Winter 516
Metal was something that was starting to interest her more and more. The woman, of course, had to: it was her trade and her life, and having no knowledge about the things one worked with was little better than having no knowledge on how to blacksmith at all. But her simple knowledge, limited to what would be considered everyday for a normal blacksmith, had been replaced with the desire to learn more. More about the metals, their structures, their alloys, their uses. More about everything.
And more in a way that didn’t involve studying a book already written on the subject. She wanted to be able to study the metals themselves, with her own knowledge about them to augment her research. In fact, it was fairly similar to other research that was found in Sahova, only it leant towards the more mundane side of the lot. That only meant she was surrounded by people how knew how this research process went.
Her position as an apprentice, however, also resulted in her having less time to delve into her own research, but that didn’t mean much. She had enough snatches at spare time that she was certain she would be able to come up with something.
First, she decided to reacquaint herself with the notes she had made, back in Nyka. Looking back through them, she wondered what she was thinking when she wrote half of them down. The bit about fires and alloys made some sort of sense, but when “sprues” and whatever else she had written started to appear, she found herself lost, shutting her book quickly before she only confused herself more. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to just start her own research before confusing herself with what she already knew.
Moving into a free workshop, 4A, as it was labelled, she made herself a nice area centred around a fire and took note of the metals already provided inside it. As expected, there wasn’t much, but she didn’t need much and decided that what was there was enough. A small table was pushed towards a side wall and she deposited her possessions (namely, the notebook and writing equipment) on it, before shutting the door to the workshop to hopefully keep it to herself. There was space for another metalsmith to come in, but she hoped they wouldn’t need to.
Not sure where to start, she decided to make a quick inventory of the materials and equipment she had provided, to know whether she urgently needed something. Under the table where she had placed her items, a small chest was found, containing various scrolls detailing some strange language and symbols - no doubt some sort of metallurgy, alloy information, but she couldn’t decipher it. Beside it stood a collection of simple moulds, with some shapes she recognised as blacksmithing equipment while others were less clear. The majority of them were clay, with the occasional metal mould, but she didn’t take much more time to investigate them, not entirely interested. Moulds seemed like a whole different aspect to metalsmithing, and she was just interested in the metals and alloys.
One of the main features of the workshop was the blasting furnace, which she recognised from the diagram she had so awkwardly sketched into her book. Like expected, there was an opening at the top, where the raw materials would be expected to enter, and two more openings where the products would pour out. How exactly it worked was a mystery, and the more Alija examined it, the more she realised that learning about metals would have to wait.
First came learning about how to use the equipment in the first place.
Metal was something that was starting to interest her more and more. The woman, of course, had to: it was her trade and her life, and having no knowledge about the things one worked with was little better than having no knowledge on how to blacksmith at all. But her simple knowledge, limited to what would be considered everyday for a normal blacksmith, had been replaced with the desire to learn more. More about the metals, their structures, their alloys, their uses. More about everything.
And more in a way that didn’t involve studying a book already written on the subject. She wanted to be able to study the metals themselves, with her own knowledge about them to augment her research. In fact, it was fairly similar to other research that was found in Sahova, only it leant towards the more mundane side of the lot. That only meant she was surrounded by people how knew how this research process went.
Her position as an apprentice, however, also resulted in her having less time to delve into her own research, but that didn’t mean much. She had enough snatches at spare time that she was certain she would be able to come up with something.
First, she decided to reacquaint herself with the notes she had made, back in Nyka. Looking back through them, she wondered what she was thinking when she wrote half of them down. The bit about fires and alloys made some sort of sense, but when “sprues” and whatever else she had written started to appear, she found herself lost, shutting her book quickly before she only confused herself more. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to just start her own research before confusing herself with what she already knew.
Moving into a free workshop, 4A, as it was labelled, she made herself a nice area centred around a fire and took note of the metals already provided inside it. As expected, there wasn’t much, but she didn’t need much and decided that what was there was enough. A small table was pushed towards a side wall and she deposited her possessions (namely, the notebook and writing equipment) on it, before shutting the door to the workshop to hopefully keep it to herself. There was space for another metalsmith to come in, but she hoped they wouldn’t need to.
Not sure where to start, she decided to make a quick inventory of the materials and equipment she had provided, to know whether she urgently needed something. Under the table where she had placed her items, a small chest was found, containing various scrolls detailing some strange language and symbols - no doubt some sort of metallurgy, alloy information, but she couldn’t decipher it. Beside it stood a collection of simple moulds, with some shapes she recognised as blacksmithing equipment while others were less clear. The majority of them were clay, with the occasional metal mould, but she didn’t take much more time to investigate them, not entirely interested. Moulds seemed like a whole different aspect to metalsmithing, and she was just interested in the metals and alloys.
One of the main features of the workshop was the blasting furnace, which she recognised from the diagram she had so awkwardly sketched into her book. Like expected, there was an opening at the top, where the raw materials would be expected to enter, and two more openings where the products would pour out. How exactly it worked was a mystery, and the more Alija examined it, the more she realised that learning about metals would have to wait.
First came learning about how to use the equipment in the first place.
