowly become bloated from a single banknote production office.
