Ladder match (solo crafting research)

[Mikoto]

She'd not run into one yet. She'd, since climbing off her ass and taking control of her existence, been all over this run down version of London and not seen one yet. It was like that players and landers alike were content with using piles of debris or other methods to reach high places. And to her that was rather stupid. Had no one thought of them yet? There were woodcrafters. She'd seen plenty of them when she'd perused the stalls in the market yet no one made the very common item she had in mind. She was of a blue blooded wealthy birth and she even knew what one was and had on several occasions fetched one from the garden shed or a closet to reach something far above her head. 

She of course was thinking of a ladder. A construct of simple design but nearly invaluable in a society where so much was destroyed or inoperable. She'd kept to herself about this idea and quietly purchased rather inexpensive timber, she was on a budget here, and carried them off to a quiet corner of the crafting hall. There was a small problem. She'd never really built anything in life. She hadn't the faintest idea how to make anything from scratch. She'd never cooked or cleaned really either. Well, there was a first time for everything she supposed. 

To one side was a box containing basic wood working tools. Rummaging about in the box she laid out the various tools trying to guess there use. One was obviously a hammer. What else could it be for? It was similar to the ones she'd seen farriers use to shod the horses. Though theirs had been metal and this one was wooden. Setting it down she picked up another item. It was small and similar looking to an axe. Hatchet? Hand axe? She'd seen one or two around her parents property but was never allowed to touch them by the help out of fear for her safety and their jobs. Setting it down she picked up three long metal objects with wooden handles that were shaped differently that each other and sharpened at one end. These she wasn't to sure about. She could assume that you held it buy the handle put the sharp bit to the wood and either pushed it along the wood or whacked it with the mallet. Finally the last one looked a bit like a corkscrew minus the twist. 

Taking up the hand axe she roughly scrapes out her plan for the ladder. She was going to try and set the rungs into drilled out holes in the center of the longer supports. She'd need to take her time doing this if she wanted to get it right. Though, she could skip the boring of holes and trying the shape pegs on the ends of the rungs to fit the holes and simply cut out slots and just cut the rungs to fit the slots. A bit to think about before she set about actually making the construct.

WC: 512

[Mikoto]

Sometime had gone by since she'd scribed out the basic idea on the floor. With no real meanings of measuring the wood she had carefully split one of the lengths down the middle. Now she had two pieces of wood the same length as the legs of the ladder to be that needed cutting down to a shorter size to be used as rungs. Looking around she notices what appeared to be a saw. To her it looked a bit like a spatula and serrated edges but that didn't mean it wasn't a saw. She'd need to make the rungs all the same size after the first one so she'd need to try and cut the first as carefully as possible.

Taking the saw into her right hand and holding the piece of lumber in the other Mikoto slowly began to work the saw across the surface of the wood. In no time she had roughly twelve rungs cut from the two halves of the board. Wiping a hand across her digital brow she surveys her work. She could have at any time probably stopped and make something else. But now, now that she'd invested this much time into the task o making a ladder she might as well continue to it's completion. Taking up the odd corkscrew like tool she scrunches up her face while looking at the two leg boards of the ladder. 'How best to go about this?' she mused as she looked at the boards lying flat on the ground. Walking over to them she looks from the tool to the board and back again.

It was clear that the minute the blade of the tool bit into the board it'd try and swing the board about. The question that surfaced from that was how to counteract that. She had no vice or clamp or even someone else to help hold it down. So how to go about it? Placing her feet on the board she pushes the tip of the bit into the digital timber. She'd try her own body weight and see what that got her. Twisting the tool as the corkscrew design implied she watched as the shavings came out of the hole. Moving down the board she kept repeating the action every foot or so. Really it was more every length of her own foot but it would work. Obviously, if this worked adjustments could be made to a more official version of it but for her own personal, not yet a use for, ladder it would do. Finishing the first she moved to the second and repeated the process once more down the length of the board.

Taking a moment to take a breath and look at her handiwork thus far she had several things. First and for most she had two ladder legs with holes in them. Second she had was a pile of yet unshaped ladder rungs. Finally she had a pile of saw dust and splinters of wood. She didn't exactly have a clear idea what she'd use the splinters and sawdust for at the present moment but she'd either find a use or push it over the edge of the platform onto what used to be where the trains ran. At the moment she wanted to finish her ladder and see if it would hold weight or just break and leave her with a slightly sore bum and a bruised pride.

WC: 575

[Mikoto]

Now how to go about shaping the ends of the rungs? Ideally a knife would be used here as they were flexible in what they could effectively do to wood. She didn't, however, have a knife and that complicated things. Casting her eyes onto the laid out tools beside the pile of components she contemplates which would work best. She could, she mused, use her own sword for this task but it would likely prove to be harder to use than necessary due to its length and weight. The chisels wouldn't be much help either really. They were more of use when you had to take something out of the middle of the piece of wood. Though....

Taking up the spatula saw, that was how she'd describe it if she had to, and cutting into the wood part way through on each side she carefully begins her experiment. Taking the flattest and widest chisel she had and the mallet she carefully begins to chip away the pieces of wood. The idea was that she could shape the pegs that would go into the holes on the legs. While they may not be perfect they would work if her idea was correct.

After what seemed like hours but was really more like one hour she had her first rung made. The moment of truth was upon her. Lining the peg up with the pre-drilled hole she gives it a short whack with her mallet. Peeking at the progress her rung was making she smiles a bit before whacking the end of the rung several more times to drive the piece home in its hole. Her idea had worked. This was good news! Fantastic news. While she had no real world carpentry experience she could make something it seemed. Now to just repeat the process a bunch more times till she had her ladder complete.

As she worked at her ladder she smiled a bit. Perhaps she could learn something from playing a game? Not that it'd be as easy in the real world as it would be here in this game universe. Nearing the farthest end of her ladder, what she considered the top, she took stock of what she had left. Several unused run sections, a pile of sawdust and another pile of small chunks and splinters of wood. Perhaps she could? Taking two of the rungs, she had roughly five of them left, she placed their widest sides together and laid them on the ground. She had an idea for how to make this ladder more adaptable. Placing the corkscrew like drill, it was a drill wasn't it, against the top piece of wood and began twisting the contraption. Doing this once more she carefully redid her top rung extending the shaped area further back along the rung. Then slipping one of her drilled rungs on it and then driving the two pieces into the leg of the ladder. She'd need something to connect these two "feet" she supposed together. Taking yet another rung and cutting it down slightly and repeating the shaping process on the ends as she had for the rungs along the leg she continues her experiment. Placing her new connecting piece into the empty whole of her ladders only foot she gives it several sharp whacks with her mallet to set it into position.

Now to place the other foot and attach the second leg to her ladder. Attaching the final pieces took less time than the rest of it had. This was possibly because her excitement made her work faster or that by now she had enough experience whacking the other rungs and the solitary connector into place that she had a good measure of how much force to put behind each swing. Despite these things she now had a complete ladder with a swing up pair of feet that would keep it back away from an overhanging edge or eave. This would remove that awkward struggle to get oneself up and over those precarious spots and perhaps add some safety to the whole of life for both landers and adventurers.

Looking at her ladder as she had rested it against a nearby wall she could see one small modification she'd want to see implemented. A small rope to pull the feet into position with. Smiling to herself she placed a foot in the bottom rung. Time to see if her creation would work or just explode and send her tumbling to the ground. Carefully and slowly she ascended her construct. Bouncing on it a bit she checks it for strength. Not feeling anything that would cause concern for its strength she climbs back down and places her hands on her hips to admire her work. So this is what working with ones hands could bring?

WC: 802