The reason why Duan Wenjun asked Ma Xinyuan and the others to tinker with steel was to train the guards' weapons and armor.
The last time the convoy encountered Peng's bearded men in the mountains, they suffered heavy losses because of their equipment.
He had never thought that Ma Xinyuan and the others could forge Bailiang Steel so quickly, so he did not tell them what they would build in the future.
Whether in Wangjiang County or after coming to Duanjiabao, Ma Xinyuan, Xiaoliuzi and the others almost always helped people buy farm tools or daily necessities.
Especially after coming to Duanjiabao, the thing they built and repaired the most was the hoe for digging the ground.
Therefore, when trying to forge, Ma Xinyuan subconsciously chose a hoe.
This was not Duan Wenjun’s original intention.
If you think about it carefully, the first batch of 100-refined steel in the world were actually made into hoes.
It seems that it is really a waste of natural resources.
"I also want to go back and build weapons and armor for the guards." Duan Wenjun looked at him and smiled and said, "It's just a good idea to use this hoe for testing in the early stage! If we improve our Duanjiabao's hoe, it will also improve our Isn’t that what Duanjiabao farmers use for farming?”
"Besides, as long as Lao Ma and the others master the technology, this blacksmith shop is our own, and the mine on the right is also our own, so we can build as many as we want, right?"
"Oh, I can't tell you clearly!" Mo Shoucheng shook his head, "The direction and focus of making farm tools and making weapons are also different."
Duan Wenjun was stunned when he heard this.
Hasn't he heard of this?
They were all forged in the blacksmith shop. The farm tools and weapons were all made of the same steel, so how could there be any difference?
Thinking of this, Duan Wenjun couldn't help but look towards Ma Xinyuan.
"Young master, Master Mo is right." Ma Xinyuan nodded. "Hoes are short and thick, but swords and the like are long, narrow and thin. When forging and beating, the techniques will be somewhat different. Moreover, I think we Nowadays, the effect of making swords may not be as good as that of hoes. Especially the phenomenon of chipping will definitely become more serious."
"Oh? How do you say this?" Duan Wenjun frowned, "Old Ma, please tell me carefully."
"The first problem is that our forging method is not very stable." Ma Xinyuan nodded. "As for the heat and time of the forging, as well as the number of forgings, the masters need to judge by their own feelings."
“Because everyone’s experience is slightly different, or everyone’s feelings are different, there will be some differences, resulting in unstable quality.”
After saying that, Ma Xinyuan picked up another hoe and hoeed the stones on the ground.
The stones were also cut directly by the hoe.
However, there was a slight mark left on the edge of the hoe.
Although it is very small, it is already very rare, but it is inferior to the hoe just now.
"The first one just now was the best, but this one is a little bit worse." Ma Xinyuan looked at Duan Wenjun and spoke.
"This is just a simple hoe, but if we make it into a sword, because the sword body is too long, the number of blows in each place may be different."
"Perhaps these differences are invisible to our naked eyes, but there is a fatal flaw in the sword itself."
"That is, if a certain part of the sword is forged a different number of times, or tempered a different number of times, it will also affect its hardness and toughness, and it will not be evenly distributed. The consequences of this You can imagine it.”
Seeing that Duan Wenjun had no intention of answering, he continued, "If the distribution is uneven, then the hardness and toughness of different locations on the entire sword body will be different."
"If during a normal confrontation, the local edge happens to fall at a dividing point where the hardness and toughness are far apart, then the sword will be easily cut off."
"This is a fatal matter."
Duan Wenjun nodded thoughtfully and was speechless for a long time.
Ma Xinyuan didn't dare to speak, just stared at him quietly.
Everyone around him became quiet.
"Who forged that hoe that Old Mo held just now?" Duan Wenjun looked around and asked.
"I forged it myself." Ma Xinyuan spoke again.
"Then who forged that hoe that was broken just now?" Duan Wenjun asked again.
"It's me!" Zhao Xiaoliu said timidly.
It's very simple. Ma Xinyuan is Xiao Liuzi's master, and his experience is naturally much richer than Zhao Xiaoliu's.
"Old Ma, do you remember how you made this hoe?" Duan Wenjun asked.
Ma Xinyuan frowned slightly and seemed to be lost in thought. After a long time, he said, "I should roughly remember."
"That's good!" Duan Wenjun nodded and looked at Zhao Xiaoliu again, "Xiao Liuzi, do you remember how you cast your hoe?"
Zhao Xiaoliu nodded, "At first, we researched some iron blocks with relatively low impurity content. Then the master asked us to forge them together repeatedly. Finally, we found that the hardness of the iron blocks was getting stronger and stronger, and it seemed to be stronger. It doesn’t get too brittle.”
"The master said that in the blacksmith's craft, you often need to rely on your own experience to judge. If you really can't judge, ask others for advice."
"Later, we all worked together in pairs, and one group cast a handful, and those hoes were born."
Hearing this, Duan Wenjun suddenly understood.
He nodded slightly and glanced across everyone's faces again, "I told everyone that our blacksmith shop here is very different from our previous blacksmith shop in Duanjiabao at the foot of the mountain. Yamashita The purpose of the blacksmith workshop is to establish good relations with the people in Duanjiabao and help them build and repair agricultural tools."
"But you all were invited by me to help me research new things."
"Since it is research and developing new things, then we need a spirit of active research. This is what everyone has done well."
"However, this research on iron-smelting technology is completely different from our usual making and repairing farm tools. You may build farm tools based on experience and accumulate them slowly. But this iron-smelting is not good!"
"If you want the things that come out to be stable, you must have a rigorous process. Therefore, when you forge new things, you must rigorously record the data during your forging period. This will facilitate summary and analysis, and in this way you can improve technology."
"For ironmaking, temperature, time, and the number of forgings all have an impact on performance. So you must quantify each step to create a set of standard processes. This way, once it is successful and confirmed, you can follow up. Quickly copied.”
Hearing this, Ma Xinyuan's frown relaxed at the moment.
