Solo [ED]To Rebuild and Repair

[Crylon Stonecraft]

10 Winter 519 Heading to the sawmill Crylon pulled a large case behind him. Or more of a trunk than a case, Crylon thought to himself as he pulled along the heft of the container. Inside was a plethora of tools meant for building, repair, and other manner of construction. It was one of the few things Crylon could not fit into the magical pack on his back, and so had to be manually hauled about whenever it was to be used. Which was not often, seeing as Crylon much more commonly used the more mundane tools in his pack rather than using these more unique items. He had yet to see so much as a single mar on any of the tools, a true proof of their masterful crafting. Now was another chance to use them in a fitting way, or more so a worthy way compared to some of the simpler things he did. Repairing and refining the Demesne. Finally he reached the sawmill, where he found Sona hard at work with another man who was her relative. Seeing his struggles the man helped Crylon pull the container across the threshold and into a nice open spot where it could be accessed and would not be in the way of the workings of the sawmill. Even now it was at work, large blades cutting length of wood, entire trees which had been pruned of branches and smoothed down, which were pulled along and through and cut as they moved. The halved tree was then cut again differently, and again till the end result was a plank of wood, which involved some more cutting and sanding and squaring. A pile of such finished planks sat off to the side, stacked and ready to be hauled off for use or storage, while more logs of felled trees were ready to be cut to size into various builds of planks. The operation of the sawmill at once seemed simple and yet complex. Complex in its working, gears and ropes and pulley and other mechanism, while the process itself seemed relatively straightforward. "Good, your here. This is Briggs. He'll help you with your work. We have a few things in need of repair around here. A few broken boards, some roofing, and some kind of sap or something, some gunk, got on the floor over there. Some good sanding should fix that. I'm sure I can find you some other stuff to do, if you finish that and still have time today." Crylon simply nodded, considering his tools and the first task. Heading for the roof first Crylon grabbed a ladder and perched it on the side of the building, climbing up to inspect the damage. On top he could see that something had fallen and landed on the roof, cracking several planks. They needed to be replaced, or else the damage might spread and rain and things would leak through quite easily to soak anything below. Below being the mechanism of the sawmill, that would not be good. Heading to his tools Crylon took out a nail hammer, another tool for removing nails, and a small pick, before heading back up to the damaged roofing. WC: 531

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Using the pick, Crylon worked the tool into the side of the plank. He tried one side, then the other, but Crylon soon found that the plank was in too tight to slip the pry in to loosen in that way. Instead he considered he breakage, and used his left hand to grab at the broken edge. With a yank he unsettled the wood, moving it a bit from its spot nailed into the roof beam. Another pull at it was nearly free, and then with a brush of wood on wood it finally moved free. That was when he took out the nail hammer. Using his fingers on his left hand like a vice he grabbed and then pushed the nail up just a bit, enough so he could get the pointed end of the hammer head underneath. Then it was a simple pulling motion to yank the nail right out of the broken board. He did likewise with the other nail on that end, before turning to the other broken side. Now that he had more room to work, he could see he needed to remove the other end of that plank, along with another two planks, with one on either side. Those three had been damaged, and all needed replacing. He was still unsure though what had caused the damage. From looking at it, something heavy like a rock had landed and broke them, but he could not fathom how that would have happened. There was no trees nearby that could have dropped something, so that was not it. Maybe a bird or something flying over had dropped something and done the damage? That seemed the most reasonable of answers. Repeating his earlier effort Crylon yanked on the other broken end, loosening it in a sawing motion back and forth till it likewise came loose with its nails hanging free. He did not want to lose them, the metal being valuable and if undamaged it could be used again. For those that were damaged, it would be a quick trip to the smithy to heat them up and straighten them back out so that they were repaired and ready for reuse. Once it was free he pried at each of the nails in turn till they were loose enough, and then used the hammer to pull them the rest of the way free, setting them with the others. Now that he had room to work with Crylon took back out the pry tool, and worked it under the board on the one side. Working it under the wood near the nails, Crylon was able to slowly lift up the wood and the nails till they were loose. He did this by switching from end to end, to keep it roughly even and to avoid bending the nails, till the entire board was free. He then repeated the action with the other side, prying up the ends one by one till the nails came free of the roof post they were secured to. Grabbing the two board with nails to be removed, and the nails he had already taken out, and then throwing down the broken bits of board, Crylon headed back down from the roof to get more tools. WC: 542

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Having removed the broken pieces and brought them down from the roof, Crylon considered his next steps. Heading back to the tools and his pack, Crylon took out a long ruler and some chalk. Then he was back on the ladder, and heading back up to the roof. His first step was to measure the planks that had been removed. But being broken he could not measure them directly. This meant measuring the hole and the surrounding planks. Using the ruler and the chalk Crylon counted out the length, and then marked the edge of the wood surface with the chalk. Then he measured out the ruler again from that point, and did so again till he had the length of the plank by units of the rulers total length plus the inch or so remainder. Two foot long rulers, plus the inch and a half, made two foot one and a half inches... Or, some quick math, twenty five and a half inches. That was how long the section was, which he then compared by using the hole and the plank on either side. When all three came in at the same, he was confident his measurement was correct. Next was the width, which was much less. The wood was longer than it was tall, though it also had depth. Measuring down into the roof on each side, he saw that the planks were all a uniform half inch thick. For width he had to carefully measure the top and bottom of several planks, finding they were each four inches wide. So twenty five and a half inches long, half an inch thick, and four inches wide.That was the dimensions of the planks. Once he had the wood properly cut, he could slot it into place, and then hammer it back in with more nails. There was a cross beam near the top and bottom of the roof section, which was where they had been hammered in. Two nails at each end, near the corners. Heading back down with his ruler and chalk, Crylon headed to a pile of planks. He had a rough understanding of the length, and tried to find one that was a proper length. Three actually, as he needed to replace all three. He found one which seemed the closest while being longer than what he needed, and measured it quickly. Thirty inches. A bit long, with some excess wood, but the closest it seemed of the planks already cut which were long enough or longer. And it would take much longer to have Sona prepare and cut more planks right a the length he needed. Better to just get one a bit longer than he needed, and cut them down to size. “Saw... Saw...” He muttered to himself, as he considered where he should go to cut the wood down. As he spoke however Briggs began looking about in his chest of tools, and pulled something out. On inspection he realized what the man had found, a small sawhorse which could collapse. Perfect for a bit of working with wood. “Is thanks Briggs, is what need.” WC: 522

[Crylon Stonecraft]

After a chime or so, Crylon realized how to set up the sawhorse. One simply had to pull out the length, and push a piece into a slot, then turn another bit to lock it into place. The sawhorse first unbent in half, reaching its full length with a hinge in the middle. Then he slotted in a small metal post, and turned the bit there to lock it into place. Then he pulled up one end, and with a pull and a turn locked it into place. Its two legs likewise worked by pulling and expanding, then slotting in the bit of metal and turning to lock it. The other side was the same, two legs pulled out, a metal bit slotted in which Briggs helped with having seen how the others worked, and Crylon slotted in the metal bits and locked them as the man held it in place. With it all set up Crylon had a nice flat surface to work on... But ah, also there at the end... He realized each end had a small T really, a wing on each side which allowed him to cut across the sawhorse from one end to the other not just on top of the middle beam. Those similarly pulled up, slotted in the metal, and locked into place with a turn. Crylon did one end, while Briggs did the other. Then the man picked up one of the pieces of wood Crylon had picked out, and set it across the sawhorse. Crylon picked up a longer two foot ruler now that he had a more precise measurement, and some chalk as well. Putting the ruler on top he measured out two feet and make a mark with the chalk, and then more carefully he measured out another inch and a half to get to the full twenty five and a half inches. Working a clamp that attached at one end, Crylon moved about the wood until the second chalk mark met right at the correct point, the edge of the sawhorse. That was when he cut off everything sticking off the end of the sawhorse, he would be left right with the correct length of wood. No longer, no shorter. Just right. Then he measured again, making sure his first measurement was correct. Two feet. One and a half inches. Just right. Having measured twice Crylon pulled out a small saw, and picking the point hanging over the end of the sawhorse, began to cut. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, cutting through the wood with the jagged edge of the saw blade. With a few more strokes the blade cut through, and the excess inches of wood fell free. Taking out some rough files, Crylon sanded and smoothed the edge down, using a quick patterned motion which repeated. Up, down, up, down. Once he had a nice flat surface Crylon removed the clamp and set another board into place, using the first board as a template to fasten the second and third planks into their place. Then he carefully cut each one by one, and filed them down flat till he had all three. Ready to go up, all uniform. WC: 535

[Crylon Stonecraft]

All of the damaged wood removed, and all of the replacement planks cut and prepared, all that was left to do was to replace them. Going through the nails from before, Crylon found several had been bent and would need reworking at the forge, while several were still good. Grabbing enough replacement nails, Crylon headed up with the three planks and the twelve nails, four per plank, and a simple nail hammer. Once he was on the roof Briggs came up behind him, holding the rest while Crylon worked on the planks one at a time. He checked with one plank, slotting it into place, finding that it was a tight but good fit and just the right length. Then taking two nails, one in hand and one sideways in his mouth, Crylon moved up to the top of the plank and carefully checked his positioning. He had to hammer in at the correct point to get the beam correctly, or else it would not hold correctly. Holding the nail in place with his left hand Crylon struck with his right arm on the top of the nail. Another strike, slowly burrowing into the wood. Another, and then one more, and he could feel it going through the plank and into the wood beneath. It still had a hole from before, and so once it got that far it went in much more easily. It was best if he could slot it into the same spot in the wood, so as to avoid further weakening the wood. That done he turned to the other corner, and hammered that nail in as well. One, two, three, four. Bit by bit till it went through and into the wood below. Reaching down he took two more nails, and moved to the bottom of the plank. Then he repeated the process, pounding the nails in one by one. Taking two, nailing in one, then repeating with the second and pounding it into place. The first plank done Crylon pulled up another board, and carefully slotted it into place. Checking it against the position of the other board he had placed, and the prior positioning of the boards, Crylon considered for a moment before starting. Once he was sure of the spot he took another two nails and continued the process from before. Methodical, repeated, exact. But then, in building such was a good thing. A builder should be regular and consistent. One nail, banged into place with the hammer. Once, twice, three times, till it was in. Likewise with the other, once, twice, and the hammer bounced off the head of the nail and went past to smack his hand below. He made no sound, simply continuing his work till the nail was in. But then, that was why he was holding the nail in place with his left hand, and hammering with his weaker right hand. If he had an accident in this fashion, his hand was not liable to be hurt. He felt the pressure of the hammer hit his fingers, but that was it. Grabbing the next two nails he quickly hammered it into place. Then all that was left was the last plank, which only just fit into the remaining spot. Two nails banged into the wood in quick succession. Then two more to lock in the bottom. It had been a decent number of chimes, but quickly enough the minor repair work on the roof was done. One task down, many more to go. WC: 586

[Alric Lysane]

Your Grades Crylon Stonecraft Skills Carpentry – 4 Construction – 3 Observation – 2 Planning – 2 Socialization – 1 Lores Carpentry: Basic Dressing Of Wood Carpentry: Filing For Smoothness Carpentry: Measuring Planks Carpentry: Setting Up Sawhorse Sawmill: Complex Workings