The sword embryo has been completed, and all that remains is the sharpening of the whetstone.
The Klavason family followed the techniques of their ancestors, using a square whetstone finely carved from a large piece of sandstone, and kept sharpening the sword with it.
It was another cold morning. Clavarson placed the whetstone on the platform and the dagger on it.
Now that Rurik is still staying at the blacksmith's house, Klavasen really feels that something is wrong.
"Rurik, you can go back."
"Why?"
"The rest is just sharpening the sword, there is nothing to trouble you anymore."
"No, I will continue to watch you work. I want to see how you sharpen your swords."
"Oh, okay, maybe you will find it boring." Klavason shook his head slightly, because sharpening a sword is indeed a boring process.
Are there any really good abrasives? Nothing is better than a grinding stone made of diamond powder.
Rurik noticed that there were only ordinary whetstones here in Klavashen, and after touching them with his hands, they turned out to be ordinary sandstone.
Although there are a huge amount of quartz particles in the sandstone that was deposited, the simple silica particles can be easily ground away. Simply holding the sword-shaped iron bar with your hands and repeatedly polishing it longitudinally, grinding out the sword edge is by no means a simple task.
Their work is just like the traditional kitchen knife sharpener in my impression, and it is not as traditional as a simple grinder.
Does Clavassen really have no grinders?
Rurik deeply felt that the Roman Empire must have had equipment such as grinders. Even if it was manually operated, it would be more efficient than workers manually grinding swords on flat surfaces.
Could it be that after the empire fell, this technology was never introduced to Northern Europe?
Let's continue to observe first and see what kind of bearded guy Klavason can use the most traditional craftsmanship of the Ross tribe to sharpen the dagger.
Rurik once again acted as a spectator. Even though he had many thoughts in his mind, he said nothing now.
Rurik watched quietly. Although the leader Otto was a little inappropriate for his son's insistence on spending time at the blacksmith's house, when he learned that Klavasen had actually created a unique-colored army at Rurik's request. When the sword was born, the worries were dispelled.
During the five days that Clavason was working on blacksmithing, the priest produced a total of 120 bars of soap. The soaps are very large, and a family can buy one and use it for a long time.
Ever since, each room began to be filled with a special smell. It couldn't be said to be smelly, it even had some fragrance.
Anyone who has used it will fall in love with it once they use it for the first time.
An action sweeping the entire tribe is quietly taking place, and many families have a new job to do in the boring winter - to wash away their own dirt and then clean their clothes.
In just five days, the volume of soap in many households has shrunk a lot, all due to excessive use.
So when Otto was patrolling the winding roads of the tribe, a buyer came to him and asked him the truth about the shrinkage of soap.
His explanation was very simple: "Sopa is made from mortal objects using the knowledge given by Odin. It is not the real inexhaustible sacred object of Valhalla. Sopa will lose some every time it is cleaned. When it is used up Afterwards, you can come to me with two more silver coins to buy them. I will also ask the priest to make more."
All 120 bars of soap were sold without any change in price. As agreed, the priests happily received 24 silver coins. To this day, the "soap workers" led by Bona still feel that they have earned a lot.
In reality, as a "salesman" of soap, Otto would not earn even a copper coin with his only son. He tried his best to sell soap for the sake of his son's future wealth and status.
Rurik has easily earned more than 200 silver coins here, and the wealth of the tribe is concentrating on the chief family at an unprecedented speed! Before this, there was almost no commercial exchange between the chief's family and various families in the tribe.
Although this place is just searching for minzhimingan, the soap really brings an unprecedented experience. Once you experience the absolute comfort brought by sopa cleansing your body and clothes, the tribesmen are willing to pay the price of two silver coins.
What should I do if my wealth decreases?
Go grab it!
There are a large number of Finnish tribes on the other side of the sea where the wealth lies. In the past, Sorgon voyages may have been harassed by them. Although the Finns are good at guerrilla warfare, they are very backward in terms of weapons.
They are backward people, and their tribes have not even organized tribal alliances.
As long as the powerful Rus people organize their men to cross the sea and find a tribe to steal all the fur goods they have hoarded, they may become rich.
However, it has been many years since the tribe organized manpower to take the initiative to attack them. It seems that the last action was ten years ago, because the tribesmen fled without resistance. The warriors found some deerskins and sheepskins at their residence, as well as a small amount. There is nothing more valuable than a sheep with big horns.
Maybe plundering them is not as profitable as risking going south to rob the Finns, but the risk is just too great.
Just because of soap, some families in the tribe are ready to take action.
If you follow the leader to participate in the spring tribute, how much can you get from the Novgorod tribute? If you organize some people spontaneously to launch an attack on the land across the ocean, you may be able to plunder a large amount of wealth without risk, and you will be able to use soap for many years to come.
Otto didn't feel this trend of thought at all, and he couldn't control the spontaneous looting behavior of his tribe. Just report the action plan to yourself, and after it is completed, take out part of the loot and distribute it to the tribesmen.
Otto sensed something else, that was Rurik and the blacksmiths moving.
He had seen the silver-white sword embryo, and it was even brighter than all the blacksmiths in its embryonic stage!
If it was polished very sharp, could it really cut through an iron sword? If so, wouldn't Blacksmith Klavason be able to do more?
At that time, Klavasen offered 50 silver coins a piece, and many warriors of the tribe also had to use their belongings to buy one, and later passed on this "magic sword" to future generations.
So, how should we discuss with Klavason about the share of silver coins earned when producing the "Excalibur" in the future?
Maybe Rurik is already thinking about this.
Now, Rurik is just focusing on the blacksmith's sword sharpening work. Things like making money are not what he needs to consider now.
A sword can only be successful if it can cut through iron as hard as clay. It must be sharp and hard.
It must be hard, because Clavarson spent most of the day smoothing the slight bumps on the sword with small grindstones. The sword has been polished and reflects a charming bright white metallic color in the sunlight. Iron swords in the past were not like this at all!
Rurik knew very well that only carbon steel could have such color!
However, it takes a lot of time to just "skin polish" the sword. You can imagine how long it will take to sharpen the blade.
Although the efficiency of using an emery whetstone is extremely high, the efficiency of an ordinary whetstone is too poor. What's more, the sword blade to be polished is already high carbon steel. Excessive hardness will grind the whetstone into powder, which will make the sword's edge dull. Grind well.
Worse still, it's possible that Clavarson really didn't have a human-powered grinder.
On the first day of sharpening his sword, Klavason's biggest surprise was the shrinkage of his whetstone.
"Oh, what's going on? I'm very tired, and the whetstone I've been using for a long time has a dent. Rurik..." Klavason asked in confusion.
"Because this sword is very hard, that's why." Rurik said without changing his expression.
"Perhaps so." The loss of the whetstone was nothing. Clavarson was very happy that it was the result of the hardness of the sword. Although he was tired, his fighting spirit was stronger than in the morning.
"Okay! I'm old. I'll be Kava's main player tomorrow. I want to rest my shoulders."
Rurik glanced at Kawei who was full of confidence. He still didn't say anything about the grinder and would continue to observe it tomorrow.
Sooner or later, you must have a grinding machine, because this machine was forced out of workers by workers in the face of large-scale weapons production.
Ancient Greece and pre-Qin China both spontaneously invented the technology of grinders, because only in this way could spearheads and arrowheads be polished efficiently.
Maybe with more time, there will be more orders here in Klavasen. Maybe this old guy or Kawei could get inspiration from the wheels of the tribe's small two-wheeled carts and invent a grinder that can sharpen swords.
The first day was a boring day, and the second day was a new boring day. The blacksmith's job is simply to sharpen swords. The active worker was replaced by Kawei. This strong young man obviously did not make sword sharpening an easy job.
Kawei and Klawason are like two tool men who have no feelings for each other, they just keep repeating mechanical work.
However, this job seems to be just repetitive, and it is also rich in technology.
Rurik couldn't help but think of two poems, called: It takes ten years to sharpen a sword, but the frost blade has not been tested.
A good sword naturally takes a long time to polish. Who knows how much effort the craftsman put into it?
Time has become very boring. Since I asked to stay here to wait for the polishing of the sword blade to be completed, I should not leave before it is completed.
Three days had passed, until it was dark, and after wearing out a large whetstone and getting blisters on his fingers, he could finally declare that the work was almost finished victoriously.
But now, Klavason was holding back a lot of words because of the strange color of the sword.
Panting, he poured water on the second whetstone and wiped off the water marks on the sword body and stone with a linen cloth.
He gently wiped his forehead and shouted, asking Rurik who had been watching: "Your sword is finally finished."
"Oh? After three days, you finally polished the sword blade?" Rurik rushed over excitedly, "Shall we try using it now? Go and chop the iron sword?"
"Not yet, the blade needs further polishing. I have a new question now, maybe your wisdom can answer me."
"What is it?"
"Look at the blade." Klavason pointed and asked, "Why, the blade is brighter in color, and it is obviously different in color from the back of the sword."
"It's very simple, because the blade absorbs more..." Rurik suddenly wanted to say "carbon". At first thought, the tribe had always called charcoal "col", which originally meant "combustible embers". But what I want to talk about is carbon. There is no concept of "carbon" in Norse.
Rurik paused and continued: "I will tell you the clear reason, but for now, you have to continue polishing it. I am very happy that the color of the blade has become brighter and whiter, it will be the key to cutting off the iron sword. "
Klavasen tried to keep his composure and did not continue to ask the child any more questions.
"That's it for today. I hope I can sharpen the sword within two days. Rurik, I must admit, this sword is definitely the hardest sword I have ever seen. In my opinion, when you get the perfect When sharpening the sword, I have already lost two or three whetstones." As he spoke, a wry smile broke out from Klavasen's big mouth.
But Rurik could tell from his eyes that the old guy was probably admiring himself.
"Well, maybe I'll also pay for the whetstone you lost."
"No, this is a necessary expense." He patted Rurik on the shoulder subconsciously: "Good boy, I will definitely succeed before Hanukkah."
Hanukkah is really getting closer...
Four full days had passed since he completed the forging of the sword embryo. On the fifth day, Klavason had sharpened the sword blade to a very sharp point. As expected, his second whetstone was also scrapped.
Rurik estimated that he might be able to get very high-quality corundum, which would eliminate the current embarrassment.
It is just a whetstone, but there is great knowledge in it.
The best whetstone became a synthetic, a disc of diamond powder bonded with a binder, which was the key to the grinder and capable of sharpening all steels.
There are also high-quality natural abrasives in nature, which is corundum containing aluminum. It is actually a special kind of aluminum ore. Because of its hard texture, it was the best polishing material available to people in ancient times.
Since corundum is not available, we can only continue to make do with sedimentary sandstone.
Thinking about it this way, maybe sandstone is used to cut a wheel shape to make a grinder. The most important thing that such a manual grinder has to face is self-wear. Using it to polish the sword embryo directly may not be a good choice, but using it to repair the blade may be the most effective.
Using a straight sandstone whetstone to sharpen the blade of a sword, Klavasen has always done this. He also has clear skills in his hands. This old guy is really like a robot. His body does not tremble abnormally in all movements. He holds the mat with both hands. The thick cowhide covering the blade of the sword was polished forward at an acute angle of about 20°, without any backward polishing movement.
Sharpening a sword is a science, and you can only sharpen the edge in one direction, otherwise you will be causing trouble for yourself.
The blade of the sword was getting sharper and sharper, and the cowhide protecting his hands had been cut with a lot of cracks by the blade on the other side.
The work had to be done more and more carefully, and finally when the cowhide on the guard was finally cut off, the five days of polishing the sword's blade could be declared over.
"Rurik, it's over! Everything is over!" Klavason put down the sword. He had no more joy of success. After putting down the sword, he quickly wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Finally! I waited until now, can we..."
Rurik ran to the whetstone excitedly. Isn't the dagger he customized at this moment a magic weapon?
"It must be very sharp, right?"
"It should be. Now..." As he spoke, Klavasen temporarily inserted a simple wooden pancake into the dagger. "Let's try it first to see if we can cut the cowhide."
"Okay! Hurry up!"
Rurik's eyes widened as he watched Klavasen pile up the cowhide mat that had been cut into pieces three times, hold it with his left hand, and accept the cutting with the sharp blade of his right hand.
Everything was as expected and the sword was very sharp.
Looking at this strong and tough cowhide, Klavasen actually used a little strength. After being folded, as many as six pairs of cowhide were perfectly cut by this dagger.
"Oh! That's incredible! This is cowhide."
"Cowhide? What's wrong? It seems that I have achieved my goal. All that's left is to chop the iron sword." Rurik said excitedly.
"Oh my child, you are so cute. You should know that your sword cannot protect against at least six layers of leather armor. Up to now, any iron sword I made can only cut through two layers of leather armor at most. This short sword, it works wonders.”
Klavason's eyes shone brightly. Looking at the old guy's trembling beard and fiery eyes, Rurik thought carefully and looked at his steel sword through a pair of blue glasses. It is indeed extraordinary.
"Well, tonight, right now, I want it to hit the iron sword. Hopefully... its blade won't crack."
"Okay!" The excited Klavason ordered his even more excited son Kawei: "Go to the warehouse and pick up an iron sword. You are the strongest, and I will give you the job of chopping the iron sword."
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Chapter 99 Five days to sharpen a sword
