Completed [The Ironworks] The Slag in the Pots

[Ethan Ironhorse]

41st of Fall 513 AV Ironworks Ethan slowly stretched as he awoke. Yesterday after leaving the Ironworks Foundry Ethan had gone on a run around the Training Pits, and after five miles of running, coupled with his daily routine of doing close to a hundred push up, jumping jacks, sit ups, and pulls up during the run Ethan was soar. Even the basic movement of rubbing his face with his hand brought out the stiffness in his fingers and forearm. What he really needed was a bath at Soothing waters and a day of rest, instead he needed to go into work tonight. Ethan pinched his nose at the thought of work. Tonight wouldn’t be about creating, Ethan was just too new to metalsmithing to actually be trusted with casting. No if he was lucky one of the senior apprentices would show him casting and give him something simple like creating tin spoons. However, Ethan had never really been born lucky, so it was likely cleaning and bellows work for him tonight. He would have to check on his patch work of the furnace that he called Big Kate. Ethan got up slowly feeling his legs sore from all the running he had been doing. Additionally, his shins were hurting from the kicking and overall punishment that his Ser Maximus fighting style had taught him. Ethan went over to the never ending stew that he kept cooking in his hearth. He had purchased a tough hunk of goat meat to add to the stew. He had placed it in before he went to bed and overall he was pretty sure that since he had sliced it up into cubes that the meat would at least be cooked. Sadly, whether it would be tender or not was a different question. So after dishing out a helping of stew, Ethan chopped up a bunch of carrots, one onion and potato, along with several herbs and dumped them into the pot. Ethan sighed… Stew again tomorrow and the next day, I have to learn how to make a better meal for myself. Meal preparation took a great deal of time and energy, both which seemed to be lacking from Ethan’s life at the moment. Stew on the other hand was simply about adding water, bones, meat, and vegetables. It didn’t take a genius to maintain the low fire in the hearth, and usually the stew was pretty decent. He went about eating his meal, with lack of enthusiasm that boarded on down right boredom. Slowly Ethan went through his morning, or was it evening now, routine getting dressed and moving. The hallways and eventually streets of Syliras were so much more different at night then in the morning. People were packing up from shops and going home or to the local tavern. People were excited instead of the subdue energy that was normal every morning. No if anything Syliras was a different town during the evening, people had a day to talk about instead of a plans for one. It was in that atmosphere that Ethan showed up to the Ironworks. The night shift senior apprentices talking with the daily shift. Learning what tasks needed to be continued, what could wait till the morning, and what eventually was extra duties that always were given to those on nights. Since Ethan was single, he often showed up early and enjoyed listening to the meetings. Some of the day shift seniors apprentices that he worked often seemed like friends, but now that he was attending the meetings, a few would speak about how a smith here or there hadn’t completed their orders so it was up to the night shift. It was strange to hear the blaming the inexperience smiths, while other seniors merely shared what they did, and what still needed to be done. Ethan learned that the smelting pots that they had used and setup to do copper, brass, and bronze last night had been exhausted and that now they had switched Big Kate over to coal and iron ore. Ethan seemed happy that he wouldn’t have to switch the big girl over to coal, but he knew what was coming. It was then that the day shift senior apprentice informed his night time counterpart that all the pots they had used had not been cleaned and would have to be cleaned and filled up with iron scrap for repurposed bars, on top of that the knighthood asked for several new candleholders, so from the iron scrap the holders would come from it. Ethan relaxed his shoulders and thought about all the iron he had sorted last night, now he was going to have to do it all over again. The senior apprentice whistled at Ethan while he motioned for him to come here. “Alright Ethan, we have about thirty smelting pots that need cleaning, I want you to take four of our youngest apprentices and work the furnace close to the slag pit. You did a decent job starting up the large furnace yesterday, so I will trust you to fun the smaller one on cleaning duty, we also got some tin ore in so start adding it to the furnace, it just needs a first pass smelt and then we can get someone more experience to refine it down.” Ethan wasn’t sure how he felt about the task. On the one hand, he was put in charge of the four youngest members of their team. Apprentices with less than a couple of seasons to them, usually they were devoted to the smallest and heaviest tasks to build up muscle and learn caution around the forge or furnace. So he should have been happy that the senior recognized him as leadership material and that he knew that job would be done right. Yet, he also didn’t trust Ethan on a final smelt of something like tin. Tin was an easy ore to work with, low heat was needed to transform the tin ore into molten liquid, but from that transformation small specks of rock, coal, and ash would become trapped in the metal and float along with it. Those small specks of rock often interrupted the properties of the metal and if one wasn’t careful the small channel in the furnace that led to a spout for a pot would carry large chucks as well. So it was up to Ethan to fish the material out, and apparently he wasn’t trusted to do a decent enough job for a first pass. Still it didn’t matter what Ethan felt, it was a work and he had been tasked to do it. Picking the four apprentices, he went to the furnace to see what he needed to do.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan moved off to the furnace in question, after having inspected Big Kate the other day, Ethan noticed that this furnace hadn’t be kept up, as well as, the other one. Numerous spots in its exterior showed small hairline cracks that should have been patched last cleaning. Some of the cracks showed red dust from the bricks that held up the inner core of the furnace. Ethan shook his head, this was considered the slag furnace, one of the lowest priority blast furnaces of the Ironworks. He knew that his free time tonight would be caught up in mixing clay and sand to patch the exterior of the furnace. Once he got there Ethan directed two of the younger boys to take over the bellows work as he reviewed the situation with the ore and the pots. Ethan first went to the smelting pots seeing that they had been lined up in the sand floor of the Ironworks. Thirty pots were lined up, and as Ethan looked deep down into each one he realized that the smiths hadn’t even attempted to clean the pots after the pour. Small pieces of redish tan metal clung to dregs of rock and pitted Iron. Picking up a hammer Ethan tapped the side of the first pot with half his strength. The loud bang vibrated in the air, but he had broken lose several of the pieced that had been stuck on the inside of the pot, is wasn’t anything more than a little bit of dust and stray flakes of copper, but Ethan knew that he was going to have to heat up the pots quickly, since the Ironworks couldn’t have this many out of service for cleaning long. Motioning for the other two apprentices, he told them to grab poles to lift one of the pots and to carry two over to the furnace. Ethan then made his way over to three large burlap stacks sitting off to the side. Opening up the sacks Ethan saw a mixture of black pyramid shape opaque crystals in greyish to dark stone. Some of the stone was small having broken off and no bigger than a pea. While, there were several large chucks of ore suspended in the dark stone the size of his fist. Ethan sighed, he was going to have to break up the stone into smaller bits and see if he couldn’t rid himself of some of the whiter stone that didn’t contain large amounts of tin. Picking up a woven platter, Ethan placed a dirty canvas cloth on top and began to smash up the rock with his hammer. As the two younger apprentices worked hard to hold up the fifty pound pots in eight foot long hooked poles. It took the two apprentices fifteen chimes to grab and deliver the dirty smelting pots over to the furnace. In that time Ethan, was able to smash and separate a small stack of tin ore from its softer rock. The Senior apprentice would probably want to look at Ethan’s refuse pile to make sure that any of the rock that contain questionable amounts of ore was sent through the furnace. Ethan on the other hand want to use the stuff he knew would yield a decent metal without the risk of large particles getting into the metal. So Ethan put down the rock hammer and went over to the furnace, since he was the leader of the cleaning crew he grabbed a long pole with a scoop on the end. Using the pole, he unlatched the large iron doors to the entryway way of the furnace and opened it up. A wave of heat struck Ethan in the face even though he was eight or nine feet away from the furnace. Coal was being burned in the furnace and overall the ash had collapsed in the inner chamber of the furnace. He directed the two apprentices to place the pots beside the channel just inside the doors. The furnace was a foot thick and the place that Ethan requested for the apprentices to set the dirty pots was to keep the ash and possible tin from getting into the pots. Once the apprentices understood their directions, Ethan set about clearing the inner chamber with the long pole. Ethan began using the scoop to slowly compact or removed the collapsed ash from the ever hot coals. At times the ash seemed to settle and when Ethan removed a small handful of ash above a larger pile would drop down. So as the apprentice struggled with lifting the pots into the furnace, Ethan struggled with creating a domed cavity. The biggest problem Ethan had was finally clearing out the bowl in the center of the chamber. Ethan knew that once the tin ore was heated up, he would have to manage the rivers of molten metal coming down through the furnace. The bowl was placed in the center of the chamber so that the smith could channel all the metal into it. Then a small channel cut in the stone came out of the furnace and into a sprout that would pour the metal into it. The stone channel however was still a few inches taller than the bottom of the bowl, allowing heavy stone or particles to stink into the bowl. Once, the tin started to flow reasonably well, Ethan had to constantly check the flow of the tin to see if ash floating on top needed to be removed or if heavy particulate was causing waves in the flowing metal. It took an additional ten to fifteen chimes before Ethan had cleared out the inner furnace chamber to a domed shape. Taking the two apprentices over to the ore, he taught them how to crack open and sort the ore. Watching the two, he waited till they each had judged and sort three handfuls of material, before letting one grab the canvas sack of tin ore and mix it in with half as much coal to put in the top of the furnace. The hardest part of mixing coal and ore was getting the ratio right. Too much coal and you ended up wasting fuel on heat that melted the material to high in the stack of the furnace. Too little and by the time the ore got down to the chamber it would carry more particulate in it. Ethan once again opened the chamber doors as he had the apprentice go up to the top of the stack and pour the mixture into the stack. As he did so he called out that the stack was three fourths full. So Ethan had the other apprentice trade off with one of the bellows men and direct the stack apprentice to keep going. It wasn’t till the fourth load of tin and coal that a great deal of ash fell in the cleared chamber. Ethan got to work clearing it out again, as he directed the apprentice to continue till the stack was full.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan continued to work back and forth showing the apprentices how to sort tin ore, while checking their work, and then clearing the chamber. It was about half a bell before he directed the two apprentice working on the ore to get sledgehammer over to the slag pit and long poles. Ethan told them to grab two pots and come over to the furnace. As they did Ethan grabbed a long hook pole to help them, quickly Ethan unlatched the furnace door and brought his pole out to hook on the handle of the smelting pot, Ethan waited for a chime before the other apprentice was able to get his on. Ethan then told the other apprentice to hook on one of the cold pots while they moved the one they had to the slag pit. Ethan called out to the other apprentice to pick the pot up, and as Ethan strained with all his might the pot finally began to move as the other apprentice picked up the pot. Stepping as fast as Ethan could with the large load straining the end of his arms, Ethan and the apprentice made it over to the slag pit as the cherry orange of the pot slowly became blue and the black as it cooled. Ethan directed the apprentice to turn the pot over on its side to allow the melted excess material to drain out onto the sand pit. Once done Ethan then showed the apprentice on how to use the sledgehammer to hit the smelting pot without damaging it and loosening any of the excess material that still clung to the sides. It was important to do this while the pot was still hot, the reason seemed to be that the pot easily gave up the material that had been coated on the inside of its pitted structure. Ethan moved back to the furnace to find the apprentice having gotten a hold on the pot and waiting for Ethan. They moved together to place the pot into the spot that had been vacant by other and then pick up the dirty one to go out to the pit. Once there he showed the second his tips with the sledgehammer and had the first one come with him to put the cold one in to the furnace. Back and forth Ethan did checking on the apprentices and working with the ore. It didn’t even seem like he had time to think, it was about another two bells, before an orangish blue liquid could be seen dripping slowly into the bowl. Ethan used his scoop to lightly adjust some of the coal and ash around the drip, as he did so it was almost like he had poked a hole in a bucket as a small river of molten tin, began to bubble out. Ethan’s pride only lasted a moment before he realized that he was now even busier, and would have to leave the apprentices more on their own as he managed the stream of tin. The night moved fast for Ethan, as he seeming leapt from one task to another. It wasn’t till the senior apprentice came over to relieve Ethan for his mid shift break that Ethan even realized the time. Ethan ate a quiet meal in the forge, allowing the hammer strikes of projects not done to relax him. All Ethan’s sore muscle when he woke up had finally loosen up during the activity of the day, and for a moment Ethan wanted to close his eyes and sleep. Instead of falling into that trap of pleasure sleep offered, Ethan got back up and went back to the furnace. As he got there he saw that the ore had been caught up and that the dome chamber of ash and coal was smaller but more tear shaped. Coming over the senior apprentice smiled and nodded for Ethan to come over and chat with him before he went back to managing the iron furnace. “Well, Ethan, I am glad I didn’t wait till morning to relieve you.” The senior apprentice said with a laugh. “By Izurdin, I am surprised you didn’t go crazy trying to do everything like you were. First off, do you see that light almost fluffed out pile of ash on the top?” The senior apprentice pointed with the pole to an area that looked slightly different in the inner chamber then all the rest. ”That area shows you its loose and about to collapse. What you need to do is take the pole and lightly work from the middle to the outer edges of the area till you see it firm up. I know that the ash is differing into the tin, but you can take a few moment to clear the area and then scoop out the ash as it makes it way down instead spending four times as long clearing out the collapse. Next, now that I cleared out the weak spot I need to make sure as the ash and coals drop I don’t have a fall out because there was no support, so I lightly began to scoop out ash into a teardrop shape above it. That way the weight will go to the side and away from the weak spot.” The senior took his time showing Ethan how to hand the ash and weight distribution of the chamber. “Next I see you have been going with a half and half mix, I don’t have a problem with that but really you are going to go through almost all the tin ore tonight, give yourself some time to relax and check up on your apprentices. Every half a bell go up the ladder yourself and fill the stack with about a foot of coal. It will give you a decent break for about fifteen chimes to all you to manage the pots and scoop out the dregs from the ore.” Ethan looked up at the man and he nodded, “I know I usually have a constant mix, but I have a crew of seven. You are working with a crew of five and that’s if you are including yourself. Right now you are ahead enough in the scheduled tasks that you can rest more often. You have half the pots done, and looking over them we couldn’t do much more to them besides getting a rasp to file the inside. You team is working pretty well, Ethan, but pace yourself to. The boys are young and you are giving them a good example of what is needed, but they will make mistake just like you and learn from them.” With that the senior apprentice and Ethan used the pole to change out the smelting pot that contained all the tin that had come out tonight for a new one. Waiting for ten chimes, they went over to the pot to look at the bluish gray metal. Small silver swirls were in it, as well as, a darker gray spots. The senior apprentice looked at it and nodded. “Not bad for a first smelt, probably needs some flux to degas the metal, and it looks like there is some trace particulate making the darker spots come out quickly, but besides using magic to somehow create something better… this isn’t a bad first smelt. We will probably only need to run it through again before pouring it into bars or molds.” Ethan smiled and allowed himself a sense of pride as the senior smith acknowledge Ethan’s smelt and moved on back to the iron furnace. Using the senior smiths advice, Ethan was able to rest a little bit more throughout the night and even made up a patching mix for the furnace. Working in the patching clay into the furnace exterior during a break, slowly made him proud and as the night wore on he saw he sand clay slowly began to melt giving the patches a look of almost syrup running down the outside. What stopped the patch material from continuing down, was that the moisture in it dry and left a new shiny coating on the exterior till it required patching again. Since Ethan was in charge of a furnace team, he didn’t get to go along and start of forges like he normally did. Still by morning, Ethan was invited to the senior meeting to discuss his own duties. He spoke of his teams accomplishments, speaking on how they were able to get all of the pots cleaned. Another apprentice told everyone that they were able to load up the newly cleaned pots with more scrap material for repurposing. Asking about the tin, Ethan was able to smile and speak to the fact that they sorted and smelted two of the three bags of ore, and that it was of decent quality. When asked about the waste material, he told them that once they had emptied one of the canvas bags he had begun using it to store and review the waste material for anything that was usable. Some of the seniors nodded and smiled at Ethan, others merely took his report and went about their own tasks. All in all, when Ethan went to work on his sword training, and then talk to Hadyn, he could tell her that he had a good day. ~Fin

[Radiant]

Ethan :

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Cooking	+1 XP
Observation	+2 XP
Leadership	+3 XP
Body Building	+1 XP
Metalsmithing	+2 XP

Lores

Lore Earned

Cleaning Smelting Polts

Metalsmithing: Smelting Tin

Leading A Team Of Five Apprentices

Loots

Notes :

Good thread, Ethan.

My radiance is not bright enough?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out.