50 Ashan 722
Balthazar had no plans to forge mundane items. Sure, he would make nails and other tools as needed but when it came to the pieces he really wanted to make- they all included some form of magic. He could use alchemy to enhance the ingots before forging them or perhaps to enhance the sword when it was done. He could use transmutation for a similar purpose and when he grew bored of that, he could begin to explore the applications of the wells he had stashed in the workshop. His forge would not make the best things until he learned to hone each of the crafts on their own but it would produce. It would cost as well but hopefully he could turn over some of what he made for nels to get more materials.
He and Robin were inside the workshop, sitting across from each other at a table while examining one of the grave gold spring loaded daggers that Balthazar had won in Scalvoris. Well, Balthazar was examining it and Robin was giving him a small lecture on how smithing worked. Balthazar wanted to know how the dagger worked. He was curious if he could apply to same spring loaded propulsion to an arrow so he wanted to know what made the dagger pop out and what made it catch so that it stopped. They were small feats of engineering which required disassembly and reassembly to fully understand. Balthazar had already done the first part, dividing the dagger into it's many parts. Now he found himself staring at them with the perfect memory of how they were supposed to fit together, he just had to put them back together. The important part, and the part that made it take so long for him, was that he wanted to understand, not just to see.
"Are you listening, Balthazar?" Robin asked after he noticed the mage was a little bit more invested in reassembling his hidden blade. Balthazar set down the pin he was trying to put back into the mechanism to lock the blade in place.
"You know the answer already." Balthazar said before picking the pin back up and sticking it carefully. He'd figured out, at least, how the knife worked. There were two gears at the base which turned as the blade was pressed in to lock it in place and conceal it. There was a ring which went up to the pinky that unlatched the lock when pulled on, propelling the knife forward on a slide until it was caught by another lock at the end of the blade. The pin held most of it in place but it was one of a few pins holding the blade together. He had no hope of forging his own yet, but at least he knew the general idea behind it. Everything else he wanted to do with it was experimental and he didn't have the resources for it at the moment. Actually... he could pull arrows out of his enchanted bag and test them repeatedly. Still, another time.
"You won't learn if you don't listen." Robin said prompting a disappointed look from Balthazar.
"I might not have listened, but I did hear and I can't forget. I'm not ignoring your lesson." Balthazar pointed out, his memory tracing back to the words he had heard in the air while his mind was on the workings of the blade. "You were talking about the right temperature to heat metal to before beginning to shape it."
"And what is that temperature?" Robin asked, trying to trick Balthazar who would not be fooled.
"You don't know, you've always judged by the color of the metal when it leaves the forge." Balthazar replied, "You said that different metals will have different melting points so it is important to go by the color, not the time you leave it in the forge." Robin smirked and gave Balthazar a small clap before nodding and moving onto his next question.
"And what is the right color for most metals to be shaped?"
"If I recall correctly, you said it would be between a dull orange and yellow. If it is glowing white, it is too hot and if it is a dull red it isn't hot enough." Balthazar replied before someone knocked at the door to the workshop. Balthazar's brow furrowed as he looked between the door and Robin. "Is it that time already?" The duo rose from where they were and answered the door, finding one of the settlement guards (Ronan) standing outside.
"They're waiting for you at the build sight." Ronan said as he cast a curious glance beyond Balthazar and into the workshop.
"Tell them we will be there shortly, Robin and I are just wrapping up." Balthazar said, exchanging little more than a nod with Ronan after that before closing the door again. Balthazar turned to Robin and gestured for him to wrap up before he picked up his spring loaded dagger and set it back on his forearm. "What happens if you hammer the metal while it is too hot?"
"Most people would think it is more malleable, and they're right, but it also causes a lot more stress to form in the blade." Robin heard Balthazar chuckle and then explained, "Stress in the metal can cause it to warp or break when you try to temper it and an untempered blade is no good for anything but show."
"Tempered?" Balthazar asked, recalling a different term he'd heard in the past, "is that the same as quenching?"
"Quenching is the act of putting the heated blade into oil to temper it, so yes. You have to be careful with that too though because if you put the blade in too hot, it will cause a large ball of fire- though I guess you might like that." Robin said with a small smirk on his face.
"Not when the fire tries to hug me. What's the right color for quenching?" Balthazar asked as he finished securing the blade to his forearm again. He pushed his chair in and moved over to begin putting away a few of the reagents he had taken out when he came into the workshop. He hadn't done anything remarkable in terms of alchemy but before the two had started talking about blacksmithing, Balthazar thought he might show Robin some alchemy.
"It should be a dull blue- at least that is always what I've done when making swords for knights." Robin said as he pushed his own chair in and moved to the door to wait for Balthazar. Robin didn't mind the lessons he gave his friend, but he wasn't too fond of the feeling that he couldn't hold Balthazar's attention- especially when Balthazar proved that he was listening after all. "How long before we have the forge built outside the workshop? You'll learn faster when we can actually start shaping metal."
"Once I pay for it, it shouldn't take long to build. I'll have to let Elisabeth know so that she isn't surprised by a bunch of people building onto my workshop, but not long I think." Balthazar explained. He didn't think it would take much more than a few trials to build it. He didn't even think that he would have them build a structure around the forge. Open air seemed like it would be better with all the heat he'd be working with but he would ultimately defer to the builders after telling them what he wanted. "We'll still need to get metal though. Ingots would be easier to buy but in the long run we might want to find a source to work with. I can use attunement to familiarize myself with the frequency of the metals we work with and then I can search for natural sources as I travel." Balthazar explained and Robin nodded along.
The two of them left the workshop and departed for the chapel construction site to spend another trial helping build.
