A Talkative Diamond!

by **Raien Ironarm Pitrius** on July 10th, 2014, 5:12 am

2nd of Summer, 5 1 4 AV

"An apprentice?" Raien asked intrigued and not just a little nervous. At times he tended to make somewhat awkward first impressions. Still, Li had seen through him nearly immediately upon their first meeting. He'd seen through the arrogant facade, and into a heart that strove towards the ways of purity and truth. Hopefully, Guancho had chosen an apprentice with equal insight.

"You know... First you hire me, then you bring this new guy in. One might think you'd found a pot of gold or something..." Raien cracked 'jokes' like this often. Even more frequently when he was in the old Jeweler's presence. He just couldn't figure him out, the man tolerated the half-baked puns without a wince. And yet the young Half-Isur never saw him openly smile. Of course, that could be because it was too dark and his mouth was too wrinkled to pick up any subtle grins that might arise on the his aged and ashen face.

"Not much use a pot of gold. I have three in the back, your outta know that. I did "hire you" to guard them after all. Besides there is no new 'guy'." Raien raised an eyebrow at the man's response. He wasn't insulting him when he talked about the gold... No, it was the fact that he'd contradicted himself that confused Raien. No new guy? Could it be possible, that the reason Raien never saw the man smile. Was simply because he had succumbed to old age and couldn't remember the present long enough to laugh at anything funny?

"But you just sa-" Was the old man smiling? Wait. Had Guancho emphasized the "guy" at the end of his words earlier? how could he have missed it... Still, obvious fumble aside, Raien was beginning to mirror the old man's own growing smirk.

"You hired a woman then." At least now he knew he wasn't spending the majority of his time with a crazy man. Still, Raien suspected if the situation had proven otherwise he'd have stayed on anyway. He'd grown to like the old man, even consider him something of a friend. And if he was truly crazy, what kind of "friend" would he be if he simply left him in a dusty shop alone, one filled with gold and jewels no less? The things that could happen, Raien shivered at the thought.

"Of a sort yes, the diamonds here, as pretty as they may be, aren't really all that talkative. I'd like to light up the shop with both qualities. And now that I've found an excuse..." Raien was only smiling all the more as the old man spoke. Mostly because he was once again breaking through the hard exterior that was Guancho Li and bringing forth the kind man that he called friend.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing... Are you saying I'm not pretty Sir?" Li's smile froze at the unorthodox statement his eyes squinting for a moment, before once more fading to a calm as the man picked up on the sarcasm in Raien's voice.

"Hardly. But you do bring up a good point, perhaps I should fire you and hire only beautiful woman. Or, you could go stand by the door and wait to greet our new friend, like I'm paying you to do." And there he went, his friend was back in the box. Guancho's generation must not have been as liberal as that of some of caravan guard's he'd traveled with had been.

Still, they were the kind of men normal people drank with, Guancho was the kind of man he drank with. Did the old man even drink? Eh, that was beside the point. There was a difference regardless. There were different lines and Raien had just tiptoe'd over one. The old man was probably even embarrassed for him, the Half-Isur realized as he sighed and began walking over to the door.

For a moment he thought of pointing out how he was early, as he always was. And technically wasn't even bein payed at the moment. But his thoughts were cut short at what he saw as he turned around to face the counter. The petching idiot was laughing.

by **Kelski** on July 11th, 2014, 1:02 am

The first day nerves were getting to her. Would Guancho Li actually like her work? Would he be hard on her? The hours were long, but again, they were shorter than slavery which never had a time frame. You worked when you were needed to work, and that meant every hour of every day was taken up by said work, regardless of what it was. The old man had said jewelcrafting, and for that she was grateful. And while she didn't know much about it, Kelski was smart and clever with her fingers. She had excellent eyesight and a love of bright shiny things. Her master, before he had been murdered, had started her on the path, teaching her appraisal and all the important things about jewelcrafting she needed to know by having her schooled at a local jeweler in Alvadas. Too bad he hadn't gotten his money out of her learning.

No, he'd gotten his money out of her other ways.

Kelski tried not to think of it as she flew towards the city, landed in a park, shifted into her human form and retrieved her clothing from a cache she'd made in a hollow tree. She'd have to make arrangements with her new Master to perhaps get a key or create a small entrance for her somewhere on the premises so she could come and go as a kelvic and perhaps leave her clothing at work. As it was, her clothing was sparse. A thin pair of pants, thread bare and patched, a tunic that was two sizes to big for her and stained was belted at the waist. Worn boots with less sole than sidewall slipped onto her bare feet. The finest thing she owned was a cloak and it wasn't that thick or in good repair as it was.

Kelski would get better clothing someday soon, when she could afford it and knew where to go to get the best deals. Hers was from a boy, whom had scrounged from a scrap pile no doubt, given to her second or third hand when her old master's slave had died or been sold no longer needing it. Kelski was grateful for the covering, and didn't mind so much that it was in poor shape. To her, one piece of fabric looked a lot like another. And for someone who'd owned almost none her entire life, it felt like she wore a wealth on her person at that moment.

She continued on to The Shining Diamond. Kelski paused at the door, opened it, and slipped inside quietly. She was always quiet. This was something she'd learned from an early age. Don't cry. Don't chatter. Don't draw attention to herself. Don't complain. Eat anything that moves since it might be your last meat. Those were part of 'the rules' that society had driven into her. She turned to close the door and then took a few steps into the shop only to run straight into the back of something solid, warm, and big.

Kelski jumped back abruptly, eyes huge, and took a moment to study the man she'd just collided with, both to take in his appearance but to also be ready to react to his reaction to her collision. The hood of her cloak slipped off her head, revealing her brindled hair of black and white that tumbled loose in a thick mass that vanished into the cloak she wore. Grey eyes widened, wavering between annoyance and fear and finally settling on uncertainty.

Kelski knew that she should apologize. But that made some people angry. The man before her would either strike her or not, and she had long since learned that running did no good for it at all. They just got more upset if they had to chase down someone to enact punishment and that was usually worse. That didn't stop her from mentally railing him though, wondering why the man was standing in the middle of the room pretending to be a wall that had not been there yesterday.

Guancho Li was sitting behind the counter, leaning back, watching the development with interest. One white eyebrow was raised up as he glanced between Kelski and his newest guard.

Instead of an apology, Kelski found herself speaking something different. "I'm Kelski. Are you a customer I can help or just The Wall?" She said, shocked at her own boldness and startled that in spite of everything that had happened to her, the solitary days of her travel last season had made her bold.

by **Raien Ironarm Pitrius** on July 11th, 2014, 2:50 am

NoteSorry for the short post, I already set the stage. And there's never that much to respond to in social threads. Then again maybe I'm just not that good at them.

. Oh, and your post was pretty impressive btw, can't wait for the next one.

"Always a surprise with you isn't it ol-" Raien stopped speaking suddenly, as he felt something or rather, someone bump into him from behind. Hardly sending him sprawling, but still hitting him hard enough to interrupt his train of thought, and to garner his attention. And thus Raien began turning on his hills, bringing himself to face the young... And yes, somewhat attractive young dame before him. Looking her up and down before thinking on what he should say.

And indeed, the Half-Isur was so engrossed with "observing" the Kelvic, that he hardly heard her "somewhat" blunt words. He didn't even pick up on her subtle introduction at all, and thus missed her name entirely.

A "diamond" eh? At least that's what Li had said. Yes. The woman was certainly attractive enough, albeit a bit unusual looking. "Quite unusual, her face almost appears as if she's wearing a mask."

"No." The Half Isur realized. The skin was certainly real, pale, but tangible nonetheless.

"Strange indeed" Raien mused before moving his arm up to rub the back of his neck. Preparing to respond to the girl's inquiry, of which he had hardly payed attention to. An innocent look washing over his face, as his lips began to produce rough, Isurian-accented speech.

"Well, I guess you could say that. Li is paying me to block out the "undesirables" after all...." Raien rubbed the back of his neck once more before dropping the black-tented arm back down to his side.

"You asked if I was a customer, so I'm assuming your the new apprentice. I'm Raien, hired hand and guard." He continued when the girl didn't reply quite yet, shooting Li a questioning glance. But still moving to offer his black arm to the girl nonetheless.

"I'm afraid Li hasn't been too forthcoming. I only just put together that you were to be a woman, regardless I'd know your name." The request had come out sounding like more of a demand than a question, and Raien was just a little worried about how the girl would react to that. Still, he held his smile, knowing inside that he certainly meant it as the latter and not the former. And only hopping she'd see it as the same.

by **Kelski** on July 11th, 2014, 2:50 pm

Kelski was far lighter than his mass and for that she was grateful. She was even more grateful when it seemed he wasn’t too upset that she’d blundered into him. Kelski took the time to study the man openly. He didn’t smell quite human nor did he look exactly human either. His arm, for one, had an unusual coloring that at first made her think it had been burned. But when she looked closer, sharper, focusing her gaze on it, she could see its clean lines and unmarred strength. It was just a different color. That fact she was used too and immediately filed away as unimportant. It was exotic and powerful, yes, but not something she immediately feared just because it was different.

Her eyes scanned his face and found it somewhat etched with humor. The humor gave his handsome features a softness that spoke to her of a spirit inside concealed by the outside. Her glimpses were just short ones, meant to examine not to study. There would be time for that later if what he said was true.

Kelski’s eyes glanced to the Master’s and then back to Raien. There seemed to be some sort of silent communication there. It made the Kelvic uneasy. Was the old man amused at something and why did the man before her find it funny? Was it a battle of wills between them? Or were they having a laugh at her expense? The girl stood rock still for a moment, trying to decide and waiting for their emotions to play out. She had learned early on if she stretched the silence out, people would often try to fill it with useless words that would give her more insight into the future.

Raien spoke then and his language was hard to follow. It wasn’t that she didn’t speak common, but the cadence and the way he spoke was unusual. Undesirables? What fit into that category? Were those criminals or just perhaps people that were unwelcome and who fit into that category? She watched the man raise his arm, flinched back slightly, and then relaxed when he dropped it. Kelski hated her reaction, her mind not wanting to make one and her body automatically going on the defense. In her world, if a man abruptly raised his arm, nothing good came of it.

The man gave her his name without hesitation and then he offered out his black arm. Kelski moved then automatically defensive. She skirted around the man with the black arm until she was behind him where she started backing up towards the old man. The Kelvic had no idea what Raien meant by offering his arm, but she couldn’t help to think it didn’t bode well for her.

“I’m sorry for running into you. It was careless of me.” She said simply, her light frame slowly edging away from him. Her voice held no inflection though she was terrified in truth. Kelski had been taught young never to show fear. They liked that. And in some men it brought out their aggression far faster than anything. So she showed no fear, only caution. Big males were to be feared and in her mind the older one behind her was a better choice than the younger in front. He looked like a wall, with his big hands and solid build. And she wondered suddenly if him being in her master’s pay meant he had control over her as well. She would have liked some clarification and took up a position slightly to the side so she could see both Guan and Raien at the same time. Her grey eyes passed back and forth between them looking for clues, wanting clues, unsure of the power dynamic here.

Raien spoke again and Kelski was confused. He’d know her name? Did that mean he wanted to know her name? She’d given it to him. But then again maybe he’d missed it. Or wait, maybe he was saying that he was glad she’d told him her name. The Kelvic looked uncertain and then questioned herself. Maybe she’d only meant to introduce herself and she’d thought what she had meant to say.

So there was no mistake and thus no reason for punishment, Kelski spoke up again, firmly, clear in wanting him to understand. “My name is Kelski.” She didn’t tell him she’d already told him. That would be correcting someone more powerful than she was and she didn’t relish starting the day out with violence. She glanced down at his hands again and involuntarily shuddered.

Guancho Li spoke up again, rescuing her and Raien both. “I thought you two could spend the day together today getting to know one another. I have some very important pieces due for a wedding in exactly five days so I do not have time to show Kelski the workshop today or start her training. Once I get these pieces set today, then we can start tomorrow first thing. So I’d rather have you give her a tour Raien, including the backrooms and vault, and then perhaps take her for some lunch up town and show her where some of our better clients are so she can make deliveries for me.” He said, his shrewd eyes not missing the fact that his new apprentice was particularly wary of his guard.

Kelski felt like sprouting wings and flying away. Her new Master was all but ordering her to spend the day with Raien familiarizing herself with the routine and the customers and the city. She glanced at the big man and hoped he’d protest. Guards, after all, weren’t tour guides were they?

by **Kelski** on September 7th, 2014, 5:32 pm

OOCSoloing it out because its abandoned by the other player.

Kelski shook her head, looking confused first at Guancho Li then at Raien. The big guard was surprised she was a woman and that was a huge disappointment. Women could do things men could, sometimes even better. Deciding she didn’t really want to be social with the guard. It made no sense to her to get to know him when all he would be doing was guarding the shop. Guards changed all the time didn’t they? She spoke up, deciding if she was going to start her apprenticeship like this, it wouldn’t be because she was meek and a pushover. If Guancho Li didn’t like it, then she’d best look elsewhere.

“Please. I’d rather stay here and work. If nothing else I can certainly clean. Please let me stay.” Kelski said, glancing between her new Master and the guard. Guancho Li nodded, conceding to his new apprentice. Jewelcrafting apprentices were hard to find. He wanted to keep one, even if she had a telling lack of experience, and teach her right.

“Alright, today you can stay.” Li said, acknowledging the Kelvic’s concern. He dismissed the guard and lead Kelski back into the workshop past the display counters. Then he took her to the back, leading her on a brief tour of the workroom. He showed her the work benches, the lanterns they worked under, the vault, and even affectionately patted his forge.

“I know you don’t have too much experience, Kelski, so today we are going to start you out on something easy. It might mean a little lesson in hardness, but that’s okay. It’s information you need to know. The theme today is Rock Tumbling. And we’ve been fortunate here at The Shining Diamond. There is a stream that runs alongside us that we can turn a water wheel on. That provides the power for our tumblers so we don’t have to use dogs or even our own steam to tumble the gemstones. Some high end jewelers even use stormgems, but we don’t need to here.” Li said proudly, showing Kelski how to engage the waterwheel.

Kelski had no idea what a stormgem was and Li didn’t elaborate. That made her mutter a bit, but she kept listening.

Then he moved on, showing her the tumbling barrels and the mechanisms. They could tumble multiple barrels at once, up to four, connected to the waterwheel by a series of gears that transferred the motion of the water wheel turning into the motion of the barrels being rolled on giant rollers that caused the contents of the rollers to twist and tumble together. Evidently the abrasive nature of the stones upon each other and the material added to wear the stones down even further.

Kelski followed his explaination. The process didn’t seem that complex. Water provided the power that turned the gears that in turn called the barrels to roll in place and inside those barrels were water and abrasives that wore raw rough stones down to smooth gems. But eventually, she asked the question that was on her mind.

“How do I know what’s more abrasive than what I want to tumble?” She asked, looking thoughtfully at Guancho Li. He looked pleasantly surprised at her question and nodded.

“It’s time we had a discussion about hardness in gemstones.” He said, and studied Kelski’s expression as she gave him a blank look. He laughed and then gestured to a chart he had up on his wall in the workroom. It was easy for her to read and the Kelvic stepped closer. Meanwhile Li kept talking.

“Jewelcrafters have arranged gemstones and minerals on a scale of 1 – 10. One is the softest while ten is the hardest. Each increment upwards means each gemstone is slightly harder than the preceeding one. The softest we know is talc while the hardest we know is diamond. We rate other minerals on this scale by determining which minerals will scratch and which will not. Think of it this way. Harder gemstones will scratch softer gemstones. So we can rank them according to what can scratch what. That’s also how we determine the hardness. Take an unknown gemstone, start scratching it, and you can narrow down what it is by its hardness. This is one of the single most reliable ways to tell what a gemstone is unless you have Mele’s gnosis, then you always know.” Li smiled slightly, and ran his thumb over the back of his hand where his gnosis was embedded. When you finally determine a hardness, then you can determine the abrasives for tumbling it, cutting it, and sanding it.” Li said, studying Kelski’s face for her understanding.

She did understand and smiled her acknowledgement.

THE HARDNESS SCALE	MINERALS & GEMSTONES	ITEM IT CAN BE SCRATCHED WITH
1	Talc	Fingernail
2	Gypsum, Amber	Fingernail
3	Calcite, Howlite	Bronze Coin
4	Flourite, Rhodochrosite	Iron Nail
5	Apatite, Obsidian	Glass
5 1/2 - 6	Opal, Rhodonite, Sodalite
6	Orthoclase, Moonstone, Rutile	Penknife
6 1/2 - 7	Jadeite, Zircon, Peridot, Garnet
7	Quartz, Citrine, Aventurine. Amethyst	Steel Rasp
7 - 7 1/2	Tourmaline, Iolite
7 1/2 - 8	Emerald, Beryl. Aquamarine
8	Topaz. Spinel	Emery Sandpaper
8 1/2	Zirconia, Chrysoberyl, Alexandrite
9	Sapphire, Ruby, Corundum	Knife Sharpener
10	Diamond

“Okay, ready to get started? I need to get you busy on this project so I can work on my own stuff.” He said, gesturing at the tumbling barrels, the bins of abrasive, and the chart on the wall next to the tumbling station.

Kelski nodded. “I’m definitely ready. I think I understand all this so far.” She admitted, not afraid of showing confidence. The Kelvic was smart, not cocky, and knew this was probably one of the simpliest things a gemcutter did.

by **Kelski** on September 7th, 2014, 5:56 pm

Li then turned, disappearing into the workshop for a bit, and returned about three minutes later with a large bag. It held about thirty pounds of rose quartz in rough chunks that looked more like large rough walnut sized stones of dull coloration than the rose quartz it actually was. “Someone traded this bag of rose quartz for a nice necklace. Like this is it virtually useless. But tumbled, we can turn it into gems we can set into rings, drill for necklaces and bracelets, and make a really hefty profit on it. I can tell the original owner chipped it off a rose quartz face somewhere, probably along a stream.” Li said, handing the bag to Kelski who staggered slightly under its weight.

“What would you use as an abrasive for it? Show me.” He said, gesturing at the bag. Kelski was smart, but nervous… so she pulled a chunk of the quartz out and then checked the list on the wall. It said steel next to it and so she turned, looking through the bins at the tumbling station until she saw rough ingots of steel in all sorts of shape. She wouldn’t have been able to recognize the metal per say, but the bin was labeled clearly. Kelski gestured.

“This?” She asked, pulling a rough chunk out of the bin. It looked like a cast off from one of the blacksmiths in town, rough and scored with marks.

Li smiled. “Very good, young apprentice. Now, listen. The simplest form of gem cutting is tumbling by and large. We will take a small barrel large enough to fit double the contents of this bag you are holding and fill it partially full of rough material then add stones. We will then fill up the barrel with enough water to cover both the abrasive and the stones. Then we will engage the waterwheel and start the barrel spinning on the spinners. We will let it run for days… days do you hear?” He said, explaining. Kelski nodded, selected a barrel from the group stored and upended the contents of the bag into the barrel. She set the bag aside and then walked to the bin marked ‘steel’ and using a scoop, dug out a generous portion of the rough ingots. She added more ingots until there were equal stones and equal ingots in the barrel. Then, using another bucket, she went to slipped out the door, filled a bucket at the stream and returned to dump water into the barrel to cover the material in the barrel.

Li nodded his approval. Then he paused to show her how to fasten the top on the barrel and tighten it so it was water tight. Then together they lifted the little barrel onto the rollers, and headed outside. Li showed her how to pull a little damnstop in a water shoot that lead to the wheel and release the flow of water. The water wheel started turning and in exchange the gears moved, and inside the barrel started its gentle spin.

It would revolve constantly for days. The rough material then acted as abrasives and gradually the stones became rounded, wearing down to a smooth finish.

“Now, if you want them polished thoroughly, we’ll stop them once they are smooth and clean out the steel and add polish which is an even finer material, like powder, that will finish the stones off neatly. Then, once that’s done, I’ll teach you how to select what stones for what… small ones for drilling, larges ones for placing them in settings and we’ll have this batch finished in no time.” Li said, causing Kelski to smile.

She smiled at her master and mused. “This technique really duplicates mimics what happens to stones in rocks and streams or at the beach with the waves and sand over the course of time, doesn’t it?” Kelski theorized.

Li nodded. “Exactly. Except what takes years in nature takes days when we do it here.” The Kelvic smiled, pleased that she understood what was going on. .Just remember, Kelski… always use the abrasive that is harder than what you are tumbling. If you don’t, then you are wasting your time. This technique takes patience, but since you do it in such a mass quantity, it really pays off in time. “ The Kelvic could see how that was possible so she politely nodded, took one long hard look at the tumbler, and nodded to herself.

Since she’d gotten out of hanging out with Raien, Li put her to work cleaning for the rest of the day. He made her start at the top of the workshop and remove cobwebs that he was too old and too frail to climb to tackle. Once that was done, he turned her loose for the day, claiming she needed to be back in the morning to check on her tumbler and to learn a few more things.

by **Kelski** on September 8th, 2014, 2:22 am

The next day Kelski was back. The first thing Li had her do was pull her tumbling barrel off the tumbler, remove its lid, and check the contents. It was actually fine, everything was a tad bit smoother, but by no means cleanly tumbled stones. So she put the lid back on and set the barrel back on the tumbler and went back to work cleaning. She spent all that next day cleaning the walls and floors before Li put her to work cleaning counters, under tables, and the legs of the work benches. Kelski chased more spiders and removed more cobwebs than she’d like to admit, but when she was done the workshop was super clean. She even managed to mix up some ammonia to clean the windows with until they sparkled.

Then, as a reward, Li gave her a lesson on metals. He had another chart for her to figure out and memorize. She was given each metal in an ingot or hunk and had to memorize them. Not only did she have to learn which metal was which, but she had to learn two different statistics about them. The first was the melting point of each metal. That was for obvious reasons. They had to melt the metals to make jewelry. Shaping chains and settings and all sorts of things depended on shaping the beautiful metal and either making it onto bands for rings, wire for earrings and necklaces, or even shaping it into links for chains.

Kelski carefully kept notes of the charts so if she ever left she'd still have the information handy. Li was a decent teacher and in carrying the ingots around, she really got a feel for not only each metals' characteristics but in how they differed from one another.

Kelski's Metal Notes

Type of Metal	Melting Point (F)	Specific Gravity
Aluminum	1220	2.70
Brass	940	8.57
Bronze	950	2.33
Copper	1981	8.96
Gold	1945	19.32
Iron	2802	7.87
Lead	621	11.34
Nickel	2651	8.90
Platinum	3224	21.45
Silver	1761	10.49
Tin	450	7.30
Zinc	787	7.10

The harder concept for Kelski to learn was specific gravity. It was something Li had to go over and over with her until finally he did a demonstration and she made a careful sketch slowly writing out the mathematical equation and carefully studying how he was measuring the unit. It was a ‘unit’ … something she didn’t understand until he described an ounce as a unit and a teaspoon of salt as a unit. Then it dawned on her very Kelvic brain that units were just ways of standardizing quantities. After that, plus with her sketch and demonstration, Kelski had more of an understanding.

“So Kelski. I’m afraid I have to teach you some new words to really get you to understand some of these things I want you to learn. Jewelcrafting isn’t all about gemstones, you know. It’s a lot of science and mathematics, especially geometry. And when you are working on gemstone identification, you need to know a bit of physics too. So any object, for the sake of this converstation, is going to be called ‘matter’ be it metal or gemstones. Matter is just anything that takes up space. A stool can be a ‘thing’, but what its made of - the wood or metal – is its matter. So the actual definition of matter is the substance or substances of which any physical object consists or is composed. Following me?” He asked, curious as to how a kelvic would be taking the lesson.

Kelski nodded. She understood well enough.

“Alright… so the quantity of matter… quantity meaning amount…in a given space is referred to its Density. The official definition of density is the mass of any substance. Things can be heavier or more light. Take your ingot of gold there. It’s far heavier than say this piece of pumice stone, but they are still the same size. Right?” The old man said, handing her one of each. Kelski took a good look at both, felt the weight in her hand, and nodded.

“I understand. There’s more dense matter in the gold than in the pumice stone right?” She asked, eager to please him. She liked the conversation so far. It was tickling parts of her brain that were long dead. It just told Kelski that in the long run, this move was really good for her.

“Exactly. Gemstones vary in the same way. The densities of gemstones depend on the closeness that their stone matter is packed together. So say a ruby of the same size will always have the same density of a ruby of the exact same size, while an emerald of the same size won’t. So you can calculate the density of the stone and make an accurate identification. Densities of stones rarely vary if you have the same size and same type. That’ helps us in identification. Different types of gemstones at the same size will have different densities. And if you know the density… or the specific gravity.. which we are going to talk about, then you know what stone you have… even without looking at it. Following me?” He asked, walking back and forth in front of the Kelvic.

Kelski nodded. “So how is specific gravity different than density? Does it measure the mass?” She asked, curious for Li to move on and show her.

“In a way it does.. but let me explain. Specific gravity is defined as the ratio obtained by dividing, the weight of a body by the weight of an equal volume of distilled water that has a temperature of 39.2F. When water is really cold, it has a maxium gravity and can be used as a standard to test gems against. However, we are lucky. None of us need reimancy to cool down water because with gems, close enough is dead on and the water doesn’t have to be that cold.” Li paused to get out a quartz gemstone which he held up to show her. “So.. .the specific gravity of quartz is 2.666. That means a quartz gem of a given size weights 2 and 66/100 times as much as a volume of water of the same size. Specific gravity is represented by a number that is specific for each type of gemstone. Hence if you can determine the specific gravity, you will automatically know the gemstone.” He said, leaning back and rubbing his forehead He hated this part of the leacture. Mathmatics weren’t always everyone’s forte.

“But.. how do we calculate it? How do we know its 2.66?” Kelski asked. She already knew what two and 66/100ths meant because she was raised and schooled like all children were required too with basic math. But this… this was something altogether different.

by **Kelski** on September 8th, 2014, 2:23 am

“I’ll show you. But before we go there, I need you to understand something. Because specific gravity varies, you can’t tell the caret weight of something by just looking. Lots of times the softer the stone, the larger it gets with the less specific gravity. Thus, a carat of emerald is different than a carat of a diamond…in fact its considerably larger. But.. a one carat zircon is smaller than all of them. So size doesn’t matter in judging carat. The weight does… as does the specific gravity. Now.. lets do some math.” He said, setting down with a tiny stylus which consisted of a hand held chalk board and a piece of chalk. The tapping of the board irritated Kelski’s hearing as he worked but she nodded anyhow, understanding so far, and noting to herself that jewelcrafting was indeed complex.

“Okay my dear. Here’s the formula. So all you need to do is get the number from dividing a stone’s weight in air by its loss of weight when weighed in water. This is an oversimplification, of course, but its far easier for you to understand this way than if I were to go into a full Zeltiva style university lecture.” He added, chuckling.

S.G. = (Weight in Air ) / (Weight in Air - Weight in Water)

Kelski leaned forward and studied the formula. She knew formulas because she’d worked with them a little before… how much soap to put into water to clean… one drop of soap per one pint of water equaled a cleaning solution. She had a mundane understanding. But she knew the S.G stood for Specific Gravity, and she knew what the quotations meant, and that / was the sign to divide. Everything in quotations went first.. so she’d have to measure its weight in air and its weight in water and then get that number when air was subtracted from water, then divide it by air weight again.

Confusing.

The Kelvic blew her breath out of the side of her mouth and upwards, blowing a lock of her ombre hair out of her face. “Okay, I understand. Can we do one really fast?” She said, and Li nodded, setting up his weight apparatus, which Kelski carefully sketched.

They weighed a huge yellow stone in air, then in water after zeroing out the scale after the water container was added and she quickly did the math. He had to correct her division, but that wasn’t unexpected in Guando Li’s mind. He also opened one of his journals to give the values of specific gravity of all sorts of stones. Then he demonstrated to Kelski how to zero the water container weight, set it on the scale, cage the stone in an open wire mesh box that was already in the water, submerge it removing all the air bubbles, and then weighed it. Once she had the number 4.00, she checked the list in Li's book and found that yellow sapphires were there between 3.58 - 4.06 in terms of specific gravity... with yellows being almost always 4.0 exactly.

Kelski smiled then carefully wrote down her results.

Weight of the stone in air = 12.89 carats.
Place the stone in the wire cage, remove all bubbles, and see that it is completely immersed. New weigh the stone carefully in water. It weighs 9.67 carats.
Loss of weight in water = 12.89 - 9.67 carats.
S.G. = 12.89/3.22 = 4.00
= probably yellow sapphire

“Now we can’t be sure its yellow sapphire, but we’ve definitely narrowed it down. Other things will tell you it is as well. The hardness of it, the inclusions, and even its refraction. I’ll teach you about refraction on a later day.” He said, patting Kelski on the back. The Kelvic had learned a lot that day, and had even more to absorb tomorrow. He didn’t want to shove too much at her at once before she got to fly and eat and be a bird for a bit.

“Lets call it a lesson, my dear. Then you can return tomorrow and we’ll do some more cleaning and then give you another lesson on something different. But now… when you come in, I expect you to be able to determine specific gravities, hardness, and a whole host of other details about stones. I think tomorrow I’ll teach you about settings. Would you like that?” He asked, seemingly pleased about his new student and her aptitude for jewelcrafting. She was a quiet girl, but eager to please him and that’s what he liked. He only hoped she had something of a talent for cutting and setting. Jewelcrafting wasn't about liking sparkling things, it was about science, math, and a lot of metal working.

Kelski's Specific Gravity Notes

Meanwhile, Kelski nodded, made the finishing touches in her notebook on Specific Gravity, and then quietly helped Li pick up, said her goodbyes and headed home for the evening to do some hunting and then relax by her fire.

by **Zhol** on September 20th, 2014, 7:35 am

GRADE AWARDED!

Kelski

Rewards

Experience

+4 Jewelcrafting
+3 Observation
+1 Planning
+1 Mathematics
+2 Physics
+2 Writing
+2 Socialization

Lores

Always keep a set of clothes handy
Raien: Just the wall
Raien: Doesn't smell quite human
Raien: Has an odd way of speaking
Jewelcrafting: Scale of Hardness
Jewelcrafting: Specific Gravity

Other Rewards

None

Consequences

Injuries

None (phew!)

Expenses

None

Comments

Feedback
I'd never have expected my university physics to come in handy while grading a thread in a fantasy RPG, but look where we are! More great, detailed explanation of the lore and science, but the highlight of the thread was the way you characterise the Kelvic aspect of Kelski. You seem to have an extremely clear sense of what her animal nature means for how she thinks and acts, and it comes across beautifully in your narrative and turn of phrase. A++ would grade again.

Please delete/edit your grade request, and don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions about your grade!

Raien