Solo [Sultros Blades] Customisations for flensing

[Eanos]

76 Summer, 513 AV, Sultros Blades It was not every day that a customer offered a challenge to the Isurian smith and even when it did happen it had never involved a challenge like this. The request as ever implied a degree of trust in the smith and his abilities which was always gratifying. In his experience Eanos had found that such requests came either from an experienced weapons user who knew exactly what he wanted or it came from a less experienced user who just knew that they wanted better than a standard weapon. In truth Eanos found it hard to imagine why anyone would use a weapon in a situation where their life might depend upon it and yet not choose every advantage that they could. Still though, this was a first because it was a class of weapon that a smith would rarely handle given that it did not involve the use of metal. He wasn’t unfamiliar with it though as he’d handled many types of weapon in his training as a smith. A whip was a delicate tool, far harder to master than those who had not attempted it imagined in his view. With most weapons the end went exactly where you pointed it, but a whip, well now it was closer to a projectile weapon in practice, but unlike those you got to use it again. For those who used shorter whips, particularly those who used multiple tailed whips, some chose to add weights or blades into the ends. With a longer single tail, this became problematic as it was the nature of the whip to curl as it was used, the end passing by the body as it accelerated and as a result adding something onto the end could affect the way that the whip worked, not to mention the risk of it fouling. These thoughts had run through his mind even as he’d accepted the challenge. ”Make it dangerous.” Indeed he could, but how would require some thought for the changes must not compromise the way that the whip worked. Of course, as with any change to a weapon, the owner would need to relearn the weapon and to adapt to the changes in the way if felt and worked, but these would be challenges for a later time. With the customer having left the shop, Eanos could settle down to some study of the weapon and to see how that drove ideas in his mind. The whip was old and had seen much service which spoke much for how well it’s crafter had cared for it. The leather was carefully bound over the handle which from it’s stiffness and yet lightness was likely of wood, or perhaps bone. He would find out in due course perhaps or perhaps not depending upon the decisions that he made. He followed down the length of the weapon where the leather was braided, checking the leather closely to ensure that there were no places where it was weakening or where a braid might have broken. The leather strips were tailored as they went so that along the eight feet of weapon it narrowed gradually towards the tail. The tail itself was three long strips so technically not a single tail he thought, but he who was not an expert in the nomenclature of whips refrained from calling it anything but as with all such whips the tips were designed to be replaceable as they were the one part that wore out with use.

[Eanos]

Eanos had spent some time in reflection, modifying the ideas which had come to mind and now had finalised them. The whip it seemed to him was not a weapon of war, but one of opportunity, and even then it was restricted in where it could be used. Clearly it needed an upgrade on the striking tips, the falls of the whip since there were no crackers. What was added needed to be flexible since this was the part of the whip which travelled the fastest. Damage came from speed not brute force, so it seemed to him that the addition of crackers would be an easy change. It was one that the owner would need to keep on top of though as the crackers would wear out. If the idea worked out then he could provide spares. That took care of improving the strike ability of the weapon as well as he could, so now he turned his attention to other issues. He knew from working with axes that as with this weapon they relied upon space in use. If an enemy came managed to work his way inside the strike arc of the axe then the weapon lost much of it’s effectiveness. For this reason axes often were modified so that they could be used effectively as studded clubs. It seemed reasonable to think that the same could be done here if he was careful. In use the back end of the handle was in a dead space for the user. Adding weight however would change the balance and potentially slow down the initial flick which the user relied upon. It would change the way that the weapon handled and certainly was going to cause the owner to relearn some of the instinctive handling. There was left just one more design element that had occurred to him with regards defencive ability and that was the issue where an enemy came inside the striking distance of the whip. When a whip was used the whip accelerated down it’s length, and was at it’s most dangerous only in a fairly small window of distance. There was a risk that a closer enemy could grab the whip and render it useless. There wasn’t a good solution to this, not without compromising the very way that the whip worked but he had an idea, one which relied upon the way that the whip was constructed. It would need careful testing to develop and see if it could work.

[Eanos]

He started with the simplest of the changes; the metal crackers. Ideally they needed to be flexible, but if not then they needed to be short so that they merely extended the existing falls. Fortunately he kept leather on hand for the covering of hilts and the like so basic leatherworking was not unknown to him, though he claimed no skill at it. Using the existing falls as a template he cut some new ones which he could use for the testing of his ideas. He wanted to try first with wire since it would have some ability to flex and there were two ways which came to mind. The simplest would be to use shorter but still thin wire, which wouldn’t follow the curve of the whip in striking but likely enough would be effective enough. The wires would quickly get bent though in use so a compromise would need to be made between stiffness and flexibility. The solution would likely enough be careful tempering so that the wire was springy but not brittle as opposed to being soft. The alternative was to use even thinner wire and braid it. This appealed to the aesthetic in Eanos matching as it did the construction of the whip and would have a better ability to flex. There was an issue with regards the wires becoming unbound, in fact it was almost inevitable considering the forces involved in the cracking never mind considering actual impact damage. He had in his stores some fine wire which he used for binding metal for soldering and welding, but also for the decoration of hilts and the like. It was not fine enough for the braiding but he cut some and put it aside for the testing while he stoked the forge up to heat and set the wire draw in the Hardy hole of his anvil. With such fine wire it would cool very quickly which made it harder to work, but he didn’t need that much and was prepared to reheat more than once if he needed to. He’d seen human smiths doing this work and it was one of the times when he could whole heartedly bless Izurdan for he could use both hands, the right albeit carefully and taking the yellow heated wire run it through the dies in the draw until it was reduced enough for what he wanted and he had enough with spare. With the newly drawn fine wires clamped in his vice it was simple enough to braid them, and he used a simple four part braid to keep it thin, resisting the temptation to merely twist the wires together. He kept going, needing to restart more than once as the braid didn’t sit tightly enough the first times and then he tied off the end which if left to it’s own devices would spring apart and unbraid, though this he hoped would be at least partly cured by the tempering for it would reset the internal structure of the wire into the new curved shape, something which was a key to his plans. Both the simple thicker wire and the new braid was subject to the same treatment. Heating until the internal crystals melted, a process made much more accurate by the use of his personal djed transformed so that he could watch the auras change,then left to cool by themselves. Then it was careful heating, lying in a pan of brass filings sat on an edge of the forge until the metal just went blue. He took them off and set them aside to cool once more while he turned his attention to the next part of the project.

[Eanos]

Now he came to the possibility of close defence, assuming that his solution to stop the whip tail being grabbed would help to prevent the whip being immobilised. Since he’d compared it to an axe in his mind it was simple enough to visualise the sort of spike which could sometimes be found on the end of an axe handle, providing the ability to stab, and perhaps that would also be useful against an attack from behind, something a whip user would be particularly vulnerable against. This sort of spike was not overly heavy so perhaps would not cause balance issues. With the solution in mind there was the question of attachment and indeed the question of just what was inside the whip handle. He rummaged in his leather working box and emerged with a fid which he used to lift a strip gently. It seemed to be wood and he kept his fingers crossed that it was strong enough to attach the spike to, otherwise he’d have to replace the whole handle. He made a close inspection of the knot which closed off the end of the whip, counting the bights and sketching the design on his parchment. Adding in the spike would change the design a little, so he dug out his notes on knots and went through until he found one that was similar enough to the existing one and reminded himself of how it worked. He measured the handle and whittled a wooden dowel to a slightly thicker width and using the template from his notes tapped in thin metal pins. This was not standard work for a smith, but weapons need handles and sometimes the smith needed to do the work himself, even if he could not do it as well as a leatherworker. He stropped his sharpest knife and then carefully cut a thong of similar width to that used in the knot from around the edge of a hide he kept aside for that purpose. With the thong and instructions to hand he sat at the bench, dowel locked in a vice and practised the knot. Only when he was confident and could redo it did he set his work aside and then, carefully locating the hidden ends, teased apart the knot from the end of the handle, returning it to it’s original thong. That allowed him to undo the leather wrapping from the handle and check the wood underneath, which fortunately was in good enough condition. The spike was simple enough to make, though the construction called for a delicate hand. The design was to be a spike with three bladed edges. The blades provided support for the centre allowing it to be as light as possible and with an external length of around six inches and intended to be smaller in diameter than the knot at the end of the handle, something of a vicious yet delicate item. It was very much a stabbing device and the knot should help prevent it going too deep and becoming lodged. Steel hissed softly in the flame of his forge as he first beat a bar into the right width, the gaps between the blades too tight for him to want to risk welds that might be weak. The chisel scored deep into the hot metal and with a combination of fine hammers and punches he opened out the gaps and roughly shaped the blades.

[Eanos]

A rough file showered further sparks onto the forge floor as the deign was roughly honed. Then it was time for the heating cycles, first bringing it up to heat then allowing it to cool into its new form. As it cooled he teased out a small amount of djed and reached into the aura of the metal, seeking flaws and watching as new crystals grew making the new shape a whole without flaw. Cooled, he refined the design with files, the most laborious part of the whole process for here was the chance to refine the errors of the making and to set the final shape and balance in place. He worked carefully to remove all of the forging marks and to leave the blades so that they just required the final sharpening. He’d had thoughts on how to attach the spike to the handle but in the end had decided on the most tried and tested approach so he also finished off the tang and punched through two holes for the rivets. The spike was heated, quenched and then tempered before he could do the final work on the blades, cleaning off the marks from the forge and bringing the edges of the blades down to their final sharpness. Delicate but strong was his aim, but he also bore in mind that it must not also be a danger to the wielder. Fitting was the final stage and one to be done as carefully as any other. He cut a slot in the handle for the tang and drilled holes for the rivets. Each stage followed the ancient mantra of measure twice and cut once. Rivets hammered tight, the holes were filled with dowels which in turn were filed smooth to the level of the handle so that with the leather over no one would ever know that they were there. The leather was carefully rewrapped around the handle and secured with a thong awaiting the knot. He checked the leather thong from the old knot for wear and stretch and then remade the knot on his wooden dowel, wrapping between the metal pins, under and over the other thongs as indicated on his pattern. Satisfied that he had the pattern right, he removed the pins and slipped the loosely woven knot off the dowel and carefully eased it over the spike. In place he checked it carefully and then slowly pulled it tight, easing the thong through the pattern with his fid, making sure that it made a tight seal around the base of the spike, overlapping the small flange he’d created there so that the spike and knot would sit together neatly. The final tightenings were made on the knot, the ends trimmed and carefully tucked back in so that they disappeared into the weave and the spike was done.

[Eanos]

The final part of the design was to find a way of avoiding the whip being grabbed and yet not interfere with the way it worked. It was a very tricky proposition and he’d left it to the last to give his mind the longest possible time to mull over the possibilities. His first thoughts had been to use the braiding to insert small blades on a strip into the gaps, but clearly this wouldn’t work. He liked the idea of using a lightly curved blade as the blunt outer curve could be used to slide them into the leather without risking any cutting, but a sharp point, somewhat like a fish hook would rip into anything that attempted to grip and either pull or resist a pull. Actual hooks though would not work as he most certainly didn’t want to attach things to the whip. The idea was still not fully formed in his mind but he felt that he was closer now and once more setting the parchment on his desk started to sketch. Whatever the design, each blade would need to be custom made because each would need to be sized to the width of the whip at the point it was inserted. If the blade were too long then it risked catching another blade as the ‘U’ from the strike made it’s way down from the handle to the tip, especially when the counter pull of the whip back accelerated it and tightened the curve. Having ruled out strips of blades he was left with single blades or ones which fitted right through the whip and so had a blade on each side of the leather. He was drawn to the idea of the double blade and so laid the whip out in front of him and with his fid worked his way carefully along the whip testing the braid and core to see how well it would work. He could see an issue with risking damage as the blade was inserted, though that could be minimised by sharpening that end properly after insertion. The drawback to the design however was that it would be impossible to mass produce the blades, each one would have to be customised so that it fitted exactly the width of the whip at that point. It was too much work and so he discarded the idea. It left him with single blades somehow attached, but he’d had an idea in mind for this which had been growing as he’d worked. The blades should be aligned so that the edge of the blades ran with the length of the whip, but the fitting inside should not else it would reduce the ability of the whip to curve at that point. So the fitting should run across instead and be curved into the profile without bulking it up. Similarly the blades should have some freedom at the ends to allow the whip to move, and at that point in making his notes he decided that the blades should be mini half moons. He checked the braiding on the whip once more and probed with his fid carefully. The blades needed to be fitted tightly so that they didn’t just pull out if they were used in anger, so it was all a balance. Not too heavy or robust, so light and flexible. It was somewhat inevitable that some would be lost or damaged in use as with the cracker design, but so long as they didn’t damage the whip then they were always replaceable.

[Eanos]

It was time to set to work and having selected the steel that he wanted he proceeded to beat out a sheet to the thickness he wanted for the blades with some additional thickness for working. He marked out the sheet with his scriber so that he had rows of blades with an allowance of metal underneath for the fixing. That done he hacksawed the rows apart and then carefully clamped them together and fixed them in his vice so that the edge which was to be the blades projected upwards. He checked the alignments carefully and with the square and scriber marked across the top of the clamped metal where the blades would be and roughly on the sides using a template the profile of the curved blades. This was why he had abandoned his first design - this allowed him to mass produce some of the design. He filed along the lines between the blades and then worked to create a series of humps - each of which when the strips were separated would be the outline of a blade. With the blade profiles created, he removed the work from the vice and clamped in each strip one after the other and worked on the side profile of the blades, again in bulk to create a light inverted ‘v’ shape which would be the tip of the blade. With that done he turned the strips over and carefully made a cut down the length of the strip, the first step in creating the feet. The rest would need to be done blade by blade as there was only so much that could be done in bulk. With the hacksaw still in hand the first strip was cut into individual blades. It was a risk having done so much before testing but he was confident enough in his work, but not so arrogant not to do the final work on all of it without testing the final and delicate stages. The blades required mere filing to shape, but the feet required another cut. Again he batched the blades, in part because the feet would be delicate and he fully expected breakages. Each blade would have four feet and so first made some filing to bring the feet down to the correct thickness and then he made another cut beneath the blade from each end so that four feet were created, though some more would be needed on the profiling. The test now was to open the feet up but he was mindful that the steel had been beaten into sheet form and it would be fragile and likely the steel would simply fracture showing the broken crystals inside. So he reheated the prototype blade and allowed it to cool watching its aura carefully as it did so. Only when he was happy that the internal structure matched its new outward form and would accept bending did he gently open out the feet evenly and then file them into shape, rounding the ends and keeping them thin. He polished the metal and then did a test fit. It was tricky to get the feet into the leather because he needed to get them under a total of three strips of leather without breaking anything. He’d expected this part to be hard which was in large part why he was doing it now. He reworked the profile of the feet, discarding blades which didn’t work and making new ones. He soon however realised that the design wasn’t going to work and that he needed to go back to basics with a different design.

[Eanos]

He sat as his desk for a while, more annoyed with himself than he was actually working but then shrugged it off and got to work, knowing at least that he had a better idea of what would work than he had. Several designs and tests later and he’d decided on sharpened points retained by short strips inside the braiding. They would be easy enough to make and actually he conceded might even be a better design overall. Using the same principles to mass produce from a sheet of steel he quickly made enough and set them aside. Before the blades were fitted however there was the matter of the crackers and this was not so easy as he wasn’t a whip master. Fortunately the whip was not overly long and he had no need to be hitting a target so anything that worked was good enough. With some experimentation he was able to get the feel of the whip and crack it gently. With that done he replaced the falls with his own and experimented with both the strips and the braided wire. The wire cracked relatively easy, not that this actually meant very much to the effectiveness of the whip in creating injury but it had an effect on those who heard it and that was perhaps one of the most important things with a whip in any case, or so he believed having never seen one in use in anger. He decided on the braided wire which now it had been heated and treated in its new form was keeping the shape well, in fact only a close look would likely show that it had been braided at all. With that done it was merely a matter of inserting the tiny but carefully filed and polished spikes into the tail and he chose an even pattern which followed the same pattern as braided into the leather. With a final wipe he hung it on a hook, ready for collection by the customer along with the spare falls, crackers and some of the tiny blades.

[Perplexity]

Riddled With Rewards Eanos Experience Skill XP Earned Organization + 1 EXP Planning + 1 EXP Blacksmithing +2 EXP Weaponsmithing +4 EXP Gadgeteering +1 EXP Observation +2 EXP Lores • Lore Earned • On Using A Whip, Theoretical Technique and Practice • Weapon Schematic: Improved Whip • Blacksmithing: Working with Steel • Weaponsmithing: Basic Weapon Modification • Using Djed While Forging Notes : Always enjoyable to read a well written blacksmithing/weaponsmithing thread. PM me if you’ve questions regarding your grade.