[Flashback: Boindil] Weaponsmith, Vend me a Weapon!

[Caoin]

Date: Summer, Day 48, 506 AV
Location: Ironworks

Caoin pressed herself against the nearest wall, her palms flat against the cool stone, it was a small bit of relief. The crowd of people, citizens and visitors alike, moved through Syliras, going about their daily lives and business. There were so many people that it was nearly impossible to move about corridors of the citadel without bumping into someone at least once, and the mass of moving, breathing bodies made it hot. The place reeked of smoke from the torches that lit the city, and every now and then Caoin would give a small cough as she got a lung full of smoke when passing one. She’d had to start trying to hold her breath when passing them just to avoid breathing in the smoke, but it didn’t help much since the stench clung to the walls around them. The corridors also smelled strongly of human sweat and in some places, of waste. With all of the citizens packed together in what was basically an indoor city, the smell of their presence was impossible to miss. It was almost enough to make Caoin gag and she was beginning to wonder why she had volunteered to accompany her father to the city for their annual trading run.

After she had finished helping her family with the livestock they had brought for trade, she had decided to take a walk around the city and familiarize herself with it, for the trips she knew she would have to make in the future. It wasn’t exactly her first trip to Syliras, but it was the first time she had ventured into the citadel, she wished she had stayed outside of the walls of the actual city, where there was open, clean air and she didn’t feel like an animal in a cage. For someone who was used to the wide open grasslands of Cyphrus, the walls of Syliras were suffocating. The smell of the city, while comprised of scents that she was familiar with, was not at all like the scent of sweat and dung from the livestock and workers of Endrykas, because in Endrykas, it wasn’t all contained in an enclosed space with little air to clear the scent away. She’d seen quite a bit of the citadel since she’s started her tour, and was almost ready to go back to her family for a brief respite from the crowded corridors, when the sound of metalworking caught her attention. Now that was an interesting sound and she pushed herself off of the wall and back into the throng of people, making her way towards the alley where the Ironworks was.

As Caoin approached the front of the Ironworks, she took in a deep breath. It certainly seemed to smell better out in the alley, outside of the citadel. She reached the entrance and poked her head in cautiously, looking around for someone who might be able to assist her in her endeavor, which was to find herself a bladed weapon that she could carry in case she wasn’t able to use her bow, or she just needed something better than a knife. The Drykas girl moved out of the entrance way and into the ironworks proper. She’d never been in an establishment quite like it, all of the forges, the heat and the smell of the metal. It was interesting and new and she couldn’t help but look around with wide, curious eyes. She wanted to move away from the entrance, to investigate and touch things, but she was far too polite and afraid to do so. As an outsider, the Knights of Syliras terrified her and she was afraid to do anything that one might construe as being an illegal activity or impending illegal activity. So, Caoin simply waited until someone noticed her and came over to help her.

MizNo Word Count638

[Boindil Armorcaster]

OOCI guess you meant Summer not Fall xD.

It was a busy day, as any other day, at the Ironworks. But Boindil took it a bit easy. It was better to work a little slower then to ruin the metal she worked with. Delivering a weapon that wouldn't survive for at least five fights was something unforgivable. That's why she kept her attention to the tempering of one at any given point. At the time Caoin entered the Ironworks, the Isurian woman was busy crafting a simplistic axe. A normal blade with a hook at the other end, a shaft made out of wood with a handle wrapped in leather. Of course she didn't use any hammer in the early process of crafting it, but molded it with her bare hand. This created a unique look to it, as it would look as if made out of clay. Heat, shape, heat shape and rinse repeat for a dozen times over, until the blade had the expected form. Then the weaponsmith switched to the use of a hammer to create the sharp of the blade and the hook at the other end. It was a process that was time consuming and required one's full attention or the product would end up like her Widowmaker. Then she had to temper it. A process that Boindil didn't like too much, as she was still not an expert in it. But none the less something she had to learn. She heated the blade up to the point where it gave off a red hot glow. That was what she was instructed to do whenever she had to temper a weapon. She then quickly removed it from the heater and dumped it into cold water to rapidly cool it off. After it was cooled completely, she lifted it out again to check how it looked. She decided that it should do with just one time hardening. After that she put it back in the fire, heating it back up again, but at a much lower temperature. Then she dumped it into the cold water again to cool it off. It was better to let it cool off normally, but as she didn't have the time for that, she just had to use the water again. As she finished the raw design, complete with hardening and tempering, she then walked over to the grinders to remove the nicks, crannies, splinters and excess metal. It didn't take too long as she just did it simplistic. The final touch would be done after she attached the shaft. Luckily there were enough crafted ones already. So that part didn't take too long. All she had to do was wrap some leather around the handle part and attach it to the blade. After she finished that, she walked back over to the grinder to give the weapon a sharp blade and hook. For this she used her left hand to test the sharpness. She kept the angle of the sharp a bit blunt, this to reduce the number of times needed to resharpen the weapon. She knew what an axe was used for, that's why she had decided on a larger angle. The force and weight used with the weapon would cause it to go through flesh and bone anyway. She wanted to place her signature on the weapon, but the order said that it should be a plain weapon, no further addings then it said, so she placed the weapon in the rack of finished products without engraving it. She wanted to walk back over to the list for a new project, when she noticed a human standing at the entrance to the Ironworks. Would it be a customer, or would it be someone looking for work? Either way, she couldn't just keep standing there without help, that wasn't courteous. "What are you looking for, work or a product?", she asked the girl, who apparently was a Drykas. This Boindil noticed as she had walked over the girl in question.

[Caoin]

Caoin was intensely focused on her examination of her surroundings, in awe of the massive ironworks. All the weapons and weapon parts, not to mention the equipment, it all piqued her interest, though the weapons were the most intriguing items. All of them appeared to be finely crafted tools; many were plain weapons that weren’t meant for show, simply meant to be used as tools and nothing more. There were some though that were engraved, beautifully crafted weapons with intricate designs cut and carved into the handles and blades, made just as much for show as they were for practical use. It was always interesting to see the end product of a person’s hard work, be it jewelry or clothes; they were all like works of art. But this was especially true when it came to weapons. Weapons weren’t easy to make and it took a great deal of people putting in a lot of hard, physical labor to reach the final product, from the miners who slaved away in the mines in order to get the ore, to the weaponsmiths who poured sweat and blood into the fires of the forge to shape the ore. By the time a blade reached its owner, there was no telling how many hands had touched it throughout the process of its making. It was a humbling thought that made Caoin realize just how small her world really was, living her whole life in Endrykas seeing so little of the world. She was just one small fish in the river of life, just one more cog in the clockwork.

It wasn’t until the woman addressed her that Caoin’s thoughts were brought back from the clouds of admiration to the reality of why she was there in the first place, namely, getting a weapon. “Oh, very sorry,” she began in her accented Common, as she cleared her head of the dreamy thoughts and focused on business so as not to take up too much of the woman’s time. “I’m here for a product,” Caoin responded. Her common wasn’t perfect, but she knew what job meant, and that product must refer to a weapon. Usually she just used the name of whatever it was she was looking for when she made a trade. Caoin continued with her request, “A simple blade, something small, like a dagger. Something I can use if I have to defend myself in close combat.” She wasn’t looking for a giant sword; she didn’t know anything about wielding bladed weapons really, so it would be useless for her to get something like a sword that would be unwieldy to someone with as little experience as she had. She didn’t need an axe or anything exotic, just a simple weapon that would suffice in a pinch.

Caoin almost felt bad asking for something so simple and she wondered if she would be wasting the woman’s talent by asking for something simple. Perhaps if the price were right, she could afford something a little fancier. She should ask about that. “How much would one of the fancy looking ones cost compared to a plain one,” Caoin enquired curiously. “Can you do the fancier work,” she added, in a tone that indicated she felt like she may have just asked a stupid question, considering the weapons that were in the shop that were engraved. Part of her embarrassment was probably because she also didn't know the common word for engravings.

However, part of her reasoning for asking such was a question was because she was curious if the woman did any of the engraving, and if so, it might also be a good idea to see any examples of the woman’s own work if she had any, especially since Caoin wasn’t sure if the woman was the one who did all of the fancy detail work. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust that the woman’s work was good. It was merely that Caoin’s family was in the business of trade and you checked your product before you paid for it, and sometimes before you even ordered it. Maybe she was just interested in the woman’s skill and job in general, curious to know if the woman alone would be handling her request, or if the weapons were passed around to other experts for various aspects to be completed. She wondered if perhaps the questions might be insulting and was debating over whether she should say something further. In the end, she decided to wait for the woman’s response as a precaution, in case she ended up saying too much. It wouldn’t do to insult the woman before having really made her request.

MizNo Word Count778

[Boindil Armorcaster]

The Isurian woman had a little trouble understanding the woman across her, because of her accent. But she did get the gist of it. Apparently she was looking for a small weapon that could be hidden perhaps. On top of that, she wanted to know the price and the prices of the more fancier ones. Those that were engraved. After having worked for more then half a year now, Boïndil had become a little knowledgeable with the prices Ros charged for normal weapons. Engraved ones she didn't exactly know the price of. But if she were to do the job, she didn't want to risk spoiling it just yet. That didn't mean Boïndil was underestimating her ability, but rather a logical thought. Because if the woman across her wanted to get an intricate design, it would probably be out of the scope of her skill. "I can show weapons, but I don't do fancy work yet.", she said in her broken common, the Isurian accent shining through. "Price normal dagger is two Gold miza, Kukri is eight GM.", the blacksmith started to name most of the small bladed weapons that she could forge, with their according price as she walked to the weaponrack. She kept an eye for the drykas girl to see if she'd follow. Upon arriving at the weaponrack, she picked up the axe that she had just forged, showing the quality to the drykas girl. "My skill is basic, but not bad. I can craft simple weapons." The quality of the axe she showed was good, but to a trained eye, they could see some faults that had been made during the hardening and tempering process. It hadn't been properly cooled evenly over the blade, showing slight discoloring over it.

[Caoin]

Caoin listened closely as the woman explained the prices of the various small blades that were available. The woman’s common was broken, but not broken enough that she couldn’t understand what the woman was trying to get across to her. Of the weapons that the woman mentioned, Caoin was most interested in the dagger. She felt that it was the type of weapon that she was looking for, a weapon small enough that it would be easy for her to carry and wield. She followed closely behind as the weaponsmith escorted her over to the rack and she examined the weapons there that she was showed. The woman picked up the axe that she had just finished and showed her that as well. Caoin’s eye wasn’t trained for weaponsmithing, so of course she didn’t notice the small flaws, nor would she have really cared. All she needed was a weapon that worked and wouldn’t break the first time she tried to stab something.

Caoin decided that she would go with a dagger, “I’ll take a dagger.” Caoin looked up at the woman, nodding, mostly to herself to affirm her own request. “Will you be making the weapon,” she asked of the woman, her eyes still running over the weapons on the rack, especially the engraved ones. She didn’t really need anything with fancy design work on it. The weapon wasn’t for show, but for practical use, so there was no need to have delicate swirling lines running the length of the blade, especially if she planned to leave it in its scabbard when she didn’t need it. Caoin continued with her question, “Because I don’t really need any fancy work done, unless you have your own mark that you want to put on it.” She knew that sometimes crafters had marks, signatures that they liked to leave on the products that they made, and it was likely that this woman had one of her own, or perhaps one that the ironworks used to mark the weapons they produced. She understood that a good artisan would want to include their signature and wasn’t bothered if the woman wanted to include hers. Caoin offered another smile to the woman as she waited for her response.

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[Boindil Armorcaster]

The blacksmith took note of the woman's order. Just a plain dagger, nothing fancy. Well that wouldn't be too hard of a job. But forging a small blade like that was a bit harder then forging a normal sword. Mainly because the surface area was alot smaller. On the other hand, it also meant that it was less work. Besides it being simple, the client also said that having a signature engraved wouldn't be a problem. "Ok, I'll be doing it. Simple job, so no need for the others. If you want you can watch. Nothing much to see though.", the Isurian replied. "Just don't distract me. That's all I ask." She had been disturbed once before when she was quenching her widowmaker, which resulted in cracks all over the blade. Her nephew didn't dare come near her again after that. Boïndil walked back to the forge and picked up a small metal plate from the supplies she had readied for other projects. It was the right size for a small dagger and since the woman wanted just a steel one, there was no need to go to one of the metalurgists to have some coldsteel smelted. "Don't disturb.", she repeated once again for Caoin.

OOCI thought that Caoin would like to see how a weapon would be crafted . Hope it's not too much of a problem, otherwise just say so. Then I'll edit it.

[Caoin]

Caoin was pleased to hear that the woman would be able to take care of her request, and that she would be able to do so right away apparently. The Drykas girl wouldn’t have to wait for someone else to help her or for other orders to be completed before hers. She had been worried that it might take too long to complete the order, or that she might have to wait and return for it another day. If she were to be frank, she would have to admit that she didn’t really want to have to return to the city and would prefer to stay outside of its walls. She was certain of one thing, and that was that the next time she entered the city walls she would be wearing a wet scarf or handkerchief to help with the poor air quality.

Boindil’s customer was quite pleased with the way things were developing though, and even more pleased when the smith informed her that she could stay and watch. Caoin nodded to show that she understood what the smith was asking of her. “I can do that,” she responded to the smith’s request, “I know your work must be hard. You need focus.” Caoin understood that the smith required her full concentration in order to produce her best product and had no intention of disturbing the woman while she was working at the forge.

Pausing and taking a moment to look around, Caoin bit her bottom lip and tapped at the ground lightly with the tip of her booted foot, hesitant to ask her next question. “Before you start, is there a stool or something I can sit on while I wait,” she asked of the smith. She wasn’t lazy, but she also wasn’t sure how long it would take to complete her order, she could be there for awhile. She didn’t want to tire herself out by standing the whole time. Of course, she imagined that it wasn’t easy for the smith to be standing over the forge the whole time either and that was why she had been hesitant to ask. She didn’t want to seem lazy or rude or anything. She felt as if she was being inconsiderate of the woman.

Caoin only hoped it wasn’t too impolite to ask for a chair or that she hadn’t phrased her question in an impolite manner, especially since the woman was so easy to interact with and had been polite. So far, this was customer service at its finest, in Caoin’s opinion, especially since she had worked and traded with some right assholes before. The poor Drykas girl was always so concerned about being polite when she was away from her home city, always worried that she would offend someone because of the differences in customs and laws. It wasn’t easy living a life of trade that involved traveling outside of Endrykas. It required her to learn a great deal about the customs and ways of other people that she met, so that she could conduct business respectfully and honorably. It was the best way to see that deals did not fall through.

MizNo Word Count526

[Boindil Armorcaster]

The Isur didn't know if there was a chair, stool or anything alike in the workshop. Even though she had been there for over half a year now, she hadn't come across one of those yet. There could have been some, but then again, she hadn't needed them and thus didn't know where they were. "Don't know, look around. Just don't disturb others. Ask those that aren't working.", she replied to the question of the Drykas girl. Then Boindil turned to the forge, holding the piece of metal in her right hand as she held it in the fire. After it reached forging heat, noticable by the white hot glow of the metal, she took it out and placed it on the anvil. Then she started to make the hot metal flat and shaped towards the form of the dagger by repeatedly hammering it. It's a long tiresome and not to mention boring part of the forging, but a necessary one. Hammering, reheating, hammering, reheating, rinse repeat until it had the shape intended. After finishing that part, which is a mostly standard one, the Isurian weaponsmith reheated the metal back up to forging point and started to hammer the bottom end of the metal, this to create the tang which would connect to the handle. The first couple blows were made as the smith held the metal against the edge of the anvil, to create a small dent in the metal. This would make it easier to lengthen the material. It had to be reheated repeatedly, for it cooled off before the Isur could finish it completely. Her face was one of full concentration, sweaty and focused. Next up was the creating of the blade itself. And this was the hardest part of the forging. The Isurian had to angle her hammer at a certain degree to create the blade properly. First she reheated it again, then she started to hammer. Slowly but surely, the piece of steel was taking the shape of something that could be called a weapon. Starting out from the base of the blade, near the tang, she hammered it into the shape she desired. Turning it over and over again after a certain number of strokes to keep it evened out.

oocThought I'd better break the process up a little. Found a nice video (4 parts long) on youtube on this.

[Caoin]

Caoin took a look around the shop to see if there was a chair or stool that was readily noticeable or available for her to sit on, but she couldn’t see one anywhere. Not really wanting to bother anyone else in the shop or miss any part of the process of making her dagger, Caoin decided that she would just have to stand, and possibly sit on the floor if she got tired of standing. It wasn’t a terrible thing to be without a chair, and the floor wouldn’t bother her. It’s not like it was any different than what she was used to comfort wise, since she wasn’t exactly living in the lap of luxury in Endrykas. They didn’t have time for that sort of silly frivolousness in the moving city, and their furniture wasn’t all that fancy either since it was constantly being packed up and moved and unpacked, only to go through the process again. Fancy furniture tended to not stay fancy very long with all of the scrapes and bumps it would acquire in the moving process. Not that life in Endrykas wasn’t comfortable by the standards of the Drykas people, she wouldn’t trade it for life in a posh castle for anything.

Turning her attention to the smith and the work that she was doing, Caoin watched the forging process. It seemed a little bit repetitive to the girl, not the kind of work that she felt like she could ever do. She would never say it aloud in front of the smith, but it seemed kind of boring. Hammer, heat, hammer heat. The smith seemed focused on her work and the process of forging the blade, her face twisted in concentration, sweat pouring from her body. Caoin couldn’t help but think that the woman must love her work, considering how much effort and focus she seemed to put into it, and it certainly seemed like the sort of physical labor that one would have to love to do. Of course, anyone who watched Caoin perform her own duties might think the same. Shoveling horse and dog shit wasn’t exactly the kind of job that many people enjoyed doing. In fact, most people hated it and found it disgusting. No one ever sought a job cleaning out stables or kennels.

The Drykas girl watched the weaponsmith as she went through the process of forming the part where the handle would connect to the weapon, and then moved to the portion that would become the blade. That part of the process was interesting, watching the blade go from one form to another, the hot, malleable metal lengthening and flattening under the weight and force of the hammer. Who came up with such a process? How did they learn that metal could be shaped and molded in such a manner? The white hot metal was pretty, an enchanting sight. She had to remind herself not to stare into the light for too long, bad for your eyes and all, but it was a beautiful sight to behind, that burning metal.

MizNo Word Count513

[Boindil Armorcaster]

After finishing the main form of the blade, it was time for her to forge the fuller into the blade. Even though it wasn't a particular long weapon, it was still needed for structural integrity. Just having a diamond shape wasn't enough to give the blade its needed strength, it also had to be forged with a fuller so that bending wouldn't be easy. Boindil grabbed a forming tool for this. A hammer wouldn't suffice. The tool itself would forge the blade on two sides at once, creating an even fuller. But first, the metal had to be reheated up to the forging point again. Then the blade was put between the two parts of the forming tool and the Isurian started hammering onto the tool to create the fuller. Hitting the tool, then moving the blade a little to extend the fuller, hit , move hit move, turn around and rinse repeat. The sound of hammer hitting metal going throughout the workshop. After this step had been finished, Boindil then measured the blade. When forging any kind of weapon, there is always too much material and that has to be removed. Using a bit of chalk, she drew a line where the material had to be removed. After placing the anvil chisel on the anvil, heated the metal again, placed it on the chisel where the line was and with a few good hits, hammered the excess material off. Only then could Boindil start to straighten the blade out. This had to be done, because the rough forging leaves the blade uneven. Luckily for her was that it wasn't all that bad, so she didn't need to reheat the metal again. It could just be hammered cold to remove those small uneven places. Now came the hardest part for this novice smith. The hardening. Up until now she had numerous weapons made where she had help in the hardening and tempering of the steel. And now she would ask for the same help again. A product she was going to deliver directly to a customer was something that had to be made properly and without having to start over again. But before she could start hardening the blade, she covered it in a mixture of clay and crushed charcoal. This was to protect against the burdening and decarbonization of the steel. And as she reached the hardening forge, she saw another blacksmith working on hardening a blade. And she was in luck, the guy was just finished and quenched the blade of his. "Would you mind helping?", she asked the other smith as she approached him. "I help you then if you want." "Sure, you're Boindil, right? Could you engrave a blade for me later then? It's a partly finished project that had to be done, and I haven't found a proper engraver yet.", he replied with a question. "Ok, I help you later. First I have to finish this.", Boindil replied to him. The human smith prepared the forge for the hardening of the small dagger. After that he took the blade from Boindil and placed it in the fire, before slowly raising the temperature. During the whole process, the Isurian payed close attention to what the other smith was doing. "Keep a close watch for the color of the flames. They tell you when to quench the blade.", he said. And after a while, when the color of the flames had reached a desirable color, he removed the small blade and dumped it into the bath. After pulling it out of it's bath, the leftover protective on the blade was scraped off and then the filing test was done. Because the smith that hardened the blade for Boindil was an experienced blacksmith already, the blade came out fine in the test. So what was left right now was the tempering and the polishing. The smith that Boindil promised to help was good enough to also help with that and thus after placing the cleaned blade back in the forge, he waited for the steel to reach certain colors before removing it from the forge again. Boindil thanked the smith and took the still hot blade from the man with her bare right hand. Walking back to her anvil, she looked at the blade to see how it was colored and memorized it. It was important to take in all info whenever possible. Back at her own anvil, she placed it on it and now had to wait for it to cool off. After tempering, it was best to let the steel cool off normally. This would result in the best possible quality of it.