Timestamp: 7th of Ymiden, Arc 721
As ever, Prae started with a bar of iron.
It was long, far too long for what Prae was making today. He'd been making tools and supplies for Haven whenever he had a spare moment, and today he was planning on making an axe. Nothing too large, just a few small hatchets he hoped would come in handy as the settlement grew.
Luckily, Prae had a small hatchet of his own, a part of his survival kit that he often used for woodcutting. So he was able to get a rough idea of how much an axe should weigh. It wasn't exact—his hatchet was made for ithecals, but it was also rather small, so he figured that more or less canceled out. He could make a reasonable human sized axe, surely. Hefting the iron, Prae guessed the bar could make about four axes—which was quite a lot more than Prae had expected based purely on size. Then again, the axe was a good bit thinner than the bar, so it only made sense that it would look bigger but weigh less.
Marking off about a quarter of the bar, Prae threw it into the fire to heat, before laying out the tools he would need. Once the metal was white hot, he pulled it off the heat, set it on the anvil, and reached for his hot cut chisel. This was just a chisel with a very broad edge, which he set against the marking he'd made earlier. Double checking that the chisel was in the right place, Prae held it steady, and brought his hammer down on the top.
The first strike was always hardest. Once you got that one right, there would be a divot in the metal that the chisel could lodge in, but the very first one ran the risk of the chisel slipping. At best, you'd end up with a mark in the wrong place—at worst you'd end up getting burned. Fortunately, Prae managed to avoid that this time. His cut was at a slight angle, instead of the perfect horizontal cut he'd been hoping for, but it would get him more or less the same amount of metal, so he was satisfied.
Now that he had the very first strike out of the way, the rest was easy. All he had to do was set the chisel in place, and start to hammer down. Every so often, when the metal grew cool and the chisel grew less effective, Prae would throw the iron back into the fire, and wait for it to heat up. As it did, he idly considered using defiance, and caressing his anvil with fire to keep the metal on top as hot as it needed to be. The problem was, that seemed a bit like a risk—even with the deference the elements showed him, hot metal would still hurt something fierce.
Well, he decided, that was an experiment for another time. With his hammer and his chisel, he slowly created a deeper and deeper groove in the metal, until he was maybe a third of the way through. Then, he flipped the bar, and started again from the other side. Prae wasn't quite sure why it was better to cut from both sides—but that was what he'd been taught to do, and he wasn't confident enough in himself to experiment with doing it any other way.
It didn't take too long for Prae to chisel his way through the bar of metal—it was a bar that was relatively long and thin, instead of one of the more chunky bars that they had. Alternating sides, he soon had the metal pinched off until it was only connected by the very center. And at that point, Prae was able to simply bend the metal until it snapped off, leaving Prae with a small rectangular block of metal just the right size for an axe.
Heating up the metal, Prae carefully hammered down the pinched off edge, wanting the surface to be more or less smooth before he began forging out the body of the axe. He knew he wouldn't be able to get it perfectly smooth, though, which is why he chose to use the pinched off edge as the cutting edge of his axe—it was going to have go to through a lot of shaping anyways, so having it start of a little ragged wouldn't hurt it any.
Comparing the bar to his own hatchet, he marked off roughly where the eye of the axe would be, where the wood handle would pass through. Then, he went and fetched the eye drifts, to get a more accurate measurement. Selecting one that looked appropriate, and laid it against the metal, double checking that the markings he'd made were centered properly.
Then, Prae padded over to the store room to find a piece of wood to serve as the handle. He wasn't very experienced with woodcarving just yet, so he wanted a piece of wood that already was more or less the right size and shape. Luckily, they had plenty of material around the place, and Prae was able to find a piece that looked about right. He was still going to have to whittle it down into shape, though. Later.
As ever, Prae started with a bar of iron.
It was long, far too long for what Prae was making today. He'd been making tools and supplies for Haven whenever he had a spare moment, and today he was planning on making an axe. Nothing too large, just a few small hatchets he hoped would come in handy as the settlement grew.
Luckily, Prae had a small hatchet of his own, a part of his survival kit that he often used for woodcutting. So he was able to get a rough idea of how much an axe should weigh. It wasn't exact—his hatchet was made for ithecals, but it was also rather small, so he figured that more or less canceled out. He could make a reasonable human sized axe, surely. Hefting the iron, Prae guessed the bar could make about four axes—which was quite a lot more than Prae had expected based purely on size. Then again, the axe was a good bit thinner than the bar, so it only made sense that it would look bigger but weigh less.
Marking off about a quarter of the bar, Prae threw it into the fire to heat, before laying out the tools he would need. Once the metal was white hot, he pulled it off the heat, set it on the anvil, and reached for his hot cut chisel. This was just a chisel with a very broad edge, which he set against the marking he'd made earlier. Double checking that the chisel was in the right place, Prae held it steady, and brought his hammer down on the top.
The first strike was always hardest. Once you got that one right, there would be a divot in the metal that the chisel could lodge in, but the very first one ran the risk of the chisel slipping. At best, you'd end up with a mark in the wrong place—at worst you'd end up getting burned. Fortunately, Prae managed to avoid that this time. His cut was at a slight angle, instead of the perfect horizontal cut he'd been hoping for, but it would get him more or less the same amount of metal, so he was satisfied.
Now that he had the very first strike out of the way, the rest was easy. All he had to do was set the chisel in place, and start to hammer down. Every so often, when the metal grew cool and the chisel grew less effective, Prae would throw the iron back into the fire, and wait for it to heat up. As it did, he idly considered using defiance, and caressing his anvil with fire to keep the metal on top as hot as it needed to be. The problem was, that seemed a bit like a risk—even with the deference the elements showed him, hot metal would still hurt something fierce.
Well, he decided, that was an experiment for another time. With his hammer and his chisel, he slowly created a deeper and deeper groove in the metal, until he was maybe a third of the way through. Then, he flipped the bar, and started again from the other side. Prae wasn't quite sure why it was better to cut from both sides—but that was what he'd been taught to do, and he wasn't confident enough in himself to experiment with doing it any other way.
It didn't take too long for Prae to chisel his way through the bar of metal—it was a bar that was relatively long and thin, instead of one of the more chunky bars that they had. Alternating sides, he soon had the metal pinched off until it was only connected by the very center. And at that point, Prae was able to simply bend the metal until it snapped off, leaving Prae with a small rectangular block of metal just the right size for an axe.
Heating up the metal, Prae carefully hammered down the pinched off edge, wanting the surface to be more or less smooth before he began forging out the body of the axe. He knew he wouldn't be able to get it perfectly smooth, though, which is why he chose to use the pinched off edge as the cutting edge of his axe—it was going to have go to through a lot of shaping anyways, so having it start of a little ragged wouldn't hurt it any.
Comparing the bar to his own hatchet, he marked off roughly where the eye of the axe would be, where the wood handle would pass through. Then, he went and fetched the eye drifts, to get a more accurate measurement. Selecting one that looked appropriate, and laid it against the metal, double checking that the markings he'd made were centered properly.
Then, Prae padded over to the store room to find a piece of wood to serve as the handle. He wasn't very experienced with woodcarving just yet, so he wanted a piece of wood that already was more or less the right size and shape. Luckily, they had plenty of material around the place, and Prae was able to find a piece that looked about right. He was still going to have to whittle it down into shape, though. Later.
