Madness in the Method, Part II

As the forge surged with heat, Ambrose quickly stepped back from the bellows. The blacksmith had been about to stop him but appreciated that Ambrose understood when to start and when to stop without needing to be told.

"Good lad. Stand with the others while I work." Said the gruff Blacksmith.

Ambrose fell in line with Lance and they watched wide-eyed with wonder as the blacksmith retrieved a large piece of stone with the pattern of a blade carved into it.

"This is called a mold. The pouring method used by the celts is the first thing you're going to witness today."

After saying that the Blacksmith then prepared the mold and dusted it with some kind of white powder before grabbing a set of tongs and donning heavy gloves.

He then reached the tongs into a furnace attached to the bellows and retrieved a container filled with a glowing yellowish-orange metal. Carefully he poured the liquid metal into the mold, and then waited for it to cool.

As he waited he prepared his grinding stones, a strip of leather, and some oil.

After he finished his preparations he grabbed the mold and broke it open to reveal it to the group. Inside the mold was a shoddy look strip of metal that had a vaguely sword like shape.

"You can see already why this method isn't considered the most effect. It wastes plenty of good material, and doesn't get rid of enough of the bad material."

Say that, he used another set of tools to pry the still hot metal from the mold, and then carried it over to a barrel where he dipped it in water.

"The process of heating up and dipping a weapon or piece of metal into ice or oil or water is called what, boys?" He called out.

Lance answered before the others could, "Tempering, isn't it sir?"

"Aye, that's right."

After the blade had cooled enough, the blacksmith retrieved it with his hands and bought it to his bench. He then began grinding away the excess, the metal rolling over and over in his hands until it had finally taken on a clearly sword-shaped appearance without any excess. After examining the blade, he stood and brought it back to the forge. He then gesture at Ambrose to work the bellows again.

Ambrose obliged, and soon the blade had turned into a bright red color. The blacksmith then pulled the blade from the flames and started hammering out the impurities on his anvil. As he hammered away, black slag would fly off the blade and hit the ground below him.

Though the blacksmith was hammering away at the blade, his intent was never to reshape the blade, merely to hone it to its highest level, so the overall form of the blade remained.

After doing this repeatedly, he then tempered the blade in oil, and brought it back to his bench. There, he began grinding it and polishing it. Soon he began giving the blade an edge, and when finished he brought the blade over to the boys so they could see it.

Though it sounds as though it would take a very long time to perform all of these steps, the blacksmith was a master of his trade, and had completely finished the process within an hour.

The blade was a shining, sharp, clearly dangerous looking weapon.

"The greatest weakness of this type of blade is that it requires constant maintenance. The grain patterns in the blade are not hammered out or manipulated by the Blacksmith, and thus it is not as strong of a blade as one that is pattern welded." Spoke the blacksmith.

He then lifted the blade high into the air, and struck it against his anvil, causing the blade the snap.

"A weapon that has been forged in this way also lacks the flexibility and inherent durability of pattern forged weapons."

Taking the metal, he then dropped it into a large bucket-like object, which he then placed inside of his foundry.

Taking over for Ambrose, he began pumping the bellows in earnest, greatly increasing the heat inside the forge.

After a short while, he retrieved another mold, an ingot mold, and prepped it before donning his gloves and retrieving the large bucket-like object from the foundry.

He then poured the melted remains of the sword into the mold.

After a few minutes, he retrieved the solidified ingot from the mold, and began working it in the forge once more.

When the metal had reached a bright color, he placed it on his anvil and retrieved a sharp looking tool. Using his hammer and the tool, he divided the ingot in half, and doused one half of the ingot in a small bucket of water while working with the remaining half.

Reheating the remaining half of the ingot, he then hammered it out with great intensity, shaping it into a long strip. He then heated it once more and grabbed a peculiar tool which looked like a clamp or a vice grip. When the strip of metal had reached an appropriate temperature, he retrieved and used the clamp-like tool to twist the metal into a corkscrew-like shape.

He then hammered out the metal into a flattened strip once more, folding it in on itself over and over as he did so.

Following this pattern, he tackled the remaining half of the ingot in exactly the same way, making the two strips of metal the exact same length. Then he heated both strips at the same time and twisted them together using the clamp-like tools, following by hammering them into a solid strip. He then folded the metal into itself over and over before he began shaping it.

By that point, countless impurities had been hammered out of the metal. The shape of the sword was quickly found under the blacksmith's expert skills, the blade then was tempered and hammered to perfection and soon all that remained was the grinding, polishing, and sharpening of the blade which was completed within minutes.

The sword blade that was now presented before the boys had an entirely different feeling to it. Sunlight gleamed off the blade, which was strong, yet flexible. Taking the blade, the blacksmith swung it at his anvil with all his might, and the edge of the bit into the anvil, sinking into it like a hot knife to butter.

"The way you forge a weapon will determine much about it. Among those things which the blacksmith determines, is the spirit of the sword."

At this point, Ambrose became very focused on the words of the blacksmith. "Not all of us blacksmith's agree, but any soldier who has ever held the same weapon in battle for a number of years can tell you that weapons develop spirits of their own. Those spirits first take shape in the hands of the blacksmith who makes the weapon, thus the creation of a weapon is an important and if you are to believe the Druids, a holy thing. The blacksmith creates only the foundation, however. The rest of the growth of a weapon is determined by the person who uses the weapon, and what they use it for - good, bad, honorable, dishonorable. All of your actions are weighed and measured by the blade until it develops into something that is unique to itself. What you put into the blade, you will get out of the blade. Remember that."

The heads of the boys nodded seriously. Ambrose' eyes glinted with excitement.

"System, can you analyze that blade and determine whether or not what the Blacksmith just said was true?"

[Initializing... ... ... Analysis complete. Blade Spirit anomaly detected.]

"Holy shit." thought Ambrose to himself.