Flashback (Flashback) The Ironworks: Of Fire and Alloy - Part 4

[Bandin Everdance]

Timestamp: 1st of Spring, 518 A.V.

Bandin acquired a nearby, iron bowl that he assumed had been left out for just the kind of work he was now doing. Without directly asking the Isur if it was what he'd had in mind, the apprentice moved to the water bucket and scooped a bit of liquid out and into the iron vessel.

"Alright," the young man said and placed the bowl down beside the unfinished ingot. "We need to sand down the bumps, yeah?"

The Isur crossed his arms, seeming to be getting ready to observe. "You can use a file for the most of it, but the fine grit of the sanding paper is what'll get you a surface ready enough for polishing."

"Not that it much matters when you've used an iron mold for casting. See the ingot? Look closely, it's got little grain marks left over from the iron's imperfect surface. Wax is better for a smooth cast, but it's much less durable. It's not worth the time cost of making new molds, not for mass-produced items like an ingot. You'll just have to get used to polishing the work of iron molds when you use them; it's just the way of it. All it is, though, is a little extra polishing. Nothing too out of the way."

"Do you have a file?" he asked.

"Hmph," the Isur grunted. "We should."

The man looked up into the cabinets. He ruffled a bit; his eyes squinted, as if he was looking for something that should've of been there, but wasn't. "They've moved it."

There was frustration there; the Isur took a moment to address Bandin: "Always make sure you put back your tools in the same place, even when you're in your own workshop. What's the use in wasting time looking around for something that could've been easily found? And I mean it: make it a habit, especially when you're in my shop."

"Alright, I'll keep it in mind," Bandin promised.

The Isur closed the cabinet and opened a small drawer that was built directly into the underside of the workbench. He soon closed it and opened another one. Each drawer was filled with various tools and instruments, mostly iron in make, many of which Bandin didn't recognize at all.

"Hmph," Ros grunted again, this time obviously more aggravated.

He opened a final drawer and paused, before reaching in and withdrawing a file that was rather large on one side and smaller on the other.

The Isur handed Bandin the file. "I'll be having a talk with them."

The young blacksmith took the tool. Ros gestured to the ingot. "Just clean it up a bit for now."

Bandin began to work of grinding down the first of the small stump that had formed from the excess metal that they'd removed from the ingots. The metal resisted at first, but copper was relatively soft all things considered and he began to get a good working grip on the casting after a few pass overs. Little by little he began to take off bits of the overedge.

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[Bandin Everdance]

Bandin got both of the metal stumps down to just about flush with the ingot.

"You're there, sure enough," Ros said. "You're going to need the sanding paper and water now. It takes less off than the file and it'll let you get to the surface of the metal right and flat, without taking off so much as to leave a depression or dent."

"Mostly there already," Bandin commented. "I see your point: it might be easy to get carried away.

He flipped the file over and looked at the smaller end. Like he'd noted before, it was almost certainly designed for detail work. Maybe it'd be useful in filing down winding or bended castings, or just pieces that had hard to reach crevices. When it came to a casted, mostly flat bar of copper, however, he'd only needed the side of the file that could cover the most surface area. Still, it was nice, he figured, to think on and become familiarized with his tools; he'd likely need to call on the smaller side of the file one day and keeping it in mind, tucked away for later use, was only a good thing that'd save him time looking for an applicable tool in the future.

He placed the file down. The young smith retrieved the bonded sanding paper. It was smooth vellum on one side and glued grits of rough sand on the other.

"Dip or splash some water on what you're working with. It'll help the sand catch," Ros said.

Bandin pondered on the thought for a minute, but ultimately decided on dipping. He placed one of the square edges of the sanding paper into the iron bowl of water that he'd originally prepared at the Isur's instruction, before he'd even starting the filing of the metal.

He shook the most excess of the water off of the paper before withdrawing it from the bowl.

"Good. Don't make a mess. You're just trying to grease the process a bit; it's an aid, not a crutch, and adding more won't make things easier. It's just not necessary," Ros praised his apprentice's restraint.

"Circles. Side to side or top to bottom works too, but circles will give you the most control and won't stress your forearms as much," the Isur explained. "It's not much, but every little bit of exertion adds up over the days, especially the first ones. For you, this kind of work is your break from the bellows. Don't dally or waste time, but enjoy the breath."

Bandin began to do just that. He was no longer sweating; the sanding work was much preferable to forge work, at least when it came to level of comfort. Still, as he sanded the ingot in circles, he found himself craving to be taught even more about the metalsmithing process as to when it came to the alloying process itself. Every second with a master such as Ros was invaluable and filled with imparted wisdom; he didn't want to waste any of it.

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[Bandin Everdance]

"That's good enough now," Ros told him. "We're almost ready to move on to the next ingot, but first let's take a minute to talk about polishing."

Bandin sat the slightly damp sanding paper aside after a final spin on the metal. The ingot was all but flush all the way across, but it still had the many small dimples imparted upon it in the act of being cast inside an iron mold. Everything was a trade off, Bandin remembered; everything had a cost in time or resources--this seemed to be one of the master Isur's main philosophies and his young apprentice was quickly deeming it a prudent one.

Ros opened a cabinet below the drawers he'd previously rummaged through when looking for the mostly misplaced file. "As you might've already made out: we're going to polish out the dimples."

The Isur removed a series of jars. He casually unscrewed the lids of each of the short tubs; what appeared to be creams ranging from thin to waxy filled the two small containers.

"You don't need much product," the Isur said. "You mostly just need time and patience. You can leave a soaking piece of work out on a cloth," as if on cue Ros pulled a work-stained, and somewhat frayed, piece of cotton cloth from the same cabinet and then another smaller one too. "The acidity of the creams do most of the work."

The Isur offered the first of the small, screwed open jars to the young human. "Smell this."

Bandin took the tub and hesitantly, yet with curiosity, did so. Notes of lemon and talcum met his nose.

"You make this?" he asked the Isur.

"We can. The apprentices usually do," Ros said. "It's not difficult, but what you'll need depends on the metal."

He offered the next tub to Bandin. The young apprentice placed the other container down upon the workbench, before taking the second, offered jar.

The mixture inside the jar looked slightly thicker and more viscous. It had less of a lemon smell and almost left a taste of salt on his tongue as the scent traveled down his sinuses.

"That's saltier," Bandin commented. "The other was more lemons."

The Isur's apprentice placed the second jar down onto the table.

"Copper, aluminum, pewter, and nickled steel, and a few others: they don't need any abrasive chemicals for polishing," Ros began to explain. "You can use mostly unprocessed juices for that, mixed with a little bit of flour, maybe some preservatives. Citrus juice works best for that. Vinegar is a good choice too, but you do need the flour or cornstarch as the base and thickener to make it a proper polishing compound. Just soaking a soft metal in vinegar is too aggressive--I don't recommend that and you won't be doing it here."

"If you're hard up for supplies, a slightly tougher soft metal, like copper, can handle polishing up with a freshly cut lemon wedge and some salt sprinkled down as an abrasive agent," Ros went on. "Do try to stick to the pastes though; we have plenty enough here so that there's not much of an excuse to be had."

Word Counter: 533 Words.

[Bandin Everdance]

"When it comes to strong metals, you're going to want to take a more drastic approach," Ros continued. "You can afford to be a bit harsher when the alloy is a tougher one; you have to, if you want to get anything done. Lighter polishes just won't get the just done as well, or at all sometimes, certainly not in a reasonable amount of time or with a reasonable amount of effort."

"For a stronger metal like Brass, if it's tarnished or has deep age etchings, you've got some options, but the easiest is just going to be to soak it in diluted acid," Ros said. "Citrus mostly, again, but there are some philters that can do the job even better. They're not worth the price, though, honestly, unless your working with a particularly tough or fragile alloy. No reason to overinvest in your work if there's tried and true things that you can do on your own."

Ros paused. "There's something to be said about being able to do as much as you can on your own. No one's an island and being able to work with another craftsman is one thing, but there's a reason I've told you the reason I stress a smith like you learning alloying. It all comes down to control, as minute as it needs to be to control the final product, to make it as close to what you're envisioning as possible--or even better."

"We own our our mine, we smelt our own alloy either there or here, we work from our own ingots, and all of our smiths train in our own techniques," Ros said. "We're not just hammering out things here. We're perfecting how we do that. It's not for the knight's sake, or even my clan's pride, it's for the sake of the craft itself."

"This one," Ros tapped the furthest and thicker of the two polishing agents. "It has more flour than the other. That makes it more gentle and it'll help get done what needs to be done. Copper doesn't need much."

Bandin grabbed the small jar and picked up the smaller of the two rags that Ros had provided.

"Just some on the edge of it," the Isur instructed. "Get the ingot up on the large cloth. Let's not make a mess if we don't have to. It's best not to get even gentle agents on random tables."

"Circles?" he asked.

"Aye, go in circles and cover the entirety of the surface. Just make sure it's good and massaged into the pores of the metal," the Isur replied.

The young apprentice began to do just as he was instructed.

"It's half the muscle and half the paste that'll get the job done," Ros explained. "Try to polish it up now and the citrus will take it the rest of the way. Keep a thin layer across the entirety of all the metal that you polish the paste into."

"Like I was saying, before," Ros went on. "For harder metals you need to soak them. I'd say an ounce of concentrated citrus acid to about three quarts of water per should be enough to do about any regular job."

Word Count: 535

[Bandin Everdance]

Bandin finished rubbing the paste into the surface of the ingot.

"Go over a couple more times," Ros continued. "Add a bit more, but don't cake it in."

Bandin dipped the cloth a bit more and, before rubbing the majority of it into one spot, he spread the clump he'd retrieved out over the ingot. He dabbed it in small pieces all over the ingot; it was the best way he could imagine to not make a mess, or to clump up too much in any one spot.

"Even it out," Ros encouraged his apprentice. "That's a decent enough way to get it spread, but you still need to make it thin."

Bandin started with a spot in the middle of two of the spread-out clumps. There was still a bit of excess polishing cream on the cloth; he was doing his best to spread it all out and to not add too much to any one place.

"Just work on the feel of it. Don't worry about speed. I'm not," Ros encouraged. "Your first couple days aren't about production; it's about getting the feel of it. Later we'll start worrying about speed."

The blacksmith's apprentice spread the compound all about. Bit by bit he worked it into a thin veneer across the ingot, that was now slightly thicker than before the second layer had been added.

"Get the bottom side," Ros said. "The whole thing needs to look decent enough."

Bandin flipped the ingot over and began to work another layer of compound onto the bottom side of the ingot. He went over the depressed seal of the Ironworks, it was a simple enough pattern, but one that he'd imagine would instill at least some level of trust in any local smith who saw it--though it didn't look to hard to replicate as far as hallmarks went.

When Bandin was almost done, Ros spoke up.

"Go ahead and flip it over, dab over any areas that you've smudged out and thinned by flipping the ingot," Ros said. "In the future, start with the bottom and just try not to move it too much during the rest of the polishing. It'll be easier that way and you won't have to redo anything."

The way Ros was talking and so closely observing, it was pretty clear that the master smith had likely let him make the mistake as to learn from it. It wasn't too much of a nuisance to reapply the polishing compound where his fingers had smudged, but it was a bit of extra work that Bandin would do his best to remember to avoid.

"It's the small things, huh?" he more commented than asked; he was starting to feel as if he was being indoctrinated into the Ironworks' way of thinking, the Ros Vizerian way more specifically.

"It always is," Ros said. "Masters make things look easy and simple, they flow, because they avoid all the little things that'd get in the way of doing that."

"You mentioned that before," Bandin commented, remembering.

"Aye," Ros said. "It's up there with the most important things."

Word Count: 519

[Alric Lysane]

Bandin

Hi!

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~ Alric