[Dagwood Metal] The Wonders of Toycraft

by **Daedalus Dagwood** on February 25th, 2018, 4:08 pm

15th Day of Winter, 517 A.V.

Hammers were never one of Daedalus's favorite tools. It was a weapon of abrasive force, but found itself constantly being the perfect means to an end. It was a weapon that perfectly summed up the willpower of the people of Sunberth. A will to just beat all problems until they are fixed. It was either that or he was just bored and needed to stop contemplating the world as if he were some kind of philosopher as he stood at his smithy with a hammer in hand.

He waiting on a bar of iron ingot to glow with a bright orange color while entombed in the blazing coal powered flames.

He was dressed in his usual set of black pants and similarly colored long sleeved shirt; the sleeves of which were littered with a multitude of burn marks from drifting flecks of cinder. The Smith was just about to reach for a set of tongs to remove the iron from the forge when the hurried sounds of children's laughter caused him to glance over his shoulder towards the foundry, trying to listen to the laughter passed the roar of the foundries furnace.

Daedalus set the hammer down on top of the anvil as he made his way to the shop to investigate the laughter. He arrived at the door leading to the shop just as his brother Darik closed the main front door to trap the near five urchins inside. Darik glanced over to Daedalus to give his older brother a knowing nod that meant he'd not let them leave with anything they hadn't paid for.

The sight of children was a common occurrence at Dagwood Metal since he made toys of many verities out of either wood or metal. Daedalus took pride in every single one, however, and he made sure that the children knew that. He closed the foundry door behind him, leaving Darik to guard both as he wandered to the main counter where his sister sat on a stool.

"Anything I need to worry about?" Daedalus spoke in a matter of fact way.

"No, they seem to be excited about the tin-men." Gwen stated with a small gesture to a shelf that had small tin warriors in a static pose, each holding swords at different angles. They were cheap figurines that were easy enough to sandcast which came with the added bonus of being able to sell the wooden vaguely person shaped warrior patterns for cheep when he wanted to make newer poses.

As he looked over each of the children he could tell that three of them were either homeless, or from the Sunset Quarter while two of them looked well maintained enough to be from the Riverside or Gated Community. He found himself looking at one such well groomed children with a raised brow. While the boys were looking over the toys, the girl in a beige dress with pantaloons under it held a small wooden box in her hands as she looked over a shovel and bucket for sale.

Daedalus walked towards her, making sure to pass the boys along the way. "One gold a piece. If you want the whole set of stances, then that will be five in total." He said to the group in general as he passed them. He stopped next to the girl as he realized her red eyes were on the verge of tearing up. Daedalus would have been nicer to her if the girl hadn't been wearing a dagger on the belt she had around her waist.

"Whats wrong?" He asked with stunted curiosity now that he did not want to be stabbed by an emotional little girl. The raven haired little girl glanced up to him then removed the lid of wooden box. He was sure that there was something alive in the box as he noticed it had holes in the top of it. It was an idea that was proven true once she showed him four turtles waddling around in the boxx stuffed with grass and potatoes. The odd one out was a fifth turtle laying on its back that seemed to be dead. "You didn't cut up your pet, right?" He asked to be sure the girl was not crazy.

"NO!" She called out in shock which caused the boys near the toy soldiers to look over at them to make sure their friend was alright."No, one of my turtles died. Shamus's dumb cat Ugly pounced on it. I was too late to stop it." The dejection in her voice made Daedalus feel a bit sad for her, while the boys behind him just went back to talking about how many toys they were going to get. "I want to make a grave for him. Maybe bury Mr. Nobs by the Hot Springs. The worms I found near there were his favorite."

"You're breaking my heart with that sob story." Daedalus said while sighing to himself. "I'll give you half off the price of the bucket if you let me take a look at one of those turtles." A soft smile pulled at the edge of his lips while he held out a hand. She glanced from the Smith to the box then set the box down on a near shelf. "You're not going to kill it, are you?" She said while picking up one of her palm sized turtles to cup it between her hands like a protective mother.

"Who do you think I am? I'm a legitimate business owner. I do not go around killing peoples pets. Well, unless they attack me or my family." The little girl nodded in agreement as the two native Sunberthians shared in a moment of non-violence as she placed the turtle in his hand.

He placed his other hand on its shell to make sure he would not drop it, then brought it closer to his face to stare at its beady eyes. It was cute, in that strange sea-like way. "Follow me." He said while walking towards the door to his foundry. "Wait." She said in a rush while collecting her box of turtles and following right behind her turtle-napper, passing Darik as he entered the foundry to make his way to his work desk.

The Girl seemed to turn into a curious cat as she peaked into the foundry, spying the large blast furnace while Daedalus took a seat at a stool in front of a table that he put the turtle on. "Go in." Darik said with a flat tone to the girl standing in front of him. "He's probably going to make you a turtle. Dalus is nice like that." The Girl gave Daedalus's younger brother an odd look that seemed to make her forget about the fact that she was sad.

She followed the Smith over to his workstation, then set the box of turtles down by it. "What are you doing to Miss. Winterbottom?"

Word Count: 1157

by **Daedalus Dagwood** on February 18th, 2019, 11:43 am

"Miss. Turtlebottom?" Daedalus vocalized with a halfhearted chuckle. "I'm going to make a copy of her out of wood. Then give it to you for a gold piece so that the other turtles can have a new friend." He made sure to add in the part about her paying for his work, since it was not a free gift. "What's your name?" He asked while reaching under his work desk to grab a piece of lumber.

"You can call me Shifty." That nickname instantly made Daedalus smirk. Any native Sunberthan would know the title. It was the catch all term for hustling pickpocket children around the Sunset Quarter. They weren't a gang, but the Shifty Shamus stuck together proving that only people able to look out for kids were each other; to the dismay of the orphanage leaders.

"Alright Shifty," He articulated concisely as he realized what type of urchin she was, then unfurled a leather roll that held his father's woodcarving kit that he inherited. "I'm going to show you the basics of how to carve. You just need a sharp edge for the most basic things. Its a good thing you have that dagger." The last bit of that was said with the sharpest hint of sarcasm that most children tend to miss, but could tell that they missed something given an adults change in tone.

"Hey, don't be a shyte head. I'm not stupid." The Girl said while stepping up close to watch as the Metalsmith worked. "Never said you were." He remarked while looking over the turtle crawling around his desk. He had never actually looked at a turtle up close before, but had seen them from a distance when other kids would catch them in the wildlands south of the Tent City, and they used to race them when he was little.

"You have to prepare the wood to be carved if its a raw piece of lumber. If it has bark, the cleave it off with a hatchet if its a large piece. Or just using a push cut to get rid of it like this with a knife. You should get yourself a knife since it has a flat back, you could push the back of the blade to give yourself a bit more power in a fight, or when carving." He picked up a carving knife in his right hand then set the blade against a rough portion of the fist sized lumber. As he pushed the knife, he used the thumb of the hand he held the wood with to press against the back of the knife to aid the cut into the wood forward.

"Remember this is a basic push cut."

He slowly spun the lumber in his hand once one side had been whittled clean of any rough patches. The little girl watched as he focused on turning its enter surface into a clean worked somewhat cylindrically rectangular shape of wood. Once he had gotten it to only having one side still rough, he handed her the lumber and knife to try it for herself. "Try it. See how there is a bit of bark right there? Cut that off."

The girl took the knife into her hand as Daedalus set his hand onto the turtle to strokes its shell. Then set his palm down onto the handle of a wood working chisel. He trusted her, but if the girl tried to stab him he wanted to be ready to defend himself. It was always better to be safe than sorry.

She pressed the knife to the wood, then began to cut into it towards her hand which held the lumber. "Hold on a moment." Daedalus said calmly so she would stop without being startled and accidentally cutting herself. "You need all of your fingers right? For now just use the push cut away from your hand. Cutting towards your finger is called a parrying cut. I'll get to that later."

The Shifty Girl seemed to follow directions easy enough as she pushed the blade away from herself with the aid of her thumb. She seemed to have a little trouble getting the knife too cut in a smooth line. Needing to stop after the blade got cot in it and fixing her mistakes with jagged motions. It took her a chime, but she finished it, then handed both the knife and wood pattern back to Daedalus. He looked over her work, then set the blade to the wood to whittle away a patch of fuzz that could have given him a few good splinters. "Nice, you have a future in this line of work."

Word Count: 776

by **Daedalus Dagwood** on February 20th, 2019, 8:46 am

"You alright Sif?" The voice of a young boy called out from the shop, causing the young girl near Daedalus to turn towards the door. "I'm fine Iffy." The interaction caused the Smith to chuckle to himself as they seemed to have broken up the Shifty Shamus group name into code names. One of the other boys peeked around the door as the other started to get openly patted down by Darik before they could leave. "We got a few new toys, so we're heading back to Mom's Fountain. You coming?" They gave Darik a hard time about the pat down, but he felt like they legitimately came to be customers today less Daedalus stop making the things they enjoyed.

"I'll catch up to you in a bit, I want to get everything ready for Mr. Nobs."

Daedalus absently payed attention to the sound of the shops door closing once the group of children left. He used focused efforts to guide the blade of the carving knife along the wood grain. "Wood has more strength parallel to the grain than across it. So its harder to cut, so be aware of that if you are trying to do anything with detail. You'll need to muscle it a bit, but not so much as to remove to much work surface." He began to think back to when his father imparted that knowledge to him. He wasn't the best carver, but he could manage some very basic partners that he could improve on with his metalworking skill once a mold is filled.

His advice drew her attention back to him as he glanced from the turtle to the piece of wood he whittled away. He narrowed the tip of it to a rough point as if he were working on a wooden stake, then started to drag the knife along the tip to round it out until it was a general turtles head shape. He did his best to memorize how Miss. Turtlebottom looked to keep from deviating his attention fro his work. He did not want to perfectly emulate the turtle, but to understand its anatomy enough to take some artistic freedoms with the wooden sandcast pattern should he wish to.

"Do you want this thing to have moving legs? Or a moving head?" His question made the Girl's eyes go wide before narrowing again. "What's the catch?" Her question caused a smirk to tug slyly at the edge of his lips. "The price will go up." He continued to work while she contemplated the offer. "How long would it take though?" She asked seemingly not worried about the price. He started to etch the knife into the side of the lumber at an angle, then paired it with a matching one opposite from the first to from a V-cut once he removed the small wedge he'd made.

"Maybe a bell or two longer for me to work on the joints. I'm going to use this as a pattern to make a metal version." The V-cut was just to prepare the area along the shell as he started to guide the knife into the sides of the V-cut as if he were slowly peeling a potato. His hand repeated the motion until the flat surface started to turn ovoid like the shell of a turtle. The Shifty Girl stood next to him in silent while she tried to make up her mind. Watching as the piece of wood started to look more turtle shaped.

"I have to make sure the wood is as smooth as I can make it, otherwise its contours will not be seen in the mold once I pour the metal into the cast." The girl did not quite understand the metal talk, but she did get the basics of wanting the turtle shell to be smooth like a real animals.

Word Count: 643

by **Daedalus Dagwood** on February 22nd, 2019, 5:28 pm

"I don't want to be here all day, so just the figurine is fine I guess." The Girl said with a bit of disappointment and a childlike level of impatience. "That's fine by me. I just need to make a mold before I can give you this pattern." He stated before shouting over to the shop. "Hey Gwen, I've an Iron set in the forge. It should be sparked to glow by now, put it in a crucible and smelt it in the blast furnace hearth." His sister made her way into the foundry as she made her way to the back of the workshop to the smithy's forge. "Nice. I'm on it." She said in passing while twirling her personal hammer in hand. "Darik. There is a box of newly made nails in here, come get them then pour them in the nail container in the shop."

The younger Dagwood entered the foundry with a rapier sword in hand that he swiftly sheathed. Daedalus did not turn to watch his brother do it, but could hear the weapon being stored away. He could only assume that he wanted to intimidate the children before letting them leave. "Bring me my sword out of my office once your done." He spoke as he listened to the crate of nails ruffling around as his brother picked it up.

Daedalus began to focus on the underside of the wood turtle pattern, using the knife's edge to form a nub that would become one of the hind leg from the rest of the structure. He made similar cuts to differentiate where he would make of the other individual legs. The blade etched into the wood splintering away the unnecessary material in his way until the negative spaces started to look like the underside of a shell.

He then turned to show her the vaguely turtle shaped piece of wood. A turtle shaped patter that he set down next to the actual turtle on the table. "I showed you the basics of carpentry and carving a shape into wood. However, a sometimes you need more specialized tools than a carving knife. A carving chisel and gouge are wonders when turning a block of wood into art. You can use a knife to do such things, but it tends to require a very experienced hand."

The young girl turned to watch as Gwen entered the foundry holding a crucible by a long set of tongs. The sound of the furnace's hearth opening along with the clatter of metal being set into place within the brick caused him to glance over his shoulder at her for a moment before returning to his pattern making. "Thanks, Sis."

Daedalus set the knife into the wood kits leather roll to retrieve a carving gouge. He placed his hand onto the pattern to keep it still as his other hand ran the edge of the gouge atop the shell. He scrapped back and forth to give the shell lines across it just like the living turtle. He made sure to set the groves deep enough to be caught in the sandcast. Once that was done, he picked up a smaller knife with a finer blade to press it against the head of the pattern, cutting a thin smile along the mouth. The finer details such as the nubs on its feet and details on the undersides of the shell all came with chimes of work after. It was a simplistic carving, but was nonetheless a turtle.

Daedalus reached up to grab a wooden cope & drag frame that he set onto the table. He did not want to go over the details of making a sand casting with the girl, so he swiftly went through the motions to hurry up and make the turtle mold. The Metalsmith set the turtle on its back on the table in the center of the bottom drag frame. The girl watched as he reached under his table to a grab a hand shovel in a barrel full of a spacial oily sand mixture with hints of clay. He poured the sand onto the turtle patter, packing it tightly against the pattern before filling the rest of the drag frame with sand.

Once it was done, he scrapped the edge of the shovel along the top to remove the excess sands before patting it tightly with its flat side. To be even safer, he picked up a mallet to pack the sand even tighter. He then set his tools aside to grip the sides of the frame and swiftly flipped the mold so that he could see the top of the patterns shell packed in the sand. He placed the twin cope frame on top of the drag, doing the same as before by packing it with sand to form the top of the mold.

Daedalus separated the two halves by laying them each mold-side-up on the table. He then slowly peeled the turtle pattern out from the sand, leaving its negative image within the frame to form the mold cavity. "How did you learn that?" The Turtle girl said with some curiosity about how Daedalus made a negative image of a turtle in sand. "Lots and lots of practice." Daedalus said before using a wooden tube to poke holes into the cope to form the spruce and riser where he would pour the molten metal and where the excess would escape. He used the edges of that tube to carve valleys in the sand from the holes to the mold cavity to complete the venting systems.

With the mold done, he got up to place the turtle pattern in his sister's hands. "There you go. That's three gold." Daedalus said aloud so the girl and his sister could hear him. "The bucket and shovel are half off." The talk of prices led his sister to head back into the shop as the young girl followed the wooden object with her eyes. "Sorry to hear about your pet, but its been fun. Stop by again sometime." Daedalus gave her a smile as the Shifty Girl looked to the dead turtle in the box. "Thanks for making that for and not being a creep, Mister." She said with a slightly smirk that drifted into a soft expression at remembering she'd lost her pet. He watched her scamper off to the shop where she payed for her items, then left to go preform a turtle funeral.

"Cute kid."

The smith said to himself as he turned around to look over the furnace as he waited for the iron to smelt.

by **Daedalus Dagwood** on February 22nd, 2019, 6:04 pm

Daedalus didn't need to wait long for preheated iron to smelt in the intense heat of the furnaces hearth. As he paced slowly around the foundry to stretch his legs for a bit when his brother approached him with the sheathed rapier Daedalus had asked for. It was quickly set into its resting place on his belt. "You want to go a round or two?" Darik asked while patting the hilt of one of his own rapiers. "Yeah, right after I pour this mold." The Smith moved the sandcast frame from his table to place it on the ground next to the hearth.

A nice tug pulled his gloves tighter onto his fingers as he picked up the tongs next to the hearth that his sister used previously. He opened the hearths gate to expose the blaze within that wafted over his skin like a warm hug. The crucible that now held molten iron rested on glowing coals which sent him into a serious mindset as to not burn himself. He held the tongs handle tightly as he griped the ends of it around the crucible then pulled it from the heated maw of flame and fury. Daedalus didn't just pour the metal right into the casting. No, first he poured the crucible so that the top portion of it spilled into a waste crucible on the ground to get rid of the impure slag. Once that was done, he guided the crucible over the sandcasting to pour the pure molten metal to drain into the spruce to fill the mold. The cavity was quickly filled once the excess alloy exited out from the riser which he used as a sign to stop pouring and setting the crucible aside.

A few bell passed before he came back to check on the casting. He'd spent the free time randomly sparing with his brother. He set his boot against the frame to jostle the entire sand cast, then kicked it over which caused any of the lose sand to fall from the frame to expose the newly made turtle. He used a smaller set of tongs to pick it up, taking it over to his work table while the metal was still slightly heated enough to be malleable. Daedalus held the tongs in one hand as he gripped a hammer in the other. A raised hand struck the hammer down against the extra metals of the spruce and riser, removing them from where they protruded from the shell. He then walked the turtle to the barrel of water he had in the smithy to both cool it off and quench it to make the metal stronger.

by **Daedalus Dagwood** on February 22nd, 2019, 6:20 pm

Self Grade

Philosophy: 1
Observation: 4
Rhetoric: 3
Negotiation: 3
Animal Husbandry: 1
Carving: 3
Teaching: 2
Metalsmithing: 4
Carpentry: 1
Leadership: 1
Blacksmithing: 1