[Dagwood Metal] Metal and Fury I

[Daedalus Dagwood]

1st Day of WInter, 518 A.V.

Smoke and fire. The thunder struck from steel.

Daedalus was not the best when it can to specialized blacksmiths, but oh did he love it. The metalsmith squinted at the piece of ingot iron shone bright within in the coal of his forge. He held a set of tongs in his gloved hand that he reached out to shift the piece of ingot to and fro within the flames so that it could heat evenly. Daedalus lingered away in the back of Dagwood Metal as the sun slowly rose up past the horizon. The work day always started early for him as he waited for his siblings to arrive from their respective homes. They were all in one his brother, sister, and employees. However, that did not mean they lived together. They were all adults with their own adult lives after all. Just adults that did not get paid if they did not listen to their older brother.

It was Daedalus who's personal life was also tightly wound in the business.

When the door to the shop opened, he heard a clattering bucket get knocked over that he'd placed against it. It was his attempt at an alarm which his siblings knew about. "Its us, Dalas. Don't charge us with heated metal." His brother Darik called out in jest. "Gwen! Take ten bars of iron and a bar of choke coal to the foundry. Darik, keep an eye on the shop while she does so." He shouted out towards his sibling while he worked on crafting the base of a Rapier to sell in the shop. It was ironically one of his best selling items even if he was not the best weaponsmith in the city. He just liked making them since it was his primary weapon of choice.

The piece of ingot was heated to a certain temperature and no hotter, then shifted pulled from the coals while he turned on his heels to the anvil right behind him. He picked up the hammer that laid on the anvil, to hold the ingot down in its place. Daedaus had read up on the basic components of a rapier, design of a rapier blade, and knew from memory the appropriate length he needed to make the ingot to match a fitting blade. With a focused precision, he tried his best to attempt it. His free hand griping the hammer rose up before quickly slamming down against the heated metal, sending sparks up into the air.

This was where his apprentice level in blacksmithing paled in comparison to his journeyman knowledge of metalsmithing. He could set a cope and drag, make a pattern, and pour a mold with only no easily seen air pockets in the alloy, but it now took him time and energy to lengthen a piece of ingot that he himself crafted. The tip of the ingot began to shrink into itself as he hammered that end into a thinner rectangular shape. He brought the hammer down all along the spine of the ingot as the hunk of metals girth shrunk, but its length slightly grew.

He noticed that the metal was dim quite fast. Which meant he was either hammering too slow, or he was not heating the metal in the forge long enough. It was amusing to the metalsmith that he knew how hot a coal fire could get to melt alloy, but not how long it took to heat an ingot in a forge to properly shape the metal. "Hmm, metalsmiths deal in liquids while other smiths deal in solids." Daedalus stated to himself about the philosophy of smithing while gripping the ingot tightly with the tongs to put it back in the forge to keep up its heat.

Gwendoline peaked her head into the smithy while he was working. "Morning Dae. I put the iron by your work table." He glanced over to her by the door then gave her a nod as she turned to walk away. It was at that moment that he felt like being nice to her for doing that, so called out to her as she walked back to the shop. "Love you, Sis. You want to help me forge this rapier?"

He knew that she always loved to use the smithy, so smiled as he quickly watched her reappear only to stand next to him. "Got my hammer!" She said with a quick flourish of swings with the blunted tool. "Calm down before you hurt someone, namely me. I just need you to help me draw out that ingot into a three foot length for a blade." She smirked then traded places with Daedalus as he walked towards the door. That would give him a few loving brother points for the day. He could hear her shuffling the ingot in the coals the further he walked away.

Daedalus made his way past his imaginary fourth member of the family; the large elaborate blast furnace at the center of the foundry. It made the foundry hum with a constant thronging from the fire blazing in its center. He could feel that hum in his boots along the stone floor on the days when he bellowed the heat to its fullest potential.

His work table rested against the wall to the front left of the foundries direct entrance. It was the location he could be found by anyone seeking to speak to him throughout his business day; which was all the time. His eyes fell to a wooden crate filled with ingots that he'd told his sister to retrieve.

Daedalus had the strength afforded to him by a life of moving metal. His muscularity could hardly compete with an isur, or the best of fighters at Tall Johnnies, but he was toned enough to hulk the crate of ingots up off of the ground to trudge it on over to be set down next to the furnace. Daedalus moved to the side of the furnace to the hearth on its side which was used to fuel the structure. "Darik, remind me to send you out on a coal run later." The Smith called out to his brother who promptly responded back, "Got it. Remind you to remind me to mule black rocks back from the commons."

A sigh escaped from Dae's lips from the tone in Darik's voice. "Its still early, so I'll over look you being an ass right now. That was a serious request, I need that coal. I'm firing you If I need to go get it myself." Daedalus called back with a bit of sharpness to his tone. It was a tone that caused Gwen to shout out to both of her brothers. "He's joking Daedalus." It was true that when he was in the foundry, he was all business. His normally playful manner was dulled if something stopped him from working, which meant it was something Darik used to just annoy his older brother. "Fine, Dalus. Just tell me when to go." Darik stated in a singsong tone.

There were barrels of coal kept near the back wall of the foundry which were running low. Daedalus had put some in a bucket early in the day that was now next to the furnace. He still had on his gloves, so opened up the furnaces hearth to fling the contents of coal into the flames which caused the already bright lights light to awash him in a glow of vibrant waves of heat. He closed the safety gate, then moved to the bellows to pump it a few times to bring the temperature within the furnace up to a level necessary to create the alloy of steel. It was a temperature he gauged off of the way the furnace sounded and the subtle change in heat emanating from the hearth.

Once he was satisfied, Daedalus went to dump the ingots of iron and choke coal into a bucket attached to the pulley system running along the ceiling. He planted his feet firmly on the ground as if he were going to vertical jump in place, to give him a strong foundation. Then started to pull down on the chain which lifted the container attached to the ceiling arm mounted pulley. The pulley's mechanical advantage aided in lessening the weight, but he was still pulling at the resistance as he grabbed hand over hand. It was like climbing a rope, or doing a pull up as his felt his biceps and triceps flex from the sudden strain on them until the container was at its peak.

There was another chain attached to the container that he tugged on to offset the weight, causing it to tip its contents into the top of the furnace. He listened to the sound of the furnace change now that it had metal within it, nodding at the crackling of intensity while he lowered the container back down to the ground.

Self Grade notes:
Blacksmithing: 1 (Forging lore)
Weapomsmithing: 1 (Reapier crafting lore)
Observation: 1
Leadership: 1 (something about rewards/motivation)
Metalsmithing: 1 (Blast furnace maintenance/use lore.)
Bodybuilding: 1 (Chain pulling)

Word Count: 1489

[Daedalus Dagwood]

1st Day of WInter, 518 A.V.

The heat of the furnace needed to be maintained every so often during the smelting process, but otherwise could be left alone at the moment. He went back over to his work table to prepare a cope for a specialty item he was requested to make by Kane Baker of Baker's Butchery and Bakeshop.

Kane wanted a long metal pipeweed pipe made of steel, sharpened at the tip where its smoked from enough to possibly stab someone when its not covered with a metal mouthpiece peripheral. Kane wanted the words 'My Merciless Heart' etched into the side of it for his Myrian wife. It was an oddly loving request, but one Daedalus was getting paid for so he accepted to make it.

He did not need to make the patterns since he had multiple sitting around his workstation. Daedalus had pre-made pattern for things like forks, spoons, and pipe mouth pieces. All the quick things the city routinely needs at any point in time. He pulled out a mold pattern one made from wood that he could just alter to fit the sharpened specifications. All of his woodworking tools laid open in its leather wrapping, so he picked up a knife to whittle away the mouth end into a vaguely thick pointed shape. His motions were attentive as he glided the carving knife along the surface of it, trying his best not to shave away too much of the pattern. All Daedalus wanted was the general shape of a point otherwise the tip would be too thin for the molten metal to settle within the cavity; he'd sharpen it once the pipe was made.

The pipe was suitably thick, nearing a foot in length with a slight curve at the cap that the drugs would placed. If he was going to place the words along its side, he'd need to do it now rather than on the actual steel pipe less he poke through the steel. At least he could mess up and restart with the wood mold. The foundry had many tools to work metal, one of them being a chisel with a diagonally angled shaft from the handle, and ending in a wickedly sharp tempered cutting face sharp enough to etch into metal. But, for now he'd use it on wood.

He held it in his grasp as he set the mold down onto its side on the table. "'My Merciless Heart" The Metalsmith said aloud to remind himself what to engrave. "'My Merciless Heart..." The phrase started to repeat through his mind as he dissected it down to its individual letters. His wrist rose as he shook it out any tension while leaning in close to keep an eye on his work. His other hand rested on the thicker park of the mold to keep it from shifting around. If he wanted to do this, he needed to start at the thickest part of the base to get the letters as large as possible to avoid the issue of being too thin to set; just like what he wanted to avoid with the mouthpiece.

The end of the chisel was set to the wood mold as he held his breath to steady his hand while scraping away the start of the first letter. He got to the second line of the M before stopping to repeatedly car into the divot he just made to make it thicker. It took him a few chimes of focused effort to finish just two of the letters before his wist started to get tired from the tediously small motions.

By the time he'd finished the entire phrase, he'd been at it for just beyond a bell. It wasn't the most beautiful thing in the word, but it was legible, and thick enough to be filled when its negative is set into the casting.

With the mold pattern done he turned to focus on building the cope and drag. This he did with with a well practiced hand as he reached to a shelf on the wall that had various wooden frames on it. Cope and Drag frames littered the whole shop. They were everywhere. His brother Darik got tired of tripping over them enough times that he started putting them up for his older brother.

Daedalus grabbed one that would be able to house the pipe mold which he then removed the wooden locking pin to set each half onto the table. He then set the pipe mold into the center of the drag-frame; because it dragged behind as the bottom piece. He then reached down to grab a small hand garden shovel inside of a crate under the table that was filled to to brim with sands mixed with oil as a binding agent to keep the sand mold from crumbling, and scoped some up. One after another, he filled the frame until the wooden mold was covered. He only stopped for a moment to make sure the sand was packed tightly against the pattern by patting the sand down against it. Once he was satisfied that the mold was not going to shift, he filled the rest of the frame with oiled sand.

He picked up a mallet to pat the sands down even tighter, then ran a long stick across the surface to remove any excess sand. With the drag done, he picked it up to flip it upside down so that the top of the mold could now be seen embedded in the sand. "Alright. Drag on frame..." It was the next thing he needed to do as he ran through a checklist in his mind. It was a thing he marked off the list by setting the cope-frame on top of the drag, then locked each of the frames together by sliding wooden locking pins into the sides of them.

"Riser exit, spruce entrance. Then spruce vent runner and riser vent runner to the mold cavity. Then I'll have a happy little vent hallways." Going in order, he reached for a sick that he pressed into the sand near the bottom of the frame where the cup of the pipe would be to act as the riser. He followed it up by placing a wooden cylinder for the spruce on the other side of the molds up area. The spruce had a wider area near its top to form the point where he would pour in his molten alloy. He then repeated the process of filling the upper cope with casting sand, making sure to pat the sand tightly around the spruce and riser patterns.

Thread Continues in part II...

Self Grade notes:
Metalsmithing: 1 (Sandcasting a weed pipe/& tube. Not making molds too thin. Grating venting system components. How to make a grating system )
Carpentry: 1 (Sharpening a stick.)
Engraving: 1 (Engraving letters into wood)

Word Count: 1099
WC Total= 2588.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

Self-Grade

Skill XP

• Blacksmithing: 1
• Weapomsmithing: 1
• Observation: 1
• Leadership: 1
• Metalsmithing: 2
• Bodybuilding: 1
• Carpentry: 1
• Engraving: 1

Lore

• Blacksmithing: Forging iron to glow.
• Weapomsmithing: Drawing ingot to blade length
• Leadership: Positive rewards to keep family unit happy.
• Bodybuilding: Chain pulling.
• Metalsmithing: Blast furnace maintenance.
• Metalsmithing: Adding metal to furnace for smelting.
• Metalsmithing: Raising furnace temperature.
• Metalsmithing: Sandcasting smoking pipe.
• Metalsmithing: Sandcasting tubes/pipes.
• Metalsmithing: Do not make Sandcasting molds too thin.
• Metalsmithing: Grating venting system components
• Carpentry: Sharpening a stick
• Engraving: Letters into wood.