Blacksmithing Basics - Thursday, First Period [06/13].

[special_rabbit]

All things considered, Amaya thought it would likely be best if she got over her pride a little bit and had the class up in the old shop classroom. Sure, the forge was fine, once all those leaks were patched, but the kids' safety seemed pretty important. Amaya herself didn't really have a good track record with weird things being in town...at least twice now, she'd been attacked by something that left her either in the clinic or bound to a bed or locked in a jail cell...but those were instances where she didn't have the Crumbler with her and, just as she found out with that wasteland bit, the Crumbler was excellent at mowing down anything that might try to get in her way.

She'd just have to make sure to clean the rotorblades really well when she got back to the shop.

Either way, she sent out the message and brought with her their knives-to-be and a few other supplies, got in touch with her TA so that she could help with set up, and by the time class was ready to get going, she gave the students a nod.

"Morning, everyone," she greeted them. "As you can see, we're relocated to the shop classroom again. Now, the biggest issue with working in here rather than down at the shop was always the fact that the shop has forges. But, turns out, making your own forge for smaller projects like these knives really isn't that difficult. And it doesn't get much more basic than knowing precisely how to make the one tool that's arguably the most important part of blacksmithing. If anything, you can forge yourself something nearly anywhere after this class, assuming you've got the resources. To save time, I'll have you guys follow along, and once we get our new makeshift forges going, it's onto the next step of our knife-making, which is tempering and quenching our blades, or 'heat treating' as it's commonly called.

"Everyone ready?" She pounded a fist into her palm with a nod. "Let's get started, then."

[[ and the ocd is on the way up! Have at it! edit: heat treating vid switched out with a better one ]]

Comments

Sign In - Blacksmithing, 06/13.

[special_rabbit]

DIY.

Listen to the Lecture - Blacksmithing, 06/13.

[special_rabbit]

Less of a lecture, more of a preamble, but if there's any questions before getting to work, now that's time to ask them.

Class Activity - Forge Building - Blacksmithing, 06/13.

[special_rabbit]

Time to get to work! Amaya's naturally ready to lead the students through the steps of their makeshift forge, explaining the importance of each step while she leads them through it, from the importance of air flow as they build up the manual blower, insulating the forge, choosing the air supply (she's got a few good old fashioned bellows, but these cranking fireplace blowers she found were just too good to pass up!), and, well, that was pretty much it!

"Nothing fancy," she explained, "but something functional. All we really need to do now is get the coal and the wood on there, get the fire going, and then use our air supply to pump air into to make sure it gets really nice and hot for us. Just like you don't need a proper anvil for a hammering surface, you can easily put something together in a pinch for when you really need to."

Because, yes, needing to whip up a makeshift forge is something that is definitely going to be something they'll use in everday life often...

Class Activity - Heat Treatment - Blacksmithing, 06/13.

[special_rabbit]

"Onto the fun stuff!" Amaya said, grinning. "Now, first things first. I've had some iron heating up in my own forge for a bit now, so I'd like each of you to grab on of these rods with your tongs and put those in the buckets of oil you've got at your station. That's what we're using to quench the blades, and you'll have a much better time if you quench with warmed oil than cold. If you cool your blade...especially a thin blade like these ones, too fast, you're more likely to crack it, and that's no good. Anyway..."

So she had them heat their oil, then check their blades, and get started on the first step: Normalizing. Reseting and redistributing the steel to a more normalized state and relieving stresses. Heating it and then letting it cool in still air, repeating it about two or three times, and she showed them how to use a magnet to help determine if you're doing it properly, because heating it properly will cause the metal to become nonmagnetic which was just neat, when you got right down to it. You can also take color into consideration, but that's something that'll develop with experience, since there's a fine art to just telling it's ready by looking at it.

Next step: the quench! Amaya explained that quenching is basically what's going to harden your steel, and oil is generally better than water, and they were basically rapidly cooling the steel, changing the makeup of the steel to strengthen it. Heat it up, quench it to cool it, then heat it back up again. Heat and quench, heat and quench. You want to be quick about it; the steel cools pretty quickly even just in the air, and hten get it in the oil with a slight back and forth or slicing movement. Be careful of flare ups, and submerge the blade for about ten to fifteen seconds.

Do a file test on it, to see if the file bites into the steel. If it does, the blades not hard enough, time to go for another round. If it doesn't bite into the steel, your knife is hard enough, and you've got to finish it up with some tempering that's not dissimilar to baking. "Back at the shop," Amaya offered, "I'd usually use the top of my forge to do this step, but over here, we've got ovens, so we're just going to pop our knives in there to just sort of finish up the whole process."

Talk to Amaya - Blacksmithing, 06/13.

[special_rabbit]

She's definitely there if you need her, trying her best to not be distracted by Crumbling her way back to the shop after this.

Talk to the TA - Blacksmithing, 06/13.

[special_rabbit]

When she pings in!

OOC - Blacksmithing, 06/13.

[special_rabbit]

Quenching is just so coooooool ;_;