Amaya Blackstone (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
special_rabbit) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2021-05-21 05:17 am
special_rabbit) wrote in fandomhigh2021-05-21 05:17 am
Entry tags:
Blacksmithing Basics; Friday, Third Period [05/21].
"Good morning, everyone!" Amaya seemed pretty chipper when it came to class that morning, because the last time she did this course, it had been the summer where everything went a bit wonky each week, meaning she had to improvise a lot of her lessons because of various complications such as being stuck in the stone age or having a flooded shop, but this summer, they had been spared such things and so she could forge (HA!) on ahead with business as usual! Just as it should be!
"Now, last week, you had the chance to learn about some of the basic blacksmithing techniques when shaping your metal. We'll actually be working with steel for these new few weeks, as well, so you can see how different metals feel, since we worked with iron last week, and we'll be focusing on making daggers. Daggers are smaller, so they won't take as much time to heat and forge, but they're also small, so there's more attention to detail and more attention paid to what you're doing because there's not a whole lot it's being done to.
"But first? A recap, especially on tapering because that's what we'll be working on most today," said Amaya as she pulled out a piece of steel she'd been heating in the forge and went over some of the finer points of tapering and rounding that would be useful coming up, being sure to go over the various angles and pressure point, surface contact ratio, so on and so forth, stopping occasionally so that she could really show the students the results of what she was explaining.
"And now the fun part," she said, gesturing to the steel and hammers, gloves and goggles and tongs on each of the makeshift workstations. "Actually making the knife. Now this should be a lesson in using the tongs to hold your piece while you're forging it, because the pieces we'll be using are too small to really hold with our hands. These pieces are still too big, though, so go ahead and get them in the forge to heat them up, and then you'll take turns trying to shape them. Be sure to watch the others while waiting, too; you might learn something just from watching. Case in point, while you're waiting, I'll hammer out the sort of shape we're looking for, and the way to forge the tang--that's the term we use for the handle, basically--so you can have an idea as you try to work it out yourself. Today is entirely just hitting and shaping, really, so let me know if you're having trouble and we can see what needs to be fixed, or if you think you've got it, just keep working, go in for a few more heats in the forge if you've got the time. And remember, the nice thing about steel and heat is that once you get it hot enough, it's malleable, meaning if you mess it up, just heat it up and try again, though if you do mess up, try and see if you can figure out how to just pound it back to where you want it to be, first. You might be pleasantly surprised.
"There's also plenty more where that came from, so if you keep messing up to the point where the integrity of your steel is compromised, we can just start fresh with a new rod. Anything you'd like me to go over again before getting to the anvil? Or shall we just quit the yammering and start hammering?"
...yes, she was stupidly proud of that one, shut up.
"Now, last week, you had the chance to learn about some of the basic blacksmithing techniques when shaping your metal. We'll actually be working with steel for these new few weeks, as well, so you can see how different metals feel, since we worked with iron last week, and we'll be focusing on making daggers. Daggers are smaller, so they won't take as much time to heat and forge, but they're also small, so there's more attention to detail and more attention paid to what you're doing because there's not a whole lot it's being done to.
"But first? A recap, especially on tapering because that's what we'll be working on most today," said Amaya as she pulled out a piece of steel she'd been heating in the forge and went over some of the finer points of tapering and rounding that would be useful coming up, being sure to go over the various angles and pressure point, surface contact ratio, so on and so forth, stopping occasionally so that she could really show the students the results of what she was explaining.
"And now the fun part," she said, gesturing to the steel and hammers, gloves and goggles and tongs on each of the makeshift workstations. "Actually making the knife. Now this should be a lesson in using the tongs to hold your piece while you're forging it, because the pieces we'll be using are too small to really hold with our hands. These pieces are still too big, though, so go ahead and get them in the forge to heat them up, and then you'll take turns trying to shape them. Be sure to watch the others while waiting, too; you might learn something just from watching. Case in point, while you're waiting, I'll hammer out the sort of shape we're looking for, and the way to forge the tang--that's the term we use for the handle, basically--so you can have an idea as you try to work it out yourself. Today is entirely just hitting and shaping, really, so let me know if you're having trouble and we can see what needs to be fixed, or if you think you've got it, just keep working, go in for a few more heats in the forge if you've got the time. And remember, the nice thing about steel and heat is that once you get it hot enough, it's malleable, meaning if you mess it up, just heat it up and try again, though if you do mess up, try and see if you can figure out how to just pound it back to where you want it to be, first. You might be pleasantly surprised.
"There's also plenty more where that came from, so if you keep messing up to the point where the integrity of your steel is compromised, we can just start fresh with a new rod. Anything you'd like me to go over again before getting to the anvil? Or shall we just quit the yammering and start hammering?"
...yes, she was stupidly proud of that one, shut up.
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