thomasdarkrose
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Vol. 4 - Growth - Chapter 47
🕑 Added 2019-03-30 21:13:38 +0000 UTCAfter thinking for a bit, Thomas decided what he wanted to make first. He grabbed one of the heart steel ingots and looked over it. He glanced at Snowlily as he asked, "Instead of 'heart' what do you think of the term 'Origin'?"
Snowlily was laying down on the floor and just tilted her head a bit to look at him for a moment. Then lay back down as if it didn't matter to her in the least. Thomas shrugged his shoulders and looked at the ingot in his hand, "Origin Steel. I like the sound of that."
He tossed the Origin Steel into the forge and began heating it up to temperature. There were other ways he could do what he wanted to do but he felt like doing it the 'old fashioned' or 'proper' way. Once he had the Origin Steel up to glowing orange, he plucked it out of the flames and used one of Hekrin's hammers and a hot cut tool to cut it in half. He picked one half to start pounding it into shape. He first squared up the Origin Steel ingot and got it into the general shape he desired.
Once the base work was done he began reshaping the ingot into a tool, the most important tool for a blacksmith. As he used Hekrin's hammer he started to form the ingot into the basic shape of a cross peen hammer. He needed to make his own hammer, a tool that would be personalized to him for his use in making his items from now on. He always found it funny when he used a hammer to make a hammer.
Once he had the bulk of the material pounded into the proper shape he began working more on gettings the details right. He paid special attention to symmetry and balance. If the weight and feel of the hammer weren't proper it would affect his work. He heated the hammer head back up and selected a punch and drift that he would use to form the adze eye for the handle. Once the ingot was ready he set it over the pritchel hole in the anvil and started pounding the punch into it. Once the starting hole was punched through, he used the drift to widen the hole. He also used the hammer to help keep the cheeks of the hammer in proper shape after it was deformed from the creation of the handle hole.
With the hammer head nearly completed he placed it back into the flames of the forge. With it in the flames, he went over to where Hekrin stored pieces of wood. He dug through them a bit until he found a piece that reminded him of hickory. Hickory was an often used wood for hammers since it was tough and could dissipate shocks rather well. He honestly had no idea about the wood he'd selected for his hammer. Since this was for the hammer he intended to use for a long time he decided to forgo his usual practice of not asking.
Carrying the wood with him he stepped out of the shop and made his way over to Hekrin. He held out the wood and asked, "Would this make a good hammer handle?"
Hekrin plucked the piece of wood from Thomas's hand and looked it over for a bit then handed it back, "That's ironwood kid. It makes excellent handles. It's got a bit of flexibility so it doesn't snap very easily."
Thomas nodded and went back into the workroom after thanking Hekrin. Seemed like his instinct about the wood was correct. He set it down and looked it over. He placed his hand on it and activated his 'Transmutation' ability. If the wood was good as is, what would happen if he made it into 'Origin Ironwood'? There was only one way to find out so he started channeling his ability with the intent of purifying the wood. His mana shifted colors and sank into the wood. He could feel his mana moving through it but it felt... empty.
Whenever he'd used his 'Transmutation' to make Origin Iron or Origin Carbon he could feel it picking out the pieces and combining them into their whole purified forms. With the wood, he felt nothing but emptiness. Even after a few minutes, he felt nothing changing within the wood. He stopped using his ability and checked over the wood. There had been no changes to it at all. He frowned and thought about why that might be. He'd used the ability on plants before and it had worked just fine.
It took a little thinking but the conclusion he came to was that the plants he'd extracted the hearts of before were 'fresh'. They still had liquid inside of them and were still potent. The Ironwood he had selected was long dead and completely dried out. Perhaps if the Ironwood had just been cut from the tree he would be able to turn it into Origin Ironwood. Since he couldn't purify it there was nothing else to do but start cutting and shaping it.
He grabbed a couple of chisels with different widths. He started by cutting the wood in half lengthwise. The base width was far too much for his needs. With a smaller piece to work with he began to chisel away all the excess material, removing at least a quarter of it in the process. With the bulk work done he used smaller chisels to work it down to a shape that was closer to resembling a finished product. He finished the work using files to grind and sand off the rough edges and finish the handle. As the last step, he cut a slit into the handle at an angle.
He picked up one of the scrap pieces of Ironwood and started carving it into a wedge shape for use later. With the handle finished he went over to the forge and heated the head back up until it was glowing orange. He set out one of his barrels of quenching oil and dunked the scorching hot hammer head into it. The oil hissed and spouted out flames as the metal was dunked into it. Thomas moved it up and down for a bit before retrieving it from the oil. He smiled as the hammer head issued a steady stream of smoke.
With the Origin Steel hammer now hardened he needed to temper it a bit. Though hardened steel was excellent it was currently a little too hard, even brittle. One wrong move and it could easily shatter like glass. He brought it over to the forge again and carefully warmed it back up. Tempering it would loosen it up a bit and make it much better for the work he intended to do.
Once he finished tempering the hammer he brought it over to the workbench and went through the process of fitting the handle into it. He had to do a little work reshaping the top of the handle a bit to get it to fit. Once it did he flipped it over and picked up the wedge of wood he'd carved. He set it into the slit he'd cut and used a wooden hammer to pound it in. The wedge would push the slit apart and create pressure to hold the handle in place. Thomas lifted the finished hammer and smiled.
System Notice: You have created a Magical grade Cross Peen Hammer. Quality: Above Average. You have gained 195 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 48 experience.
Item Type:Cross Peen Hammer
Rarity:Magical
Quality:Above Average
Description:This Cross Peen Hammer is made of an unknown material that the creator has dubbed 'Origin Steel'. Origin Steel makes this hammer almost impervious to corrosion and extremely durable. The properties granted by Origin Steel give it the ability to channel mana to increase its durability and push mana into the material being worked.
Charging the hammer with mana makes working materials easier and increases the chances of the finished product being Magical grade or higher.
Thomas couldn't stop grinning as he looked over the description of the hammer. Step one was complete. Now he needed to begin work on step two. He selected a plain iron ingot and tossed it into the forge. He pumped the bellows to heat it up and used a hot cut tool with his new hammer to cut a quarter of the ingot off. Just to get a feel for it he even channeled his mana into the hammer causing it to take on a subtle glow.
After cutting off the small piece of metal he began to hammer it out into a long strip. Once the strip was formed he hammered a small divet into one section of it. It would come into use later. After that, he started to bend it around until it was a circular loop with a diameter of about 50cm. Once he had it bent around he used a punch to bind it in place. It wasn't going to experience much stress so he didn't bother going for the more secure use of rivets. With that piece finished he set it to the side to cool and reheated what was left of the ingot.
Once the ingot was ready he started hammering it out into a circular shape. Once it was formed into a flat circular disc he reheated it and used the hot cut tool to slice five cuts into it. The cuts radiated out from a central axis, like slices in a pie. With the cuts completed, he started hammering the sections into angles. His goal was to make a simple fan blade. It was long overdue for him to make a magical item to replace the bellows of a forge!
He hammered the fins of the fan blade into slight angles so that they would be able to properly push air. When the fan blade was close to completion he started checking its fit into the collar he'd made for it. It took a bit of work but he managed to get it to fit properly. Using the thinnest punch he could find he hammered it through the center of the fan blade. The hole would act as the central axis for the fan blade to spin around.
He set the fan blade to the side and picked up the last piece of iron left. He quickly hammered it into a long thin piece that would act as the axle and a brace. He bent it into a ninety-degree angle. One section would fit inside of the central hole of the fan while the other would be fused to the collar and hold it in place. With the three pieces made he let them cool while reheating a snack for himself and Snowlily.
The entire time he'd been working, Snowlily had been silently relaxing in a corner of the room. He spent some time snacking with and petting her. She enjoyed the food and attention. When enough time had passed he got back to work. It was getting darker and he wanted to finish the blower fan for the forge before calling it a day.
He went back to work on the fan. Oddly, this thing was going to be his first Magitech device. He started by channeling his mana and infusing it with his intent to create wind. Much like he did for the grenade a while back. He desired for it to blow strong wind while spinning. His mana shifted from white to green and began to seep into the collar. He picked up the axle and took a deep breath. He had no idea how well this would work or even if it could. While channeling Wind intent with his left hand he raised his right and tried to channel his 'Transmutation'.
He felt a splitting headache come on immediately and inhaled with a hiss. Still, despite the pain it was causing him, his right hand began to glow. He quickly used his 'Transmutation' to fuse the axle to the collar and stopped channeling his 'Transmutation'. The pain immediately faded away. His wind mana began to infuse into the attached axle and fill it along with the collar. He only needed to place two more pieces on and he would be done.
He picked up the fan blade and slid it onto the axle. He braced himself as he once again activated his 'Transmutation' and felt the headache come on. He quickly used his transmutation to reshape the tip of the axle. He caused it to mushroom out so that no matter how fast the fan blade spun it wouldn't come off. Once that was done he stopped using 'Transmutation' and felt relief.
His wind mana began to infuse into the fan blade. The whole assembly was now glowing with a light green tint. He had just one more thing to do. While he'd never done this personally, he'd seen it done in many of the plans that Hekrin had given him. He opened his inventory and picked out the largest mana crystal he owned. It was still rather small and from what he understood it wouldn't be able to store much mana, but it should be close enough. He held the mana crystal against the divet he'd hammered into the collar and activated his 'Transmutation' once again.
He briefly wondered if he was a masochist for doing this to himself repeatedly. He did his best to ignore the headache while he fused the mana crystal to the collar of the blower. The moment it was secure he stopped using his 'Transmutation' and relaxed. His wind attributed mana began to sink into the mana crystal. He watched, surprised, as the purple colored crystal started to turn green to match the mana he was emitting. He waited until he felt like no more of his mana would sink into the device.
System Notice: You have created a Magical grade Fan. Quality: Average. You have gained 135 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 33 experience.
Item Type:Fan
Rarity:Magical
Quality:Average
Description:A fan. It blows air. Charge the mana crystal and it will work until it runs out of mana.
Comments
Bonobo
Awesome process for the fan, loved the chapter!
Cody S.
There are going to be a few more as he makes his new gear. ^_^
Dsariami
I don't know why, but I really love these crafting chapters for some reason.
