by Alistair deGrey on April 18th, 2010, 6:52 pm
At least it is something to do...
Alistair did not relish the idea of working for the drunk, but compliance would, in the end, benefit deGrey. Mizas were always needed to meet his seasonal quota. As well, this boot knife would be absurdly easy to finish.
The boot offered Alistair smelled. In fact, it smelled horrible. Ignoring the scent, as best he could anyway, deGrey examined the military styled foot wear. It was high topped, and was composed mainly of leather. The toe of the boot was tipped with iron, undoubtedly for kicking people rather forcefully. All in all, it was a rather heavy if not effective piece of footwear.
A question played on Alistair's face as he realized that he did not know how tightly the boot fit the drunkard. He would be unable to put the mechanism within the existing structure. On top of that, the iron plating would make it even more difficult to create a device that would protrude from the toe. Alistait decided that he would simply create more structure, it was not as if the boots weren't already heavy. However, if deGrey were to add any structure whatsoever to one boot, he would need the other. Alistair eyed the man eying him for a second, and then his eyes fell upon the drunk's other boot. He would need it, otherwise the weight on one boot would unequal to the other, and this lovely alcoholic would become even more uncoordinated. Instead of just adding dead weight though, deGrey decided to just replicate the device.
The boot made a heavy clunk as Alistair dropped it behind the counter and removed himself from the man's presence to find some parchment. He moved back to his workshop, into the allotted living quarters, and snatched a few pieces of parchment and charcoal from the writing desk. Before returning, Alistair deGrey took worn flint and steel to the cold furnace, lighting some wood.
"I will need your other boot." deGrey's calm, slightly deep voice had returned, replacing his previous agitation. Working on projects always restored equilibrium to deGrey's system when it fractured. He was easing into the design process, forgetting about the reeking man that stood by his counter.
The boot made yet another heavy clunk as deGrey brought it up to the counter. A stick of charcoal left black marks on the parchment as deGrey sketched the boot's form. The back, running down, to the heel. deGrey pursed his lips as he drew, The sole, iron tipped toe, curving along to the top of the shoe, and then the front. Details were not incredibly important, but they helped. A nick there, small dent in the iron, lacing along here... A rough side view of the footwear materialized on the paper, noticeably less detailed on the front where the charcoal had not been as sharp.
deGrey moved back to his workshop and brought out a ruler. When at all possible, he used the measurement system he had mastered at Zeltiva. It was unfortunate that the old engineer here worked mainly in the standard system used in other places.
10 centimeters wide, 30 centimeters long, deGrey recorded the rather small measurements on the boot. Then the inventor took his ruler to the sketch on the paper, measuring out, 2.5 centimeters wide, 8 centimeters wide. It was always nice when a real life object and a drawing had a clean cut ratio, and Alistair was glad that he had estimated mildly accurately. Or rather, that he had completely guessed accurately. deGrey made a small notation of the scale on the parchment. , 4:1 for Width, Approx 4:1 for Length .
Using the established scale, Alistair draw a quick outline of the bottom of the foot. He had decided to attack a sturdy metal box to the bottom of this man's shoe. Inside the mechanism and some reinforcing structure were to be had. It was a simple contraption, similar to the sword cane he had designed. deGrey charcoal began to trace the gears, the blades, the runners that materialized in his head.
First there was the blade, always a blade with people. He could pick up a bare blade or two at the ironworks. The blade was what would spring out of the boot, for this drunken man to conveniently puncture. The blade would be secured along four rails, possibly copper. Each rail would stretch from the back of the shoe to the toe, and be slitted on the top, bottom, left and right in order to allow access to the sides of the blade and prevent the edge from grinding away. It was not as if the sharpness of its edge really mattered, it was used for puncturing, but that was irrelevant.
In order to force the blade to leap outwards, and subsequently into somebody's leg, it would need a driving force. This force would be applied via a spring. It would be hooked into the back of the shoe, along the inside of the rails. The other end would hook to the knife. When the spring was compressed, the knife would hide in the boot. After the spring was released, out shot the knife.
Of course, the spring would need to be released and kept from releasing. This is where the toothed bar came into played. Running along a single axis, this bar would have two functions.
In order to lock the knife in place, a heavy type one lever with a weight on one end would be used. When the knife slid past, it would push past the weight. But then the weighted end would slip back down and catch on the end of the knife blade. The gear trains would force the lever down when the drunk pulled the toothed par. This way the weight would stay in the down position when the knife shot by. When the man pushed the toothed bar back into position, it would turn the gears the opposite direction and force the bar upwards. This would release the knife.
deGrey finished the sketch of the first gear train, and then began on the second one. This was exactly the same as the first, except the motions were reversed. When the toothed bar was pulled out, this weight would be pushed up by the teeth on the gear. Which would in turn release the spring.
Alistair began sketching a third gear train, one that would pull back the spring when the toothed bar was inserted. His hand created more gears, these interlocking with the spring. Wait one second. Something was amiss, deGrey reexamined the space he had near the back of the shoe. No that would never work... He rubbed out the charcoal gears, there was nowhere near enough space to achieve the correct gear ratio. As it stood, a huge force would had to have been applied to get the blade halfway in. No, this man would simply have to push the blade back in manually. Sometimes direct force was the most efficient, and this was the case. Any sort of indirect force applied to bring the blade back in would either result in a massive amount of space used, force required, or the addition of more levers, which Alistair did not want.
The design was essentially completed, etched onto the parchment in fine and not so fine black lines. Rails and knife, spring, locking mechanism, release mechanism, retraction method. Everything was complete. The entirety of this design fit into a metal plate attached to the bottom of this man's shoe less than an inch thick. deGrey would need to break out the smallest gear molds he had, and create each of these gears from scratch. Probably from copper, it was easy to smelt and light. The housing box would need to be iron, for structural integrity.
Alistair deGrey pursed his lips and looked up at the drunk man. "Yes, I will need that other shoe now." His fingers tapped the marble counter, eager to fulfill his plan. Of course, this was just a rough draft, deGrey would need to peruse it again when he had a bit more solitude. "You'll want to leave after I get your second boot. Come back with fifty or sixty Mizas if you would." Despite his interest in the project, the man still smelled.
After the source of a stench departs, the accompanying odor usually disappears as well. Yet this, sadly, was not the case with the departing alcoholic. Left behind for deGrey’s smelling pleasure, was the legacy of his boots. The freshly removed boot now sat before him, and Alistair nearly reeled. Quickly and gingerly the inventor grasped both articles, and trotted to the courtyard door to throw them outside. Hopefully a bit of air would cure them of their