Completed Down To Business

[Sloane]

23rd of Winter, 516 AV

Truly settling into Drykas life had turned out to be one tiresome trial after another for Sloane. Initially her issues had focused solely on finding a place within the Firelash Pavilion and simply making her way from day to day. Employment, however, had proved to be a whole other battle, with few bowyers and weapon-smiths interested in taking on a walahk that spoke poor Pavi. Cobb, to his credit, was a patient and fair employer, generally understanding and accepting of the walahk, but the language barrier left much to be desired. Though Hana had kept her word and was doing her best to help teach Sloane, even her Common had its limits, and only so much could be learnt in such a short period of time.

Understandably, this was leading to a fair share of misunderstandings and miscommunications between employer and employee and it was something Sloane was still attempting to deal with. “Bow?” She asked, quirking a brow at the man. He’d once again forgotten that her Pavi was so poor, and had babbled off instructions so quickly that Sloane had only been able to catch a few words here and there. “Type? Long, short?” She trailed off, scouring her mind for the Pavi word for compound or recurve. After a brief moment of confusion, Cobb seemed to realise his mistake, and he twisted to point at an already completed bow leaning in the corner of the tent. “Long bow.” He paused now, seemingly attempting to gather his own limited Common. “By this afternoon. And arrows.” Sloane nodded her understanding. So a longbow to be ready for pickup this afternoon. She surmised in her mind. And a standard set of 20 arrows, I assume. Cobb turned to go, but seemed to remember something and whirled back to face her suddenly, hand upheld to stop her from leaving. “And new tree!” He exclaimed, pointing across the tent at the old, worn tillering tree for emphasis. Sloane hummed her understanding, nodding vigorously, it was about time the old tree was replaced, the notches were so old and worn that they barely held the bowstrings anymore.

Sloane decide it made the most sense to start on the tillering tree first, as she could use it later when she moved on to constructing the bow itself. She made her way out of the tent as Cobb wandered over to tend to a customer, and made her way around the back to where the raw wood was kept to be made into bows, arrows and everything in between. Picking her way through, Odessa took her time seeking out the perfect piece of wood for her needs, using her booted foot to turn over this piece or that, and kick smaller one’s out of the way. Finally she came across a long, sturdy branch. It was dry, but not old or sun damaged enough that the wood had begun to split or crack, and looked to her to be some type of oak. It was smooth along its length, nearing two meters, and when she kicked it over she could see that the centre was thick and intact, not hollowed by birds or bugs.

Satisfied, Sloane pulled her gloves from her pocket and tugged them on, bending to take up the end of the branch and pull it away to the side. It was heavy, and she had to put her back into it to drag it over the other piles of wood, before letting it roll the rest of the way to the side on its own.

Common ~ Pavi ~ Thoughts

[Sloane]

Sloane retrieved an axe, iron and wooden wedges from a storage crate off to the side of the wood pile, and tossed the wedges beside the top end of her branch. She stepped over the heavy piece of wood so that she had a foot either side, standing close to the top end with the wedges in easy reach beside her boot. Sloane flipped her long blonde braid over her shoulder, already feeling the first prickles of sweat gathering on her forehead as she bent to examine the wood beneath her. She examined it carefully, determining where she should split it in order to have the right width of wood for both the tillering tree and the bow itself. She decided to split it slightly off centre, in order to use the more slender piece for the tree.

That decision made, Sloane gripped the axe in both hand, and with a strong but short swing she embedded the blade of the axe into the wood. With a grunt, Sloane yanked the axe from side to side until it was free, and followed it up with a second swing, splitting it wide enough for her to press the iron wedge into the split. Once the iron wedge was as firmly in place as she was able to get it by hand, Sloane gripped the axe again, flipping it this time to use the blunt backside to hammer the wedge into place. Each blow she delivered down onto the wedge caused the wood to split further down the middle, until the wedge was hammered in as far as it would go and the wood had split a third of the way down its length. Leaning back over, Sloane took up the first of the wooden wedges and jammed it in further down the wooden branch, at the very end of where it had already split. The axe came back into work, hammering the wooden wedge the same as she had the iron, and once it was as far in as it would get she added a second wedge and repeated the process. As the second wedge widened the split, the first came free, falling into the grass between the two near halves of wood, and allowing Sloane to use it again, further down the split.

It was a slow going process, but after much swinging of her axe, Sloane was able to deliver the final blow to the final wedge, the branch finally falling into two distinct halves. Panting, Sloane straightened and rubbed her arm over her sweaty face, bending back slightly to stretch her sore back. Tossing the axe and the wedges back into their crate, she picked up each side of wood, hoisted them up under each arm and dragged them out of the wood yard and around to a clear flat space that she could sit and work in. Standing both planks upright she examined them, applying pressure to test how their stiffness and look for any weak spots of hairline cracks. Once she’d determined which of the halves was the most flexible, she set that half aside and sat, setting the stiffer half in front of her to start making the tree.

Common ~ Pavi ~ Thoughts

[Sloane]

Once she’d retrieved the necessary equipment, Sloane pulled the split wood close, arranging it so that one end sat propped up into her lap. She held a large drawknife in both hands, leaning forward to set it along the end of the plank, and leaned back slowly to drag it up, applying enough pressure that the blade cut into the wood, stripping off a long ribbon of bark. Sloane left her gloves on for this task, partly to protect her hands from the blade, but mostly to avoid splinters, which were truly the bane of her existence. She went about stripping the wood down quickly, not really worried about perfecting the plank, as it was simply to be used for the tillering tree, not to be made into a bow.

The end would be set into the same hole as the old tree, and so she was careful to ensure that the end half was the same width, otherwise a new hole would need to be dug. Sloane concentrated her attention on the lower half, repeatedly dragging the drawknife up and down, ribbons of wood gathering steadily around her legs. Soon enough her arms were burning and her lower back was straining as she leant down over the wooden plank, the sides smoothed and slimmed down. Satisfied Sloane set the draw knife aside and manoeuvred the plank around so that it lay across her crossed legs. Retrieving a sizable carving knife she leant over the wood, using the blade to cut the first notch into the plank, approximately five inches from the top. She was careful yet firm, bearing down just enough that the knife bit into the wood by about a half inches before tugging the blade back out. Another cut joined the first; forming a triangle that Sloane then used the tip of the knife to lever out and flick away to the ground.

After the first notch, Sloane repeated the process, leaving only an inch of wood as a gap until she made her way down, only stopping when she had reached half way down the plank, the rest of its length left to embed into the ground. Sloane leant back and examined her work, ensuring that the notches were deep enough to reliably hold the bowstrings without allowing them to slide out. Standing, Sloane brushed herself off and made her way back into the tent. She knew without a doubt that she was neither large enough nor strong enough to pull the old tiller tree from its hole, and so she pocked around the tent until she found Cobb. ”Tree done.” She called to him, cringing internally at her broken and poorly pronounced Pavi. ”Out there.” Cobb glanced up from the arrow he was crafting and smiled, hands briefly forming the sign she’d come to understand as ‘well done’, before going back to his task. Feeling satisfied Sloane left the tent, eager to begin making the longbow that was to be her main task for the day. She’d been there for such a short time that she jumped at the chance to craft any weapons, taking every opportunity to prove her worth as an employee.

Common ~ Pavi ~ Thoughts

[Sloane]

Despite how eager she was, Sloane took her time and was careful to ensure she would have all the supplies she would need in the one place, so that she wouldn’t have to go running around searching for this saw or that file. She’d relocated to a work bench, the plank of wood intended for the bow set atop it. The drawknife came back into play, and Sloane made quick work of debarking and slimming the plank, until it was closer to the shape of a stave. Sloane bent slightly so that she was looking at the stave at eye level, and she turned it over and around a few times to determine the natural curve of the wood. Satisfied that she’d gotten a good idea of the curve, she took up a stick of charcoal and a string, and began to lay out her lines. She secured the string to one end of the stave and pulled it down taunt until it reached the opposite end, using the charcoal to mark the centre point and sketch out the hand hold from what would later become the upper and lower limbs of the bow.

Taking the stave from the bench she stood it up, propping on end on her foot ad holding the top in her left hand. As she pressed down the bow bent slightly, showing where it was flexible and where it was not. Knife in hand, Sloane concentrated on shaving down the belly of the bow where it was unyielding, and kept at it until the upper and lower limbs hand the exact same curve and diameter, with the strongest portion of the bow concentrated to the handhold. With that done, the bow was beginning to look more the part, despite the fact that it was still missing its bowstring. Sloane took her time in shaping the longbow to her exact liking, with longlines and elegant, gradual curves, shaved down to reveal the lovely pale gold wood beneath the dark outer bark.

Her next step was to carve out notches to hold the bow string, and Sloane took up a smaller carving knife for the job. She was careful to only carve wood away from the belly of the bow, as any wood taken from the back of the bow could weaken of compromise it, especially when it was put under tension when drawing and firing constantly. Unlike her work with the drawknife, Sloane worked slowly and carefully, first carving out the notches, and then moving on to shape the tips of the bow until they resembles sharp talons at either end. She used the measuring string to test the notches, looping it around and wriggling it back and forth, testing to ensure that it would hold it securely and not easily slip off.

Common ~ Pavi ~ Thoughts

[Sloane]

Sloane reached for the rawhide bow string next, tying a loose loop tightly into each end, ensuring the length of the bowstring was slightly shorter than the inflexed length of the bow. Standing, she placed the bow upright in front of her, apply slight pressure so that she could loop the other end of the bowstring over the end, and tested how taught it was and the quality of her knots. Happy she picked the bow up and drew back on the bow string experimentally, happy to see it bend with no issues. Her last test was to put the bow on the tillering tree and see how far it would draw safely, and Sloane cast her gaze around, pleased to see that the new tree had replaced the old one while she had been occupied.

Making her way over she placed the bow horizontally on top of the post and held it in place with one hand. With the other she took up the bow string and began to gradually pull it down to rest in each notch one by one. Once the bow string was taunt she began to check the bow itself, looking for any sign of unevenness of weakness, moving it more gradually down until the bowstring reached the 35th notch and the bow curved evenly. Pulling the bow off of the tree, Sloane returned to her bench and began to apply the finishing touches; a shallow indentation for the arrow to sit, roughened leather wrapped around the hand hold, and a dark reddish-brown stain applied to the wood.

Stepping back, Sloane admired her handiwork, the bow finally finished after having taken the majority of her day. It was nothing complex, and no doubt Cobb would find it satisfactory but underwhelming, but Sloane was proud, glad she could show that she was able to handle even this simple task with relative ease. She picked the bow up carefully, wary of the still drying stain, and ducked back into the main tent, finding Cobb in the same place he’d been last time, a small pile of freshly made arrows collecting in a small pile next to him.

”Cobb, done!” She smiled happily, holding the bow out for him to see. The Drykas took it carefully, sighting down the belly and then the back of the bow, and fully drawing the bow string a few times. “Good.” He conceded, nodding slowly before taking an arrow and making his way out of the tent. Sloane followed closely and watched as her boss nocked the arrow and drew back slowly, his eyes on the bow, before then focusing on a tree a decent distance away. The arrow hit the trunk close to centre, and Sloane smiled broadly, barely containing a bounce of excitement. Cobb turned and pat her shoulder, apparently happy with her work. “Good bow, walahk.”

Common ~ Pavi ~ Thoughts

[Khida]

Sloane

Skill	Points
Bowing	+5
Carpentry	+4
Carving	+3
Construction	+1
Interrogation	+1
Planning	+3
Weapon: Axe	+1

• Axe: short overhand swing
• Bowing: bow back must have integrity to resist tension
• Bowing: bow belly can be carefully reshaped
• Bowing: evaluating natural curve in the stave
• Bowing: marking key points on the stave
• Bowing: site handhold where stave is strongest
• Bowing: testing string tension and attachment
• Bowing: tillering tree to test draw distance
• Carpentry: evaluating the integrity of raw wood
• Carpentry: splitting wood with wedges
• Carpentry: stripping bark with a knife
• Carpentry: testing flex and weakness in split wood
• Carving: cutting shallow, angled notches
• Carving: roughing out a bowstave
• Carving: shaping wood ends to points
• Carving: shaving wood layer by thin layer
• Cobb Springdance: a patient and fair supervisor
• Construction: making a tillering tree
• Interrogation: getting key points clarified
• Planning: gather supplies before starting work
• Planning: make tools before they're needed
• Planning: taking time to find the best materials

Notes

This was a great crafting thread; I really appreciate your attention to detail here! I look forward to seeing Sloane get more adventurous, though.

I saw you'd asked for language lores in the grade request, but really, I don't see that Sloane did anything language-related except ask Cobb for clarification -- and that's more an Interrogation thing. But if there's something I missed in here, please don't hesitate to PM me.

Also, please remember to edit your request to show this thread has been graded.