52, Summer 519 AV
Baelin stared down at the pile of worn weapons and tried to figure out how he was going to go about this. The Knight’s Armory had the resourceful―if questionable―policy of freshening up and reselling any weapon that came into its possession. And, at the moment, that pile of blunted, bloodied, and chipped steel was all his.
Anything that truly couldn’t be salvaged would be added to scrap, melted down or welded together, and then recycled into something new. But that would only apply if a quicker fix couldn’t be reached by refurbishing.
Baelin pulled a dagger from the pile and inspected its edges. Whoever had owned this had been brutal to it, leaving behind a multitude of chips and warps. The blade, however, still had a lot of meat to it. The bevels would have to pushed way back, but it could be reworked and serviceable again. Baelin set it down on a worktable and pulled another blade out. This one was a knife with a straight crack lengthening from its edge. No way could this be saved and still work; that crack would always exist as a future breaking-point. Baelin chucked it into the scrap bin.
He worked through the other blades in the “recently acquired” pile until all of them were sorted into either scrap or the to-be-polished collection. Once done, Baelin took a shortsword from the polishing pile and gave it another look to double-check that it was indeed salvageable.
Littered with nicks and burrs, the twin edges were absolutely a mess. It was possible that the damage continued into the blade’s body, but Baelin didn’t think he’d be sure of it until he actually got to grinding. If striated, straight cracks were unearthed as he worked deeper in, then he’d likely have to stop and scrap it anyways.
Baelin was sorely tempted to just scrap it now and be done with it. But forging an entirely new blade would take longer, and that just wouldn’t fly. He took the worn sword to a grindstone and pumped the foot pedal to get it going. The wheel picked up water as its passed through the trough suspended below, the stone becoming slick and dripping as Baelin continued to wet the grinder.
Since this was a finished steel blade, it had already been heat treated and most certainly didn’t need to be annealed. Any heating that did occur while Baelin was grinding would only run the risk of ruining the previous temper. If he was a better weaponsmith, he might be able to pull off a new heat treat, but as he was now he’d probably just break the thing.
Alright. He’d just grind down, check to see if there were cracks deeper in the meat of the blade, and try his damndest to keep the blade’s shape as authentic to its original as possible. Easy. He could do this. Baelin in a deep breath, steadied himself, and brought the edge down to meet stone.
Baelin stared down at the pile of worn weapons and tried to figure out how he was going to go about this. The Knight’s Armory had the resourceful―if questionable―policy of freshening up and reselling any weapon that came into its possession. And, at the moment, that pile of blunted, bloodied, and chipped steel was all his.
Anything that truly couldn’t be salvaged would be added to scrap, melted down or welded together, and then recycled into something new. But that would only apply if a quicker fix couldn’t be reached by refurbishing.
Baelin pulled a dagger from the pile and inspected its edges. Whoever had owned this had been brutal to it, leaving behind a multitude of chips and warps. The blade, however, still had a lot of meat to it. The bevels would have to pushed way back, but it could be reworked and serviceable again. Baelin set it down on a worktable and pulled another blade out. This one was a knife with a straight crack lengthening from its edge. No way could this be saved and still work; that crack would always exist as a future breaking-point. Baelin chucked it into the scrap bin.
He worked through the other blades in the “recently acquired” pile until all of them were sorted into either scrap or the to-be-polished collection. Once done, Baelin took a shortsword from the polishing pile and gave it another look to double-check that it was indeed salvageable.
Littered with nicks and burrs, the twin edges were absolutely a mess. It was possible that the damage continued into the blade’s body, but Baelin didn’t think he’d be sure of it until he actually got to grinding. If striated, straight cracks were unearthed as he worked deeper in, then he’d likely have to stop and scrap it anyways.
Baelin was sorely tempted to just scrap it now and be done with it. But forging an entirely new blade would take longer, and that just wouldn’t fly. He took the worn sword to a grindstone and pumped the foot pedal to get it going. The wheel picked up water as its passed through the trough suspended below, the stone becoming slick and dripping as Baelin continued to wet the grinder.
Since this was a finished steel blade, it had already been heat treated and most certainly didn’t need to be annealed. Any heating that did occur while Baelin was grinding would only run the risk of ruining the previous temper. If he was a better weaponsmith, he might be able to pull off a new heat treat, but as he was now he’d probably just break the thing.
Alright. He’d just grind down, check to see if there were cracks deeper in the meat of the blade, and try his damndest to keep the blade’s shape as authentic to its original as possible. Easy. He could do this. Baelin in a deep breath, steadied himself, and brought the edge down to meet stone.