[Thorin's Forge]Forging an Apprenticeship Part II

by **Crylon Stonecraft** on June 10th, 2018, 12:44 pm

18 Summer 515

Pulling in a deep breath, Crylon enjoyed the familiar tastes and smells of the forge. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back in Sultros in his families forge. But then he opened his eyes, and found himself standing among humans and recalled why he was here and where he was.

Heading over to the forge from the day before, Crylon found Joe setting things up. “Ah, Crylon. You did well enough yesterday. But today is a new day, lets see how you do.”

Looking about, Crylon found most of the same tools as the day before, but with some new ones. The first one to get his attention was a wedge type tool attached to the second whole on the anvil.

“We'll start off with something real quick, nails. You made any of those? No, well its pretty straightforward and it can be done a few ways.”

Grabbing a hammer and a thin bar of iron, Crylon stuck the end into the fire with his left arm. Joe spoke at they waited for the end to heat. “Now, its pretty simple. You strike the end into a point, drawing out and lengthening the tip since you don't want the entire nail to be this long, but with an extra bit at the end. I've seen it done different ways, but the easiest is making a bend at the end to stop the entire thing from going in.”

Taking out the heated metal, Crylon placed it on the flat of the anvil and began to strike the tip. As he did Joe gave additional instructions, having him turn the metal as he worked thus working it into a fine tipped point.

He focused his strikes on adding to the tip, slimming it down and keeping it regular and round by turning it as he worked. Soon the basics of the nail had been formed, a slim length of metal ending in a pointed tip. It was much simpler than an edge like on a blade, simply ending in a single uniform pointed tip.

Once that was done Joe had Crylon move to the wedge tool he'd seen earlier. “Use the wedge to cut the metal. Kind of like you did with the chisel before, but since its much thinner it'll simply cut it after a few hits.”

Placing a point a bit beyond the end of where he'd worked the metal for the nail but still within the heated bit over the tip of the wedge, Crylon struck on the far side. One strike. Two. The metal bent. Weakened. Once it thinned to nothing the next hammer strike parted the metal, leaving the long bar on the one side and the worked metal on the other.

“Right, now its as simple as bending the end to form as a stop, sort of like an L shape but curved.”

Holding the nail over the horn, Crylon did as instructed, bending the small bit of metal with two easy hits. After that he continued on with some additional strikes to flatten it out and right the metal. Taking out a small file Crylon worked the tip and the edge where he'd cut the metal to file off the burs caused by the cutting and made it flat before tossing the finished product into the cooling bucket.

“That'll do, now on to something harder!”