(Job/Training Thread) A New Day A New Job

[David Arnim]

Timestamp: 82nd of Summer, 514 AV David Arnim awoke in his bed in his new small cottage which he had just recently moved into. Having explored the city a bit David rather liked it here. So he applied for citizenship and due to his skill with a longsword he was able to become a citizen of Riverfall. Next e realized though that mercenary work would not cut it in this city. He needed a stable job if he wanted to stay. So he applied for a apprentice job at the The Arma'Drex Smithy. He was a tad bit surprised that his request got accepted. His whole life he had been around weapons and armor and now he was going to learn what went into making them. Sitting up in his bed David gave a stretch in which he felt and heard his joints and spine crack. Rubbing his eyes David began to blink himself awake. It was hot inside his cottage so he had not worn a blanket through the night. After a moment he shifted to oneside of the bed and hug is legs the side before touching down to the floor. SNiffing the air he could still definitely smell the ocean. With a smile and a scratch of his head David stood up walking over to where he had put his belongings. Grabbing some fresh clothes he put them on tiredly. When he finished he looked over to his armor and weapon and gave a smile. For once in his life work did not mean putting his armor on and wielding a sword. It was certainly different and certainly new. David didn't dislike being a mercenary but he liked the change of pace and liked knowing his chances of coming back alive where much better then before. One day he might return to full time mercenary but for now and the foreseeable future he would be learning a new craft and have a new job. After eating some breakfast David grabbed what ever else he would need and stepped out of his house. Taking in a breath of fresh air David saw other residents walking about the streets mainly Akalak and Humans. David gave a final stretch and then began heading down the road. As he walked he took in all the sights even though he had explored the city when he first arrived. There is no telling what he could of missed and he wanted to get to know this city as best he could. Walking down the main road he approached the simple building known as The Arma'Drex Smithy. It didn't look like a successful business from the outside but it indeed was. Knowing better then to judge a book by its covers David continued forward towards the shop. After a moment more of walking David entered the shop. Entering he closed the door behind him which perhaps was a tight fit for the stone frame it sat in. There was a chamber to the right and left. After a moment David decided to go to the left chamber. Upon entering the left chamber David blinked a few times as he saw the rather impressive collection of quality weapons. At the moment the weapon smith Haiduk was dealing with a customer. Haiduk didn't speak much and gave just the facts to the customer. David went over to the weapons case and looked the weapons over. They where all of which are high quality. WHen the customer left Haiduk looked to David and cleared his throat."May I help you ?" he asked as David approached."Yes, I am David Arnim. I was given a job here by the city." he said as Haiduk gave him a look over."Right, the city told me about you." he said quietly before motioning towards the tunnel."Come, lets get you started then." he said before walking towards the tunnel and then heading down it."Alright then." David said before he began following Haiduk. Haiduk lead David to the smithing area which contained four large forges."Lets start off by teaching you something easy to make." he said thinking for a moment before walking over grabbing an ingot."Put on some leather gloves and we will get started." he said getting a nod from David. David went and put on some thick leather gloves meant for use around a forge."Okay, now work the bellows while I heat this up. Watch carefully and remember what you see." Haiduk said as David walked over to the bellows and began working them. David stood there and watched as the ingot heat up as he pumped the bellows for Haiduk. After a bit Haiduk grabbed blacksmith tongues and grabbed the glowing red hot ingot. Grabbing a blacksmith hammer Haiduk began hammering the ingot into a flatter and a slightly longer shape a David watched. David kept making mental notes to remember the process involved in makign a dagger as they went along."Work the bellows again." Haiduk said bringing the metal back to the forge. David quickly nodded heading back to the bellows and pumping them. Wiping the sweat from his brow David watched as the piece of metal was heated up once more and then brought back to the anvil. With speed and precision that only someone of Haiduk's skill level is capable of he continued shaping the dagger. At this point Haiduk began forming the tang or the handle of the dagger by edge hammering one side of the now flatter piece of metal. Doing this caused a compression of the handle on both the top and bottom forming the basics of a handle for the dagger. Haiduk then looked to David and motioned to the bellows. David walked over to the bellows and began pumping them once more as Haiduk put the metal back in. After it was hot enough Haiduk took it out and back to the anvil where he grabbed a smaller hammer for some finer detail work on the handle. Haiduk then went back to the forge and David went to the bellows where he began pumping them. Once the metal was heated up enough Haiduk began drawing out the blade to make it a tad bit longer. Placing the dagger on the edge of the anvil he began hammering it while drawing up just slightly before moving down half an inch and doing again. This made the dagger a bit thinner without making it wider. Ever now and again he would lay it down flat on the anvil and hammer it just to make sure the unfinished dagger was flat and was not all bendy. After a moment Haiduk stopped and went back over to the forge where they began heating the metal again."Now I am going to start giving the dagger some real shape." Haiduk said before taking the unifnished dagger out of the forge and to the anvil. Haiduk brought the unfinished dagger back to the anvil and began hammering out the point. Upsetting the metal he first began rounding the end with multiple hammer strikes. He didn't go straight to making a point because of how hot the metal was it could easily tear if he did that. Every now and again he would turn it flat to the anvil just to make sure it was nice and flat without any warping with a few hammer strikes before continuing. After deciding the end was rounded enough Haiduk began hammering out the point of the blade which he did relatively quickly. After that he brought the dagger back to the forge and heated it back up again as David pumped the bellows. David had been taking note as he watched wanting to make sure to remember what he saw."Next I work on the surface to smooth it out and make sure it is uniformly thick." he said before taking out of the forge and back to the anvil where he began hammering the surface to get rid of any lines and to make sure the dagger was as he said uniformly thick. After a bit more of this Haiduk wiped the sweat from his forhead and brought the dagger back to the forge."Now I am normalizing the dagger to take all the stress out of it from working on the metal." Haiduk explained to David who nodded as he went back to the bellow and began pumping it. When the dagger was uniformally heated and nice and soft Haiduk took it out of the forge. Haiduk then took the uniformly heated dagger and dunked it in some water a sizzle sound came from this along with some steam."Now we grind it into its close to final shape and get rid of the excess and waste on it." he said before taking it over the grinding wheel and sitting down."Turn the wheel for me will you." he said to David who nodded before walking over. David found the wheel pedal and began pressing it for Haiduk. The grinding wheel began to spin as David kicked the pedal. Haiduk began grinding the surface of the dagger along with its edges and the tang. After grinding the surface Haiduk began griding the sides deciding to go for a convex grind to make it easier to sharpen. After that Haiduk looked at the Dagger."Now to sharpen it a bit more." he said putting it back on the grinder and sharpening the edges. When he finished he got up and put the blade in a pile of other daggers."Now then, lets see what you can do." Haiduk said looking to David."Use what I showed you to make a dagger, though I will help you along the way." he said getting a nod from David."Alright, I will do my best." David said.

[David Arnim]

David walked over to where he saw Haiduk grab an ingot from and found one of simular size."That will do nicely." Haiduk commented as he went over to the forge. Though he did not start pumping the bellows. David walked over to the forge and put the ingot inside."You will need to learn how to manage doing two things at once, so you will still need to pump the bellows." Haiduk said getting a nod."I'll do that then." David said before he began pumping the bellows."Now, you want to heat the ingot up until it has a nice red and yellow glow to it." he said watching as David pumped the bellows of the forge. David constantly kept an eye on the iron ingot so that he could tell when to take it out. David wiped the sweat from his forehead once again as he kept an eye on the ingot. He watched at the ingot slowly heated up. After a bit the ingot was glowing red and yellow and ready to be hammered."Okay, you can take it out of the forge now. Make sure to use the black smith tongs or the ingot will burn right through your gloves." Haiduk said prompting David to grab the blacksmith tongs and then grab the ingot."You will need to make the ingot a bit flatter and thinner in order to start shaping it into a dagger. Try and make sure that the metal maintains a universal thickness however." he said prompting David to grab the blacksmith hammer. With a nod David began hammering away at the ingot remembering how Haiduk had done it previously. David was pretty clumsy when it came to this though that was to be expected from a first timer. With each hamer strike he flattened the ingot a bit more and more. David gave it a look by the time it had began to cool and realized it was not very even what so ever. He then took back to the forge and heated the ingot back up after a few minutes before taking it back to the anvil. David then began correcting his mistake with mixed results. It was still uneven and the metal warped a bit by the time it cooled again after his hammering meant to shape it. Yet again David brought it back to the forge."Thats right, keep at it until you are satisfied." Haiduk said as David heated the ingot up once more. David after a bit once more brought it back to the anvil and began striking it back into shape. Slowly but surly as he did so he fixed his mistakes though each time he noticed a new one pop up. As he did this Haiduk went to go check on the shop but returned shortly after. David brought the ingot back to the forge once more to heat it up and pumped the bellows until it was glowing red. After bringing it back to the anvil he began striking the ingot once more and this time finally got it the way he wanted it or as close as he could manage.

[David Arnim]

David then took that now flattened and thinned ingot back to the forge and placed it inside. Haiduk watched him do this as David pumped the bellows and heated the ingot right back up. Once it began glowing red again David picked it up with the black smith tongs and placed it on the anvil."Next you are going to want to make the tang or handle and to do that you need to do some edge hammering. Bassically do what I did turning it on it's side and what not. Make sure that you lay it flat every now and again and hammer any warping out of it and flatten any upset metal." Haiduk said as he watched David."Got it." David said with a nod before he turned the flattened ingot to it's side and began edge hammering it."You are also going to want to taper it to where it is wider towards the front but thinner towards the back." Haiduk said as David compressed the metal of the tang with his edge hammering. With each hamer strike the metal bent and warped as well as upset on the edges. David turned te ingot flat and began hammering the warps out and flattening the upset metal. After a few moments of this he went to go back to edge hammering but found he missed something so went back to fix it. After fixing his mistake e finally went back to edge hammering a tang into the metal. David did as Haiduk and tried to taper the handle to where it was wider towards the top. Though he had to stop every now and again to reheat the metal or flatten and warps out. He also had to keep fixing his mistakes which he did not always notice until a bit later. Constantly flattening and straightening the ingot back out it took awhile before he finished the tang. Before he finished though he grabbed a smaller hammer and did some last minute touch ups. With the tang done he went to go heat the metal back up.

[David Arnim]

Haiduk watched as David heated the metal up once more for further work. David carefully monitored the metal so that he knew exactly when it would be ready. He was looking for the glow he had taken it out on previous times to."Alright, next you are going to need to draw the metal out to make the dagger slightly longer. You are going to need to place the dagger on the edge of the anvil at an angle and draw it as you hammer it. You do this every half an inch but as you get to the end you do it in shorter and shorter lengths. This will also make it thinner without it being wider." Haiduk said as David pulled the dagger out of the forge. With a nod David brought the unfinished dagger to the anvil and placed it on the edge at an angle. As instructed he drew it up and hammered it a few times. After that he moved half an inch down and hammered it again a few times. As he got to the end of the dagger the hammer strikes grew closer and closer until he was finished. Looking it over he saw that the metal had warped and bent. David then placed it flat on the anvil and began to flatten the blade out with hammer strikes once more. Giving it another look over he saw it was still warped but the other way now. Flipping the dagger over he hammered it straight once more. He kept doing this until he couldn't see any warping anymore. Though before he continued on he saw a few mistakes and went about fixing them with a few not so well placed hammer strikes which made things a bit worse. David kept at it until he fixed his mistake.

[David Arnim]

After he finished drawing out the blade he brought it back to the forge and reheated it."Next you will be doing all the main shaping of the dagger." Haiduk said as he watched David bring the dagger back to the anvil after it was sufficiently heated up."To bring out the point of the blade you need to start upsetting the metal near the end of the dagger and bring it to a round end with some edge hammering. You don't want to go for the final point until you do this because the heat of the metal means it might tear if you do it straight off." he said as he watched David put the dagger on it's side with the black smith tongs. David then began striking the dagger near the end which began compressing the metal and upsetting it at the edges. As he went further down he hammered more and more in order to get a round end to it. Though he messed up and made it a bit uneven and had to go back to fix it. After hammering a bit more he fixed another one of his mistakes and continued rounding the end of the dagger. Putting the blade down flat he hammered out any warping before he continued on the tip of the blade. As he continued the blade warped more and more and he had to straighten it out each time."Alright, you can start on the final point. It's a dagger so remember it needs to be very pointy." Haiduk said as he watched David hammer away. David then grabbed the smaller hammer and began hammering out the pointed end of the dagger. He had to be very careful because there was still a chance of the metal tearing at this point. Everytime the metal began to warp he went put the dagger flat and hammered out the warping before continuing. After a bit he had finished the tip of the dagger."Good, now you need to work the surface of the sword. Hammer out any lines you made when drawing the sword out. You should also start beveling the edges." Haiduk said as he watched David go back to the forge and reheat the metal. After heating the metal up to the proper glow David went back to the anvil and grabbed the blacksmith hammer. Like Haiduk told him to he began working the surface of the dagger and started hammering out any lines he created when drawing the sword out. There where a lot of lines to hammer out to. David wiped the sweat off his face before continuing. It took him awhile and a lot of hammering but he managed to get the lines out of the sword from when hew drew it out. David then began beveling the edges of the sword. He stopped doing this every now and again to correct mistakes he made as he went along. For this he used the smaller hammer and got to work on it. He had to reheat the dagger repeatedly while doing this and it took some time. Haiduk stepped out once again to check on the shop but returned once again soon after. When David finished he looked the sword over and looked to Haiduk who nodded."Now to normalize the sword." he said.

[David Arnim]

Haiduk looked at David then the dagger and finally the forge."To normalize the sword you need to heat it up evenly all over. This will remove stress on the blade and make what we do after much easier due to it making the sword a bit softer." he said explaining it to David who nodded once more. Grabbing the dagger with black smith tongs David placed the dagger inside the forge once more and began working the bellows. He waited for the dagger to heat up sufficiently."Okay, take it out and dunk it in some water before moving on to the grind stone." Haiduk said watching David."Alright, will do." David said grabbing the dagger with black smith tongs before dunking it in water then pulling it out."Good, now as I said bring it over to the grind wheel. You need to grind off the excess and waste. Also you will be making a flat edge instead of convex." he said before watching David walk over to the grind wheel and have a seat. David put the dagger up against the grind wheel and then put his foot on the pedal. Pumping the pedal the grind wheel began to spin. David then began grinding the dagger causing sparks to fly as he got rid of the excess and waste on the dagger. It took a bit of work but David eventually got it to a point though he had to stop and go back having missed a spot. After fixing that he started making the flat edge of the dagger which was pretty easy to keep uniform. He went up and down the dagger with the grind wheel making the edge of the dagger. After a bit he had made the edge and all that was left was to sharpen it. David began sharpening the edge on the grind wheel as best he could though when he was finished it was not the sharpest of blades. Getting up David presented the dagger to Haiduk who took it."What do you think ?" he said as he watched Haiduk examine the dagger David made."Decent for a beginner, though you still have a ways to go." Haiduk said before puting the blade with the other daggers."Now to shine some weapons." Haiduk said walking over to where he kept the unfinished swords. David smiled sweating a lot now though he was proud of him self for creating a dagger even if it was only decent for a beginner.

[Caela Dorin]

Grade Awarded David Arnim Experience Skill XP Earned Blacksmithing 5 Observation 1 Weaponsmithing 3 Lores • Lore Earned • Location: The Arma'Drex Smithy • Heating a Forge with Bellows • Weaponsmithing: The Steps to Make a Dagger • Hot Metal Must Be Handled with Blacksmith Tongs • Iron: Can Be Hammered When the Metal Turns Yellow • Hammering Metal to an Even Thickness • Blacksmith Technique: Edge Hammering • Weaponsmithing: How to Make a Tang • Blacksmith Technique: Drawing • Blacksmith Technique: Upsetting • Weaponsmithing: Bringing a Dagger to a Point • Creating a Bevelled Edge • Using a Grind Wheel Additional Comments A very hands-on thread but there's no better way to learn this sort of job is there? Technical but to the point. I gave you more XP in Blacksmithing than Weaponsmithing because some of the techniques, although important to weaponsmithing, weren't specific to that skill. You cannot be expected to smith weapons without some basic blacksmithing. Just so you know my reasoning. One last thing for you to think on: As the stuff in the Smithy is very high quality, do you think that Haiduk would put a beginner's dagger in with the rest of his daggers that he made? Please edit or delete your grade request and PM me if you have any questions or concerns about your grade. x