Rurik stared with wide eyes and saw ten silver coins placed in a clay crucible.
The blacksmith's one-meter-high furnace looks like a volcano made of clay, with red flames burning at the mouth.
Clawson's son, Kawei, pressed and pulled out the leather bag blower. With each movement, the fire at the furnace mouth was a violent dance.
"What is this doing? Increasing the temperature?" Rurik asked deliberately.
"Yes, the future leader."
"Just call me Rurik. I'm very interested in your work."
"Really?" Clavarson muttered in his heart, because so far no leader has paid attention to smelting.
Liuli affirmed: "I will continue to watch you work. I want to see how you turn the ore into iron blocks, and then turn the iron blocks into my sword."
"What? You...you still know this?!" Klavasen paused his movements and stopped to look at Rurik's delicate little face. "Do you know what we do?"
"Huh? Is it weird? Because there are some wastes in the ore, you light a carbon fire to take away the wastes, and continue to beat the remaining things to get iron. However, if you are grilling copper ore and adding some other things, it will You can get hot water. This water is unusual. It can be poured into special clay molds to make many things, such as the basin in the chief priest's house."
"You...you actually..."
Klavasen's beard was trembling, because Rurik should not understand the work of craftsmen, but what he just said was the basic principle of metal smelting. In fact, as long as they master this principle, any blacksmith can turn ore into a piece of iron.
People who really understand the whole process do not think it is complicated, but complain about the difficulty of the forging process.
Those who don't understand the situation will think that the blacksmith used some kind of magic to turn the stone into an ax that can cut wood. Most of them at least understand that if their axes are red-hot, the axes will deform if they are banged, but their understanding basically stops there.
Taking iron or copper out of ore is very technical.
"What's wrong with me? I said that I am very interested in your work." Rurik emphasized.
"Oh, that's wonderful. My little master, I hope our work will satisfy you."
"Go on, I have nothing else to do before the ice and snow melt." Maybe it was because he briefly described the principle of smelting, which made the blacksmith feel too magical. Rurik made a casual excuse: "No need to be surprised, I am the one who got Odin's wisdom, and I also got some revelations from the wooden boards in the long priest's house. Now, please turn the silver into jewelry."
"Okay." Klavason nodded deeply, and urged his son Kawei to continue to work hard to keep the fire strong.
Rurik, at this moment, he was holding Rumia, who didn’t understand at all, and the two of them witnessed the changes in the silver coins.
If you just burn a pile of charcoal fire, its core temperature will hardly reach 800 degrees.
But make a stove with clay and make an opening under the stove to let the charcoal burn inside. The temperature can reach 900 degrees, which can melt pure silver.
If the original air bag blower is connected to the blowing port and more oxygen enters the furnace, the temperature can exceed 1100 degrees, which can melt pure copper.
Therefore, Klavasen's small furnace is fully capable of smelting pure copper, and it is also capable of smelting bronze and casting bronze castings.
Rurik knew without thinking that melting bronze was the limit of this small furnace.
Want to melt iron? impossible!
In the far east, there was a state-owned iron smelting factory in the Han Dynasty. In the factory, clay bricks and rammed earth were used to build a very huge blast furnace. A blast furnace is equipped with multiple blowers, and each blower is actually more than twenty small blowers connected in series. Furthermore, the blowers of the Han Dynasty were of the animal-powered winch-pull type, which was a very complete mechanical system and was much more advanced than the traditional human-powered air bag compression type in the West.
Strong cattle are driven to turn the huge winch, and the wooden gears are converted into the force of the blower's retraction. In fact, this system is powered by electricity, and the wooden gears and blades are replaced with metal, and it is just a standard electric blower.
Therefore, a matrix of multiple blowers blows a huge amount of gas into the blast furnace, so that a large amount of oxygen and more charcoal are burned.
Although its temperature can reach the extreme high temperature of 1400 degrees for a short period of time, it still cannot reach the 1500 degrees where pure iron melts.
However, complex alloys containing large amounts of sulfur, silicon, manganese, carbon and other impurities have been turned into molten metal under the extreme high temperatures of this ancient giant blast furnace.
The huge demand for metals in the far East forced state-owned iron smelting plants to build huge equipment.
It was a giant blast furnace that could smelt more than forty tons of ore at a time. Each smelting operation was a protracted battle. They generally do not pursue crazy temperatures of 1,400 degrees and do so at the risk of shortening the life of the blast furnace or even causing the furnace to collapse.
When the liquid silicide slag flows out and the ore turns into a large amount of sponge iron, all the hot sponge iron is taken out, hammered by thousands of craftsmen, and then directly quenched into crude pig iron.
As for refining pig iron and even making iron into steel, it is another complete set of processes.
This is the advantage of the East. The huge population has a huge metal consumption market. In the prosperous times, there were nearly tens of millions of homesteader families. They were the foundation for maintaining the operation of the country. Their demand for iron farm tools must be met.
The market forces craftsmen to refine their skills from generation to generation.
In the Shang Dynasty, the rammed earth blast furnace was invented, and in the Chu State, the high temperature limit of the rammed earth blast furnace was realized. In the Han Dynasty, a giant rammed earth blast furnace was built, and in the Jin Dynasty, various technologies for mass production of steel were invented.
By the ninth century AD, the iron smelting capabilities of the East were no longer an order of magnitude higher than those of medieval Europe, and the quality far surpassed Europe's.
If there is anything lacking in the East, it is that it has not yet fully learned the fine steel forging that was born in the Indus River Valley. However, this technical disadvantage will inevitably spread to the East along with commercial networks.
But in Western Europe, their blacksmiths only know how to toss the ore and finally beat it into pure iron, which is the so-called soft wrought iron with almost no carbon, and use it to make a variety of weapons and agricultural tools.
The situation in Northern Europe is exactly the same. The fine steel from the Indus River Basin that flows into this area through special channels, and the weapons made with it are magic weapons.
The same is true for Clavarson. His blacksmithing and calcining techniques were all learned from his father's generation, and his father's generation also learned from their ancestors. If we follow up further, the Ross tribe’s blacksmithing technology comes from the Roman Empire at least 800 years ago.
The stove emits blue flames, which indicates that the charcoal fire has begun to burn completely due to the entry of excess air.
Such a flame color already shows that the temperature limit of this furnace has been reached.
"Look out, silver will soon turn into water!" Clavarson said this deliberately in order to attract the attention of the leader and future leaders.
The hard clay crucible was clamped into the furnace with iron pliers. Due to the change in temperature, the flame instantly turned yellow.
But after a short time, the green flame completely enveloped the entire crucible.
The shape of the silver coin could be completely noticed with the naked eye. The portrait of the Roman emperor on it was flattened. Then the silver coin lost its round shape, like a small tower collapsing. After a while, only hot metallic liquid remained in the crucible. .
"Haha, this is the knowledge that Thor gave us blacksmiths." Klavasen shook his beard and said proudly, "Chief, you have Odin's blessing, and we have Thor's blessing. Now that the silver coins have melted, Then just put it in the mold and cast it.”
"It is indeed Thor's blessing." Otto's eyes widened, because as a leader, he had no idea why metal could be burned into water.
Here, we do not have the abstract concept of "liquid". All flowing things, except milk and oil, are simply called water. Of course it's not water! Some silver actually has the fluidity of water. Isn't this the magic of child care?
Of course, the most shocking thing was Rumia. Rurik, who was standing next to her, felt the tremor of her arms and heard her muttering - magica.
Magica, an ancient Latin word, has been integrated into the life of the Norse-speaking people and has also infected other peoples.
"It's not magic at all, Rumia, don't be surprised." Rurik suddenly said loudly, "Dad, this is not Thor's blessing either."
"Huh? Isn't it the blessing of the child or what?" Klavasen was in a happy mood. Hearing the words of the future leader, he felt unhappy but could not refute.
Rurik knew that it was impossible to explain the matter in such a profound way. If he explained it in depth, he would not understand the large number of later metal smelting nouns he had mastered.
He suddenly thought of a good example, raised his head and said: "For example, iron, there are impurities in the ore and necessary iron. We want iron and not impurities. The priests cut off the white meat of the seal and slowly separated it in the pot. Useful oil, not useless dregs. Will the oil be similar to iron?
When the oil is placed outside the house, it solidifies very quickly, or at least when roasted by fire, it becomes hot oil.
It also includes water, which is ice when left outside. Ice can kill a deer, but water can only soak its fur.
So everything in the world should be like this, as long as the temperature is high enough, everything will melt.
For example, these silver coins are not a blessing from a child, but a rule set by Odin, the creator of the world. Thor is the son of Odin. He can only follow the rules set by his father and will not create a new one. "
Rurik's statement is of course nonsense, and it does have scientific basis. In order to consider the audience's understanding, he had to use mythology.
And this is indeed his advantage.
Rurik understood the messages on those wooden boards, which gave him a deeper understanding than ordinary people of the Norse mythology system mastered by the Ross tribe in this time and space. In a sense, as long as they fully understand the mythological system, such people are naturally good materials to become priests in the tribal community.
As Klavathon got older, he naturally became stubborn. He could not change his beliefs and abandon Thor to follow Thor's father Odin just because of the words of the future leader Rurik.
But Rurik's words do make sense.
This child is extraordinary! If only he had been blessed not by Odin but by Thor. I am afraid that such a child will become the best blacksmith, because at the age of seven, he already knows far more about metal smelting than his own son Kawei!
Klavason was so excited that his hairy hands couldn't help but tremble, and he was no longer able to take out the hot crucible.
He ordered his son, "Kawei, you! Go get the mold, pour the silver water into it, and finally put a gem on it. Go quickly!"
Kawei immediately rushed to the side. Taking advantage of this gap, Klavasen walked straight to Rurik and said tremblingly: "My child, maybe you can become the best blacksmith."
"What? Blacksmith?!" Otto was unhappy when he heard this, "He is going to be the next leader."
"Yes! My leader, but Rurik is really a happy man. It is very likely that he has received revelations about smelting from God." After saying that, Klavasen lowered his head with a humble look, "Child, Please tell me truthfully, do you...do you...know better smelting technology? I believe you should know."
"Me?" Rurik was a little panicked. Wasn't he being questioned by a bearded old guy this time?
Hiding your abilities? Pooh! I've hidden too much.
Rurik's eyes widened and he declared seriously: "Yes, blacksmith Klavason, I have observed your furnace, and I can say that your furnace is very bad. It is like a rusted axe, with a hole. A boat full of problems. Such a furnace can only smelt the most ordinary things, and cannot make a good sword at all. If it has anything to be proud of, it is that it can smelt gold and silver and make some jewelry."
Klavasen took a breath. He no longer felt that Rurik's criticism was unacceptable. It was obvious that this kid knew how to change some very difficult problems.
He asked humbly: "The leader is your father. You know the Destroyer Divine Sword. Everyone knows that you once held that sword tightly. In my dreams, I hope to make a sword that can rival it. But I don’t have this ability at all. I am just a mortal, as humble as a grain of sand on the seashore, and I have not received the blessing of Thor himself at all. If you..."
"I can! I'm not a blacksmith, but I know some methods that I haven't tried. I believe these methods can be successful." Rurik said bluntly.
"real?!"
Just when Klavason was filled with joy, Kawei found the corresponding clay mold for making jewelry that had not been used for a long time from the box, as well as a thumb-sized ruby that was carefully preserved.
"Dad, Rurik must be wise. If you have anything to say, tell him later. Now, let's finish the jewelry first."
"Oh! Okay!" Klavasen was shocked and happily wanted to settle the jewelry issue.
Because once this is solved, the next step is for Rurik to teach him the skills he knows.
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Chapter 94 Clavarson’s Little Stove
