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)
fandomhigh2023-07-03 06:02 am
special_rabbit) wrote in fandomhigh2023-07-03 06:02 am
Entry tags:
Blacksmithing!; Monday, Second Period [07/03].
"Well, everyone," said Amaya, with a small, satisfied nod and a pleased grin on her face as she considered who she'd be working with for the class this time around, "welcome to another blacksmithing class, where we'll be moving on from the basics and just focusing on some more intermediate skills of a wide variety to expand your experience and your ability to just make really cool things. Since you've all taken a blacksmithing class with me before, we skip the introductions and the run-down of the basics, but I will take a moment to emphasize safety and caution while you're here, because we're not in the Danger Shop, so mistakes are gonna stick. I'd say we have a pretty good track record in here, though," was she just cursing herself every time she said that? Besides a few smashed hands here and there and a couple of fire hazards that were thankfully easily extinguished, though, she hadn't had any issues yet, and it was hardly her first rodeo!, "so let's keep it up and take a moment to review the safety guidelines while you're here working in my shop, and then we'll get to the lesson for the day."
Once she finished up with the brief safety reminder, it was time to move on.
"So! What will we be talking about today? Tempering! Now, if any of you have been in the shop during hte last month or got a good look at my booth at the Pride festival, you may have noticed an awful lot of blades and pieces that were done with a color gradient, and though it looks like it might have been complicated, that was done through a process known as tempering, which is essentially just a process of heating the metal. Usually, this is done to harden the steel as you work with it, but can also be used to reduce the hardness if you want a more flexible blade. Heat is, of course, the key to all blacksmithing, and tempering is key to giving your metal some stength. And sometimes, when applied in the right way, it can also be used to create some very appealing color variaitons in the metal as well, and that aspect of it is what we're focusing on today.
"Now," Amaya continued, with a wave of her hand to draw everyone over to one of the worktables, where she had several pieces of steel laid out in a veritable range of colors, all of them on a sheet of paper, with temperature ranges written underneath, "here you have the tempering spectrum, showing off the temperature and the results of tempering a piece of steel to that level of heat. "Tempering begins after quenching, and while I know how satisfying a good quench could be, I've pre-quenched our pieces today so we can save some time and get right to the tempering aspects. And precise control of time and temperature during the tempering process is crucial to achieve the desired balance of physical properties. Obviously, it's our first day back and you're none of you professionals, so I'm expecting quite a bit of trial and error, but that's often the best way to learn with these sorts of things, just by doing it."
And, apparently, by listening to her ramble on about the technical aspects of what's going on with regards to the nitty-gritty details of chemical composition, sacrificing some yield strength and tensile strength for an increase in elasticity and plasticity, so on and so forth and blah blah blah. You all knew what you were getting into when you signed up for a Blackstone class; she was going to make sure you got a little bit more than just the average 'certian heat brings out different colors!' approach!
"You're not always going to get different colors from just tempering, though," Amaya warned them. "The steel has to be freshly ground, sanded, or polished for it to work. This way, an oxide layer will form on its surface when heated, and that's where the various colors come out. So, to help us getting into the swing," haaaaah, "of things again, that's what we'll be working with today. I'd like us to work with both using the forge itself as an application of tempering colors, as well as the more frequently, easier method of just applying heat directly with using a blow torch. So let's get started!"
Once she finished up with the brief safety reminder, it was time to move on.
"So! What will we be talking about today? Tempering! Now, if any of you have been in the shop during hte last month or got a good look at my booth at the Pride festival, you may have noticed an awful lot of blades and pieces that were done with a color gradient, and though it looks like it might have been complicated, that was done through a process known as tempering, which is essentially just a process of heating the metal. Usually, this is done to harden the steel as you work with it, but can also be used to reduce the hardness if you want a more flexible blade. Heat is, of course, the key to all blacksmithing, and tempering is key to giving your metal some stength. And sometimes, when applied in the right way, it can also be used to create some very appealing color variaitons in the metal as well, and that aspect of it is what we're focusing on today.
"Now," Amaya continued, with a wave of her hand to draw everyone over to one of the worktables, where she had several pieces of steel laid out in a veritable range of colors, all of them on a sheet of paper, with temperature ranges written underneath, "here you have the tempering spectrum, showing off the temperature and the results of tempering a piece of steel to that level of heat. "Tempering begins after quenching, and while I know how satisfying a good quench could be, I've pre-quenched our pieces today so we can save some time and get right to the tempering aspects. And precise control of time and temperature during the tempering process is crucial to achieve the desired balance of physical properties. Obviously, it's our first day back and you're none of you professionals, so I'm expecting quite a bit of trial and error, but that's often the best way to learn with these sorts of things, just by doing it."
And, apparently, by listening to her ramble on about the technical aspects of what's going on with regards to the nitty-gritty details of chemical composition, sacrificing some yield strength and tensile strength for an increase in elasticity and plasticity, so on and so forth and blah blah blah. You all knew what you were getting into when you signed up for a Blackstone class; she was going to make sure you got a little bit more than just the average 'certian heat brings out different colors!' approach!
"You're not always going to get different colors from just tempering, though," Amaya warned them. "The steel has to be freshly ground, sanded, or polished for it to work. This way, an oxide layer will form on its surface when heated, and that's where the various colors come out. So, to help us getting into the swing," haaaaah, "of things again, that's what we'll be working with today. I'd like us to work with both using the forge itself as an application of tempering colors, as well as the more frequently, easier method of just applying heat directly with using a blow torch. So let's get started!"
Sign In - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
Re: Sign In - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
Re: Sign In - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
Re: Sign In - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
Listen to the Lecture - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
Re: Listen to the Lecture - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
She wasn't particularly making an effort to be obtuse about it, either, having turned up ponytailed, be-jeaned and actually ready to get her hands dirty again.
Class Activity: Color Tempering! - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
Re: Class Activity: Color Tempering! - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
He was starting with a blow torch because that was something different to try and the whole point of this was doing different things.
Talk to the Teacher - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.
OOC - Blacksmithing!, 07/03.