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A lawless town of anarchists, built on the ruins of an ancient mining city. [Lore]
It was the second day of working for the Brothers Grim... erh the Carver brothers. He was tired and sore from a day out in the woods, and his muscles ached from the fall from his horse, but he wasn't about to let that stop him from coming back. He'd gone out to get an opinion of Tua and his status among the Sunberthans, and realized he wasn't a man to cross. But, Noth needed the money. So he figured he had to at least continue trying to work to gain some to pay off the 'debt' of sorts.
When he arrived, Noth was ushered to a small corner of the workshop, and motioned towards a list with a set of instructions and several toolkits for the days work, including a sewing kit, a leatherworking kit, the same tool bag he had used the previous day before in the forests. Taking a look around he saw several other machines, including a foot powered grinding stone, and several other whetstone types for the sharpening.
But in the center of all the orderly chaos; his attention was drawn most to a small rolled up parchment with a card standing in front of it. The card had his name on it, spelled out in rough blocky letters of common, actually two with one crossed out, and his written on top. There was also a peculiar red mark in the upper right corner which didn't look like any ink Noth knew about. With a bit of trepidation, Noth unfurled the note and began to read.
Note :
Antar,
Congratulations on passing your first day and actually coming back for more punishment. We have a few things for you today but we'll be out of the shop for the most of it so we'll be relying on you to make your own way. A woodsman or a carver, is nothing without their tools, so it's required to keep them in good shape. Otherwise, you'll end up having problems.
So the first task you have: is to sharpen and clean your tools from yesterday. Some of them were a right mess from the last user's guts after he tried to attack me. After you're done cleaning them, and not before, look in the box to your left for some more instructions. ~The C & C brothers
P.S. We don't like blood all over the workshop so be careful you don't hurt yourself!!!! Sharpening instructions for each tool are on a card tied to each of them. And wear the gloves!
Placing the tattered bit of parchment down Noth's brow furrowed as he took up the the pack and placed it on the table. Figuring he might as well try for sharpening the largest tools first he rummaged inside the large leather bag for his woodsman's axe. After a moment Noth found what he was searching for and saw the small instruction card tied up to it by a leather strap and began to read.
"I am the Shadow and the smoke in your eyes, I am the ghost that hides in the night." ~Back, but slow.
With the axe set in front of him on the table, Noth looked carefully at the direction card. Reading the steps and memorizing them as he could. Apparently there was some useful tips and tricks as well as other tidbits of advice stenciled in neat calligraphy that warned of a few things.
For instance a tool with a sharp edge would last much longer, be safer, and require less energy in its use then one with a course edge. However, over sharpening a tool might lead to too fine an edge that was extremely narrow which would quickly wear with use. To create the sharpest of blades, the cutting edge would be extremely narrow, like a razor blade, and this was undesirable over the long term. For the task he’d need a one of the three files(or grafts) from the pack the brothers lent him, the bastard file to be exact.
It was a straight graft type which was the oddball of all straight grafts, being in the middle of the better known coarse or fine files in the cut of the metal and that’s why it was termed with such a descriptor.
Ever mindful of the previous warning of wearing gloves, Noth looked around to search for them, finally spotting them hanging upon the wall on a hook. It took some time to don a rough looking pair, and began the slow process of inching them onto his hands. The previous owner had possessed smaller hands it seemed. But Noth didn’t think he’d miss them if he went after one of the carver brothers before-hand. So with shaking such thoughts from his mind, Noth knew it was time to get to work.
Moving the edge of the table, Noth slowly unwound the vise. It was a rather rusty one compared to the rest in the shop and the squeaking it gave off was like nails on a chalkboard. But at least it still worked. When there was an inch and half gap of space, Noth placed the axehandle into the recess. With care his muscles strained a bit to begin the tightening process as the steel clamps bit down softly onto the wooden hilt, anchoring it in place with the axe blade itself staying level about six inches off the table’s edge.
Taking the bastard file, Noth slowly began to work his way into the metal. Sharpening against the grain from the top of the axe head down upon angle as fine metal dust began to gather upon the blade’s edge. Every so often he would wipe the tips of his gloved fingers against the steel just below the edge to remove the granulated dust coating gained from the filing process. He did this for one side, for a minute, being sure to get the angle just right, as a five degree reduction in angle either way would make a lot of difference and Noth didn’t want the blade getting too hot in the process.
At the end of every stroke he lifted the file of the blade and began anew, always working from one side upon the left face for a moment and then repeating the process on the right. Every five strokes wiping the residue away to reveal the now burnished edge. For the last stroke of the bastard file, he sharpened the blade a single time on the left, and then the right to complete the edge before reaching for a round whetstone.
It was an oiled soft stone, and perfect for the job. Following the card’s instructions he created small circular motions with the stone itself three times each side until the edge was just sharp enough to flake off portions of the stone. Each stroke sounded like the soft scrubbing of an iron brush on dishes, but soon it was over after a final step of going once over on each side of the axe head. A customary dusting off with one of the many rags which dotted the shop made the task of sharpening the woodsman's axe complete.
Loosening the vise, he took care picking up the sharpened tool to transport it to a table behind him as he settled on picking up the next item. It was his regular axe, and this one he followed much of the same steps. In short order placing it to rest besides its fellows before the hatchets were sharpened, each one slightly to a less degree then the axes as he was told hatchets were used for shearing off the bark of cork oak in their harvests, amongst a myriad of other uses. Too sharp of an edge and the hatchets would sink to deep in the wood and the tree would not regrow its bark. The cork oaks of the forest were only capable of being harvested every eight to ten years and he was told to say if he spotted any. Cork was valuable, from wine stoppers to luxury furniture, to lightweight strips that added more flexibility and rainproofing to composite bows and other weapons.
Soon he came to the knives and the bill hook, but scratched his neck a moment as he felt a crink beginning to develop from being wholly absorbed in his task. Deciding to take a short break, Noth got up to stretch to get a swig from his drinking flask before returning to the worktable to sit upon the bench once more.
"I am the Shadow and the smoke in your eyes, I am the ghost that hides in the night." ~Back, but slow.
Noth stared a moment at the bill hook in front of him. It was a large affair, roughly twenty to twenty three inches in length with a slightly curved edge upon the end. It was a shearing knife, and held quite a bit of weight to the blade, roughly two the three pounds, but in essence it was just a big knife to him.
Next to it lay a pair of clippers, and another shorter shearing blade used for the pruning of branches. But all of them followed the same principles of sharpening a knife.
Knife sharpening was a little bit trickier in its use. Unlike axes, you always sharpened a knife with the grain of the metal. Normally with a coarse water, or oil based stone first to get out the chinks and dings in the metal before honing the sharper edge with a finer stone. As he began, he actually figured out axe sharpening to be a bit easier as knives, being of a thinner breadth of metal tended to get hotter as one stroked the edge over the sharpening stone and that brought about its own problems which the rogue soon found out.
Heat between a stone and a metal blade had its own inherent danger- together they created sparks. Sparks hot enough to burn one's hands if they weren't careful, though with heat came malformation of the blades edge you just spent so hard working to hone. So the entire process became a balancing act of what both his eyes, nose , and touch could tell him.
At the slightest hint of an acrid stench wafting to his nostrils, Noth wet down the stones as he could. Some with water from the shop barrel and others with a drop or two of oil. Even the blades, he dabbed a bit of water upon as an cooled blade was far less likely to spark. Each time he stroked the various knife blades away from him, just as if he was whittling a piece of wood.
First the bill hook, locked in the vise's grip, as he file stroked out the dings and followed with a coarse stone before a fine. As a longer blade, it posed a significant problem and Noth warily progressed the stone across the blade, each time keeping his body and hands away from the edge. Unlike a normal knife, one had to move the stone to the blade, instead of the blade to the stone. But eventually, with careful perseverence he had completed his task to let it join the growing layout of tools on the table behind him.
For the smaller knives and tools, worked to sharpen them upon the worktable's surface, laying the right whetstones flat for the job. By resting the knife on the edge of the stone he eyeballed them for the correct angle. Visualizing in his head a fourty five degrees and taking half of that. Over time, he slowly began to adjust on the fly, up or down as he brought the length of the edge along the stone's surface, causing dust to skirt upon the blade. Each stroke, starting at the heel of the knife and ending with the point in a sweeping arc. Then he did the same for the other side, going through each of the steps as carefully as the first before brushing off the dust with the rags.
Lastly it was the clippers turn, and slowly he worked both sides of the shears. Sharpening each of the blades differently. One at an inverted angle from right to left, and the other at an opposite angle. This allowed the metal of the sheers to meet in the middle. A difficult, and time consuming job.
Finally when all was finished and he had worked his way through all the edged tools, each one set in its proper place on the table behind him it was down to the last tools on the list, and the one's he'd been using the most: his files. Taking a gander at the card his eyes narrowed as he read and reread the instructions, starting with the giant words saying: "STOP. If you wish- you can sharpen your sword and daggers for yourself as a bonus..."
That was honestly what it said, but the main reason he re read it three times was that the process seemed a might scary to him as the next words were, "Warning. Sharpening files requires the use of ACID to complete successfully and safely. We'll show you this process later as it is also a part of etching. Something we use for name plating a few quivers and crests for our furniture for special clients." Taking a bit time to think, he lay down on the workbench and pondered what to do. He finally opted on doing exactly what the note said, and take the time to sharpen his sword, and dagger.
The kukri knife was easy for the most part, save that the inner most edge required the use of the finest oil stone and it was the first time he'd reoiled such a stone. The gladius on the other hand was exactly as difficult as the bill hook as he vised it into place. Thanking the gods for his patience, Noth slowly worked out the chinks and dents with the file as the steel's edge became burnished and glossy. He followed the files use almost reverently with the stone, using small circular motions like he had on the axe heads before as he sharpened the entire length of the curved edge. Each time he finished from hilt to tip he wiped off the stonedust. Once or twice backing away suddenly to sneeze. A final sharpening pass of the oilstone lent his gladius a sharper edge then he had seen before, yet still he judged it sturdy enough to bear the brunt of sword against sword.
With the sharpening tasks done, Noth decided it best to clean up the workspace, and so he did, placing everything back in its proper space before sweeping up the stone dust on the floor with the broom and wiping the table down with a rag.
When he was done, the rogue's eyes traversed down to the crate below the table, the box he was told only to look at after he had finished the tasks that had been set to him. It was getting late, but curiousity got the best of him as Noth reached down to pick the crate up to place it on the tabletop. Examining it's contents he noticed it was full of several patches of raw leather, and a parchment with that same crossed off name, and his own above it drew his attention. With a bit of care, Noth reached for the scrap of paper and began to unfurl its edges.
"I am the Shadow and the smoke in your eyes, I am the ghost that hides in the night." ~Back, but slow.
Pressing the bit of parchment down flat upon the table, Noth began to read.
The Second Note :
Antar,
Congratulations on completing the first task we assigned to you today: did you do everything right?
We hope so, because we’ll be checking later. As for now,: it’s time to prove you’re serious about learning ‘everything’ and anything. So for now you’ll see on the table several kits you’ll need to do something for us: Make sheathes for all your tools.
The last thing I ever want to see on an axe blade of yours is dirt from the ground again, so store them in sheathes! You’ll also notice in this box there’s another set of instructions, and the sewing and leatherworking kits have useful pages as well showing a few basic stitcheries. Now remember: be careful. Sincerely,
The Carver Brothers.
P.S. Chalk is in the bucket in the back of the workshop. Brass lock screws are in the bin. Don’t use them as replacements for stitches, they’re meant to help brace the sheathe to strengthen it overall. Be careful now to not prick your fingers: we don’t want blood all over the shop, remember?
A look at the list noted he'd need a few tools, chalk, which he got from the back. While in the storeroom he noted several other useful things such as liniment, and a glassen flask of honey, as well as several rags cut for bandages. It just went to show that the brothers were prepared for any eventuality which involved a work related injury and Noth truly hoped that he'd never be in need of the supplies. Returning to the shop floor, he unfurled the leatherworking kit and took a gander at the tools.
The leather puncher which was stored in the leathermaking kit was a must. He already possessed a sharp blade for cutting, and a set of scissors. To round out the ensemble of tools there was the needle and thread from the sewing kit. Gathering each one up in turn he set them neatly to the side of the work area and pondered which tool to sheathe first. Figuring he might as well keep things in order , Noth turned towards the table with the laid out tools he brought the woodsman's axe back to the table and laid it flat upon the surface. Digging out the two instruction notes, the rogue sat back to read as he considered how to start.
The first thing he did was lay out two pieces of hard leather scraps from the crate and compare it to the axe head itself. He wanted two sizeable cuts that would give him at least ¾’’ of an inch around the edge completely and stretch back to the hilt. They didn’t have to be exact, as he read that he could always cut them down later. Taking the chalk he drew a boxlike flap on one piece of the leather and began to cut out the section using the scissors. Pressing down and clipping the edges across the line produced a clean fine cut which he trimmed with the inner edge of his kukri knife. Soon he had one of the leather pieces cut and ready.
To make the second it was a simple matter of using the chalk to highlight the outer edge and follow the same steps: scissors then trimming. Laying the two pieces atop each other he looked carefully at how they’d line up with the axe blade and made his first hole in the leather with the leatherpuncher.
He followed this with three more holes, before taking up the brass screwplate. With a bit of force he inserted them into the allotted holes upon both the back and the front side of the two leather pieces, locking them together with a screwdriver. When it was finished he cut a leather strap from an old belt and wound it around the place where the handle met the blade, and secured it back to the leather sheathe in the making with a buckled clasp.
He wasn’t proficient in leatherworking, not at all, but he seemed pleased that he had made a rough scabbard for each by following some simple directions. Leaning into the task of sheathing the tools, Noth soon had every one of the axes with a rough leather protector all by following the same steps. From then on it was just a matter of sewing things shut a little easier.
Taking out the needle and thread, he grabbed the instruction card to read it over a bit. Following the diagram, he looped the thread about his finger, encircling it in order to tie a small knot.
This knot was said to be able to act as an anchor for the thread after he started stitchwork, so he was glad he got at least one thing right. Pushing the starting knot off his finger he then considered his next quandary. The sewing kit contained a small device used to thread the needle. But he didn't know how to use it. For a time he struggled by licking the end of the thread to try and loop it through the small hole at the end of the largest metal needle he had.
This was a self-defeating task, as all he did was end up getting more and more frustrated at not being able to thread the needle, and missing any sort of target was a horrible thing for an archer. Especially when the spit slickened thread was stubbornly refusing to find its way to its proper place. Grunting in frustration, Noth looked at the needle threader more closely, seeing it for what it was, a small bit of compressed wire, attached to a tiny leather tab. The wire itself was pressed flat, with two strands tight against each other.
Thinking things through he tried to thread the small device first, getting it on his second try to cause the wire to jut from the other end of the needle's hole. Spreading the threader's wire, he pushed through a good amount of thread through, bringing it back down towards the base of his palm to hold it together with the end. With careful precision, he pulled the threader back through the needle and was rewarded for his efforts when the thread followed in its wake.
Following the card, he tied another knot, this time in the thread around the base of the needle itself, using the sharp implement to guide the thread to form the anchor to the needle. It was his first time doing something like this, and he paid for his inexperience by sticking his fingertip with the sharpened point.
The rogue stopped for a few moments, sucking his finger and cursing as the iron tang of blood dripped on his tongue. But after a few moments, it was already finished scabbing. Taking the time as a break, Noth went outside to care for his horse, giving her a long draught of water. It was midday already, and he felt it was good to see to her needs as much as his own so he loosened the pull knot to release her from where she was tethered.
With Dawnstride nudging him from behind Antar made his way towards the nearby meadow to let her graze upon the springtime grass. If he was lucky, he might find something to fill his belly tonight. But his first sighting of the meadow was to no avail, and thus he made his way back after Dawnstride's teeth had chopped a few bushes bare.
Sitting back down at the workbench, Noth looked at the threaded needle and picked it up once more. It was hard pushing through the toughened leather hide, but he forced himself to concentrate soley upon the task. His somewhat obsessive nature forced him to be particular in his stitches, threading the line around the farthest edge of the axe sheathe to create a tight seam that mirrored the axe's form.
He skipped over the bill hoook to start with the smalles of the knives, and the scissors. Noth wanted to be sure he got the process down before attempting to create a sheathe over the large tool's curved blade. 'Who knew if he learned from this maybe he'd even make a scabbard for his weapons later down the line?'
"I am the Shadow and the smoke in your eyes, I am the ghost that hides in the night." ~Back, but slow.
With all the axes now sheathed with homemade but serviceable sheathes, he decided to skip over the billhook to make sheathes for the smaller knives.
Rough sheathing knives was a different matter altogether then sheathing axes. For starters, the edge of a knife stretched the entire length from the hilt. While one would fasten two of the brass screwplates at the top and the bottom of the scabbard to bolster the leather, it wasn’t setup like the screws upon an axe sheathe either. For instance, everything was made of a single piece of leather, curled over and pressed down for one to sew. As most knives were irregular shaped, so then their scabbards must be as well, cut from small rectangles with one side curled over and sewn to the exact length of the blade.
This was something that confused and perplexed Antar as he worked, drawing the outline of the knives edge for each tool upon the leather backing with the chalk before anchoring the rolled over top half together with another brass screw. With each measuring done, it took some time to work the leather into an accordance of being flexible, and even more time to constantly string and restring the thread upon the needle. More then once he once more pricked himself, and stopped only to rest a bit before picking up the task again. His stitchwork was improving as well, the spaces between smaller and tighter to close the fabric shut. He even experimented a bit with a blanket stitch to pull it all together. Each time starting after the anchor knot to place the needle in the inner area of the blanket stitch, bringing the point of the needle out at the edge of the fabric to loop it behind the point before pulling it back through the leather and bringing it up to loop the edge thread to turn about the leather’s edge. It was an easy stitch to learn, though keeping it steady was something Noth tried his best at keeping the stitches a uniform level apart. Finally, all the stitchwork for the knives were done. And the shearing scissors played out much the same way save with a larger base of leather.
It was getting very late in the day by this point, so Noth went for another breath of fresh air seeing the afternoon sun high in the sky. The brothers and the rest of the workers were wrapping up, but a small voice inside of him said not to stop until the job was completed. Just in case though, he watered his horse and checked the meadow again to see something to shoot. Spying nothing, he returned back to work. Back to the needles, back to the leather, and back to wearing the protective gloves as he began to work on a sheathe for the longest edged tool he had, the bill hook.
It was just like a giant knife blade, but the cut was upon an angle, forcing him to improvise with two larger pieces of scrap leather. This time he curled the leather in from both sides, causing them to meet in the middle where he punched the screwplates in all the way down the length of the blade in order to secure the scabbard properly. If he had left it like that it would have been fine for a few days, but Noth was never one to leave a job unfinished so he pulled the blade out and set it back upon the table next to his gladius and his kukri knife.
Time passed by quickly, with Noth losing all interest in anything except the work in front of him. Each stitch was viewed with a discerning stare as his eyes measured the space between them. This piece of leather work was the hardest he had ever attempted this day, even if it was rough. All he could do was try to combine the techniques of the stitches he’d learned before, and coupling them with a keen eye towards multiple threads. For the heavy weight of the blade meant he had to double stitch two lengths of thread down to the base of the scabbard. But finally it was done. It took him hours to make, as well as several curses as he pricked himself once more.
Placing the bill hook back into its new sheathe, Noth stepped back to view the tabletop with pride. Every tool had a holding piece of leather and was arrayed neatly in orderly rows. Sighing to himself, Noth glanced down at his fingertips, sore and red from the day’s work on top of the last. Antar possessed callouses as an archer, but he gained a newfound respect for seamstresses this day.
Thinking he might get one more done, Noth quickly set up a new strap for making a sheathe for his kukri knife and set about the task. He stayed that way for another half hour, making the stitching upon this as careful as he possibly could. Unsure of the time, he cut a larger swathe of leather for the gladius’ sheathe, confident that he could improve upon the last bit of work he’d done throughout the day.
Following every instruction from the get go, Noth finished in about twice the time as it took for him to sheathe the bill hook and by the time he was finished, a worker came in and told Noth to pack things up, which the rogue did by securing everything in the leather satchel he had originally taken them out of and placing the bag back in its proper place in the store room. Gathering up his Gladius and kukri, he made his way out he was told to come back the next morning, he’d be working as a sorter then. His job for the next day would consist of hauling wood off the wagons and sorting them into their proper berths by the wood’s type and length. He passed by one of the carver brothers who was standing in the doorway on the way out, the silent one who merely looked at him before he smiled slightly and nodded. With a smile in return, Noth ventured outside to where he had left Dawnstride tethered up to graze and he took one last look around the meadow for something he might get for the pot. This time a small glimmer of motion caught his eye in the high branches of the tree. Cursing his luck he thought it was the outline of a squirrel. ‘He hadn’t had much luck with squirrels.’ But a closer look showed differently.
‘It was a possum!’
Grabbing his Longbow, Noth settled his breathing and aimed upwards. Making a small adjustment for the distance and the wind, made Antar to wait for his shot as the beast climbed down to the lower branches. With his aim true, he released the bolt, not pluckingly letting go like most amateurs did but rather following through on the pull before letting his fingers slide off off the string itself to wind back behind his ear.
A slight gust of wind threw it off course to plunk into one of the lower boughs of the tree, missing the possum. But too his amazement, it dropped down to the ground and stopped moving. Knocking another arrow, he darted forwards, shooting again on the fly and this time the arrow struck true. Standing over the corpse, he could help but wonder what had happened.
After a few seconds of pondering, Noth finally came to the conclusion the possum, in its instincts, must have thought it best to play dead. It was a deadly mistake on the animal’s part, but a welcome one for his belly. Taking a knee, Noth drew his blade and eviscerated the animals dead organs, before taking a bit of rope to tie its paws. He’d boil it later when he got back to his camp and the meat was enough to sustain him a few more days.
Marching back to Dawnstride, he placed the saddle upon her and mounted up. It wasn’t the first time he’d been riding, and he remembered falling the day before. This time on the way back he remembered to keep the mare at a walk, and clench his butt cheeks to keep his balance better as he strove to move with the horse.
Dawnstride moved off as happy as she could be with a rider on her, and slowly the pair made their way back upon the roads. When the town of Sunberth came in sight, the pain in his own buttocks from being in the saddle became too much to bear so Antar dismounted painfully before stumbling a short ways as he walked bowlegged for a while.
At his camp he took the time to shelter his horse beneath half of a still standing building and stored the possum’s corpse into a satchel back. The rogue walked a good distance away the possum’s corpse high and roped it around a girder high above street level in order to preserve its chances of being around to clean it in the morning. He knew enough to never keep a fresh kill with him in his tent, it only would serve as an attractant to animals, especially any bears that wandered into the city limits. Turning back, he settled down for the night, stripping down to the waist before he wearily collapsed into his bedroll. His eyes were shut the moment his head hit the pillow.
~Fin.
Thanks for the read
1. A little bit of Work II 2. Cutters and carvers, 10th day of spring, 511 av 3. Just Antar 4. Skills evidenced in thread:
skills request :
Woodcutting/woodworking: (sharpening of tools) Leatherworking: Sewing Whatever else you see Weapon Kukri: Weapon Longbow: This may be a recurring theme to try to shoot something at least once out in the woods each time Lores: Any you see about sharpening axes, knives, a gladius and a dagger. Following written directions, and borderline obsessed with perfection in one's work.
5.The second day of work arrives, prompting antar to the tasks of resharpening tools and creating rough leather sheathes for them.
"I am the Shadow and the smoke in your eyes, I am the ghost that hides in the night." ~Back, but slow.
Antar: XP Award: Leatherworking +5; Longbow +1; Riding +1 Lores: Coming Back for More; Following Directions; The Types of Edges; Sharpening (basic); Persistence Pays; Eviscerating a Cute Fuzzy.
Additional Notes: Good stuff, as always. I always enjoy the manner in which you describe actions.
