The next day, the next step in the process. The next step is to make the shape of the sword. From today's work, Rike will also observe. Samija, Deanna, and Liddy are working on the sword mold.
A dwarven sword is a very romantic story. I hope they can learn to make them.
Pyrotechnics is the process of heating and beating a piece of wood that is still only rectangular in shape into a long, thin pentagon. As a matter of course, one of the vertices of the pentagon becomes the cutting edge.
The opposite side of the pentagon is the ridge, and the two sides of the pentagon are the Shinogi areas. The blade is then heated about 10cm at a time and beaten to shape it.
After that, the stem, which is the part that fits inside the hilt, is shaped. The tip of the blade is also shaped by tapping the tip of the blade with a triangular shape. The cutting edge of the sword can be long or short, round or slightly straight, but this time I chose a round and short boar's neck cutting edge.
In the previous world, it is said that the shape of this area can generally tell you which period and which swordsmith it belongs to, but in this world, such things are irrelevant, and it is basically left to me to cheat based on my senses.
At this time, I have to make a certain amount of warpage, considering how much warpage will occur when I quench it later. I've had a lot of fun with the cheat, but I can see how great the sword smiths in the previous world did by making it myself.
As I worked on it, the shape of the sword I knew so well was completed. But of course it is not yet finished.
I waited for the whole thing to cool down, and then I heated it again. This time, the entire piece is heated at a lower temperature, not to the point of red-hot, and then cooled.
The iron oxide film on the surface is removed with a whetstone, and then the Shinogi-chi and Hira-chi (the flat area between the ridges) are hammered. This seems to tighten the blade and increase its cutting ability. ...... I'm not sure if this is true or not, because I'm using cheats.
When the work is finished, the sword is finally quenched ....... Even though the work is done with a cheat, the surface of the sword is uneven, no matter how big or small, because the hammer is hitting the metal.
The surface of the sword is made flat by shaving it with a file or a special tool (I don't have one, so I used a special model knife instead). Subtle distortions can also be corrected here. The border between the stem and the blade is also made at this stage.
The work of making the shape of the sword is now finally finished.
The clay used for the mold, whetstone powder, and charcoal powder are mixed together to make the baking clay. In the previous world, the mixture would have differed between workshops and craftsmen, but in my case, I left this part to the cheats.
Apply a thin layer of sintered clay to the entire blade. After the entire blade is covered with the sintered clay, the sword is now blackened. Now, here comes the most difficult part.
At the border between the areas that are quenched and those that are not, a mixture of different tissues appears as a hagebane. The shape of this pattern is determined by applying clay at this stage, and there are various shapes.
I won't go into the details, but basically my preference is for a straight blade with no wavy pattern, a slightly wavy pattern, or a more even pattern, so I'd have to go with one of those. .
Good.
I took a thin stick (made by splitting a piece of wood) to apply the searing clay to the blade. In fact, I should use a brush or something to make a rough sketch of the blade, but I leave this part to the cheat.
I told Rike that I would be using a brush here. I don't want him to be worried that he won't get it right when he tries to put down the clay.
This is how I finished applying the searing clay. The ridge side is thicker and the blade side is thinner. By doing this, the blade side is harder and the ridge side is softer, giving it more cutting power and durability.
I was thinking of finishing the quenching today, but it is already getting dark. The hardening itself will be tomorrow's treat.
We cleaned up the workshop and went outside to take care of Krull, who we hadn't been able to take care of before preparing dinner. Krull was a little sulky, but when Deanna and I petted him, he started running around in a good mood.