"H-hiss-"
"H-hiss-"
Michael Acasta struggled to control his breathing, staring closely at the formed steel embryo in the fire, paying careful attention to the color changes above.
He has never been so focused. In the weather in May, the average temperature in the town of Ienxier in the middle of the Kingdom of Sampazia can already reach more than 30 degrees. Being in front of a fire in such weather is naturally an indescribable feeling. Feeling, but he seemed completely unaware of the sultry heat, letting the big drops of sweat on his red face slide across his face covered with golden and white beards and drip onto the linen sweat towel and On the deerskin blacksmith's skirt - just staring at the sword embryo in the fire with concentration and concentration.
The charcoal burned silently, and Michael felt like he was back two weeks ago.
…
The weather is hot and dry.
Even craftsmen who are already familiar with this kind of temperature will become lazy on such days. Only the tireless summer cicadas begin to make a squeaking sound.
——Michael is a native of Avenella, or rather, his ancestors are Avenella people. About a hundred years ago, perhaps even longer, his ancestors were forced to leave Avenella and migrate south due to the invasion of the Loans. After finally settling here, in order not to forget their past homeland, they The last name was changed to Acasta.
A century later, the family settled here and used their skills to become hereditary blacksmiths. After Michael's father died more than ten years ago, he took over the sign of this blacksmith shop and began to forge day and night. Through hard work, Michael has made a name for himself in Ian Sher - this is not as simple as ordinary people imagine. Experienced people can tell it from the name of the town, because Five Percent Since more than ten residents are of Avenera descent, the name was also obtained in the Avenera language.
And its meaning is "iron shield".
The Luoan people's invasion and plunder were organized and disciplined.
Their focus was on craftsmen with various handicrafts - the Luoans themselves disdained any occupation other than fighting, so they plundered slaves from other countries and regions to farm and build various House tools, which served as the primary need for war. Blacksmiths who can create various types of armor, swords, and conflicting cards are naturally the first to bear the brunt.
Therefore, many of the Avenella people who fled with their families and families were professional blacksmiths, and they all hated the Luoans, including Michael's father.
It is a commonplace story that they have to leave their homes. But Michael, who was nearly fifty years old, had no intention of taking care of this bad debt nearly a century ago. He had achieved very high achievements here and became the number one among the many blacksmith shops. Signboard - that's enough for him.
It's cold at high places, and as the strongest blacksmith here, Michael is lonely.
He basically won't leave the mountain now. They all leave the work at hand to the blacksmith apprentice under his command, because in his opinion, there is really not much work worth using his brain to think about and swing a hammer to build.
——Until that day.
The man riding a tall horse with a blue mercenary badge and a big sword on his back was caught by him almost at a glance, but then he caught a glimpse of another person behind him - that person to be precise. That striking white hair.
"Luoan people..."
The other party must have attracted a lot of attention when he entered the city, the old blacksmith thought casually. He did not pay too much attention to this Luoan man. One reason is that, as we said before, Michael doesn't care about old bad debts from a century ago; and the other reason is that the other person is just a teenage girl no matter what.
A delicate face, a simple high ponytail tied behind the head to facilitate movement, and slender limbs. But what Michael paid more attention to than these was the plate armor she was wearing that had obvious traces of battle damage - he then noticed the empty armed belt around the other party's waist. The purpose of coming was obvious, the old blacksmith thought with some complacency in his heart. With.
"A century ago, you Luoan people had to ask us to make weapons for you. A century later, you will still have to ask us to make weapons for you." He was proud, and many of the weapons he forged were hung at the door of the blacksmith shop. Show, I think the other party will be amazed by the superior quality after this——
"Why is it all garbage?"
"Cough cough cough cough cough cough..." The old blacksmith, who was feeling complacent in his heart, choked on his own saliva. Everyone in the blacksmith shop also heard what the tall man said with a frown. Words - they have also been made trouble by others. Those unconvinced colleagues often find some gangsters or even lower-level mercenaries to come here to make trouble, but the former are usually driven away, while the latter will fight for it after seeing the quality of the weapons. You can get discounts on future purchases and sell your employer directly.
——But this man is different. First of all, he didn't look like someone his peers could afford to hire; secondly, the expression on his face was very serious and serious, as if he said these were garbage because they really were all garbage.
"Alas..." The blacksmith apprentices who turned around sighed. They are people who can understand things, but their master, Michael Acasta, who is in his fifties this year, is good at craftsmanship, character, and everything, but he has a very stubborn temper and cannot stand anyone slandering him. work--
So he yelled: "You ignorant mercenary! You young man who doesn't know where he came from! You little boy, what is my work?"
The sound stopped suddenly. All the blacksmith apprentices turned their heads blankly. In their impression, their master would not stop until he scolded him for a while, and this time it was...
The tall black-haired mercenary - naturally our Henry - leaned down and picked up a long sword for display placed on the wooden platform, and his action pushed Clay behind him who was not covered by the cloak. Merle's silver sword was shown to Michael - and the old blacksmith was completely silent because of what he saw.
"This surface treatment...how is this done!" Even though he is over fifty years old, Michael is still walking fast, but his move to grab the opponent to check the big sword was easily avoided by Henry. The sage Without looking, the old blacksmith took a step back and jumped into the air. At the same time, he looked at the blade of the long sword in his hand, and finally shook his head with a "tsk, tsk" sound.
"You kid! Give me that quickly—" "This sword of yours is no good."
The repeated bad comments made the old blacksmith's eyebrows frown so much that they almost stood up, but the words Henry said next made him and any blacksmith apprentices who heard these words freeze in place.
"The center of gravity of the sword is too far forward. The recovery of the hand will be a little slower. There is also a problem with the combination of the guard and the blade. It is obviously crooked here - but the biggest problem is the material of the blade. Carefully If you look at it, you can see that there is a crack here extending from the weak part 1 of the real blade to the spine of the sword. This is obviously the result of a quenching error." This was not over yet, Henry continued to talk.
"The blade on the left side is thinner and narrower than the right side. This means that the same crack originally existed here, but you just polished it off."
"The polishing process can be considered to be excellent, and there is no problem in cutting muscles and bones. The center of gravity is designed to enhance its single-shot killing power. I can understand this, but this does not change the fact that it is garbage. "
"You..." The words spoken by the other party can now be judged by experienced blacksmiths here to be true. Although this sword was originally intended to be sold as a bargain, the other party saw this problem in any case. People are still a little embarrassed.
"But..." But Henry nodded again: "The processing of the steel is pretty good. Although it is a bit soft, you can see that it was made with care." He turned to look at Michael at the door: "This Was it done by one of your novice apprentices—"
"..." Everyone fell into silence again, and Mira behind her covered her mouth and snickered softly. It was naturally impossible for Henry to be so slow and unaware of the atmosphere. He was completely malicious and deliberately bullying others.
In fact, the two of them had already visited many blacksmith shops on the way here. First, several people said they would not give Luoan man-made weapons, and then after asking along the way, they learned more or less about some things about the strongest blacksmith shop in Ian Sher, including naturally the self-reliant nostrils. The stubborn character of the old blacksmith - and when Mira was worried about whether the other party would try to build it, Henry shrugged and said that he had a way to deal with him.
"It's...I did it." Michael said this sentence almost through gritted teeth. He seemed quite unwilling and angry, but because of this, Henry understood that the other party was interested, so he The narrative begins.
As the sage's words progressed, the unwillingness and anger on the old blacksmith Michael's face were gradually replaced by surprise and thinking. In the end, he even slapped his thigh hard. He shouted loudly: "It turns out you can still do this!"
The look of joy arose spontaneously.
As if he was twenty years younger, Michael, who had always been considered stubborn and stubborn, suddenly began to act like a student and kept asking questions in front of Henry, who was only about three-fifths of his age. The words were followed by nodding like a chicken pecking at rice.
When you have been obsessed with a certain skill for a certain period of time and reached a certain level, as long as you mention it, you will be fully focused and refreshed.
The solution Henry gave took Michael a lot of time to prepare.
The other blacksmiths in Ian Sher looked at the apprentices of Ecaster's blacksmith shop with puzzled faces as they hurriedly went out to purchase. Then he returned to the city with a cart full of sand, two pieces of glass, a full cart full of high-grade clay, red bricks, and iron ore.
They didn't know what these people wanted to do, and some curious people began to gather around. Then they watched Michael and a group of blacksmith apprentices busily start to build a stove on the dirt outside.
'It turns out it's just about making iron' - many people turned around and left immediately, but for those who stayed, what happened next was far beyond their expectations.
"Steel is essentially a combination of carbon and iron. By controlling the carbon content, you can control the softness and hardness of the steel." Henry's words are not unfamiliar to the blacksmiths. They have understood this a long time ago. fact. Some iron ingots with carbon ash seeped into the furnace fire during the forging process will have considerable hardness after being formed, but this process is beyond their control, because the traditional iron-making model is to melt red-hot iron. Put it on the iron felt and constantly use a large or small hammer to knock out the impurities - before that, they had to put it on a wooden pier and use stones to knock out the hard slag on the periphery. Stones were used because the hammer did not Hard enough to handle them.
It is a very difficult forging process. Even an old blacksmith like Michael cannot guarantee the content of impurities in the forged weapons. In fact, the reason why he became the strongest blacksmith here is not because of the exquisite weapon handles he forged. It's because the weapons he forged have a lower chance of being scrapped than others.
Even the impurities cannot be guaranteed to be completely removed, let alone the carbon content that will penetrate into this hard and tiring process - this is why the entire West Coast forging, including the long sword Mira bent before The reason why weapons are usually very soft is because the carbon content is difficult to control. If you increase it deliberately, it may cause the weapon to be too hard and brittle. Once hit or blocked, it will break into countless small pieces.
The softer steel is for safety reasons. After all, no blacksmith anywhere is willing to see a mercenary or knight with an injured eye come to seek revenge with a half-broken sword - back to the original point.
Henry proposed a plan that Michael had never thought of before.
According to him, this is a forging method from the east and north, and is the excellent craftsmanship of the Steen and Lamanites. He gave all the steps in detail, along with a list of materials needed. Michael and his apprentices built an entire furnace. A blower made of pigskin was placed nearby, a large pile of charcoal was placed inside, followed by a small jar made of clay, which was then covered with more charcoal, and finally the furnace was sealed.
The best way to control the carbon content in a metal is to put it together with a certain amount of carbon while isolating it from the outside world.
An earthen pot is the best container. You can do all this by putting iron ore and well-measured charcoal powder in it, then covering the lid and sealing it tightly with clay - but that's not all. Expensive glass After being broken into pieces, Michael took a few small pieces and put them into the earthen jar together with the fine sand taken from the seaside, and then placed the entire earthen jar directly into the furnace. Set fire to, burn.
The existence of impurities in iron ore is essentially due to insufficient temperature.
It is said that on the other side of the Otolo Empire, which has tamed flying dragons, they will use high-temperature dragon flames as a heating tool to smelt swords, but using the precious flying dragon fighting tools to do this is just a luxury, and for those on the West Coast, For blacksmiths in small countries, it is even more impossible - fortunately, human wisdom has been a brilliant existence from a long time ago. If it is impossible to reach a sufficient temperature through burning directly, then build a thick furnace to confine the temperature. stand up.
The kiln made of thick bricks was also covered with a large amount of clay. As the simmering temperature of the charcoal increased sharply, the iron ore placed in the earthen pot melted directly. The first melted slag flowed to the bottom and had a magical reaction with the sand and glass. They fused together, while the remaining pure metal turned into a liquid and blended with the previously placed carbon powder.
In the music played by the wonderful flame furnace and the air blown in by the blower, Michael had never seen the finest steel ingots in his life. And so it was born.
When the fire cooled down and the kiln was opened and the earthen pots were picked up and smashed with iron tongs, the exposed group of steel ingots emitted a very bright golden light even in the daytime, which made the old blacksmith who had lived for half a century couldn't help but wonder. Tears streaming down my face.
It was a pure steel ingot, burnt golden and transparent, without any black spots representing impurities.
——But the matter still didn't end here. Henry's next proposal made him feel even more that he had to concentrate.
Steel weapons. All require quenching.
After being heated to an extremely high temperature and then cooled quickly, the steel will have extremely high hardness, so that it will not directly bend, curl or chip when cutting the opponent.
But this is also a difficult problem. The first is the quenching temperature. If it is too low, the steel will be very soft; if it is too high, cracks will occur or even break directly. This must be judged through years of experience, which is why Michael For the reason of personal inspection, black linen was drawn around the blacksmith shop, and the entire shop was dark inside. Only this way, only this way, staring closely at the fire, looking closely at all this, with only flames and steel in the eyes. The slightest change in color can be noticed - Michael can seize the precise moment. Perform quenching.
But... he recalled Henry's words: "The reason why your swords are broken is because water is used during quenching, and the cooling speed is too fast. It will be much better if it is replaced with oil."
'But then... it won't bend. 'A trace of worry and hesitation existed in Michael's heart. But everything before had proved that the other party knew more than he did. He threw away the pride of an old blacksmith and stared at the fire wholeheartedly - the time has come!
"Be careful with the high temperature!" The old blacksmith picked up the sword embryo and put it directly into the stone tank filled with black oil.
"Ouch!! Whoa!" "Wow!" He soaked it for a few seconds and quickly picked it up. The fire that burned directly on the blade made several blacksmith apprentices scream and retreat in fear. A few steps. But Michael was unmoved. He wiped away the flames with his hand wearing a thick pigskin glove and then put it in again.
"——Hiss——" Everyone held their breath. The success or failure of the two weeks of hard work and investment was at this moment.
"There is no sound..." Michael's eyebrows were raised high and the curvature of the corners of his mouth became wider and wider. He raised the sword embryo from the stone trough. The blade of the black and greasy half-sword was flat and stable. , without the slightest bend.
"Bring, bring the test bench!" the old blacksmith shouted. The so-called test bench was a column-like thing with a crack in the middle of the wooden pillars. He waited for the entire sword to cool down completely in the air. Then he clamped the sword blade in the middle of the gap and began to twist it hard.
level. Sixty degrees, fifty degrees, the whole sword was twisted to forty degrees by the old blacksmith. Many of the blacksmith apprentices nearby backed away again. They were afraid that the sword would break and the blade would fly out and hurt themselves.
"It's not broken..." The distortion reached about thirty-five degrees, but this was just the beginning. Several older blacksmith apprentices looked at their master. Michael concentrated on it, and then slowly released the long sword in his hand.
"Akira woo woo——"
It is still straight and has not been completely bent due to torsion.
"Oh my God..." Michael held his chest and backed away. Several of his closest apprentices rushed up worriedly, but the old blacksmith waved his hand and said that he was just too excited.
"I think we...I think we made a king's sword!"
…
Time passed by, and not long after, another week passed. Mira finally got a brand new sword. Feeling satisfied with the excellent balance of the weapon in his hand.
The smooth and straight blade is paired with an inverted V-shaped guard that is exactly the same as Henry's sword. From the appearance alone, it is already an endearing and excellent weapon.
But more than these, what the girl cares more about is what Michael said when he wanted to pay.
"How dare you ask for money." The old blacksmith said, iron ore, clay, bricks, sand and glass. The charcoal and the labor of refining, and the sword that was made with so much effort were not an exaggeration in the girl's opinion, even if it was as good as Wandano, but the other party just shook his head and looked at Xian seriously. The reporter said.
"What you gave us far exceeds the value of this forging."
Things came to an end. There was no way for the two of them to find any suitable jobs in a town full of blacksmiths, so they chose to move on.
Perhaps it should be said that it was expected. After the sage and the Roan girl left, the border town of Sampazia, Ensher, began to spread that there was a legendary blacksmith who could forge the king's sword.
This incident later attracted many adventurers and even nobles who wanted a good sword to come here, but there was one thing that only very few people knew about.
The beginning of all this was just that Henry felt that Mira needed a better long sword.
"Knowledge is so great." Including the maintenance cost of the armor and the forging of Henry's new armor and weapons, everything was taken away without any money. The girl from Luo An said this with a smile on her face while riding on the horse.
"Yes, yes..." Henry in front looked back at her, and then looked ahead again.
The sun was about to set, so one person and one horse continued to move forward.
…
Note: The real edge refers to the blade on the side of the double-edged sword, which is the side facing the enemy when you hold the sword; the weak part refers to the blade part of a sword that is equally divided into two In terms of parts, the part near the handle is called the strong part, and the part near the tip of the sword is called the weak part. This type of normative terminology is generally rarely used by people, so it has never been described before. It is used here to quickly point out the location of parts in conversations between experts. It probably won’t appear too much in the future. Please watch. Just make a note of it, don't worry about it.
In addition, as Chinese readers of this chapter, you can actually be proud of yourself, because the steelmaking method described in this chapter has been recorded in use in the Han Dynasty in China, while Europeans at the same time could only use hammers to knock it out in vain. Impurities, so you can actually think of it as the excellent steel-making skills of ancient Chinese civilization to defeat European bumpkins xd (To be continued.)
