Fandom High School

"Well, everyone," said Amaya, with the usual nod of greeting and a pound of her fist into her palm, "we're reached the last day of this session's blacksmithing workshop, and, hopefully, you've all picked up a few more interesting new skills and we've managed to get out with...relatively few injuries."

Especially for a class with a Beaker in it!

"Let's not go and mess that up with our last class today, yeah?

"So, for our last technique today, we're going to be working on something that's fairly easy, but definitely fun and satisfying, and has the potential to get more complex and interesting the more you play around with that, and that's twisting. So find yourself a vice that you like"--the tools! Not the other kind!--"and we'll get started!"

"Welcome back, everyone," said Amaya, with a nod of greeting to the class as usual, with a gesture toward the work table in front of her, where a series of pieces were laid out. "What I've got here to show you today are a few things that have used as technique called collaring, or sometimes joining, which is a method of joining two pieces of metal together by essentially wrapping another piece of metal around them. It created a pretty dynamic look, and it's often used for decorative hilts, fences, portcullises, sigils, and other things that want to add a little bit of fanciness and dimension. More importantly, it's a whole lot of fun to do, although it does take time, effort, and a good amount of tools, so let's not waste too much time with the intro and just get right into learning how to do it."

And so, the demonstration and explanation on how to perform the technique in question followed, with plenty of detail as Amaya worked through it, and then held up the results to show it off and pass it around for closer inspection.

"Now," she said, "these pieces," gesturing towards the ones waiting on the table, "are already pretty much ready for collaring, but if you wanted to get really involved in it, I've got a few that, if you want to incorporate the skills we learned last week with the guillotines, you can create your own notches for collaring before you get to it, but that's up to you. From here on in, it's just getting a feel for the techniques and seeing what you can come up with, so, unless there's any further questions, we can get to work."

"This week," said Amaya, with a grin on her face as everyone arrived and got settle din and hopefully were already automatically starting to gear up for the lesson, "is the week I've really been looking forward to doing when I thought of other blacksmithing techniques to start sharing with you all, because it's one of my favorite techniques to use when I just want to work on something really interesting with great results. Today, we're going to be learning about Damascus-style steel.

"Now," she continued, "we just called it layered steel back home, because we didn't have the same cultural context of its development here, but that's what it's commonly known as around these parts, due to the place where the technique developed. They're characterized by their distinctive patterns of banding that often resembles, as you can see here, water, though it's sometimes called a ladder or rose pattern, and when you see a blade with these markings, you can almost be assured that it will be good and strong and sharp, and that strength comes a lot from the process of making those patterns, which is what we'll be learning about today. And I sure hope you're ready to give your arms a workout today, because we're definitely going to be getting our hammer on!"

With that, naturally, Amaya launched into the basics and the process, different types and methods, and of course a few demonstrations and examples.

"Pretty easy," what a relative term!, "right? And, if anything, it can just be really useful to see how the metal reacts as you put into place these different processes. So, with that, let's get to work! You can start picking out your steels, and get started on welding them together if you wanted to do it that way, or get going on the forge if you wanted to approach it the old-fashioned way without the welding, and we'll see what kind of patterns you can come up with!"

"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!"

"Morning, everyone," Amaya greeted the class this week with the usual nod. "Today, our focus is going right back into finishing up those hilts and handles we started up last week. By now, you should be ready to cut your wood block to form for your handle. You'll want to be careful, of course, and take your time with the cutting so you've got a nice shape ready to go for when we spruce it up a little with some rasping and smoothing, sanding and staining.

"For some of you, these finishing touches may take a while. For others? Not so much. So if you do finish a bit early, we can get started on the sharpening and refining the blade and other last minute touches we'll be using the last class to really focus on. Or, if you like, feel free to use the rest of the time to get back to the anvils again and just sort of work some metal around, since it's been a hot minute. Let me know if you have questions and....let's get started."

"At this point," Amaya started began class with a nod, and delving right into things; no need to waste any time when there was work to be done, right? Besides, it was hard not to get excited about quenching day and to want to get right to it, "after the initial shaping and some fine-tuning with the filing, your swordsshould start looking more like swords, 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. If you think otherwise, 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. But today, we are 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 steel heating up in the 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 if you've been working with a thinner blade...too quickly, you're more likely to crack it, and that's no good. No one wants that."

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 they were 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 determining that easily was something that would 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 metal, changing the makeup of it 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 blade 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. "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?"

"Morning, everyone!" The fire extinguisher had been refilled, nothing too weird or out of the ordinary was going on, and so it was a good day for blacksmithing! Of course, Amaya sort of figured any day was a good day for blacksmithing, but she was, clearly, eager to get going on today's task and see where they might end up. "Last week, of course, we took some time to review some of the basic blacksmithing techniques used when shaping your metal, and usually, for this class, we'll take that into making some daggers, but, since you've all got a bit of experience, we're going to step it up a notch, and focus on swords this session. Now, I'm sure I know what you're thinking. You're thinking...but Amaya! Aren't swords just daggers, but bigger? And the easy answer is...well, yes, kind of. But of course the easy answer isn't always the full answer, and working with swords means bringing in a whole new host of considerations and tricks tot he anvil, as you'll find out as we go along.

"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 points, 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 sword. Now, nice thing with a long piece is that you can hammer it pretty easily without needing to rely on tongs, but you'll definitely want those gloves. And then we'll be working on mostly just the tip, to form what kind of blade you want on your sword. If you want a particular shape, don't hesitate to mention it and I'll how you how to work that shape, but, for the most part, what I'll be showing you is just going to be your standard tapered tip. 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. By the end of the day today, we should have managed to work out something roughly sword-shaped, and next week, we'll go over what we do after that.

"Anything else you'd like me to go over before we start? Or should I just let you all get to work?"

"Well, everyone," said Amaya, with a nod, once it was time to get class started...and, subsequently, finished, for the semester, "today's our last class, so we'll be going over the three finishing steps of armor work, which is joining, polishing, and finishing. They're relatively simple concepts, so it shouldn't take too much time, and then it's pretty much your time to do what you need to do to get your pieces close to finished. Making a piece of armor's a bit more involve, in general, than the daggers we would have been making in a weapons-focused class, so if you find yourself still without much of a piece by the end of the class, don't worry about it too much. If you're set on finishing, you can always swing by and work on it here at the forge, I certainly don't mind, but, even if you don't, at least you'll be walking away from here with a few new techniques under your belt, whether you decide to pursue it further or not.

"Of course, any lingering questions you might have about the processes, the techniques, or even blacksmithing as a career or an art, I'll be happy to field those, too, but first, let's take a look at what's typically needed in the last stages, although, really, they're fairly self-explanatory by the name, so you probably know what's about to come up next."

Nothing quite like getting out of that summer heat by walking right into....more heat! Plenty of water available to everyone today, that was for sure, because they were probably going to need it. But Amaya, fairly unbotherewd by it and mostly just kind of in her element right now, was just going to get right into it today, because there was a lot to cover and a lot of work to be done.

( Cut for....well, cutting. )

"And that," she concluded, "is the basics for cutting, so I'll leave it to you guys to start getting a feel for it. As always, if there's questions, ask 'em now, but otherwise, let's get two of you on up there to get to work on the anvils and the rest of can either watch and learn or give the saws a try in the meantime."

"Morning, everyone," said Amaya, nodding to the class as they gathered in the shop and half-wondering if she was going to start having to move things over to the danger shop, just to have enough resources for everyone to work, but she was still a staunch believer that this was clearly preferable and, besides, she still didn't know how that would work out when the whole point was to have something solid and concrete to take with you at the end of class and if everything in the danger shop was just holographic...

...she was definitely trying not to think about it too much, because ow.

( Cut for Blacksmith Babble )

"Any questions? I'd like to go ahead and get the new people started on the anvil first, since those of you in the first session have a bit more of an idea of what we're working with here, and we'll go from there."

Was there a strange sort of mechanical legs apparatus wearing Amaya's socks from yesterday on a worktable in the corner of the shop that Thursday?

Yes. Yes there was.

Don't worry about it.

Amaya certainly wasn't, as she gave her gloves a tug and the class a nod to get them started on this week's lesson. "Morning, everyone. At this point, we should all have knives that actually resemble knives, and, with a little more sharpening, will probably work like knives, too, but we're not quite finished yet. Not unless you want a knife that's going to be less than pleasant to use by having a bare tang. Which is why today, we're going to be working on making some nice handles for our blades!

"Well," Amaya flashed them a faint grin, "we're going to get started on making some handles; it's a bit of a process, which is why the idea of squeezing a whole dagger project into just seven days, essentially, is a bit of a tall order.

"So! For the sake of the class and the beginner's nature of the whole thing, we're going to keep it very simple and work with wood. I've got a few types here for you to choose from, all of it either hardwood or what's called stabilized wood, which is wood that has been dried and hardened with a variety of chemicals. If you need help choosing, I can break down the benefits of the different types we have here, but they're all good choices, and, at this point, it'll mostly be about aesthetics more than anything else.

"Once you've picked out your wood, we'll get started! First thing you'll want to do, obviously, is measure out what you'll need against the tang--that's what we call the handle part, remember--of your knife..." So Amaya broke down all the dimensions and cutting they'd need to take at first...and then the measuring and cutting they'd need to do after that...and then the measuring and cutting they'd have to do after that, until they had a nice block of wood that had plenty of room still to work with that would match the tang nicely.

"Once you're at that point, you'll be boring some holes into your wood to create a nice little niche for the tang to fit into. Of course, with the drill," all hand, by the way, no power tools in this workshop!, "you're going to create a circular hole, but you've got a rectangular tang, so with the help of a nice serrated broach to carve out our space. And this is the part where you have to be careful, because it's a lot of work, but you've got to get it just right, and if you don't? Well! Back to the woodblocks, and it's a good thing we've got a lot of 'em, because it definitely does take some doing!

"Once you actually do have a good fit," Amaya said, reaching for one she prepared earlier so that they wouldn't all be waiting on her drilling and carving, "you'll have this," she held up the dagger blade stuck into the large block of wood, "ridiculous looking thing. Obviously, a lot of this is going to be cut away to make for a more reasonable handle. Which hopefully we'll get to before we leave today, depending on how well you all manage your holes." No, she didn't hear it. "I'll definitely check your fit before we continue with that part, though, and then we'll go over how to check exactly where we'll need to carve, and then we'll get to cutting! And that should bring us to the end of our day and we can get to fancying it up next week.

"Any questions or anything to go over before I let you all get started?"

Between the kraken drill and dragging the Crumbler to it and then back again afterwards, followed by the necessary repairs because, while it had been made with rough country roads in mind, it had not been designed for stairs, Amaya'd crashed early yesterday and she'd crashed hard, which meant, come Thursday, she was well-rested and eager to get to work and also hopefully get to ignoring things that weren't work. The forge was nice and toasty and ready when the class came in, exactly the sort of thing you'd want on a hot summer day, and the tools were spread out and waiting.

"Morning, everyone," Amaya greeted them with a nod. "By now, for the most part, we should mostly have the basic shape of our knives hammered out from last week. If you still need a little more with the shape of it," because last week you had been perhaps, oh, a bit distracted for some odd reason, "that'll be a good warm up. But today's class is going to focus on refining that shape and sharpening it up nicely with the use of files. Now, more often than not, a blacksmith is likely to use something like the grindstone over there," she hitched her thumb toward that trusty piece of equipment in question, "but since we're focusing on the basics, it's good to know how to really get in there and do it more manually. When you're doing the filing itself, you're more likely to learn how the metal responds to different movements and pressure, even different sharpness and grain in the file itself, and you're just not going to get that kind of precision with a grindstone. It'll take more time, but, well, most good things do, don't they?"

Amaya cleared her throat a little there (fine time for a frog to find itself in there, eh?), and then took a moment then to go over a few different kinds of files and made her recommendations for which one they consider using based on what they're trying to do, as well as a little bit about proper storage and maintenance, because taking care of your tools was just as, if not more important, than taking care of your blades. Then, it was on to showing them how best set a clamp on their worktable, which would help them immensely in keeping the knife still and in place. "Sure," she said, "you can try holding it with one hand and file with the other, but you're not going to have a very good time of it. Keeping the piece steady and solid while you work is essential to getting those nice smooth and sharp lines on your blade that you're going to want.

"And now, finally, onto the filing! Come on in a little closer and have a look at how I'm doing it before you start on your own. It's essentially pretty simple, and just requires a lot of attention to detail." And as she went into detail about how and where to start and why, how to clean it up as you move along, showing how different files would yield different results, and just pointing out how the metal changed as she worked.

"It looks simple," she told them, after she figured she'd gone through most of what she could; you could only tell so much before doing became the better teacher, "but I'm sure you'll find, once you get started, that's a bit of a deception. But the only way to know for sure is to get at it, so I'm going to stop talking and let you guys give it a go on your pieces. The forge is ready if you need to do a little more shaping, but if you're satisfied with what you've got, then we'll get to filing. Don't hesitate to ask any questions as you're working through it, either, especially if you feel you may have messed up somewhere along the line; thing with filing is, it's easy to make a mistake, but it's not difficult to set it right again if you know how.

"So," another nod, and Amaya pounded her fist into her palm as her general go-to-and-get-at-'em gesture, "let's get to it. We'll want these all nicely filed up and shaped out for the next step for the next class."

"Well, now!" It was a much more focus, far less yawny, almost bright eyed and bushy tailed Amaya that greeted the members of the class that managed to make it into the forge that day, in a rather sharp contrast to last week. They still had a lot to go over that day, and she was eager to get to it, so she wasn't going to waste any more time.

"Hopefully," she said, "you've all had a chance to actually rest up a bit since our last meeting, and, if not? Well, then, this time, at least, it's your own damn fault. Last week, we went over the basic tools, but I know it was a rough one for a lot of us, so if you want me to go over anything again, just let me know. Otherwise, we'll get right into the good stuff.

( The Good Stuff )

She then held out the last bit of metal with the fanned-out end for them to see and set down the hammer, swiped the back of her wrist against her sweaty forehead, and grinned. "There's many, many more techniques ahead to learn, but those are the basic ones that'll give you a good start and provide a solid base for most of what you'd be doing at a blacksmith's forge. And I know that was a lot of talking, and, if any of you are like me, talking's not nearly as good for learning as actually doing is. So today, we're going to go ahead and give those techniques a try and you can see which ones feel more natural and which ones might take some doing. I've got extra rods in the forge right now, so we'll take turns, and I want you each to spend a little time striking the rod and trying to get one of the techniques we discussed: give a try at drawing, tapering, bending, upsetting, or spreading. Your choice. And, if we have time, we can cycle through some of the others.



"Also," she added, "I noticed since last week, a few pieces have gone a bit...missing. Now, it's Fandom, so the fact that they actually could have just wandered off is perfectly possible, but if anyone," she emphasized the word heavily and surely it was pure coincidence that she was staring just as heavily at one particular student in an adventurer's cap when she said it, "knows anything about that...."

The pause was so long that one might have almost thought she'd finished the sentence early, but just as it started to get a bit odd, she concluded, "after class. In the meantime, this metal ain't going to draw, taper, bend, upset, or spread itself! Who'd like to go first?"

"Morning, everyone," Amaya greeted the class with her standard nod, her little crooked smirk. "Welcome to your last class in blacksmithing! I mean, unless any of you are interested in pursuing any of this further, in which case, you know where to find me, I'll be happy to help. Today's going to be pretty simple, we'll just be putting the finishing touches on those handles and those blades, sharpening them up and maybe, if you're feeling inclined, giving them a few tests with the targets and dummies I've got set up in that corner of the shop.

"Today's also a day," she added, "where, if you want to just sort of get back to the meat of the art and just hammer out some metal and see what you get, practice your different edges or what have you, I'm all here for it. Basically, this class if for you to really hone what you'd like to take away from your time here. So, with that, grab your gear and let's get going!"

"Morning, everyone," Amaya greeted the class with a nod and a readying pound of her fist into her palm to indicate that they'd be getting right into things. "At this point, we should all have knives that actually resemble knives, and, with a little more sharpening, will probably work like knives, too, but we're not quite finished yet. Not unless you want a knife that's going to be less than pleasant to use by having a bare tang. Which is why today, we're going to be working on making some nice handles for our knives!

"Well," Amaya flashed them a faint grin, "to get started on the handles, anyway."

It was a process!

"So! For the sake of the class and the beginner's nature of the whole thing, we're going to keep it very simple and work with wood. I've got a few types here for you to choose from, all of it either hardwood or what's called stablized wood, which is wood that has been dried and hardened with a variety of chemicals. If you need help choosing, I can break down the benefits of the different types we have here, but they're all good choices, and,a t this point, it'll mostly be about aethetics more than anything else.

"Once you've picked out your wood, we'll get started! First thing you'll want to do, obviously, is measure out what you'll need against the tang--remember, that's the term for the handle part!--of your knife..." So Amaya broke down all the dimensions and cutting they'd need to take at first...and then the measuring and cutting they'd need to do after that...and then the measuring and cutting they'd have to do after that, until they had a nice block of wood that had plenty of room still to work with that would match the tang nicely.

"Once you're at that point, you'll be boring some holes into your wood to create a nice little niche for the tang to fit into. Of course, with the drill," all hand, by the way, no power tools in this workshop!, "you're going to create a circular hole, but you've got a rectangular tang, so with the help of a nice serrated broach to carve out our space. And this is the part where you have to be carefully, because it's a lot of work, but you've got to get it just right, and if you don't? Well! Back to the woodblocks, and it's a good thing we've got a lot of 'em, because it definitely does take some doing!

"Once you actually do have a good fit," Amaya said, reaching for one she prepared earlier so that they wouldn't all be waiting on her drilling and carving, "you'll have this," she held up the dagger blade stuck into the large block of wood, "ridiculous looking thing. Obviously, a lot of this is going to be cut away to make for a more reasonable handle. Which hopefully we'll get to before we leave today, depending on how well you all manage your holes. I'll definitely check your fit before we continue with that part, though, and then we'll go over how to check exactly where we'll need to carve, and then we'll get to cutting! And that should bring us to the end of our day and we can get to fancying it up next week.

"Any questions or anything to go over before I let you all get started on your handles?"

"Morning, class!" Amaya greeted her bold little blacksmithing bunch with the usual good cheer you'd expect from a woman who had actual paying projects in her life once again and now was taking a break to spread a little bit of her knowledge before getting right back into it.

"Now that we've got our basic knife shapes hammered out, today's class is going to focus on refining that shape and sharpening it up nicely with the use of files. Now, more often than not, a blacksmith is likely to use something like the grindstone over there," she hitched her thumb toward it, "but since we're focusing on the basics, it's good to know how to really get in there and do it more manually. When you're doing the filing itself, you're more likely to learn how the metal responds to different movements and pressure, even different sharpness and grain in the file itself, and you're just not going to get that kind of precision with a grindstone. It'll take more time, but, well, most good things do, don't they?"

She took a moment then to introduce the students to a few different kinds of files and made her recommendations for which one they consider using, as well as a little bit about proper storage and maintenance, because taking care of your tools was just as, if not more important, than taking care of your blades. Then, it was on to showing them how best set a clamp on their worktable, which would help them immensely in keeping the knife still and in place so they can do the best job they could. "Sure," she said, "you can try holding it with one hand and file with the other, but you're not going to have a very good time of it. Keeping the piece steady and solid while you work is essential to getting those nice smooth and sharp lines on your blade that you're going to want.

"So, wouldn't you know it?" she couldn't help a faint grin. "You might have been onto something with your tongs there, last week, Beaker."

Amaya, please don't actually encourage him...

:But now! Onto the filing! Come on in a little closer and have a look at how I'm doing it before you start on your own. It's essentially pretty simple, and just requires a lot of attention to detail." And as she went into detail about how and where to start and why, how to clean it up as you move along, showing how different files would yeild different results, and just pointing out how the metal changed as she worked.

"Now, it looks simple," she told them, after she figured she'd gone through most of what she could; you could only tell so much before doing became the better teacher, "but I'm sure you'll find, once you get started, that's a bit of a deception. But the only way to know for sure is to get at it, so I'm going to stop talking and let you guys give it a go on your pieces. Don't hesitate to ask any questions as you're working through it, either," and she nodded in acknowledgement and appreciation for the fact that there'd been no shortage of that in this class thus far, which was honestly amazing, "especially if you feel you may have messed up somewhere along the line; thing with filing is, it's easy to make a mistake, but it's not difficult to set it right again if you know how.

"So let's get to it. We'll want these all nicely filed up and shaped out for the next step for the next class."

"'Morning, everyone," Amaya said, nodding to the students as they gathered in the Forge, with a bit of a wry grin, because if the roster was anything to go by, this was going to be one interesting class!

She was just glad her stint at Turtle & Canary taught her a thing or two about solid insurance policies!

"Glad you found the place. If you haven't been here already, welcome to Blackstone Foundry and Forge, Fandom Island's very own traditional blacksmith shop. And I'm the blacksmith, Amaya Blackstone, which you all already knew. And some of you are already familiar with this whole set-up here, but, for the sake of those who are a little newer and for having all our ducks in a row, let me give you a little overview."

'Little.'

( Amaya Blackstone talks about Blacksmithing, aka Please to Enjoy this Novel about Blacksmithing. )

She then held out the bit of metal with the fanned-out end for them to see and set down the hammer, grinning a little at them. "There's many, many more techniques ahead to learn, but those are the basic ones that'll give you a good start. And I know that was a lot of talking, and, if any of you are like me, talking's not nearly as good for learning as actually doing is. So today, we're going to go ahead and have you get a little bit familiar with the basic elements, the forge, the hammer, and the anvil. To save time, I've got extra rods in the forge right now, so we'll take turns, and I want you each to spend a little time striking the rod and trying to get one of the techniques we discussed: give a try at drawing, tapering, bending, upsetting, or spreading. Your choice. And then we'll see how you did. Who'd like to go first?"

"Morning, class!" Amaya greeted her bold little blacksmithing bunch with the sort of good cheer you'd expect from a woman who was just all too pleased to have her shop back to normal again, with perhaps the faint hint of a desperate plea buried deep in there somewhere for it to just stay that way. It was almost a shame, really, that today's class wouldn't even be using the forge, but it was an important step that couldn't be skipped or glossed over, so it was what it was.

And she'd just keep her fingers crossed for next week.

"Now that we've got our basic knife shapes hammered out, today's class is going to focus on refining that shape and sharpening it up nicely with the use of files. Now, more often than not, a blacksmith is likely to use something like the grindstone over there," she hitched her thumb toward it, "but since we're focusing on the basics, it's good to know how to really get in there and do it more manually. When you're doing the filing itself, you're more likely to learn how the metal responds to different movements and pressure, even different sharpness and grain in the file itself, and you're just not going to get that kind of precision with a grindstone. It'll take more time, but, well, most good things do, don't they?"

She took a moment then to introduce the students to a few different kinds of files and made her recommendations for which one they consider using, as well as a little bit about proper storage and maintenance, because taking care of your tools was just as, if not more important, than taking care of your blades. Then, it was on to showing them how best set a clamp on their worktable, which would help them immensely in keeping the knife still and in place so they can do the best job they could. "Sure," she said, "you can try holding it with one hand and file with the other, but you're not going to have a very good time of it. Keeping the piece steady and solid while you work is essential to getting those nice smooth and sharp lines on your blade that you're going to want.

"And now, onto the filing! Come on in a little closer and have a look at how I'm doing it before you start on your own. It's essentially pretty simple, and just requires a lot of attention to detail." And as she went into detail about how and where to start and why, how to clean it up as you move along, showing how different files would yeild different results, and just pointing out how the metal changed as she worked.

"Now, it looks simple," she told them, after she figured she'd gone through most of what she could; you could only tell so much before doing became the better teacher, "but I'm sure you'll find, once you get started, that's a bit of a deception. But the only way to know for sure is to get at it, so I'm going to stop talking and let you guys give it a go on your pieces. Don't hesitate to ask any questions as you're working through it, either, especially if you feel you may have messed up somewhere along the line; thing with filing is, it's easy to make a mistake, but it's not difficult to set it right again if you know how.

"So let's get to it. We'll want these all nicely filed up and shaped out for the next step for the next class."

Assuming, of course, they could have a class next week...

[[ocd is up!]]

"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.

( CW: Sword Polishing. )

"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! ]]

"'Morning, everyone," Amaya said, nodding to the students as they gathered in the shop, feeling a swell of pride over the whole fact that she was holding a blacksmithing class, of all things! It was a little surreal, really, thinking of this small handful of people here to learn the trade from her, but, zounds, did it feel great, too. "Glad you found the place. Welcome to Blackstone Foundry and Forge, Fandom Island's very own traditional blacksmith shop. And I'm the blacksmith, Amaya Blackstone. The fellow back there," she hitched a thumb toward the half-orc, "is my apprentice, Fjord. He's still learning, too, but if there's any questions and I'm already tied up helping someone else, he'll likely be able to offer his two-cents, and that there," she nodded to tall blonde, "is Yang, she's my TA, she's here to help, too.

( Amaya Blackstone talks about Blacksmithing, aka Please to Enjoy this Novel about Blacksmithing. )

[[ocd is incoming up! have at it!]]