Solo [The Ironworks] Just a Dagger Blade

[Terag]

40th of Spring, 515AV – One bell after dawn ”I need you to make me an iron dagger blade today, that’s it. No hilt or anything, just the completed blade. I’m sure an Isur like you can get it done, right?” It was a simple enough order. One that Terag should be able to do. He had grown up as a blacksmith with only a small amount of experience with making weapons and armor, usually he just followed the head smith’s instructions and was told to make nails or cut out shapes in metal. However, a dagger shouldn’t be that hard to make. After taking a few chimes to talk to one of his senior smiths to make sure he knew the right process, Terag grabbed a small bar of iron and walked back to the forge he was assigned with his tools set on the rack beside it. Before setting to work Terag set his pack aside and donned a fire resistant glove on his right hand and a smith’s apron, which he put a hammer and a pair of tongs as well as a few other tools in the pockets and loops for easy access. Using his left hand, Terag set the bar inside the mouth of the forge. With the bar inside, Terag moved to work the bellows, gripping the handle as he pulled up and pushed down to keep continuous air feeding the flames inside. For several chimes he worked until the iron inside was glowing brightly. Once it was at forging temperature, the bar at this point had become a bright orange and yellow, Terag reached in with his bare left hand and pulled the iron bar out and set it onto the anvil face. ”Now I have to be sure I don’t mess this up…” he mumbled to himself as he pulled a hammer from his belt. He used his left hand to stabilize the metal as he raised and brought down the hammer onto the glowing metal, drawing it out and flattening it. Again and again the hammer was brought down, resulting in a loud clang that would echo about the area. After a few swings he would flip the metal and hammer down an equal amount of times on the other side of the small bar in an attempt to even to stop either side from becoming too different from the other. As he worked he could feel a calm over-taking him, just as it always had when he worked on any sort of craft. ”You’re doing fine there, Terag. However, you might want to be more careful as you hammer. You’re making a weapon, not a pancake. You’ll need a long and flat piece of iron to work with, not a round and flat one.” Terag looked up towards the voice that had brought him out of his trance for a moment; it was the human smith he had asked earlier for advice. With a grateful, yet apologetic smile, Terag nodded before turning his head back to his work. The metal was flipped to one side and the hammer in his right hand was brought down a few times to stop the metal from expanding too far in undesired directions. It was flipped over again to do the same to the other side. When laid on its back, the iron now resembled a bit more of a flattened rectangle at the right width rather than a large flat square. Here again he tried drawing out the blade, evening out the metal and expanding it in the right directions. This time however, he made sure to not let the iron expand to the sides as he had before. Since the metal had cooled too far after a few more chimes, Terag set it back into the forge and moved to the bellows again. As he pumped air through the forge again he finally responded to the senior smith. ”Thanks… I do not like admitting it but I tend to get too wrapped up in my work and forget a few of the smaller details still.” ”It’s quite alright, that’s why we work together. Gotta catch each other’s mistakes before it’s too late, right?” With a smile the other smith nodded and turned to walk back to his own anvil. ”I don’t understand the stigma against how cold Isurian’s can be. Between you and Ros ya’ll don’t seem that bad. Ya aint as warm as the forges we work in but you’re not too bad.” Terag couldn’t help but smile, perhaps humans weren’t all that bad either.

[Terag]

The process was repeated again. Iron removed from the forge, hammered down to draw out the length and then the sides of the to-be-blade were upset to keep the length growing up and down rather than side to side. Again Terag fell back into his calm, though this time he continued to remember to keep the iron growing in the right directions and becoming flatter in the others. As he worked he slowly began to hum as well, the beat of the song keeping in time to the fall of his hammer. Finally the metal was long enough for what he needed and flat enough that a blade could actually be made rather than a sharpened cube. As the metal cooled further he set the hammer inside a pocket of his apron and pulled a set of tongs from one of the loops. In his right hand the tongs were used to grip where the tang of the blade should be, and help the iron in place while Terag used his left thumb to lightly carve into the metal. The tip was drawn on, and small amounts of iron curled out of the flatted metal as Terag dragged his thumb nail across it. He had been taught that his left arm, a gift from Izurdin to all of his children, could be used for work such as this. Rather than using his nearly midnight-black arm to make the blade, Terag often used it to at least outline where he would need to cut off excess metal or to hold it in place without the need of using a pair of tongs. After all his left hand was infinitely more dexterous than he could ever hope to be with a pair of tongs. With a rough outline to where the tip of the dagger was to be the iron was thrown into the forge yet again to heat up, the metal was too cool to try to finish working it. Again he stood beside the bellows and worked air through the forge, heating the fire and the metal alike. His work continued to be in time with the song he humed to himself, every other beat of the music in time with either the push or pull of the bellows. ”And I will show you what I can do. I will show you the beauty I can make with my hands.” Lyrics to a song could be heard if one paid enough attention to what Terag was saying under his breath, that is if they heard that and could understand Isurian.

[Terag]

Once again Terag moved to the mouth of the forge, reaching in with his left hand to pull the heated metal from the flames. As he moved to the anvil he rolled up his left sleeve, allowing the charcoal black arm into the air. With his sleeve out of the way, Terag used his elbow to hold down one edge of the bar, where the tang was to be. With his free right hand he pulled a chisel from his pocket, and placed it in his left hand so the point could be aimed the earlier etchings. The pose he had opted to take was entirely awkward, but he wanted to see if it was possible to break off extra metal in this manner. Unfortunately for Terag, the process was not only difficult, but would force the metal off in uneven chunks. Regardless, blow after blow of the hammer atop the chisel he worked until several uneven pieces of metal came off the dagger, and none of them in line with the etchings he had made earlier. ”I cannot believe what I’m seeing and hearing from over here! First I think I hear ya singing something under your breath, and then I look over and you’re trying to do something that wouldn’t work in a million years. Even as a human I can tell that much!” Terag blushed a bit at the heckling from the other smith that had been helping him on and off thus far. ”Yeah well, leave me be! I was just experimenting!” He couldn’t help but frown as his inexperience shown through. Either way, he picked up the metal and set about hammering down the very jagged edged to the point that would be necessary for the dagger. The metal was still hot enough to be worked to a dull point before it was tossed back into the forge. Again the metal was heated up again, with a lot less musical input from Terag before it was retrieved so he could finally work on the tang. Rather than a complicated procedure, he just held the metal in his left hand and upset the tang using the hammer and anvil. Slowly but surely it took shape, pushing out from the blade until it was thin enough to be slid into a handle. Once more it was heated and pulled out again so that it could be worked once more over with a hammer. First along the tang to keep it straight and in the right shape, and then the middle of the blade. Terag made sure to be careful to flip the dagger every few swings to keep it even, he wasn’t going to let his inexperience hamper him any more than it had already. Finally he hammered along the edges of the blade, bringing the metal to a finer point. It wasn’t sharp by any means, but at least it finally looked like a dagger. Again it was returned to the heat, and Terag immediately went to work the bellows once more. He had to get the blade hotter than he had been before he could quench it. A necessary step to strengthen the metal so it could actually be of use as a weapon or for cutting, rather than a tool that would shatter at its first jarring motion.

[Terag]

Still disgruntled, Terag pulled the nearly white hot dagger from the forge with a pair of tongs at its tang. He wanted as minimal surface contact as possible, and the tongs served this job much better than he would be able to with his hand. He briefly and lightly tapped the dagger to be rid of any stray bits of coal before the blade was thrust straight into a nearby barrel of water. Immediately the water boiled up around the dagger which caused a good number of bubbles to rise to the surface. The water hissed as if it was a fallen beast, taking the dagger straight to its core. With practiced movements he pulled the dagger up by its tang, used his left hand to rotate the tongs grips before plunging it back into the water so he could be sure all parts of the metal had received the right treatment. Once removed from the water, Terag dried the dagger on a dirty rag. With sandpaper he took a few chimes to work down the blade, removing the blackened material along the blade and tang. Quickly the underlying metal began to shine through, and once he had it showing it was gently placed just inside the mouth of the forge. ”If I remember correctly… once to harden the blade, a second time when it resembles the color of wheat or copper to temper it so it can bend and cut much easier… Bah, it’s a bad analogy anyways. I don’t even think I know what wheat looks like let alone know its color. ” With a shrug and a sigh he waited until the blade began to change color similar to that of wheat, or at least what Terag had been told wheat looked like, and then readjusted the iron so the rest of the blade could follow suit. A few more chimes passed before he pulled his work out of the forge again with tongs, a bit of the blade at the tang had begun to reach nearly a blue color by the time it was quenched in the water again. ”Blue meant it might be too soft right? Gah, I gotta be sure to watch for that again. I’ll never be a master smith if I keep making these mistakes. Gotta remember…” The finished dagger was placed on the anvil once more as Terag put his tools away. The tongs and hammer to their rightful places on the tool rack, the chisel as well. ”Well just a polishing and then filing and grinding down the edges and it should be done. First work I’ve done on my own… I do hope the smiths back home would be proud.” He sat down in the nearest chair as he began to use the same sandpaper from earlier, from a pocket in his apron, along the entirety of the dagger. From tang to tip the blade’s color again was shown through, though not shiny in comparison to most metals, Iron still had its own gleam that was a beauty to behold. At least, to Terag it was. All the while he couldn’t help himself from humming again, this time a much slower tune than before. It rose and fell naturally, though for the most part he was quite off-pitch. He had the rhythm at least, and that was all he needed as he worked.

[Terag]

He lifted the dagger in an attempt to catch the light from the forge better. Slowly he shifted the light over its entirety, setting the dagger down twice to buff a section where the light seemed to dim. As he finished he finally took the time to see where the sun lay in the sky. Out the window it was obvious that the sun was already beginning to set. Terag let out a disappointed, almost defeated, sigh as the realization hit. He still had a long way to go; his teachers' were able to make something like this in at least half the time. That was the difference of real experience it would seem. For a long moment he sat there, spinning the dull dagger in his hands; tang in the right hand and the point of the weapon against a fingertip of his charcoal-black left hand. With another sigh he finally stood up again before making his way to the grindstone. Once sitting down he used his right foot to push on the pedal. Again he started humming, a warm tune this time to both try to cheer himself up and keep the correct rhythm while he stone began to spin. First he allowed it to rotate a few time, letting the stone to spin through the water it sat in so the entire rock became wet. As the music began to speed up so did his foot and Terag set the dagger against the grind stone and began honing the edge. Slowly but surely the metal began to wear away against the spinning stone, the water running over the blade and dripping off back into the bucket beneath the stone. ”… the perfection you desire is the perfection I can bring. I will walk beside you, hand in hand as we …” the words of the song were mumbled under his breath as he worked, somewhat conscious that others may be listening to him again. And they were listening; the smith that had ordered Terag to make the dagger looked over as he worked. It was obvious that he was working to the rhythm of his song to everyone, but rather than make a comment the man stayed silent. Terag continued to work, taking the dagger off every few rotations to flip the dagger and work the same amount of metal off on the other side. Several long chimes later Terag looked over the dagger once more, satisfied with his work. It was plain, the edge wasn’t at its sharpest but at least it looked well enough to be sold, but it was done. He used his pants to dry the dagger off before standing and going to turn in his work. ”Here you go boss, one dagger blade.” The weapon was handed off to the human who had previously been watching Terag work. The few moments it took the man to look over the blade seemed to stretch out to several chimes as Terag could feel his heart beating harder in his chest. Was he nervous? He was. This was his work being judged after all. ”This works. It’s a fine dagger Terag; I knew we could expect good work from you. Next time try to work on letting the blade keep the wheat color and not let parts of the blade become blue though. You’re done for the day, head home.” It felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. Well at least he did well, and he knew what he had to look for next time. With a smile and nod he turned from the man and went to grab his stuff. The apron was taken off and set on a hanger near his tool rack before Terag picked up his pack and threw it on his shoulders. He walked out the door in the dying light with a smile. His work wasn’t perfect, not yet anyways. Soon he thought, one of these days he’ll catch up to his teachers and surpass them. He’ll become the best; it would only be a matter of time.

[Sayana]

Terag Skills: Skill EXP Blacksmithing +4 Weaponsmithing +5 Observation +4 Socialization +1 Bodybuilding +3 Singing +3 Etching +1 Lores: Blacksmithing: Working the bellows Blacksmithing: Iron should be yellow-orange to work with Blacksmithing: Drawing out iron Singing: Lyrics to an Isurian folk song Etching: Using fingernails to trace a cutting line for metal Blacksmithing: Using a chisel to separate metal, not very effective Weaponsmithing: Quenching a blade to make it stronger Weaponsmithing: Creating and attaching the tang Blacksmithing: Polish iron with sandpaper Weaponsmithing: Reheat till the blade is the color of wheat, but not blue Weaponsmithing: Honing a blade with a grindstone Comments : Great thorough job thread. It was also nice to see Terag’s personality shine through with a bit of singing and humming. Note: In your CS under skills, you should mention that your reimancy is for Earth. It's explained in your history but it's helpful to have it mentioned for quick reference in your skill list. Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request in the grade request thread. However, make sure to keep the link so that the DS can review graded threads with ease. If you have any questions or concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message (like really, I’m all ears if you feel like I missed something). Enjoy.