Equipment For Another Trade

[Alija]

38th Winter 515

She needed to make equipment for an armourer. The first thing would be a hammer. Start simple and basic, something she could always use if it came to it. Except, she didn't want to make it simple. Normally, she would have "cheated", using shortcuts and bits of odd equipment to create the hammer head. This time, she planned to make the punches needed, so she could this again, much easier.

The blacksmith settled on making a punch first, but adjusting it to form a drift also. She took the metal, flipping it in her hand before heating it. Glowing hot in the dark forge, she began to taper one end, very slightly. Using the faces of the anvil and hammer, she drew it out, hammering at an angle. It was a short taper, only slightly thinner than width of the metal itself, but that would do for what she wanted. Actually, there was a way to make it better. Using a mixture of upsetting and drawing, Alija hammered down the corners of the square taper, distributing the metal to the very end with small hit of the hammer. Now it was more octagonal, more suited.

Putting it back in the fire to heat, Alija let it reach a slightly hotter temperature before she took it back out, ready to make the other end. This would be much longer, thinner and round.

She hammered quickly, drawing out the metal into a long spike. The rough surface with hammer strikes using the edge of the hammer was flattened out quickly, simply hammering straight down to redistribute the metal. The smith then spun it along the face of the anvil, hammering often in an attempt to make it rounded. She stopped to examine it. No, something wasn't right. Alija quickly noticed what - it was meant to have an end, however small, not a spike. Easily fixed. She held it upright, hammering on the metal to upset it to become flat again. The metal moved to form a build up around the edge of this face. Sighing, Alija hammered that down too, drawing it across the rest of the taper. Now it was done.

Actually, it wasn't. She wanted to mount it on a wooden stick, which she had prepared. First Alija used an existing punch to make a hole through this one. Then, she used an even smaller one to make a perpendicular hole, perfect for a nail. She doused the punch in water to let it cool, then, when it was cool enough to hold bare handed, forced the handle through. It held firm even without the nail, but she added it anyway. That was easy, hammering a nail into wood easier than hammering metal. Great.




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[Alija]

Now, she could take the steel for the hammer, finding a point dead centre along one axis, but situated towards one side along the other. She took a chisel, placing it on this point before hammering hard. The chisel slipped, scoring a mark across the metal. Petch. She flipped the steel over, ignoring it as best she could as she tried again, hammering less hard. It resulted in a small indent, but directly in the place. Using the dip as an anchor point, she made the mark more prominent, ready for punch. The smith brought the steel to the fire, heating it to a bright red heat.

Using the punch she had made, she punched dead centre, working hard to make it as deep as possible. She removed the punch frequently, hammering at the side of the eye to dislodge it. Using a barrel of water to cool it often, she managed to make a deep hole. As soon as the punching could be seen on the other side, she worked from there too, alternating between hammering the punch on each side.

The hole tapered from both sides, the metal pushed aside to let the punch slide through. It was slightly thinner in the centre, created as the punch wasn't quite long enough to push past. It met almost perfectly just past halfway, resulting in the taper.

Next was the peen end. She used a fuller, placing it against the metal as she drew it down. She placed the tip at the start of where she wanted the peen, hammer flat down. The fuller made a dent, shifting down, as she had hoped. Alija repeated from that point again, working down as she drew the metal out. Once she reached the end, she flipped the hammer head over, working down the other side. This came out rougher, fixed by placing the fuller at a different angle and working with that, hammering to smooth the surface out. The peen was done.

Of course, she wanted to remove the corners. Alija held the hammer head at an angle, hammering with deliberation to flatten the corners and draw the metal. She was careful to pull it back round to a more useless part of the hammer. After all, she wanted the peen to be usable, not clogged with metal sitting around after being removed from the corners.

By now, the anvil was covered in flakes of metal. Taking a simple brush, she brushed it all off, cleaning off the hammer too. Mostly finishing left. This had taken so long.

[Alija]

In turn, she heated first the face, then the peen to a bright red colour. Using a file, she rasped it, smoothing out any imperfections or lumps that could be found. She brought the file over the peen too, making that more rounded with the filing. She tried to only file one way, believing that would mean the metal would be stronger. She remembered hearing that, but Alija just couldn't remember whether it was true or not. Either way, it wouldn't hurt to do so.

After that was done, she left it to cool slowly, before she would file away again. This time, she moved the file over the other parts off the hammer too, making sure it was all smooth for appearance now.

All that was left was to temper and harden it. This part, she wasn't too certain on, but had the instructions memorised. First, she heated to a very dull red, before submerging it in oil. Why she did this, she had no idea. The oil must have some property to make the metal stronger, but why, she didn't know.

She cleaned up the peen and face until both were smooth and shiny. Then, she heated the punch to a yellow heat, inserting it through the eye. The ends began to show a tempered colour but she waited. Was it brown or blue she was waiting for? When it reached a mix, Alija removed the punch, quenching the hammer in water.

After that, she brushed it over with a wire brush and added the handle. Perfect. Placing the hammer to the side, she turned to the next item.

[Alija]

Next was a ball shaft. Alija took a large chunk of cold iron, heating it until it was red like a cherry. She need to make it spherical, a fairly difficult task. First, she decided to make a cube - much easier. All she had to do was hammer down from the top, turning it occasionally to make the new side. Slowly, it came into shape, her hammering working to transform it from a lump into a defined shape.

Then she hammered down on the corners, upsetting the metal around the cube to make it more spherical. Each hammer blow made a new face, then th next would smooth out the edge between the two. Soon enough, she had made the top half spherical. The hard part came next. It seemed that when she flipped it over, each blow did as much damage as it fixed. Slowly, it came together, Alija hammering at angles and flat to slowly form the spherical ball. Finally finished, she wiped away a layer of built of sweat. Even in winter, the forge was hot.

She then made a tiny section flat, a much easier job. The section she then drew out to make a point, which she endlessly brushed down and heated to prepare it for welding. She repeated on the end of a stake, but that part was easy. She placed them in the fire, letting them heat until she could be happy it was almost molten. Alija secured these two together, using the points to drive out the flux. She hammered down, forcing the metal to meet.

Not certain it would hold, she found some metal with a low melting point, wrapping a strip around the join. She held this in the fire, letting this metal melt around the mould to hold it firmer. Alija let it cool slowly, taking a break to have some food.

When she came back, the smith took the long rod, placing the ball slightly past the edge of the anvil face. She hammered down, bending it around it to make the rod now perpendicular to how it was before. She had to bend it back, to offset the rod. That would mean it wouldn't get in the way of armour when the armourer was using it. Shifting the ball shaft along a little more, she bent it again, hammering straight down to move the metal. Sure enough, it turned out exactly as she hoped.

[Alija]

Alija made a few more, following the same pattern but with different sizes. Did armourers need different sizes, or would one be enough? To stay on the safe side, she did plenty, hard, annoying work.

Finally came the dishing plate. Alija had no idea what this was for, but knew what it looked like, anyhow. That would work, hopefully.

First, she heated up a chunk of metal until it glowed red hot. Then, she drew it out into a square, still leaving it fairly thick. The metal moved under her hammer nicely, ridging up at first but it wasn't long before she smoothed that out. Then she drew it upwards, hammering in from the side to force it to build up in the middle. Once the section was large enough, she picked it up, flipping it to rest on the raise side. Hammering straight down, Alija made the angles sharper, the sides smoother.

Then came the dish part. This was curve down, which would be difficult to do. First, she started by using a punch to make an indent in the centre of the raised section. Working from that point, she punched around it, this time slightly less. Working like this, she would place the punch next to the previous dent, hammering down slightly light.

Slowly, she built it up in a checkerboard, step sort of fashion. It had the idea of the shape, but was lacking the smooth edges that it required. Not that that was a problem. Reheating the metal again, she hammered along the edges of the punches to make them flatter. It worked with simple hammer blows, pushing the metal down and around until it was finally flat.

Of course, that excess metal went somewhere. While some did fall around as flakes, most got pushed to the edges, ruining the flattening face and sharp corners she had previously made. Repeating the process, this time hitting harder so both the side she hit and the one on the anvil flattened. Eventually, she got it.

Last, she had to add holes so the plate could be secured. Easy.

She heated up the plate, centring the punch in a corner and hammering down hard. After every three or so hammers, she cleaned and cooled the punch, not wanting to ruin it. Slowly, she managed to force the metal aside, feeling the punch slip through the punching hole on the anvil. The smith repeated on the other three corners, satisfied with her work. Finishing it with a little tempering and polishing, she placed it to the side. When an armourer came, she would have everything ready.

[Dove Brown]

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Alija

Skills

• Blacksmithing 5
• Observation 1

Lores

• Blacksmithing: making a punch
• Blacksmithing: making a peen hammer
• Gentler hammering on chisels is more accurate
• Filing only one way makes metal stronger
• Blacksmithing: how to make a ball shaft
• Blacksmithing: making a dishing plate

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