[Solo|Research] Lantern by a Blacksmith - end

[Deleted]

515 words		Research Post 1
Caerbannog was not the least bit pleased with the limited selection of housing goods that she found at Saint Pancras Station. Moreover, a lot of the recipes that she found for housing materials and implements were for woodcrafters. She wasn’t about to switch crafting classes again just for that, but she did understand why woodcrafters were more in demand for housing items. It was because they were right in the middle of the Greatwoods and the most abundant resource was plant life. That was nice for pharmacists who used herbs, chefs who made various dishes from vegetation, and woodcrafters who created things from pieces of wood and logs. Blacksmiths, on the other hand, had to go out and mine for ores from the dangerous caverns of Sarum. Ore itself was not used for smithing; it had to be refined into a base metal, which in turn could be used by itself or mixed with another element to create an alloy. Since mining was tedious, materials were in short supply and so blacksmiths tended to make metal plates and ingots, armors and weapons... instead of housing implements that could already be made by woodcrafters. On one hand, it was a good market wherein different crafters had their own niche. On the other hand, Caerbannog wanted a lampshade yet could not find anything similar to it that was for sale. Wood, for obvious reasons, was not an ideal material for making lampshades and lighting furniture. It would be a safety hazard if one were to use wood for candlesticks and lamp posts. Because landers had not been so keen on making metal housing fixtures, Caerbannog took it upon her little hands to create a recipe for such things. Londinium had metal street lamps and shades in buildings, so it was not impossible to create them in Elder Tale. Blacksmiths who did create those before probably did not pass on the knowledge, or too few people aside from the Royal Family might have shown interest on it. People’s preferences and whatever happened in the past mattered little to Caerbannog. As long as she had some examples to follow, which were the barely-usable lamp posts beside the streets, and then she would be able to create her own recipe for what she had in mind. The first thing that she had to do was gather whatever information she could find about lamp posts and similar lighting fixtures. What she found were mostly illustrations of streets and houses that had those items, but their present-day conditions had gotten worse. It was probably due to neglect or abandonment and so the items had been forgotten. Alchemists had invented mana-powered lighting so the traditional lamps were rarely used. For adventurers and travelers, a mana-powered device was ideal because they were always on the go. But for a house which was stationary and constantly had to be lighted sufficiently, mana-powered devices for lighting would have a difficult upkeep cost. Also, to Caerbannog, metal fixtures with candles or oil containers inside had a certain old-world charm that might remind adventurers of the world that they left behind.

[Deleted]

620 words		Research Post 2
The next thing that she had to do was to buy the materials for the research. Because she was only a blacksmith and smiths only work with metal, Caerbannog had to purchase things from landers who had different crafting classes. Some artisans, people who worked on stone, glass and bone, sold small parts alongside their crafted works. The wolf-hair picked out four glass panels to be used for a handheld lamp. She also purchased some candles, lamp wick and oil. The candles came in different sizes: tall, short, thin, thick. The lamp wicks had two sizes based on their thickness, one thicker than the other. As for the lamp oil, she purchased two kinds: regular lamp oil which was almost odorless, and citronella lamp oil which was fragrant but could only be used outdoors due to the plant oils that it contained. With the materials in tow, Caerbannog then went to her usual spot at Saint Pancras Station. Around the place that she rented, the other blacksmiths sold readily-made ingots and plates which she could use for her research. The wolf-hair chose to use iron which was easier to repair should it get damaged by her trial and error. Steel, an alloy, was much tougher to work with that the base metal iron so the girl reserved it for if she ever needed to work on something that was larger and required less detail and attention. The blacksmith picked out ingots and plates of different sizes so that it would be easier for her to work with them. Once her shopping was all done, Caerbannog equipped her smithing gear and went to the smithing area that she rented. With some coal and fuel, she lighted up the furnace so that it would burn brightly for her research. After getting her tools and materials ready, Caerbannog sat down to read the resources that she was able to gather. There were illustrations of lamp posts, lanterns and oil lamps. She noted that lanterns and lamp posts were similar in a way; the lamp part of the posts looked like the handheld lanterns, only raised above the ground on a singular column or pole. Oil lamps, reminiscent of the story of Aladdin, were smaller and looked like shallow pitchers which were full of oil instead of juice or water. She picked at the lantern illustrations first and noticed that some of them had glass panels while others only had intricate designs for windows. Since she was only experimenting, the wolf-hair decided to forego the minuscule designs. She wanted to create a structure for the lantern first so that it would be safe to hold despite being made of metal, but should be able to provide lighting which was appropriate even for the darkest of evenings. Caer then decided on a simple rectangular shape for the first lantern that she would make. Four faces which had glass panels, and the top or bottom component would have the vent in which air would flow and allow the fire to burn continuously until the fuel was exhausted. She considered the fact that a lantern, unlike lamps, was enclosed so the smoke from a candle or any similar open flame would have to escape through a vent on the top part. She could also make a different type of lantern, one that did not have panels but instead would have designs that enclosed the four faces. Thinking back on her adventures, she figured that even adventurer skills such as Magic Light could be used with the lantern so that it wouldn’t run off on its own or annoy the user too much. Content with the ideas that she envisioned, the blacksmith began to work on her first lantern.

[Deleted]

585 words		Research Post 3
Using small iron ingots, the blacksmith began to create strips of iron which could be used as the lantern’s frame. She made sure to put notches along one side of each strip, and it would be the part which would secure the glass panels in place. Because the strips were thin and narrow, Caerbannog used a small smithing hammer to make them. A few seconds in the furnace was all it took to heat the ingots up and make them malleable enough for her to work on. With smithing tongs, the blacksmith held each heated ingot in place atop the anvil and then she pounded away with her hammer until they were at about the right size and thickness. Once the strips were completed, Caer melded them together to create the frame for the lantern. As for the top and bottom parts of the lantern, they were made from medium-sized ingots which were also pounded into the appropriate form with the use of a hammer. The top part had holes on its slanted faces which were to be used as the vent to allow air to circulate in the lantern. Fire cannot burn without oxygen after all, and even if she was to make a so-called “dead flame” lantern or lamp, it would still need to be in contact with air. The inner part of the bottom portion was situated lower than the end of the glass panels so that if a candle was put in the lantern instead of Magic Light or a mana crystal, the melted wax would not overflow out of the contraption. It would have been simpler to just use an enclosed lantern and stuff a mana-powered light source into it, but that was not the point of Caer’s research. She wanted something that could be used both by adventuring people and by those who just wanted to live a quiet, simple life in their homes. Lastly, the parts were put together by melding their sides and corners together. One of the glass faces of the lantern was not melded completely on all sides. Instead, a simple snap-lock made of protruding metal was left on three sides and it could be opened by pulling a little knob on that frame. The lantern could then imprison- uh, I mean, house a Magic Light, some mana-powered light source or a simple candle within it. To create a lantern or lamp post, Caerbannog worked on a long piece of steel pole. It was probably supposed to be a frame for a house or something similar, but the blacksmith cut it up into portions that could fit in the furnace. Each segment was then given some minor detailing but more importantly, the topmost segment was formed so that it would be able to fit a lantern on it. Alternatively, a metal branch stuck out of the second segment so that the lantern could dangle from it instead. Caer then put the parts together by using small, barely noticeable bolts which were then further hidden from view by some more flair and detail on the joints of the lamp post. To finish it off, Caerbannog applied a dark color to it much like what one would use with accessories, so that it would match the black iron lantern that she just made. Content with what she crafted, the blacksmith then prepared to test the lantern if it would be able to produce enough light and if it would fare well against the heat that it would have to contain.

[Deleted]

785 words		Research Post 4
Using one of the candles that she purchased as her first “test”, Caerbannog lit it up and placed it inside the black lantern. She then closed the door-like face tightly to make sure that no smoke would escape from the sides, only through the vent at the top. The lantern sat upon the work bench upright and was not disbalanced at all, a sign that she was able to make each part almost similarly to every other part of the lantern before she put them together. Perhaps her high blacksmith level resulted to that; whatever the reason, it worked to her advantage. Even though she only learned blacksmithing from watching landers and by her own trial and error, Caerbannog was able to raise her smithing level to a significant rank and benefited from it. Aside from the balance of the item, which of course was important because toppling lanterns would be quite the fire hazard, Caerbannog checked the heat of the handle time and time again. Most of the warmth from the candle’s flame radiant through the glass panels but it was unavoidable for the top and subsequently the handle to heat up as well. That was the reason why, in the real world, lanterns were carried around at the end of sticks. It was not always practical though because some areas were too small to accommodate the length of a lantern stick, but during the dead of the night, people would naturally want to walk around with their own light source. The blacksmith quickly hopped over to the next stall and purchased a leather choker that had a metal pendant. It was sold by a lander blacksmith as a fusion of his work and the work of his friend who was a tailor. Caerbannog thanked the lander and then she went back to what she was working on. Fortunately, nothing bad happened while she was away from the lantern. The bottom was holding in the candle wax quite well, and the vent was letting out just the right amount of heat and smoke through it. The handle had become a bit too hot to touch though, just as she expected, so Caerbannog dismantled the accessory that she just purchased. The wolf-hair only needed the leather part of the choker which she then wrapped around the handle. Since leather was a different material and was a poor conductor, the heat transfer from the metal handle to the palm of the lantern’s carrier was not as bad as it would be if the transfer was direct. Caer attached it securely to the handle and then she removed her smithing gloves to test if the leather would be able to protect the lantern carrier’s hand. She lifted the lantern by its hand with the leather material between her hand and the metal of the crafted item; it felt warm to the touch but not searing or burning at all. The blacksmith Caerbannog then took down notes about what she’d done so far. Based on the lantern that she made, similar lighting items such as lamps could probably be made. Looking at the crafted item, the wolf-hair decided to make another one but the different was that it would not have glass panels. Instead, it was circular and would have repetitive designs that would have gaps in between. The wolf-hair began to work on it by using one sheet of iron plate which she then pounded to a thinner piece. Once that was done, the sheet was heated again and then Caer used her smaller smithing tools to carve and hammer out the designs for the lantern. With the design completed, she then rolled up the sheet until two ends met up and were then joined together using metal tacks that were melded into the metal. Since it did not have any glass parts and thus was not as heavy as the other lantern, Caerbannog opted to make a long, thin handle for the open-sided lantern. She then pulled the candle out of the first lantern, and then placed it in her newly-crafted lantern. The research seemed to be a success for Caerbannog was able to achieve her objective. As for the crafted items, perhaps someone else could do better than her but at least the wolf-hair was able to make a recipe that other people could follow. She was content with the lanterns that she was able to make and decided to keep the decorated one for her own use. She did not have the Magic Light skill, but using a lantern for decorative purposes was rather attractive to her anyway. At least she would not have to change her crafting class just to create things for a house.