• Closed • [The Unnamed] Rings Galore [Profession]

[Kaladis Anar]

Rings Galore

13th of Ashan
The Unnamed Anvil
Morning, Dry, Mild Weather
The Scrolls of Anar Verse One, Matters of Money, #16 Turning the tide of coin

A

nother day at the unnamed smithy, now known as the unnamed anvil as it had received more business, the locals had given it their own name. Inbetween regular work, Kaladis was finishing up another chainmail hauberk that had been almost complete yesterday, adding it to several on his own shelf.

“So you want to make a ring now? I’m no jeweller.” Alinan told him.

“Must know something,” Kaladis insisted, he knew Alinan too well to think he'd never tried ring making. Ever since his first real contact with the slavemarket, Kaladis had a certain hunger for coin as a resource, wanting more ability to influence the war effort for example, coin was one leverage he currently lacked.

“I’ve been saving a small amount of silver, but it’s not cheap. If you make a mess,” Alinan warned him.

“I fail, I’ll get you some more.” Kaladis told him plainly, there was no chance in Idalos he was going to fail, his pride wouldn’t allow it. Kaladis was realising from the way Alinan spoke, he would need specialist tuition if he was going to become a jeweler but this basic instruction would do from Alinan for now. The smith produced a single silver bar from a small vault behind his desk, a vault which Kaladis hadn’t realised he had. Trying to see what else was in this hidden vault, all he saw was a coin pouch and a few papers. Though Kaladis would get little if any financial benefit from this lesson, his benefit was far greater, that of a second profession.

Dusting off an old sand casting ring mold, that was about all Alinan had for him, two halves of the same sand cast, bolted together by iron, with a gap in the top of the sand for molten silver to be poured inside. Giving simple instructions of the temperature the forge needed to be for the silver, judging it by the color of the flames, along with instructions on how and when to pour the molten silver into the mold. It was a different consistency to steel, even if it was a basic alloy, not a mix, Kaladis was still having trouble getting the forge the right heat. He preferred the feel of steel and a hammer if he was honest, and told the Master Smith so. Alinan commented that a lot of lower caste or peasant jewelry was steel lined silver of different grades, which Kaladis would have to remember for next time he was ring making, maybe later today. If he could draw out their silver bar into a few dozen examples, he would have more to practice on, and peasants might not mind the imperfections in his work as much, showing a developing business sense to his reasoning.

Alinan explained there were two air holes in the sand cast, to let the air out for the silver to go in its place, but the sand itself was good for this anyway. Kaladis nodded, and moving ahead he almost burned his hands, forgetting his gloves, novice mistake…

“Patience,” Alinan said, which was a rare thing for the Eidisi to lack, but he had become more impatient of late with certain aspects of life, business being one of them. “We should advertise,” Kaladis stated, in what was almost a demanding tone.

~

[Kaladis Anar]

“Advertise where?” Alinan put a chunk of redsun herb in his mouth chewing on it, it was a mild relaxant that Kaladis had seen him chewing before. Apparently redsun was hard to find in Cylus, but more plentiful when the sun hit the desert again.

Silver was poured in very carefully, both of them mindful not to waste any, only a small amount dripped off the end of the pot. The Eidisi let it cool, and went back to the chainmail for a while, having only one ring cast to work with would slow him down. At least sand was easy to come by in the desert, he was surprised it was able to hold the metal at all, having a lot to learn about different methods of doing things out here.

“How does this work?” Kaladis asked his employer. “As long as you pack it with wet sand it’s a mold as good as any other, might get some imperfections to file off, but they say that’s normal.” Alinan went back to hammering till the metal was ready to be taken out, which went on for a few breaks.

When it was time, Kaladis hovered over the smith keen to see the cast unbolted, it didn’t need to be. Brushing the wet sand out of the top, Alinan revealed the ring underneath and took it out carefully. “Now the work begins, you’ll be almost as good at this as me.” Alinan shrugged and handed him a file. “Don’t mess it up.” No pressure then, just who knows how much silver to waste if Kaladis failed.

Taking his time to look at the problem carefully, and analyse it, for the first time smithing or jewellery making for that matter, he had to actually decide how to do something himself, from scratch. It seemed simple, file the ring down till it was a smooth circular shape, his main concern was how to get a good finish on the silver, and if it would be much different to working with steel. Could he polish the silver with wet grey powder, the same way he did the knives?

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~

[Kaladis Anar]

“Can this be shaped around a dowel?” A thick iron or steel cylindrical rod, “and hammered out?” Kaladis surmised it’d be quicker to mass produce rings, if he could use the regular or even a specialist hammer if such a thing existed, surely it did. The blacksmith honestly didn’t know, “I suppose, stick with filing it till it’s your silver to experiment on,” Alinan said flatly.

One thing was certain, Kaladis had no idea where to even begin looking for rare or precious metals, something Ralari had mentioned he’d need for his necromancy studies also, Ezymite and Imedyte he'd mentioned. Steel had been easier to come by using the map of deposits given to him by the smith, but gold and silver, that was a different thing entirely.

F

irst the silver that was sticking out of the cooled ring needed to be cut off, the two now plugged airholes on each side protruding outward. The silver was relatively soft to cut, and it came away as easy as he’d hoped. Looking around for what to place it on, he wanted something soft that wouldn’t scratch the ring, opting for a cloth around a piece of wood, the ring was placed on the end, rested over the end of his desk, and he began filing away any imperfections. Jewelery craft was a much more delicate task than smithing, which he realised immediately when he marked the ring slightly with the file. A mistake any novice was going to make more than once, he hoped it could be polished out or filed down.

Blowing off any dust, filing a simple plain silver ring wasn’t actually that hard compared to making chainmail , it was less fiddly. The skill for any jeweler of course came in the finish, the fine details, something Kaladis wouldn’t realise until he’d made a few and compared them to someone who knew what they were doing. Alinan had always taught him from comparison, that as an idea, “do you have any rings I can compare it with?”

Alinan went to his desk vault, Kaladis had to resist the temptation to glance up from his work for another look at it. The smith took out a wedding band and placed it on the desk in front of Kaladis, saying nothing. Kaladis didn’t pry him for questions as to marriage, this was too important right now. Disciplined focus on the task was crucial, even above such an obvious question, because the smallest movement of the file made impressions. Kaladis realised he had to turn the ring often to keep it even but this was his estimation of even, compared to an actual jewelers it was likely going to be terribly clumsy.

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~

[Kaladis Anar]

F

iling for a break or more, he found placing the ring in his fingers allowed for finer control with the metal file, he could have used a smaller one, because this blacksmithing file wasn’t delicate enough. All the tools he was using needed to be smaller to fit this second profession. Filing the inside of the ring was even more tricky, Alinan saw he was struggling and pulled out a smaller file from his private toolkit, it was old, but would hopefully get the job done with a bit more refinement.

“Advertise in the marketplace,” Kaladis continued, trying to bend Alinan’s ear. “Now my stocks of sufficient quality,” in reality it was a bunch of knives and chainmail but for Kaladis’s pride that was enough! There was plenty of a market for knives in the poor areas, something which he’d not thought of, a lot of people needed cheap food preparation utensils.

Catching his finger with the file for the second time, he drew blood, and had to shake it off. One day his fingers would be like steel if this kept up. At the moment they were showing the signs of having been worked hard in a forge daily but far from a smith’s hands. "You know how they hate us drawing attention to ourselves," Alinan answered, in some ways Alinan reminded Kaladis of his friend Ralari, always seeking to be humble or give in to his circumstances to avoid conflict. He drew a psychological conclusion that they were both scared stiff of the Aurora, and who could blame them, it was an effective tactic from the group to be nowhere and yet feared you could be anywhere.

The edge was coming off the ring nicely, it was unbalanced on one side slightly, but Kaladis was too much of a novice to notice, and the finish wasn’t too bad to the surface itself. There was a one hundred nel question coming up, could the silver polish be used to give the ring a shining finish. Polish made from powder that was used to polish blades, and keep the smithy smelling less like the dung heap it used to power the forges with.

Kaladis put some of the grey powder into a bowl and poured a light drop of precious water into it, mixing it up into its polish. For the first time in a while, things went well, on the first attempt too. The polish came out looking not professional but attractive enough to the eye, maybe enough to attract a middle class customer. His mind began to try to appraise and price of the ring, having no frame of reference made it difficult to make a business decision. Kaladis would have to go out tomorrow and compare some jewelery if he was going to manage his small business effectively.

Holding the ring up to the light, it was a small simple victory which he took some pride in.

“Not bad,” Alinan said, but he could see what Kaladis could not, “slightly off out of alignment here, do you see how it curves more this way?” Patiently Kaladis studied it, trying to appraise any imperfections in the ring.

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~

[Kaladis Anar]

H

aving a strong attention to detail, appraisal might become second nature in time with training. Kaladis realised to himself right then and there, knowing the value of your stock would mean everything when dealing in gemstones later. The ring did seem slightly thicker on one side, which meant more filing needed to be done, and perhaps a more careful shaping of the sand next time when it was packed around the ring.

Sandcasting, he still was having trouble believing the simplicity of it, if he could cast silver could he sand cast much large objects? Smithing golems this way for example out in the desert, possibly or maybe it just worked with certain softer metals? Could he cover a marrow in metal while it was packed in sand? So many questions for the necromancer had been brought up. Although it had been an unlikely day for it to happen, an advance in his understanding of thralls, and the necromatical application of hot liquid metal had certainly happened here.

Blowing more filed dust off the ring, it wasn’t perfect but it was a more aesthetically pleasing circle. Getting back to polishing where he had made a mark, one thing about working with jewellery was just how much attention to detail you needed, how fine your adjustments had to be to achieve a result.

F

inally the first ring was done, holding up his creation to the limelight, it would become the first ring of many to be created by his own hand. His pride imagining caravan after caravan of his own gems and precious metals spreading across idalos, in every city. So many thought insular, thought of their city and their race, a pariah from his home knew there was a much bigger world to profit from out there.

Alinan walked behind him, and gave his silver the once over. “Nice job,” he took the ring and placed it on his desk. Kaladis jealously followed him with his eyes, especially when Alinan opened his vault again and placed it within. “I’ll give you something for it when it sells.” Alinan said, knowing Kaladis well enough to feel his apprentice’s eyes were boring into the back of his skull by now.

Kaladis nodded, and got back to starting another ring, even a pittance was better than nothing. Deciding to make one final persuasive attempt on advertising, he decided now was the time to use Alinan’s uplifted mood to his advantage. “We don’t draw advertising here, myself or our new apprentice starts a market stall once a week, and we draw the attention there.”

There was silence from Alinan, was he going to disagree as always, to try and play it safe? “I like that idea.” His employer said surprisingly. Maybe Kaladis was talking Alinan around after all, or maybe he was just getting used to eating meals with actual food in them.

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~

[Kaladis Anar]

T

here was another benefit to having his own stall on the market, it was his own stall, if business started going there he would be able to profit from it with or without Alinan, but one step at a time. Instead of doing his best to act the dutiful apprentice, Kaladis grinned genuinely satisfied with the arrangement, it wasn’t hard to pull off appearing cordial or deceiving Alinan of his true intent. Put enough coin in a man’s eyes and he goes blind to what’s really in front of him, or happening around him for that matter.

Kaladis began the second ring much the same as the first, only this time he used Ralari’s wedding band to make the shape of the caste, packing wet sand around it to give the cast a more uniform shape. This steady work genuinely relaxed Kaladis, his fingers also enjoying a welcome break from hot forge or metal shaping. Once the sand was put in, he took the ring out, and tried to clean out any excess with his knife. Slipping and making a mess he didn’t lose his cool, keeping disciplined on the task. Putting another ring back in its place, he had ample patience for errors at this point, expecting them in his early work. Only when he was satisfied the sand was shaped to his demanding standards, did he remove the ring, readying the second half of the cast to be put on top.

“Remember the air holes,” Alinan said looking over at him.

Kaladis took a breath and then removed the top, poking two small holes for air to come out with a thin bit of metal, he then cleaned it all up again and began. This sort of calm steady perfection would one day make great work, right now it just made learning the basics laborious.

The liquid silver was carefully poured in again, so carefully it took longer than anything he’d done yet, not wanting to paying Alinan a nel more than he had to for any waste. Kaladis even reused some of the silver he’d previous cut off, which almost made a ring itself when it was melted down, less was definitely more in jewellery craft.

When the cast had cooled, his next attempt came off looking more uniform, there were still three pieces to cut off, the two air holes and the pouring hole; it seemed like he was perhaps going overkill as sand could let air out anyway, so next time he’d only use one air hole for the ring. Beginning to file and finish, profit was as usual on his mind as they came to a close for the day.

“If I am paying for the stall, we should factor that in to our arrangement. Fifty, fifty?” Kaladis asked, in a tone that was stating more than asking. Alinan laughed having none of it, “thirty five sixty five at best, not a nel more, you’ve got a nerve Eidisi.” Kaladis had done enough negotiation at the music store, on previous trades, in business and in politics to realise that tone of voice wasn’t likely budging. Kaladis didn’t think himself skilled enough yet to try and budge it, so he let it stick. A five percent gain was still an increase, and he was patient, for now.

“Done.”

And Fin

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~

[Djinn]

Kaladis Anar

Story 3/5
Structure 4/5
Collaboration 0/5

• Jewelry Crafting: Using a sand mold for a ring
• Negotiation: Trying to get a better cut of the profits
• Alinan: Was married
• Endurance: Constant filing can get tiresome
• Endurance: Getting up after a fall

Notes: Alright, so... There wasn't really much to go on here. You didn't really go into detail about any of the processes involved, and you sort of just broadly glossed over what he was doing at each stage. I will also point out that I gave you a knowledge in jewelry crafting, but in this thread, you smithed a ring. Jewelry crafting, for future reference, would have been inlaying another metal to make it more precious, or adding a gemstone, or anything other than straight sand-forging and polishing the ring. My initial reaction was to give you smithing knowledge, but I decided I'd throw you a bone. Straight-forward thread, thanks for doing it.