fandomhigh | Blacksmithing Basics - Thursday, First Period [05/23].

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Blacksmithing Basics - Thursday, First Period [05/23].

"Morning, everyone," said Amaya, nodding as the students hopefully managed to get the message and find their way over to the shop classroom instead of the forge today, which at the very least should have been a lot easier for them, all this water considered. "Apologies for yet another class without actually doing much active blacksmithing...the good news is, this week we've got steel again. The bad news is that the forge itself is completely underwater. And I know we could have just rigged something up pretty easily in the Danger Shop, but it's not the same thing, so we'll just make do with what we've got avaiable in the workshop. No forging today, unfortunately, but I figured it's a good chance for us to go over weapon maintainence, especially since all my pieces need a little extra love this week for having gone for an unexpected dip in the drink.

"Proper maintenence for swords and other steel weapons isn't hard, it doesn't take long, but it is important. In general, there's a few things to keep in mind: how you store it, how you handle it, and how you clean it. For starters, water's bad. Even too much humidity can cause your sword to rust or corrode faster than you'll want it to, so you can imagine what all this," she gestured vaguely toward the island, "might have done! Tied in with all that is scabbards; scabbards are great for when you're taking your weapon around, but they're usually made of wood and leather, which traps moisture, so storing your blades in their scabbards for extended periods of time'll eventually have some consequences. You generally want to avoid any skin-to-blade contact as much as you can; skin's got oils and salts that corrode the blade if you're not careful. And, lastly, you want to make sure you clean and oil a blade after every use, if you can, and, if you're not using it often, give her a good thorough cleaning at least every six months or so, or whatever might be an equivelent in your world's particular calendar.

"As for the maintenance, we'll start with some cleaning oil and a sanding pad or sandpaper. Back where I'm from, you're lucky if you can get some of the nice cleaning stuff they've got readily available, you don't even have to deal with a fussy, cranky apocatherist hack or anything to get them, and that's something I do appreciate about this world. Same goes for the sandpaper." Seriously, you should have seen this woman the first time she discovered Home Depot. "So, gloves on, since we want to keep all that salt and oil on our hands off the sword, we're going just brush that polishing oil on the blade, don't be afraid to be generous, don't be stingy, remember, this is a weapon that could save your life one day, and that deserves all the care it can get.

"Once it's all oiled up, we'll take the sanding pad or sand paper, and we're going to sand the blade. Always start at the hilt and work your way down and always, always, always go with the grain of the blade. Go side to side and we'll see how you feel when my hand slaps side-to-side up on the back of your heads. And if you're working on a different shape, like with an axe head, just follow the grain, no matter what, some weapons might be harder to find the grain than others, but a sword's almost always just down away from the hilt.

"Hold the sword down with one hand by the pommel, and then just rub down the blade. You don't need too much pressure. Quick strokes, full motion, really work that oil into the steel." She did it for a moment or two before looking up with a faint grin. "You get the idea. And you'll want to repeat that twice per side if you want to do a really nice job, and once it's finished, you just take a nice soft cloth and wipe off any remaining oil that hasn't been worked right into the blade. Now, if you pick a blade with a little extra rust or other wear, give those spots a little more attention. Remember to switch out the sandpaper or keep an eye on your sandstone as you're using it because some of that grain's going to wear away and stop being as effective the more you use it. Repeat the same on the pommel and the hilt if you've got the chance, too.

"Remember, it's actual steel's natural propensity to rust; all it takes is water and oxygen and most worlds are chock full of those. So keep your blades shiny and strong is a battle that requires constant vigilance and dedication! Or, at the very least, five to ten minutes of your time every now and again. You can, also, use buffing wheels for this sort of thing, but you want to make sure the setting's low, especially if the steel has been tempered. Buffing wheels put out a lot of heat when they're rubbing all against that steel, and that'll make a difference. Heat always makes a difference. It's easy enough to do it by hand, after all, and much easier to ensure that the job's getting done right.

"Any questions? If not, I'll go ahead and let you guys give it a try with some of these swords here, and a few axes and daggers, too, if you want to practice on something a little different. As you can see, they weren't in the water long, but they've already got some rust settling in, but not enough that it can't be fixed up. It shouldn't take a whole lot of time to get used to, really, so I encourage you to give it a go on a few pieces to really get the hang of it. Now, I know it's not a very exciting class, and I hope to make it up to you if the island eventually decides to cooperate, but it's still a very important class, and that there's the take-away."

[[ OCD is...up! Have at it! ]]

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SAFE FOR WORK.

And it's very lecture-y today, too! But Amaya will always welcome questions if there are any. Snickering, however, will not be nearly as welcome, although Amaya might not entirely catch on to what someone might find so amusing about rubbing down a long, hard sword...

There's a small variety of some rough looking weapons to mod as you set to the task of polishing them and making them gleam again.

Or potentially ruining them forever.

Amaya did not bring the best weapons for this, no.

She's there if you need her, mostly just on the edge of being ready to jump in to save any swords about to be completely destroyed, buuuuuut she's preeeeeetty confidient that, with this batch of kids, she won't have to worry...toooo much.

When she pings in!

Me this morning: This week sucks, I'm just going to wing this class and handwave most of the description...

Ten minutes later: ...or not.

Norman Babcock

Norman was actually taking notes. With paper that had most certainly warped from the humidity, yes, but he worked with what he had, here, and it wasn't like a few ripples in the paper was going to hurt it half as much as rust hurt a blade, right?

With the grain, sandpaper, oil... Okay. Okay, he was pretty sure he had this.

At the very least, Norman wasn't at all hesitant about using a lot of oil on the blade of the sword he'd picked up? He might have slopped a little. And then grimaced and proceeded to do everything else very carefully. Very. Carefully.

Almost hilariously so.

Fjord was wearing a hell of a lot less armor today than his usual. Another thing water tended to damage? Leather! And so here he was, arms crossed over his chest, wearing a black sleeveless shirt and slacks.

... And those tall boots of his. Nothing like 'the week the island flooded' to have him finally start to consider maybe going shopping.

"Maintenance," he mused, settling in to watch the students work. "Nice. Ain't a hell of a lot of a point to teachin' 'em how to make the blades if they can't take care of 'em after the fact."

Adorable.

Amaya wasn't shaking a little from the effort of holding back a laugh, really, she wasn't!

"It's a sword, Norman," she offered lightly, "not a snake. It won't bite you."

Paaaause.

"Well, it might because it is is a blade, but just be mindful of the edges, and you'll be all set."

Norman looked up at Amaya at that, maybe a little wide-eyed. And definitely a bit red-eared.

"I just really don't want to mess this up," he admitted, awkwardly. "I mean. These are good swords, right?"

He would've felt so much better trying his luck on some scrap metal or something first, but he supposed that wouldn't be very bold of him either, would it? Not that bold had done him any favors lately.

Shuri

Shuri went right to work like she did this all the time.

Because she did this all the time--she didn't let anyone else handle the Dora Milaje weapon upgrades.

"'Course they are," said Amaya, nodding firmly with her grin. "I made them, didn't I? Which also means I'm pretty sure they're good enough to handle whatever you might try to do to them. A little more elbow grease in there's not likely to do any more harm than what's already been done to it, though."

And Amaya could tell that Shuri had experience and a lot of good experience at that almost straight away.

"Well, then," she noted approvingly, "this is obviously just a refresher course for you, I see. Almost makes me wish I'd brought in at least a few of the more challenging ones..."

She couldn't help wonder how Shuri would manage working the rust out of a shuriken nearly as tall as she was. Of course, the problem there wasn't in the maintenance as it was in just managing to transport it here at the moment...

"I guess they are made by beating them with a hammer," Norman noted, looking thoughtfully down at the sword again. "... Okay. I'll stop being quite so careful about it, and if I'm doing it wrong, you'll tell me."

... Right?

Please?

"Although it does keep me in business if they don't," Amaya noted, grinning a little wryly as she looked over the students working a little herself. "Still, the class is Basic Blacksmithing. Doesn't really get a whole lot more basic than this."

And it needed to be done, anyway. Win-win.

"That's my job, isn't it?" asked Amaya, grinning softly.

Because wasn't that exactly what she'd just done, at that?

"True enough," Fjord agreed. "Hell, that's something good to know even if you're a swordsman instead of a smith."

... Not that his falchion exactly demanded much in the way of maintenance, either. Weird magical weapon that it was.

Norman nodded a little, and then made to lean in and really put a bit more elbow grease into the whole ordeal before pausing again.

And glancing up at Amaya, and fidgeting for a second with the sandpaper.

"I'm sorry about the vampires. I was one of the people who took down the shield that was keeping them out."

And he couldn't unsee her rattling the bars of the jail, and he needed that off his chest if nothing else, and now he was holding his breath waiting to get booted from the classroom. Which would be fair.

Yang was totally there, and had a pile of things she was working on that needed a slightly more experienced hand.

Ember Celica didn't require sharpening, but Crescent Rose did, and while the sisters weren't super-proficient in using each other's weapons, they could help care for them. You never knew what was going to happen when you were out in the field, and being able to upkeep everything was a good skill. Being older and stronger, Yang had learned early how to help Ruby sharpen the scythe.

Juillenne Milone (and Camden)

Much like Norman, Jules was genuinely interested in today's topic. She wasn't taking notes, but she was listening attentively. Which was funny, because if you'd asked her a year ago, the only weapons she was interested in were the type used for everyday work, like hunting. Now... something about the topic made her sit up and pay attention. The war-gift in her at play, she supposed.

"And I'd trust a swordsman to keep up on it better than a collector, too," Amaya noted. "It's amazing how much a weapon can go down in quality by just sitting there, but I suppose if all you care's about is it looking pretty, it's just fine without the upkeep."

"Important lessons for aspiring..." Fjord considered the class at large, and then shrugged and just kind of waved a hand at them vaguely. "Whatever they wanna be."

He couldn't assume, around here, really.

Amaya blinked a little in surprise, taking a moment to follow that little jump in topic, which was usually difficult whenever her brain was pretty set on weapons stuff. "The vamp---Oh! Right. That."

...a loooot had happened since then, Norman.

She shrugged a little. "No one to really blame for that except myself, really. Should have been paying more attention. If I hadn't been so distracted, I might have seen him coming, and if I saw him coming, maybe I'd have had a better chance to tell him what's what. Still got a few good punches in, though, I will say that."

She was still pretty proud of those punches, even if they didn't do her all that much good in the end.

Norman couldn't help but smile a little at that. A wry one, sure, but at least it was something.

"A million what-ifs, huh?"

Yeah, he kinda knew the feeling.

"... For what it's worth, I'm glad it got fixed. You're one of the best teachers around here."

"It's an interesting group, too, isn't it?" Amaya said, looking at the small little industrious bunch with pride. "I just hope they find it useful, but I think with these ones, they definitely will, in their own ways."

She tilted a thoughtful glance Fjord's way. "You miss it at all? Or are you mostly enjoying the break from trying to wrangle some sort of knowledge into these impressioanble young minds?"

"For what it's worth," said Amaya, "so am I. And I'm sorry I tried to you eat you, Norman. That was a bit out of line. And I don't know about best or anything like that; I just try to do what I can, but I appreciate you saying it."

And she'd actually be willing to consider that he meant it; he had the receopts to prove it.

"To be perfectly honest, Amaya? I'm not terribly fussed either way. I haven't got much of a way with kids. And these ones are... older'n the ones who showed up on us, but not by a whole hell of a lot."

Fjord looked at the class a moment more, and then shrugged.

"There's nothin' I've got to teach them that they don't already think they know anyway."

Norman smiled faintly and hiked up a shoulder. She didn't need to apologize for trying to eat him. He'd been shaken, she'd been bruised.

"There aren't many classes here that are actually going to be useful for me when I leave," he noted. "Yours always feel like they will be."

And for a kid who really had no marketable skills besides, that meant something.

"Don't see a whole lot of point in teaching something that won't be useful," Amaya said, her tone a little thoughtful while her expression went reserved in how pleased she felt, "so it's good to know that you think it'll be just that. People always need things built, after all, and it helps to be even just a little bit better than the other guy who migh6also be doing it."

"That's a fair point," Amaya had to admit with a faint laugh. "I encountered that a bit in my first class; I'd say I probably learned just as much from them as they did from me that time around. Yang over there," she nodded to the jard-at-work TA, "is a good example. Had to get real creative when it came to making strong doors with her in that class, that's for sure."

"I come from a household where even my dad changing a lightbulb was an educational experience, mostly in the colorful vocabulary department," Norman offered. "So even if I don't go on to work in construction or anything, at least I'll still be able to apply a lot of all of it... kind of everywhere, you know? That's not something I thought I'd really get, here."

"Doors, huh?" Fjord looked thoughtful. He... was vaguely aware of Yang. Remembered seeing her as one of the people off fighting vampires, he thought. "Probably a bigger issue around here than most people are used to, granted."

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Blacksmithing Basics - Thursday, First Period [05/23].

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Listen to the Lecture - Blacksmithing, 05/23.

Class Activity - Blacksmithing, 05/23.

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Talk to the TA - Blacksmithing, 05/23.

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