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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2014 6:50:29 GMT
1015 words
| | Preparations
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When was the last time that she crafted something using her blacksmith class? Caerbannog could not remember. It felt as if forever... and she would have gladly stayed away from her forge if not for a new item that she noticed in the marketplace. She had looked up the recipe- made by a Funeral Parlor? What sort of funeral parlor makes blacksmith recipes? She said nary a word about that observation and the subsequent questions though. To each his or her own. The task at hand was to craft a new kind of armor, one that promised to be flexible and adjustable, perfectly tailored to its owner. It was a good idea in that it would make life so much easier for the wearer, but Caer questioned the sanity of the crafter who devised this kind of armor. As if chainmail was not bad enough, the scale armor recipe called of the painstaking creation of individual scales which would then be fitted together. Oh, surely its originator was a a masochist! Who sits days upon days in front of the furnace just to create a single piece of armor? The wolf-hair's head already hurt just by thinking about it, but she reminded herself that this scale armor crafting had to be learned out of necessity. Was that not the reason why she became a blacksmith in the first place? Necessity. She had requested weapons from someone when she was just starting out, but he never got around to working on it. Level 10, Level 20... past Level 30 and she still had Level 5 gear.
"Oh well, time to work!" Caerbannog sighed as she went into a room reserved for crafting, one where she would left alone even by her husband.
The wolf-hair began to set up her portable forge: the small furnace, the quench tub, the tools big and small which she would use. Next, she looked up the recipe which she had obtained for the materials that she needed. Iron bars, some coal and quencher; they were the usual things that blacksmiths needed. A curious thing on the recipe was that, it was recommended for smiths who were Level 30 or higher. That was not a problem for Caerbannog who had reached the current maximum level, but it did make her wonder as to how difficult the crafting would actually be. The wolf-hair put the coal in her furnace and she fired it up so that it would be ready by the time that she finished reading the requirements and planning her piece. Using one of the metal tongs, she arranged the coal at the bottom of the furnace so that they would be heated evenly. That would also make it easier to check if her furnace still had sufficient fuel as she crafted. Caer then started the fire which slowly heated up the interior of the small furnace that she herself had created. It was oddly pleasant to work with her own tools now after all those times that she had to borrow from others, but at the same time, the room was much too silent to her liking.
Although smithing was boring for her, Caerbannog quite enjoyed the company of the people at Saint Pancras Station. Whether it was a customer or someone who'd just gotten lost, or a fellow blacksmith who was curious about her work, there was someone to speak to. Caer preferred to keep to herself but when it came to crafting, chatting with someone kept her from being bored. Ah well, she already started up the fire in her furnace and the quencher was all poured and ready in the tub. It would be a waste to restart so the wolf-hair just decided to stay in that quiet little room in the Abbey. Upon the wooden work table, Caerbannog laid out the rest of her crafting tools; all but one. The smithing anvil, instead of being on the table or anywhere close to it, was set beside the furnace. After each and every time that she had to work on a piece of metal, the anvil should be close enough for her to use. With that in mind, Caer walked over to the work table and picked up one of the large hammers and a pair of metal tongs. She would need those to shape the iron scales for the armor, and so they were set upon the cold anvil beside the steadily heated furnace.
Now the last stage of her preparation was an outline of the armor that she wanted to create. Caerbannog decided to start small and, instead of creating a full body armor, opted for a scale sleeve that she could use on her left arm. Since she was right handed, she was not inclined to use her right arm for defense. That duty fell on her left arm which she had, so far, protected with her iron chain that also doubled as a grip and an attachment to her nagamaki. The blacksmith measured the left of her arm in total, and then she individually measured her lower arm and upper arm. Next, she measured the radius of her arm in certain places, most especially the elbow which had to bend. Caerbannog wrote down her ideas and observations on a piece of paper along with the dimensions for her left arm. While it was optional only, the wolf-hair opted to leave some space for a cloth or leather layer beneath the scale armor that she would work on. Her usual schoolgirl outfit had long sleeves, but she was not sure if she would wear that all the time so the scale armor should be comfortable to use on its own. Next, Caer outlined the thickness and width of each iron scale that would be used. It would be a terrible waste of metal if she ended up making too large a scale, and it would be a waste of effort if she made too small a scale. The size had to be just right so that it would fit all the way along her arm nicely.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2014 10:15:12 GMT
1005 words
| | Samples
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Caerbannog wrote and sketched and scribble on the piece of paper until she had an ideal appearance and size for what she intended to make. Now the only problem was, would it actually work the way that she wanted? There was only one way to tell, and that is if she would craft some samples. The scales that she intended to make were triangular though not sharply angular. Instead of the round scales which resembled fishes', Caer opted for a reptilian appearance. This made sense to her for the round shape was meant to allow a fish to swim easily underwater, while a reptile's triangular scales were more suitable for defense. She figured that a scale armor that would cover the body might be able to trade off part of its defense for the more versatile and agile round scales, but since she only wanted a scale armor sleeve, then making reptilian scales would be ideal. In the future, that would depend on the client or customer, but for Caerbannog who wanted something specific, then triangular scales was the way to go. Next, she made some rough sketches of different sized triangular scales. The sketches were more than rough, to be honest, because the wolf-hair was a blacksmith and not a scribe. Still, she could make heads and tails of what she wrote, so it was fine. If anyone else took a peek though, they might think that some wayward chicken scratched its soot-covered talons on the wolf-hair's paperwork.
At the moment, all her planning and sketching was done so the next step was to actually craft the sample scales. Caerbannog settled for three sizes, each crafted in sets of three so that she could assess their fitting and arrangement on the armor sleeve. She had been in her usual schoolgirl outfit and so the wolf-hair thought to wear the more comfortable smithing set. Overalls, a tank top and an apron, it was easier to move in and it lacked the fluttery parts of skirts and blouses. She also tied her hair up to a bun so that it would not get in the way. The last thing that she needed was a strand of hair in her eye as she worked. Caer did one last check on her outfit to make sure that everything was buttoned and zipped properly, and also one last check on her equipment. The handles of the tools were securely attached to their heads and the anvil's foot was pressed firmly to the floor. The wolf-hair peeked into the furnace, not too close though; the heat was evenly distributed as she had intended. It was an ideal beginning for crafting an item, and so Caerbannog took a metal piece that she could work one. Made of iron, the blacksmith picked it up with her metal tongs and put it in the furnace. The piece was heated up quickly and sufficiently as evidenced by the bright red glow of the metal. The wolf-hair pulled it out of the furnace and set it on the anvil.
With the red hot piece of metal secured on the anvil using her smithing tongs, Caerbannog took up a heavy smithing hammer with her free hand. She raised it overhead and struck the hot metal, its figure was slightly bent by the force of impact. Once again, the wolf-hair heaved her hammer overhead and brought it down on the piece of metal which rested on her anvil. It began thinner yet not thin enough to be brittle. After each pound, the piece of metal came closer to the smith's ideal scale, but it also made the item colder as its heat escaped into the cool air. Caerbannog put the iron piece into the furnace again to heat it enough just so she could work on it. The process was repeated on that largest piece of scale, and when it was close to the shape that she wanted, the blacksmith put the hot piece of iron in the quench tub. It was rough in some areas, but it was nothing that a bit of polish could not improve. That was one piece down in a set of three, so the wolf-hair immediately set to work on piece number two. There was nothing odd about the new iron piece so Caerbannog quickly put it in the furnace which was even hotter than before. To make sure that the temperature was not too high, the wolf-hair removed a coal or two every few minutes.
The second piece of large iron scale was just as good as the first one. With the process slightly easy for her now, Caerbannog worked on the third piece and complete it in no time. She then set the items aside and began to work on the second set. This time, much smaller pieces of iron were used and Caerbannog only struck the pieces with her medium-sized smithing hammer. They did not easily give way to the impact but the iron pieces were still malleable enough. The wolf-hair had to take better care of her strikes lest they completely flatten the smallest scale pieces. Once done, she put those three together on the right side of the work table while the large set was on the left size. She fitted them together with their kind and tore them apart repeatedly. Caerbannog looked for potential flaws in the design and also estimated the size of the scales that would fit her arm nicely. Observations were scribbled on her pieces of paper which were soon strewn about the work table.
"AHA!" the girl exclaimed but no one was there to hear it anyway.
The blue-eyed blacksmith set to work on her final set of sample scales. It was a compromise between the large and small sets, and she hoped that it work out. Caer took out the medium-sized hammer only to make sure that she could control the thickness of the iron scales. Five strikes on each piece did the trick, and soon they were ready for evaluation.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2014 16:03:33 GMT
1250 words
| | Medium Iron Scales
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The blacksmith tossed a few more pieces of coal in the furnace to keep the fire going. She was determined to craft the first few pieces of the scale armor sleeve that day so she should not let the fire in the furnace go out. But before that, she had to fit and estimate the size of scales that she should actually make. First, the large scales: Caerbannog put two on her shoulder and fitted the third one beneath them. They hugged the shape of her shoulder comfortably, but when the samurai put the scales lower down her arm, she noted that they were too big and might end up falling loosely around what they should be protecting. She put the large iron scale set on the work table and started fitting the medium iron scales. They were too narrow for her shoulder but around the arm and elbow, they fitted quite well. She put those on the table as well and then there was only the last set to assess. The third set was rather small and they were bothersome to craft. The blacksmith had to be careful when she hammered away on them otherwise the force would have flattened the scales while they were heated up. Naturally, they were too small for her shoulder and upper arm but around her lower arm, the smallest scale set fitted pretty well. Once that was checked, Caer also put them on the work table.
Her furnace's heat had been exhausted quite a bit by her continuous crafting, so she let it sit and heat up for a while. Caerbannog turned to her papers while the coal in the furnace burned within the semi-enclosed chamber. All three sets of scales were useful however, she had to make adjustments. As it was, the large, medium and small scales were too far in size to interlocked with one another. Caer drew up some examples and set them side by side with the actual scales. Once again, her handwriting and drawings were horrible due to her lack of scribe training, but to her it was understandable. The medium scales had to be the standard and the other scales should be compared to it. To make it work, the wolf-hair repeatedly measured her arm around the elbow and erased or scribbled over many sketches of the medium iron scales. At long last, she compromised and settled for a size that was just a wee bit loose around her arm. She had calculated that she would need a bit of space for the scales that would make way for her elbow to bend. If they were too small, she would have difficulty in moving her elbow but if they were too big, there would be an unarmored gap. She wanted to avoid both and after about half an hour, and just when the furnace had reached its ideal temperature, Caerbannog finished her measurements for the medium-sized iron scales.
"Back to work!" the wolf-hair stood up straight and put her hands on her hips.
Caer inhaled and exhaled, and then she turned back to her furnace and anvil. She still had a lot of material but the problem now was to create the actual iron scales, each with a certain degree of craftsmanship required. The girl was bored already, but she knew that this was necessary. If she did not learn to craft this now, she might be left behind when more recipes are discovered or invented. And so without a single complaint, not even about the hot air in the room, the blacksmith set to work. She had large chunks of iron ore and instead of using pre-made ingots, Caerbannog started to draw her own metal from the raw ore. This work was even more tedious but it also allowed the blacksmith to separate each piece of iron into specific sizes. Ingots sold at the marketplace were already sized and weighed, so it was difficult to work with for more detailed crafts. As such, and because Caerbannog was already experienced enough in smithing, the wolf-hair sometimes used raw ore and crafted her own ingots or pieces. In this case, ingots were too large so the samurai separated only small pieces of metal from the ore. Each one was roughly the size of the medium iron scales that she wanted to craft, but no bigger. The blacksmith soon had ten pieces of her own iron and they were sized suitably for the scales that she wanted to craft.
The iron pieces were lined up at the foot of the furnace so that Caerbannog could quickly craft each scale. She kept in mind the dimensions that she had to make and with a large hammer, the blacksmith set to work. Her metal tongs picked up one of the iron pieces and held it in the furnace for a while. It did not take long for the iron piece to heat up and once it was obviously hot enough to work with, Caerbannog pulled it out of the furnace. The iron piece was then put on her anvil and secured by her metal tongs, while the other hand was raised overhead and then brought down to a powerful strike. The iron piece was not yet shaped correctly with just one strike, and so the wolf-hair went on pound after pound, strike after strike, to make sure that she would shape the iron while it was still hot. Since the item was smaller than most things that she crafted, except maybe for those teeny-tiny accessories, the wolf-hair had to be careful with what she was doing. It was not yet as delicate as small iron scales and yet Caer was still mindful of each strike. Before long, the first medium iron scale was done and she dropped it into the quench tub. While she was not yet feeling exhausted from the smithing work, Caerbannog took that opportunity to continue crafting.
The blacksmith picked up another iron piece and put it in the furnace where it was held in place for a while until it was red hot, ready to be crafted. She then put it on her anvil, much like what she did with the other one, and she struck it so as to shape its appearance and thickness. Caerbannog needed a flexible armor that also had sufficient defense. With her own hands, she would be able to craft such an armor and all she had to do was to work hard. The second scale was quickly done and the third one was underway. Caerbannog struck another iron piece once it was redhot and shaped it into the medium-sized iron scale that she envisioned. The wolf-hair continued to work on the middle part of her scale armor sleeve until at long last, she was down to the last two pieces. Exhausted, the wolf-hair laid her tools down and inspected the furnace. It was no longer hot enough for her work to continue so the blacksmith put out the fire. She intended to clean the furnace for now and resume her work afterwards, but as soon as Caer sat on the work table, her body slumped down onto it. She was tired but she had not noticed because she was on a roll, and yet her body could take no more. The wolf-hair fell asleep as the heat of the furnace died down. Soon, she was sleeping soundly while curled up on the work table beside the iron scales that she created.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2014 2:27:32 GMT
1510 words
| | Small and Large Iron Scales
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Caerbannog's eyes shot wide open after a few minutes of blinking in the darkness. Wasn't she supposed to be smithing? What happened?! The young woman sat up straight so suddenly that she almost slid off the work table. Outside, it was already dark and only the light of the moon shone through the window. Caer looked around in the darkness; the moonlight illuminated all of the metal objects that she was working with earlier. She already enough rest and so it was time to get back to work. The RPer also scratched her head; she had fallen asleep while trying to finish this crafting RP. It was Kumori's fault. Fourth wall aside, Caerbannog hopped off the work table and walked over to the side of the door. She flipped the light switch on, a mana-powered lamp overhead filled the room with its light and the wolf-hair turned to her furnace. She had to remove all the used coal and clean it up before she could continue her work. The blacksmith momentarily went out of the room to get some tools from somewhere else in the Abbey and she returned with a trowel and a bucket. Caerbannog then began to take the dead coal from the furnace and she put it in the bucket that she found. The amount of coal did not fill up the container yet so she just set it aside, away from the furnace, and tossed some new coal in which she quickly lit up. Much of the day had been used up for her long nap and so Caer wanted to work on the scale armor sleeve all evening. She had nothing to do while the furnace was still heating up and so she turned to the eight pieces of medium iron scales that she managed to finish. There were still some iron pieces left to make medium scales with and so she would work on that as soon as the furnace was ready. In the meantime, the blacksmith took out some metal polish and began to clean up the forged iron scales. They were dark and not as shiny as one would expect of metal, but the polish was able to at least smooth out the surfaces. Caer polished each and every piece of iron scale that she had forged, quite tedious work but she wanted to keep her hands busy while the furnace was not yet ready. Fortunately, once she was done with the polishing, the furnace was hot enough for her to work with. Caerbannog took out more iron ore and set it on the work table for her to work on once the medium iron scales were completed. The blacksmith then turned to the iron pieces that she was yet to work on and picked one up using her metal tongs. That piece was then put in the furnace and once red hot, the blacksmith set to work on it using her hammer. With that done, the other iron piece followed suit and soon, the set of medium iron scales was completed.
With the readied iron ore, Caerbannog began to draw out small iron pieces. It was the most tedious to work on, so she wanted to start with the small set of iron scales immediately. Pieces which were about three-fourths the size of the medium iron scales, they soon littered the work table. The blacksmith created enough iron pieces to make iron scales that would cover her forearm, and once she had enough, the wolf-hair set to work on it using her metal tongs and hammer. Piece by piece, strike by strike, she created one small iron scale after the other. This work was even more repetitive than her usual smithing, but Caerbannog was still focused on doing her best with each iron scale. They had to be fitted nicely together on an armor sleeve which would be useful for her in battle, and so the wolf-hair could not afford to slack off. Once she got the hang of working on the small pieces, the blacksmith gained momentum and created one scale after the other. She, of course, used a smaller hammer than what she used on the medium scales so as not to flatten the iron pieces. Before she even noticed it, the small iron pieces on her work table were gone and her iron scale sets were finished by two-thirds. To take a break from smithing, and because the furnace had to be heated up again anyway, Caerbannog sat on the work table and began to polish the small iron scales. After each one was polished, she put it side by side with the rest of the scale set. Soon enough, her stomach grumbled. Because the wolf-hair had slept the day awya, she had forgotten to have lunch and dinner. The smith wiped her hands clean and then she took out some of her warm mushroom soup. She wanted something cool and sweet but that might upset her tummy, and so the wolf-hair began with a proper meal. Ah, carrots and mushrooms, the first meal that she ever cooked in Elder Tale. That certainly brought back some memories and the samurai thought on how much time had passed. She scooped up some of the warm food with her soup spoon, blew gently on the soup that she was about to partake of and put that small portion in her mouth. Food tastes good if you cooked it, and it tasted even better to a hungry person. The blacksmith chewed slowly; the furnace was not hot enough just yet so she had some time to finish her meal. As Caerbannog continued to eat her very late dinner, she looked out the window and up at the moon. She used to just sleep on the side of the road or in dilapidated buildings, and now she had a proper roof over her head; Westminster Abbey, no less. The samurai smiled after she realized how far she'd come and that even her other classes had already been trained to the current available limit.
The wolf-hair's thoughts were cut short by the emptiness of her food bowl. She put her dish and spoon away, turned to the furnace and checked its temperature. Ah, finally it was hot enough for the work that she wanted to do. Caerbannog took out another batch of iron ore, this one to be used to create the large iron pieces which would fit on her shoulder and upper arm. The medium iron scales were only three-fourths the size of the large iron scales, and in turn the small iron scales were three-fourths the size of medium iron scales. It was the last set that she had to work on and afterwards, she could start fitting them together to create the armor sleeve. Some more polishing would have to be that but it would not be as tedious as working in front of her blazing forge all day. One by one, the large iron pieces to be used for the scales was refined by the wolf-hair from her iron ore. She needed only a few of them so it was not as hard to work on as the previous sets. Once her iron pieces were complete, the smith took out her medium-sized smithing hammer and began to create the iron scales. With her metal tongs to put the iron pieces in the furnace and to hold them in place atop the anvil, Caerbannog began to strike at the hot iron to create the scales. Even with the large size required for the iron scales, Caer did not strike the pieces too much for it might become too thin. She carefully struck the iron just enough so that it would meet the size requirement, and then she quenched the finished scale in the tub. After each iron scale was done, she would turn back to the work table to get another iron piece which she herself had refined from the ores. The iron was heated in the furnace, set down on the anvil and struck by the blacksmith's anvil. It was fortunate that the wolf-hair's stomach had grumbled when it did otherwise the girl would have run out of steam in the middle of forging the last set of iron scales. Since the large set only consisted of a few scales, it was soon finished and Caerbannog began to cool down the furnace. She sat down to rest as well while the coal began to lose its glowing ember, and she noticed that a brighter light flooded the room from the window. The blue-eyed blacksmith walked over to the door and flipped the light switch off. She then walked over to one of the room's windows; outside, the sun was rising above the horizon. Did she really work that long? Well, she did not have to think too much about it. Her crafting was almost over and all she needed to do was some fitting and polishing. Fortunately she opted for just an armor sleeve and not a whole armor.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2014 4:41:46 GMT
800 words
| | Fitting and Completion
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The sun rose as the blacksmith stood by the window; sunlight lit up the room as Caerbannog returned to the work table. She began fitting the pieces together like a puzzle that would eventually become her armor. To make things slightly easier, and so that she would not have to compare the fitted scales to her own arm every few minutes, Caer took out her schoolgirl uniform and laid it on the table. She then flattened its sleeve right on the working surface and she soon began to fit the iron scales over that sleeve. It had the same dimensions as the cloth or leather that she wanted to use as the scale sleeve's protective layer, something that she would have to ask her husband Kumori to work on. In the meantime, Caerbannog focused on the iron scales that had to be fitted together. The small scales were first to be fitted because they were at the lowest part of the armor sleeve. The wolf-hair fastened them together using metal tacks and rings, similar to what she used for her centipede's scale-like armor. Halfway up the lower arm of the sleeve, the blacksmith leaned back on the work table and rested for a moment. She looked at her hands which were all sooty and rough. In the real world, she'd never done such hard labour; while it was not pleasant, nonetheless it was a great experience and the young woman could only hope that she would not forget everything that she learned as time passed by.
Her break over, the blacksmith continued to fit the iron scales together over her schoolgirl uniform's sleeve. The medium scales were up next and she placed them over the small iron scales. Although there was no 100% perfect fit, nonetheless the scales fit well enough to create a protective armor around the uniform's sleeve. With each tack and ring, the scales were soon attached like pieces of a puzzle and that puzzle was about halfway done. The last thing to work on was the large iron scales, and only then did Caerbannog realize that she had forgotten to polish those individually. The smith set aside the half-finished armor sleeve as she took out some metal polish. With a dry rug, she set to work on cleaning and polishing the last set of iron scales. It was easier to work on compared to the other sets for the large pieces were clasped comfortably by her little hand while the other hand dipped the rug in metal polish and rubbed the liquid all over the scale. Once the air dried out the polish, Caerbannog rubbed the iron scale with the still-dry side of the rug and it left a nice metallic sheen on the dark piece of smithing craft.
The wolf-hair repeated the process on the remaining large iron scales and once she was done with that, she placed them one by one on the armor sleeve. After a few more minutes, or did that take an hour? - in any case, she was soon done with the fitting. Caerbannog made sure to check each and every scale, that it was attached to the others by use of a tack or a ring. She then lifted up her handiwork. As expected, it was rather heavy because it was made of iron; perhaps steel would work better for her next craft. Then again, she still had to refine a process for creating alloys so that idea was quickly shelved... Caer did not like dwelling on blacksmith work after all. The important thing at the moment was that she was able to fit the iron scales together. The blacksmith put her left arm in the armor sleeve and let the scales fall along the length of her limb. She lifted that arm and moved it around to make sure that the iron scales would remain intact, and that they did. Her crafting done, she put the sleeve in her inventory and began to tidy up her work area. By then, the sun was well above the horizon and the streets outside seemed to grow busier by the minute.
Caerbannog cleaned the furnace and made sure that each coal was ready cold and dead. They were thrown in the bucket that she picked up earlier and would be disposed of outside. The quench tub was also cleaned and rinsed, and her tools wiped neatly before they were returned to her inventory. With her work done, the room once again fell silent and empty without the sound of hammers and anvils and crackling coal. The samurai closed the door behind her and set out to shower; she felt really icky so a day's worth of rest at their estate in Savill Flower Grove might be a good idea at the moment.
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