fandomhigh | Blacksmith Basics; Thursday, Second Period [06/09].

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Blacksmith Basics; Thursday, Second Period [06/09].

If the shop that day seemed a little more cluttered with a wide variety of different pike pole heads....don't worry about it. Amaya had maybe been trying to work through some things, things that had nothing to do with pike poles at all, and that wasn't why any of you were here, anyway. You were here for knives!

"At this point," Amaya started with a nod, and a faint grin on her face, because it was hard not to get excited about quenching day, "your daggers should start looking more like daggers, and if they don't, well....we might need to go back to the drawing board or perhaps work a little bit more on filing, but I think you've all got it close enough, I'd say, unless you feel otherwise. If you do, don't worry about going back a few steps if you have to, it's important that you feel good about what you've got before progressing forward. And today, we're going to be going over some of the more basic finishing techniques, or, at least, finishing when it comes to the blade itself, and those techniques involve heat treatments, especially tempering and quenching.

"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 one 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 the ones we've been working...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. She explained how color could also be taken 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 then 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 blade's 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 wasn't too dissimilar to baking.

"I usually just pop these guys up on top of the forge for that step," she explained, doing just that and showing off a few other things that were already up there. Mostly pole pike heads, at the moment. "And that's probably where we'll leave them until next week, when we'll see how they turned out and finish up on making 'em a little prettier. Any questions before you all get started?"

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Feeling quenched!

Irene Adler

Graham Cracker

Billy Coen

Stark

Steph Gingrich

Of course, the lecture rambles a little into far more detail than a beginner's class strictly needed, but Amaya couldn't really help herself, and this was pretty much what filled most of her days, so it was all incredibly familiar territory for her.

If anything, there's something ridiculously satisfyingly about that hiss and sizzle that comes with quenching a piping hot blade after whaling on it with a hammer a few times, right? That can't just be Amaya who thinks so...

Irene had turned up once more in her grubbies and a practical ponytail, and was doing a very poor job of keeping her feelings off her face today, considering how attractive she found it when Amaya really took to a subject like this. She stayed quiet and attentive through the lecture all the same, no matter what sort of fond, stupid looks her face was making of its own accord. She was here to learn, not to ~~just~~ have a giant crush on the teacher, thank you.

...and yes, actually, there was something incredibly satisfying about the quenching process. The first time Irene did it, after a careful hammering and making sure her oil was hot, she actually let out a, "Oh, yes," in response to the sizzle that verged on...well. Perhaps a touch suggestive.

She literally could not help herself, okay.

During the lecture, Amaya could certainly remain firmly in her nice little ignorant bubble, because, let's face it, when you really got her going on blacksmithing, she could be focused enough on the task at hand that the whole shop could be burning down around her and she'd still be happily chatting away about the ideal temperatures for your oil based on the type of steel you were using.

(Maybe Travis hadn't been too far off, then, that she should really look into more fire safety precautions around here).

But that quench?

That was pretty much impossible to ignore.

And there was a moment where Amaya, mouth agape, seemed on the verge of some kind of response, paaaaused, and had to remind herself that this was a classroom and a place of business, and oh look, there were other students who probably needed her help right now!

(Where was an exploding Beaker when you really needed one?)

No explodey Muppets could save you now, Amaya!

Not when Irene had questions. She wanted to learn, after all.

"Am I doing it right, Amaya?" she checked with a bright smile, moving to heat the knife back up so she could repeat the process.

She knew perfectly well what she had done and what effect it had had. Hence, really, why she suddenly needed to ask questions about her technique.

Amaya cleared her throat a little.

Lotta smoke and steam, on quenching day, after all.

"Seem to be on the right track," she offered, and, to her credit, did manage to make most of that critique an actual assessment at the skills at hand here. "But the blade can tell you that much better than I can. Any signs of warping? If not, give it a few more rounds, then run it by the file and see what it has to say."

Ugh, damn you for being an actually good teacher, Amaya. Irene wanted relentless, unfounded praise!

"No signs of warping thus far," Irene admitted, weirdly sort of disappointed that it was forming well enough that she wouldn't need to keep doing it over and over and over. "I'll give it another round -- it's really quite satisfying, the quenching part. Is it possible to overdo that bit?"

Because it really was kind of Irene's favorite thing she'd done in this class so far. (Physically in this class. The teacher herself did not count, in this capacity.)

And she was looking for it...from Amaya?

"Oh, absolutely," she informed Irene, with a firm nod and knowing all too well about that particular temptation. "With each quench, you're adding more and more martensite build up to the steel; you overdue it too much, and that'll just leave your blade hard and brittle. Prone to breaking. Of course, that's where some tempering might come in, which is another heat treatment that can improve the toughness of the steel by actually decreasing the hardness. Which sounds a bit contradictory, but reducing hardness means improving ductility, which means less brittleness. And, really, that's ultimately the real key to a good blade: finding that right balance between tough and hard...and knowing the difference between the two."

Edited 2022-06-09 12:23 (UTC)

A girl could dream! But even in the absence of glorious praise and shining attention on her, Irene felt like she could, quite literally, listen to Amaya explain how she could potentially fuck up this knife all day long.

"If it's less hard, the metal will have a little more sway to it, then?" she asked, checking that she was following along. "We want durability, not necessarily perfect...rigidity?"

It was taking all her willpower not to turn that question into multiple innuendos.

"Exactly," said Amaya, who could probably stand to use a little of her own tempering advice for swords on herself, really. Not that she would ever be self-aware enough to realize that, especially not now when she was feeling particularly pleased that Teacher Mode seemed to have successfully saved the day. "Perfect rigidity is the last thing you want. But you do want to try to get just about as near as you can for most stuff, though not all. That's getting quite a bit more into it, though. For our purposes here, as long as it can withstand even a small amount of force without shattering or snapping--and you'd have to overquench it quite a bit for that--then you'll be fine."

Teacher Mode had saved the day inasmuch as Irene found Teacher Mode wildly attractive, sure.

"That makes sense. Too much of anything is often trouble," Irene noted lightly, nodding in understanding. And, satisfied that she'd heated the dagger enough, she moved back over to plunge it back into the oil in a careful back-and-forth motion. "....yes."

She hadn't even meant to do it that time.

Funny. The sweltering heat inside the forge had never really bothered, or even been noticed by Amaya much before.

(Very specific Terrible Weeks notwithstanding, of course).

The presumed safety of Teacher Mode was slipping, and Amaya desperately tried to tighten her grip back around it.

There was a small cough.

"Good," she managed. "Not too long, though. About ten, fifteen seconds, that's all you need."

"Don't want to overdo things," Irene agreed on a soft, slightly disappointed sigh as she pulled the dagger back out to examine it. "I suppose there is such thing as too much of a good thing, on rare occasions."

Generally speaking, Irene felt like if something was good, you should have as much of it as you pleased. And that was exactly the kind of thinking that tended to get her in trouble when that impulse overrode her logic.

And of course she had noticed that cough, and even if her satisfied little 'yes' had slipped out unbidden, Irene was still a master at noticing the effect she had on people.

"Bit warm in here, isn't it?" she added, conversational and light and absolutely not specifically trying to call attention to anyone or anyone's reactions or anything at all.

Edited 2022-06-09 15:46 (UTC)

"Well, it is a forge," Amaya pointed out, because that was an easy one to latch onto, "and we're working with hot oil and an even hotter furnace today."

And very attractive women saying incredibly satsfying things while using both...

"I'd be a little worried if it wasn't."

"Mmm-hmm. Seems a touch warmer than usual," Irene remarked, totally casual as she lightly wiped her gloved hand across her forehead. And now she was kind of wondering if it had been something along these lines that Amaya had been watching on her phone that day she'd flung it so Irene couldn't see.

(She'd always assumed porn, honestly, but...this quenching thing felt like it was butting right up against something like blacksmith porn, as it was.)

And while she was aware of the effect her satisfied noises might have been having, she was much less aware that she had once more left a big sooty streak across her forehead in the process of that wipe.

"Maybe it's just the humidity."

Ahhh, zards. And if that unintended, not so little smudge wasn't just the icing on horribly attractive cake right now...

"Must be," Amaya noted. Her lower lip caught under her teeth for a brief moment of indecision before stepping forward, reaching out.

"Hold on, you've got a..."

Oh, no, Amaya, that was only going to make it worse.

Oh. Oh, that was...interesting. Unexpected, interesting, and kind of enough to just stop Irene in her tracks, anyway.

Forgive her. Amaya actually initiating touching her, without Irene putting herself in the other woman's way repeatedly and insisting upon the point? Irene was almost worried she'd scare her off if she made any sudden movements.

"Something on my face?" she supplied softly as she obediently -- a shock, there -- held still, just to fill in the end of that sentence.

"Hmmmm." It came out as a doubtful sort of sound, because, yeah, no, Amaya was definitely making it worse with an attempt to somehow magically wipe that smudge away with her own significantly sootier gloves, making her almost wonder if she really thought that would ever work, but, hey, at least an attempt was made.

"Well," she declared, drawing back with that dubiousness now focused on the results of her handiwork, with a little apology mixed in there, too, "if you're not walking out of here without something to show for it, you'r eprobably doing it wrong, anyway."

"That's how I tend to feel," Irene offered quietly, resisting every vain urge to go dig out her compact and see what in the hell was on her face. (She was also busy resisting feeling all warm and sweet and annoyingly melty about how much worse Amaya had made it, anyway. None of this resistance was going especially well.) "I'll clean up afterwards. My face's been through worse, love, not to fret."

And besides, it was kind of a point of pride at this point, deliberately dirtying her hands (and the rest of herself), in the name of achieving something more important.

"Yeah, well," Amaya noted, with the stout sort of nod that suggested her brain was certain she was about to say something very different than what had actually come out of her mouth, "it'd take a lot more than just some grease smudge to ruin that face, anyway."

Aaaaaand then she heard it. So now they both had something all over their faces, but Amaya's was much more red and persistent.

"Right!" she said quickly. "Well! You're doing a fine job, Irene, really got the hang of it, we should probably give someone else a turn at the anvil now and whatnot."

Because, yes, there were other students and this was a classroom and there was a lesson to be dealt with.

Did it help if Irene was a little bit flushed, too?

Only a bit, and she was clearly pleased as could be by Amaya's words. Which was ridiculous for a woman who had largely made her living by the grace of her good looks (and the way she could handle a riding crop), but there you had it.

"Of course. Didn't mean to hog the anvil," she offered graciously, flashing a smile at Amaya. "Or the teacher's attention."

You know what this was absolutely begging for, of course, was for Irene to waltz in here on her own time and demand private tutoring.

"......coooooooool!" gushed Graham, eyes going wide, once he very carefully lowered his dagger blade into his quenching oil. Just when he thought blacksmithing couldn't get even more awesome, there was quenching day!

And he only managed to set his oil on fire twice! They were only small little flare-ups, too, and they definitely reminded him not to get too caught up in his excitement, because it was definitely only cool in one way!

"Quite the opposite, actually," Amaya offered with an appreciative grin at that response. "At least if you're doing it right. Just be sure not to keep it in the quench for too long, Graham. There's a good chance'll wind up too cool."

Once again this was an activity that Stark found he could easily get deeply involved in. Multiple steps that required paying attention and they kept his hands busy.

The quenching was oddly satisfying too. It was probably the noise.

It was a pretty great sound, wasn't it?

"Seems you've got the hang of it, there, Stark," Amaya noted, lest anyone start thinking her attention might do anything so ridiculous as focus on any particular student more than any of the others...

Whyever would Amaya be focusing on any one student more than others? What a thought!

It was a good sound.

"I think I might," Stark agreed. "Thank you. At least it seems to be working." It could end in disaster still, somehow, because that was how his luck ran far too often but for now he was pleased with what was happening.

Definitely not just Amaya who thought so! It really kind of added an extra something to the rhythm Steph was getting used to working with here.

Sort of like a splash cymbal. Almost literally in some ways.

And considering that they'd talked about it previously, Amaya had to grin a little at Steph taking to the quench in a similar manner than she had the hammering to begin with.

"Good to hear," there was a small pause for emphasis, "that adding the extra step hasn't seemed to throw you off your rhythm, there, Steph."

Steph burst out laughing at the pun. "Just had to figure out how to work it in with everything else," she said. "Seriously not that different from the drums, just more potential for things to catch fire."

It was rare (and with very good reason) that Amaya's puns got any sort of appreciation, so that laugh was very appreciated, thank you, Steph.

"Which puts it just a step above drumming, if you ask me," she noted, "but I'll admit. I'm a bit biased."

Well, she was in a good mood lately; it was easy to amuse her.

"Which is fair, since for me the order's switched," Steph replied easily. "If only because drum kits are fucking expensive."

Obviously, Amaya's there if you need her, before, after, or during class!

She literally lives here.

Edited 2022-06-09 08:42 (UTC)

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Blacksmith Basics; Thursday, Second Period [06/09].

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