Crafting

With the cooled lump of iron, I was going to make a hammer to shape the other metals into tools for crafting, I would need a pair of tongs, a basic anvil and a hole punch. To shape the hammer I made a stone hammer first, I burnt a hole in a thick branch and shoved a square-shaped stone into it.

I would need the hole punch to make a hole in the iron for the hammers handle to fit into, so I reheated the raw iron until it glowed red removing it with some sticks, got my axe and cut off a piece and reheated that until it glowed red as well and started banging it into shape with the stone hammer on a flat stone, I ended up with a fairly thick squared post like shape. It would do for now until I got better at smithing, It was time to make the hammer now, so I warmed up the metal cut it to size and began shaping it into a fairly rectangular block while keeping it got. After I was satisfied with the shape, I began making the hole by smacking the punch through the middle of it.

With a hole through the metal, I gathered a foot long branch that was just a bit wider than the hole and whittled the end down for a snug fit, to keep it secure I made a little triangle and a split in the section that would sit inside of the hammerhead and drove it in, expanding the wood after it was all put together. Hopefully, it would hold for now, while I made some of the tools is need to start making my axe.

Making some more raw metal from the ores I had with me, I had a total of 5 lumps of iron all about the same size as the last one, I was saving the ore I had gathered from the cave for when thought I was ready to actually craft a weapon. Next, I made an anvil out of one of the lumps of raw metal, it was just a flat block of iron I would use to shape the pieces needed for the tools so not much work was needed.

A smaller hole punch to connect the tong arms and a small strip to use as a pin I would use to secure the two long strips with a bend for the arms of the tongs. A chisel for any future woodwork and anything left over I would use to make knives for practice. I would meltdown and reuse over and over again just to improve myself.

Over the next week, I heated and struck metal into tools, nails and different shaped blades, I wouldn't keep any of the blades I already have my seax that I was happy with. I got quite proficient at striking with a hammer and achieving a shape I desired. So I began to refine the unknown ore id collected in the cave, it took a lot longer to meltdown into raw metal and I had to keep topping it off with charcoal. I also melted down my radius and ulna bones I had leftover from my severed arm with my natural flame, I was going to layer it in with the unknown metal for the axe head and make a clamp with a slot to hold a rune stone in each side to go around the head and attach it with the handle with nails.

While doing that I had an idea of adding in my magic energy to infuse with the metals, it actually went a lot easier then I expected just soaked it up like a dry sponge. When I had the lumps of raw metals, the unknown one was black the signs of red had disappeared altogether, the uru bones turned into a glossy silver. While working the material I cut the uru into two pieces and folded one into the other continuously striking out any impurities leftover.

After a few hundred folds and over a thousand hammer strikes, I was ready to begin shaping the block of metal into the axe head. The beard was deep and just shorter than a foot from toe to heel of the bit (blade) with a steady incline of the cheeks, the poll (back of the axe head) was a couple of inches wide and stuck out about an inch from where the eye would hold the handle. The shoulder began to convex when I drove the hole punch through, with a fairly simple head now shaped I began to add minor details, the outward curve of the heel, the point of the toe, the iron hammer and anvil helped a lot with these characteristics a stone hammer just wouldn't have the same results. The clamp was fairly easy to make I just flattened out the metal made a large enough hole and bent it into shape around the head to align with the eye and handle and made an indent for a rune stone on each side.

I then began making the handle using one of the logs of the tree I had gathered.

Chopping away a just over three-foot of the tree was quite a task with a hand axe, getting it to a thin enough size to begin carving with a knife was easier I used a triangle wedge to split it in half and halved that again. I had a triangular piece to begin carving the handle, it took a while to actually get my desired shape but it was worth it, I ended up with a 3-foot long handle that slightly curved at the belly and throat in opposite directions. I left the knob as a big lump before I carved anything into it.

Before putting the head on I reheated it and carved out a sigil with my seax, it was a sigil for "Ægishjálmur" or "helm of awe" a sigil to protect a warrior and prevail in battle, it was on one of the cheeks. The other cheek was carved with runes for summoning "ᚺᛖᛁᛗᛏᚨ" or "heimta" basically to call or recover like the Accio spell, but I would connect it with a rune I added to my bracelet and infused them both with my blood, so only I could summon it, just like Thor and Mjolnir.

It's hard to get blood when you heal so fast took a while with a knife stuck in my wrist but I eventually got enough. After I was finished with the carvings I mounted the axe head on the handle and hammered in a wedge of wood to secure it. After it was fastened some leather straps around the handle leaving a plait hanging from the grip. I was thinking of a name for the axe and what the wolf head should look like for the pommel, should it be Howling or snarling? I thought about just manipulating the wood, but it didn't feel right to do that after I had just slung a hammer for a few days, I wanted to actually make this with my own 2 hands not just use my energy and will it into shape.

While contemplating the name and what the pommel should be I began testing the summon runes id linked together, throwing the axe and powering the rune on my bracelet it flew back and I caught the axe head. I realised I should have inscribed the rune into the handle, not the head. So I heated the blade again and changed it to "ᚺᛖᛁᛏᚨ᛫ᚦᚱᛟᛊᚲᛁ" meaning to call upon strength from "ᚺᛖᛁᛗᛏᚨ" or "heimta" to call back, It wasn't too difficult as I only had one side to do. I then carved the runes for the summon charm into the grip and tested it again and it worked like it was supposed to, I caught the handle this time.

I left the rune indentations, for now, I wasn't sure which I should use at the moment. So I sharpened the blade of the axe till it could cut through anything with ease, satisfied with the first weapon I had made, I went on to making paper from the wood chips scattered around.

First I needed to make a sieve, so I began collecting fibres from the tree bark and tied them into a square frame of wood, I made about 50 of these that sat inside each other, the chisel came in handy for this. I would need a basin to make mulch from the tree fibres by beating it in water. So I used my earth manipulation to make one and filled it with a bowl id made as well. I gathered all the fibres I had leftover and left them to work while I got more and kept repeating this until I thought I had enough to make a grimoire for myself.

I then beat the fibres into a pulp and filled each frame with a thin layer of pulp and pressed the frames together and weighed it down with a stone, this would force out any excess liquid still in the interwoven fibres. I went for a quick hunt and came back with some pheasants and a rabbit made some food while I waited, once the frames had stopped dripping I carefully took them apart and left them to dry near the forge.

I ended up with about 40 sheets of paper, they weren't exactly white but you could still see any writing I would do, next was to bind them together and make a cover for the grimoire, the rabbit pelt wasn't big enough to cover both sides so I just pierced a few holes in them and tied it together in the string I made from some fibres. It would do for a bit until I could make a better book, I don't have any ink though so id probably use charcoal or blood for now, but I didn't know what to fill it with yet I only have a few spells so maybe it could help me with my research notes.