Begins of a blade

by **Tiath Othos** on April 29th, 2015, 11:59 pm

18th of Spring

It had been about half a week since Tiath had come back from his journey out to the Mythiran Outpost to offer a hand with the damages that it had taken due to the recent spring flooding’s, it also meant it had been a week since the events that had transpired with his father, giving him enough time to try work through them and calm down. As healthy as it was, Tiath had ended up just trying to forget about the events that had taken place and pushed them into a darker corner of his mind in the attempt to forget. He had been forced to take a day or two off upon his return which had given him more time than he had wanted to reflect on things, these days off being enforced by Baldemar along with a request for him to go to the doctor about his newest feature, well, less of a request then an order as Tiath had been defiant about it and wanted to let it heal naturally. It was more that he had wanted to pay as little attention to it as possible but he had ended up doing as Baldemar had said and got it treated, a fresh bandage now covering his jaw. Returning to IronWorks a few mornings later, unsure if he had been away for long enough to be allowed back to work. Slowly slinking back into the forge he wondered around slowly looking for his mentor, moving between the different bays looking for the mountain of a man, It can't be this hard to find the Baldemar, the man is always-

The rest of his thoughts cut off as he felt a hand on his shoulder, this was becoming less frightening every time it happened, tho it was still scary none the less. Slowly he turned around to see the familiar outline of Baldemar standing behind him, the scowl that normally dawned upon his face was unsurprisingly there as he waited for Tiath to face him. The man raised his chin slightly as if to indicated to him, "I know" Tiath sighed as he raised his head from his natural state of ever downwards, showing the fresh bandage that he had gotten. "Good" Was all Baldemar said before he turned around and begun walking towards an empty forge, Tiath falling quickly in step behind him as he wondered what tasks he would be given on that today. As he reached the empty bay to have Baldemar face him and wait a moment, staring at him as if he was looking through him as if judging his worth. I wonder what I did? Did I actually do something wrong? He tried to think of anything that he could have done since he had been back but was coming up blank, all he could do was lower his gaze and wait for Baldemar to speak his mind. It wasn't a game of wits or anything like that here, Baldemar would speak in his own time and there wasn't a thing that Tiath could do during the mean time.

by **Tiath Othos** on April 30th, 2015, 12:00 am

"Who dose the IronForge work for? Who do we create for before all others?" Tiath met his gaze for a moment, just to check that this wasn't a strange jest, only to find the most intense stare he had received to date. It unnerved him and felt like there was a lot more on the line with this question then it seemed, Come on, you know this, Father.. his thoughts ran off track for a moment before he regathered himself Father told you of the forge that served the knights. Tiath still didn't know where he found himself on that line, he hated his father for a lot and everything he stood for which meant the order was shadowed in a bad light his mind. "The IronForge servers the Order and its Knights so that they can better protect Syilra and its people"

Quickly he glanced up at Baldemar wondering if he had given the man the right answer to the question, slight worry that he had said the wrong answer, however as he looked at the man’s face for a second Tiath swore he had seen the corners of smile that were gone in the same moment, That couldn't have been..[i] Doubting himself he waited for his mentor to speak again. "So you know where we stand then, good. Today we begin training you in order to help with the demand for quality blades" Turning and stepping into the forge Baldemar through a small ingot to him, "So for today I am wanting you to just copy the design of this" He said, tapping the blade of a sword that had already been crafted another day, the blade itself was dull and without hilt or anything, just a small spike extending where it should be.

"After you have done that, come and find me again." Tiath nodded as stepped to the side to let him out before he begun to work, placing a three medium sized ingots into the furnace and begun to work the bellows, increasing the heat of the forge so that the working the metals would be an easier task when he begun that task. It took a little work to get the furnace to a high enough points for the ingots to become red hot but at that point he tied the bellows back up where they belonged and took up a pair of tongs and begun to pull the out the ingots and place them in a line, each one he placed over lapping the pervious one slightly so that he could force the metals into each other. Taking up his hammer he begun that process, working on each overlap one by one, trying to make sure that it spread out evenly to each segment so that it slowly became a slightly uneven rectangle but a rectangle none the less. The hammering tho have reduced the heat from the metal and he had to place it back into the forge for a moment to allow it to soften up again slightly, [i] I won’t need to use the bellows, it should have retained its heat in that small amount of time. His thoughts more to convince himself then of any actual value.

by **Tiath Othos** on April 30th, 2015, 12:01 am

Taking the lengthened ingot out of the furnace and placing it carefully back onto the anvil, he raised his hammer to start swinging without any real idea, No, Baldemar had given us that blade in order to work off it, this must be what its for, so that I have a layout to copy instead of just hammering it without a plan. Quickly he picked up the blunted blade and placed it at the other end of the anvil, giving it a look over, the middle was slightly thicker then then the edges and by the looks of it the sides were of a diamond pattern. Nodding to himself now that he had a plan he began to hammer at the metal, elongating it slightly so that he could reduce the overall thickness that it currently had as well as to match the length of the example blade, making it a little thinner than the other as he guess the middle thickness would grow from the edges being forced inwards at that point. Putting that mental layout he had designed into action would be a little harder than that tho and he knew it, making it thinner hadn't been the hard part but more when he was tasked with holding it metal steady with tongs in one hand while hammering it with the other along its edges to make what would become the edges.

He had usually only worked with flat edges or vertical corners with things like joints for wooden beams, Maybe I should go ask my teacher, glancing over his shoulder he peered around but couldn't see the smith anywhere near by, It would be a waste of time tho, I am here to learn these things for myself, I will deal with whatever consequences that come. It took a little while for him to gain the feel for hitting the edges like he thought he was meant to as well as that he had to continuously flip it over to make sure that the metal did not push out of shape on the other side, a strange balancing act. Eventually he felt like he had managed to get the side down before realising that there was still an entirely unfinished side to do, sighting he placed the half completed task back into the forge and got to work on the bellows, trying to bring it back to a more malleable point as quickly as possible so that the finished side would not have the time to lose it shape.

Pulling it out back onto the anvil again he glanced over the damage it had done to his work, it had moved slightly but it only took him a couple of minutes to fix with careful hammering. He then began to copy the procedure onto the other side of the blade and begun to make the same angles appear there as well. Glancing at the example blade he had been given he could only feel like there was something different about them, feeling his gut drop as he looked back at his own, ".... Damnit" He muttered quietly to himself at the realisation that he had forgotten the handle joint. He begun to work on that, forcing the bottoms of both sides of the blade inwards, ruining more of the work he had done.

by **Tiath Othos** on April 30th, 2015, 12:03 am

Eventually he managed to copy the design of the blade as best that he could, it wasn't perfect or anywhere near good but his attempt was setting for the third time and he was unsure on what else he could do for it, the shape was uneven in places and it felt like every blow against an error in the design was just causing more errors then it would fix. Giving a sigh in defeat he placed the the attempt of a blade on top of the anvil he left the small work station and headed into the forge to look for his mentor within the shadowy labyrinth of the Iron works. It wasn't that the place didn't have enough sources of lights or anything of the sort, it was more just the amount of objects in the way of each light caused a shadowy labyrinth for the lights, casting the entire place within a always changing overlay. After spending a little while he managed to find his mentor who told him his next set of instructions on what to do and when to next come and find him. The nodded and returned to his own work area, making a mental note of where he had found Baldemar so that the task would be easier than just wondering around again.

The first step that the man had given him was to go and reheat the blade and let it cool. He just wants me to reheat and let it cool down again? Seems pretty simple Placing the blade back into the furnace he went to the gallows and started to force the air through the coals, reigniting the flames to reheat the blade. Soon enough the blade was back to being red hot he decided to pull it out and let it start to cool, placing it on the anvil he lent against the work bench to rest for a moment and just watch as his creation began to cool, this would take a long time as the metal wasn't being worked and would just have to naturally cool, I wonder why he asked me to do it about five times then, what purpose will it serve? He began to ponder that thought as he just stared into the red glow of the metal, he had been often told to do many different tasks and now they had become the normal to him when doing those tasks, but he still had no idea what they would do. It was during these thoughts that the flaws in his work began to come stand out more and more to him. Giving a slight groan he picked his hammer again and begun to take a few blows to try and fix what he could, however it only lasted a moment before he received a rather hard hit to the top of his head.

Turning around to yell at whoever had done so, he found Baldemar standing behind him giving him a blank slate look but he knew that he had gone and screwed up at this point, "Don't work on it?" He asked sheepishly already knowing the answer. "I told you it before" The man said as he took the same spot Tiath had been resting at and begun to watch him. "Put it back into the forge and reheat it. Its at this point that whatever work you want to do to the base of the blade needs to be done, after this step it becomes nearly impossible to make changes to it." Tiath glanced over his shoulder at the man as he worked the bellows.

by **Tiath Othos** on April 30th, 2015, 12:04 am

Straightening as he stood up Baldemar started to walk off leaving Tiath alone with his thoughts for the moment as he begun to watch the heat slowly dissipate, his thoughts beginning to drift to his stomach as he could begin to hear the second bell for the afternoon in the background, Today is going to be a long day if all I have to work with is heating a blade and then watching it slowly cool back down, tho as Baldemar said, it’s part of the process and that’s what I need to learn.. He blinked as he heard his mentors voice coming from behind him "You will need this for the following step" He had turned around just in time to find a strange looking leather blanket being placed on the work bench, Baldemar already beginning to explain what it was I must really look that confused? His instructed lifted the leather slightly to reveal the underneath had a steel mesh of links covering it. "After you heat that a few more times you will be reheating it a final time and then leaving it to cool overnight within this."

Was all his teacher simple said about the matter "Now before you even begin to think that that’s all you’re doing for the day, a few of the other smiths could use a striker for the rest of the day and you will be helping them between reheating the blade" Tiath sighed slightly but couldn't help but grin to himself, even when he thought the day would be a boring one they still always had work to do for him. He nodded as Baldemar pointed out who would be needing his help first as he left the work bay and went over to the smith. The man was making a rather large set of steel panels for what seemed to be a cart or something, Taith really couldn't tell. He often didn't get to work with steel on any tasks he had been assigned, only when working with a senior smith did he get that privilege but he gained an appreciation for how hard it was to make the metal flow as it contained a strength beyond the iron he normally worked his. He picked up the large hammer that had been placed aside for strikers and waited as the man continued to work until he saw the light tap on the steel. He shifted his weight and brought the hammer down as hard as he could before returning it to the ready position, he could barely make out a smirk on the man’s face before he tapped for another strike inches from the first. This is going to take a while..

Two more bells hand sounded before he had managed to go through the process enough times to wrap the blade within the special blanket and ask Baldemar on what to do with it now, instructed to place it underneath the workbench and leave it for the night and get back to helping the other smiths with any jobs that they had for him. He had unwrapped the blanked and spent a moment staring over it, admiring the way that the steel links wove into each other and were pierced through the tough leather hide in certain spots in order to help maintain the heat within the folds without letting the hot iron touch the leather. It was something that he never would have thought of making or even on how one would make it. Carefully he placed it over the anvil with the steel side facing up and retrieved the blade from within the furnace, placing it as close to the center that he could before he quickly wrapped the blanket around it as tight as he could, even with a few layers wrapped around it he could feel the heat pouring from it and had to rush to place it underneath the bench. Pushing it as far back as he could he took a step away from it and couldn't help but grin to himself at the work he had managed to do today. I know it won’t be the best of blades, not even close to being of a useable quality but it’s still a blade that I am to be making, I wonder how it will turn out tomorrow With those thoughts resting happily in his mind he went back to the smith who was working with the steel and took his place as an assistant, redoubling his efforts against his steel foe.

by **Sayana** on May 18th, 2015, 2:48 pm

Tiath

Skills:

Skill	EXP
Observation	+4
Rhetoric	+1
Philosophy	+1
Blacksmithing	+4
Weaponsmithing	+4
Planning	+1
Endurance	+1

Lores:

The Iron Forge serves the Order of the Knights
Blacksmithing: Hammering overlapped ingots
Weaponsmithing: Creating a thin edge
Weaponsmithing: Making a handle joint
Weaponsmithing: Forging a blade using an example
Weaponsmithing: Process to finish a blade

Ledger :

Comments :

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