[Ironworks] Crafting

[Eanos]

Fall 19, 510 AV

It had occurred to Eanos as he carefully constructed the interlayered strips of steel that he needed to broaden his knowledge of djed working. He’d been so focussed on working his way up to magecraft, a craft which he viewed as the pinnacle of achievement, that he’d ignored certain obvious shortcomings with the process. Magecraft was a wonderful thing, and when it came to enchanted weapons there was little to rival it. As an end process there was nothing to beat it, but it had become clear to him that he needed something for the stages before that. And that was going to prove a problem because there seemed nothing here in this city which would help him. For now he was going to have to focus on doing what he knew, but would keep an open mind as to how it might be possible to improve or change. For that he needed to do some additional studies into alternative systems of djed manipulation. Five of one, a handful of another, it was an interconnected thing, but needs would out. The small stack of steel was now assembled and he held it together with his left hand as he plunged it into the bed of coals and settled it in place. This was a time when he would have liked to have had the option of either doing some initial magecrafting or using some other craft to the same end. He could see the way that the auras of the steel strips sat and interacted and with his smithing skills he could manipulate that, but it would be good to have some direct control now over those auras to achieve a finer control over the end result. The grains of the steel were all carefully matched and he’d made sure that none of the pieces had any irregularities in their auras, but even so it would be nice to have more control during the process and not just at the ends. He pumped the bellows and ran his fingers along the steel, feeling as the auras changed as the metals heated. Hot but not too hot was what he needed; hot enough for the steel strips to melt together under the hammer, not so hot that they burned and so changed in nature. Judging the time was right he pulled the metal out, being careful to keep the loose strips aligned and took it back to the anvil to start the process of beating the metal into one single mass. He started at one end and slowly merged the steel together, working quickly so that it did not have time to cool. There was enough steel to make a thin bladed stiletto so there was very little steel. He could have worked with more steel, which would have made some of this easier, but this way the steel heated quicker but also lost heat more quickly. It was trickier to work successfully but made the challenge more interesting. Once it was well enough joined he placed in back to heat and then brought it back to work on stretching it out lengthways, long enough to fold along its’ length and then merge once more into a new single piece.

[Eanos]

He continued with the work, one eye on the aura, working the steel first on the length and then as it flattened and widened, cut it down the length and folded the two halves together. Though it was now one piece of steel, the method working ensured that it retained the structure, so that it was still made up of layers of steel, each with it’s own unique property – some hard and inflexible, others soft and flexible. He regarded the stiletto as a challenge for a smith because its creation required more skill than just any dagger did for it had little in the way of cross section so that it could penetrate easily and yet could not be so hard as to shatter on hitting something hard, nor so soft that it bent on meeting an obstacle. This dagger he intended would be both hard so that it retained it’s edge well and was rigid enough to punch through armouring but also soft enough to allow it to flex a little without shattering. But this one would not just rely upon the steel; it would have some additional benefits. For those benefits to apply he needed to concentrate on the details of the work though of course the gnosis would apply by default even if he didn’t concentrate, at least the preparation stage for it would apply by default. He was however a believer in trying to make sure that all the small details were in place so that the greater whole was unified and so as he worked he kept up a prayer to Izurdin, sometimes in his head and sometimes out loud. He thanked the god for the work which he did, thanked him when it went well and asked his help when it seemed to be working against him. Never though did he give up or attempt to blame the god when things failed to go as he wanted. The easy path was the path that was slowest to learn upon and was not the Isurian path, at least not in Eanos’s eyes. ”Great Lord,” he praised him, the words carefully spaced to fit between the clang of hammer on hot steel. ”Thank you for allowing me to learn this skill.” There were those who looked down on the sort of hammer work that Eanos was currently doing and in truth he understood that. Non-Isurian smiths could not work in the forge itself, but he viewed the hammer work as part of his apprenticeship. It was an arrogance in his opinion to avoid part of a skill because it could be done another way. There were always times and places for everything and he didn’t intend to be found lacking when the time came and hammer skills were required. It didn’t meant that the smith intended however to stick to the techniques which bound ordinary mortals and now that he’d finished the sixth folding the original four layers of steel had become more than two hundred and fifty layers, it was time to change tack. It wasn’t that what he did was better, at least not on a piece of work as straightforward as this, it was more a question of speed. A heartbeat at the anvil with hammer saved six at the workbench trying to file or grind the metal, but so too was time lost in moving between forge and anvil.

[Eanos]

For the first time he gripped the bar with tongs held in his right hand and plunged it into the forge. The fingers of his left hand stroked along the steel, his mind abstractly following both the colour changes of the steel and the shifting aura. This was careful work for the steel could not stay in the coals else it would burn even as he worked it, but as it heated so it softened and he gripped it hard with the left; squeezing it into a new shape, softly massaging it into the rough shape that he wanted, using the tongs for leverage. The heat was savage against his skin but he ignored it, concentrating instead on the detail of the aura, shifting the steel in and out of the coals as the colours shifted between yellow and white. It was a process he decided that would not be efficient for a larger piece of steel which had not already been worked into the basic shape and size of the finished product and so he put the tongs aside and drew the metal from the forge and carried it over to the anvil. Gripping the cooler end with his right hand proved hot but possible and allowed him to start working the detail into the shape with his left fist which clanged metallically against the steel as he struck down. He frowned as he worked, unconvinced that this was more than a mere gimmick. Of course he knew that some of the smiths back in Sultros only used this method but it seemed inefficient to him, though he knew it might simply be a lack of practice. That thought was enough to keep him focussed and in truth there was a huge advantage to it for since his hand was in contact with the steel he had a very much better understanding of what was happening with the aura of the steel down inside than he would have done with the more traditional method of hammer and steel. Perhaps then those smiths were on to something, he admitted to himself somewhat grudgingly. It reinforced his determination to follow through with the learning necessary to come to grips with this method of working metal. His thoughts now came back to the aura and what it told him of what was happening with the djed of the steel. This was after all the point of working this piece, not just to take a finished dagger and manipulate it. As it was the djed was neutral, just retaining the natural state of the piece. The thought made him speculate as to the nature of djed and how it interacted with the craft of a smith. It seemed to him that there was no surprise that the crafts of smith and magecrafter were so closely linked and both so close to the hearts of the Isur. He was forced to speculate as to whether or not the craft of the smith directly worked with the djed of the steel. How else to explain then how steel could be made first soft and workable, then hard enough to be as brittle as glass then tempered to be flexible enough to be a spring? It seemed to him that these indeed were exactly the things which a magecrafter manipulated when he changed the physical properties of steel. Of course the magecrafter could do more than manipulate just the physical properties of steel, but still it seemed to him that it was very likely that the two were the same.

[Eanos]

The magecrafter worked normally with the finished item. He did not have the ability or the luxury of working the metal hot for that would destroy at least the finish of the piece. It was an interesting concept and he could see no reason why it could not be true. It meant that the smith was limited to just a few techniques, but what if the two crafts were combined? It had to be the case for why else were the magesmiths such strong magecrafters? Of course it would require a degree of intelligence about how it was to be done. No one would apply a spell of durability to a piece which was still half formed, but then that was no different from applying heat and quenching to harden the steel while it was still half formed. Magecrafting carried its own restrictions for every technique applied made it harder to add the next. A magecrafter could make a sword fit for kings from one which had been made poorly, but there was a cost in so doing. Better to take the piece from scratch and build the sword such that the smithing was complimentary to the magecraft. That would free up at least one slot for the mage and allow him to add an additional feature effectively for free. How many mages understood swords well enough to do that, he wondered? Most likely most mages didn’t know one end of a sword from another and Eanos knew how hard it was for someone who didn’t understand steel to tell a good sword from a bad one. The dagger was now dagger shaped and the aura revealed that the grain was fine without anomalies or inclusions, things that were a normally a nightmare for a novice smith. Were he only able to see the surface of the steel then the process would be so much harder. As it was he’d been able to tell as the layers of steel fused together, pushing out the flux which had kept them from rusting. If flux or rust had remained in between the layers then there would have been a flaw in the steel at that point, a potential weakness which under hard use could even cause a failure. A dead customer did not buy steel again very easily nor did they refer new customers so it was very much in the interest of a smith such as Eanos who wished to build a reputation that they produced the highest quality products possible. His smithing, even with the advantages offered to him by the auristics and even the gnosis still had a long way to go before it was of the quality he desired. His pattern welding was still of a very basic level compared to that of the smiths who had taught him. He could only think back in awe of the blades that they produced for their mastery of technique was far beyond anything he was currently capable of. That would change and he hoped quickly. Some of what he did was experimental in the sense that he hadn’t been specifically taught it, but he’d watched it done and he knew the results and with that knowledge all he was doing was finding what methods worked best for him. Of course it would be quicker if he was merely shown, but that would negate many of the best learning experiences.

[Eanos]

The steel was merely red hot now as it lay on top of the coals and his eyes were screwed shut as his fingers slowly ran along the steel. The djed ran smoothly up its length, following the grain and coming together at the point. There was no cut off as there might have been had he simply cut the blade to shape from a blank, so the strength was optimised for a thrust. It made it weaker in the cross section of course, but then this was no weapon for parrying. One day he would be able to make the weapon so much better, one day he would be able to make even a narrow blade such as this from a composite of steel cores, each optimised to a specific role, each exactly in the right place to perform that role. Hard and rigid along the cutting edges, strong and flexible in support columns of twisted pattern welds and perhaps a softer core. To make that work would be a long process for there were very many factors to overcome not the least of which was to understand the properties of each piece of steel used and at what temperatures it changed its internal forms. But all of this was just speculation and the dreams of an ambitious young smith who had yet much to learn. Lessons which would never be learnt if he continued to daydream! He pulled his attention back to the work in hand and continued. Slipping the work back into the coals he waited for it to come back up to heat. The profile of the blade was now in place so most of the hot forging was now done. The next stages were of finer, more controlled work, starting with putting a twist into the steel. If done properly and with expertise then the grain of the steel and the pattern of colours would flow in a smooth spiral from handle to tip, a process which would enhance the rigidity of the blade. Because he’d put so many layers in this would perhaps not be as effective as if he’d kept it simpler, this he knew. He also knew that he was already on the boundary where what he had was not layers but simply steel which had merged the two into one new piece of steel, a steel which had some properties of both steels but likely none of the special advantages of either. The steel was harder to work now because the shape meant it was all too easy to burn the narrow tip whilst the thicker hilt end of the blade was still not yet up to temperature. Burning the tip would render the whole blade useless for it would change the very nature of the steel into one that he could no longer work. It meant that he had to keep a much closer eye on the details, keeping the blade on the cooler end of the workable range and as ever now that he pushed his skills harder so he edged closer into overgiving and the first echoes of a headache started to pound between his eyes like a demented smith determined to reshape his skull from the inside out. The djed it seemed to him to welcome the change that he made, the heat relaxing it and allowing it to flow into the new form. The twist was not as even as he’d have liked, but again that was something which would come from practice and he knew that there were some very special patterns which could be developed in the steel by the better smiths.

[Eanos]

With the twist now in place it was time for the final shaping of the blade, creating the bevels which would define the cutting blades on both edges and leading into that sharp point which defined this type of blade so well. Now as he hammered the blade the pattern started to show properly for the first time and he worked from the tip back up. Before it had been necessary for him to work carefully but the work had proceeded fairly quickly. Now though he needed to work carefully but it was slow work with less to show for the effort. There was one benefit to it though for he now needed less focus on the aura of the blade, just an occasional glance to ensure that the shaping did not interfere with the carefully worked djed of the metal. From this point onwards the work was that which any smith could do. This wasn’t to denigrate the smiths art for there were a good many smiths of vastly superior abilities able to create works of art which showed up the work of Eanos as the bumbler that he was, but now it fell into the routine work of the craftsman. It was also the hardest work of all for with every step the amount of time it took multiplied. Each step needed finer and finer sets of tools to eradicate the marks of the rougher ones which preceded them, each requiring more care in use to give the best final result. It sometimes occurred to him to wonder if the people who might use this dagger had any idea of the amount of work which went into it, any idea of the difference which just minor details made to the finished product. This dagger like as not would be sold off from the display case at the front of the Ironworks with little to explain or describe why it was any different to any of the other knives, likely being sold to someone who bought it purely because they liked the way it looked. Or perhaps with magecraft and gnosis working as they might do, it might command a pretty coin. Either way, Eanos was not too concerned so long as it covered his wages and thus allowed him a degree of freedom in how he worked. There was still one step more to do once he’d finished with the polishing and that was to use his gnosis mark to call upon the power of Izurdin to reinforce the work he’d done in the forge. It was something which required rest before he attempted and some time spent in prayer for the power was not to be used lightly. Darkness had fallen the following day before Eanos was ready to make the attempt and with the forges banked for the night the place was lit only by a dim and ruddy glow. It wasn’t something which concerned the Isur for his vision was more than adequate for the amount of light and indeed if anything he preferred it this way. His blankets had been brought out and formed into a comfortable nest where the forge would provide a pleasant heat and he sat with the blade cradled in his left hand. With the gnosis activated, the marks of his arm started to swirl with coloured light and this then enveloped the area where he sat, the reflections lighting the walls around him with soft colours.

[Dusk]

XP Award! Eanos XP Award: Weaponsmithing: 3 XP, Auristics: 2 XP, Philosophy: 1 XP, Lore Award: Pushing the limits of magic Ledger: Additional Note I think with all the training you've done, you're officially going to suffer an effect of overgiving. Going forward, your ability to read auras of weapons at the peak of temperature is going to wane and fade a little just when you need it most, and the Whispers will encourage you to use more Djed to read it correctly. I have to check with the Founders, but I'm not sure how much steel is available for use. I was under the impression that it's pretty rare, but I'll need to check that.