A Father's Memory

[Praetorum]

2nd of Zi'da, Arc 721

The hot forge was sweltering, even in Zi'da, and if Praetorum had been human, he would have been dripping with sweat by now. As it was, it was taking a continuous cycling of air out the window with defiance to keep Prae from overheating. Luckily, his flow spark was happy to come out to play, sweeping air in and out of the room, dancing around Prae without touching the metal he was working.


Stepping away from the forge, Praetorum carefully held the crucible at arms length with his tongs, feeling the heat of it on his hide even from that distance away. Adamantine had a much higher melting temperature than steel or iron did, and Prae couldn't help but be wary, working with it. Walking gingerly to the other side of the forge, he carefully poured the molten metal into the mold, where it would set into a billet of metal that Prae could then work with. 



The commission he'd gotten this trial was a little strange, but Prae had wanted to take it on himself. A lightning knight wanted her father's sword melted down and made into a set of daggers, so that she could carry his legacy with her as she protected Rharne as he had for arcs. It was sweet, and Prae was determined to do the request justice. 



The thing was, Adamantine was a fickle, fiddly metal. On one hand, Prae had seen firsthand that mismanagement of the metal could lead to a weapon too brittle to be of any real use. On the other hand, his own glaive was proof that when well made, adamantine could produce the finest of weapons. Praetorum had no illusions that he would be able to do nearly as brilliant a job as Willow had, but he still wanted to do justice to the request. 



As the adamantine cooled in its mold, Praetorum prepared the rest of his tools, setting them aside in the order he'd need them, and picked up the example daggers that his client had sent him, trying to memorize the heft and balance of them. Adamantine was a little lighter than the steel these were made of, but not so much so that Prae would have to make any major alterations to the design. Once again, he measured the blade and the tang, estimating the amount of metal he would need. The whole sword, melted down, would probably make four daggers, with just a little extra left over. Perhaps he could make the excess into pommels, or decoration for the hilt. Something to think about later. 



With the help of the air and water, Prae soon had the metal cool enough to hold its shape. It was still red hot, but, well. It was going right back into the forge (now at a much more reasonable temperature), so that wasn't really a problem. Before he put it back into the flames, though, Prae carefully measured out the amount of metal he'd need for each dagger, and used the edge of his hammer to mark off slight grooves where he would need to cut. 



As he'd brought the metal back up to the right temperature, the wind carried him a hot cut tool, which he plucked out of the air to slot into the hardy hole of the anvil. Pulling the billet out, he set it against the tool, using the grooves he'd already made as a guide, and started to hammer the billet onto the sharp edge of the tool, making sure to distribute his blows along the width of the billet. With his hand holding the billet steady, the tool slowly, but steadily started to cut into the adamantine, until finally, with one last blow, the square of metal fell onto the anvil. 



The most convenient thing to do would be to continue and cut out each square now, but Prae wasn't quite certain he'd gotten the amount of metal right yet, so he set the rest of the billet aside for now. Better to cut the rest later, if he turned out to have estimated the weight wrong. Switching to a smaller set of tongs, Prae picked up the cut off square of metal, and thrust it back into the forge, letting it heat until it was cherry red. The fire was a little weak, and he coaxed it higher without even thinking, communing with the elements as easy as breathing for him. Soon enough, the metal was the right temperature, and Prae pulled it out, and began to hammer.

[Praetorum]

Under Prae's watchful eyes, and under his strong blows, the metal lengthened, and began to take shape, one end narrowing into a full tang, the other sloping to form the curve of the blade. Angling his hammer, Prae began to give the blade its edge, placing it back in the fire frequently. Adamantine had only a small band of temperature where it could be worked well—too cold, and the end result would be brittle, while if the metal was worked too hot, it wouldn't hold an edge when it came time to grind one in. 



It was inconvenient, Prae found, to keep returning the blade to the flames so frequently. Normally, there would be nothing to do about that except to accept it, but for a defier... If Prae could keep the temperature of the blade up as he worked it, he would be able to hammer for longer without having to wait for the metal to heat back up. So the next time Prae set the blade in the flames, he called to his kin, encouraging it to caress the half shaped metal, to wrap itself around the blade. This time, when he pulled the metal out, the flames came with it, licking at the blade and keeping it at just the right temperature. 



This made his work go much faster, as he no longer needed to wait for long periods of time. But it did come with its own problems. Namely, the heat leeching into his hammer and anvil. The anvil wasn't such an issue—a large piece of metal would take a long time to heat up to concerning levels—but the hammer head was smaller, and attached to wood besides. The face of the hammer Prae was using was starting to glow a little, and Prae knew enough about the metal it was made of to stop before it started causing damage to the tool. His first instinct was to caress the hammer with water, to give it a cooling effect, but he caught himself before he went too far. There was no sense using magic, he told himself sternly, when a mundane solution would work just as easily. So he brought over a small bucket of water for him to dip his hammer into to cool it off. 



With this setup, he was able to finish hammering out the dagger, and found, to his satisfaction, that he'd estimated the size just about perfect. Using his new technique, Prae was able to make the other three daggers quite easily, and soon had all four set aside. Stretching out his muscles, Prae listed off to himself the tasks he still had to do, trying to figure out what he wanted to do first. The client had said she wanted to wrap her own hilts, so that was one thing he didn't have to do. So, Prae needed to make the decorated cross-guards out of adamantine, sharpen the blade until it was worthy of a lightning knight and polish the guard and pommel until they shone. 



Sharpening the blade first was a good way for Prae to get himself cut later, so he would leave that to last. Same with the polishing, which would be best done once the guards and decoration were on. Which left making the guard to go first. Rolling his shoulders, Prae decided that he could take a few bits to rest his hammer arm  before he started again.

[Praetorum]

Hammering out the guards wasn't difficult. All he had to do was make a thin, flat piece of metal, punch a hole through the middle, flatten it back out, and then curl the ends slightly. It was the decorations that had Prae stumped. Finally, he landed on the idea of lightning bolts for a lightning knight. He didn't want to make something too obvious, since this hadn't been asked for, but there was one technique that Prae had been wanting to try for ages—etching. 



It took some looking to find the chemicals that would be used for the etching, but after that, everything went smoothly. First, Prae covered all the guards with a fine layer of wax. Then, using a carving tool, he peeled away small bits of wax in the shape of lightning bolts. It was lucky, Prae thought, that lightning bolts were such an easy to make design, because that was about the limits of his artistic ability, and even then, he had to redo a couple that turned out far too wonky. Once he was satisfied, he dipped the guards in the chemicals, and left them there for a time. The chemicals would eat away at the surface of the exposed metal, giving it a slightly different texture over the images Prae had drawn—that way, once the wax was all cleaned off, the guard would mostly look light in colour, while the exposed parts would be slightly darker. 



On the deep burgundy of adamantine, it turned out to be a good look, and Prae let out a soft sigh of relief at how good it had turned out. Now, to attach the guards. This too, was easy, simply a matter of slotting the guard into place and hammering it flat until it stopped rattling. With that done, he gathered up the daggers, and brought them over to the grinder, where he put a slight curve on the edges of the pommels and guards and cleared out any sharp burrs or dents from his hammer. Once that was done, he moved over to the workbench, and spent a good break just gently sanding and polishing the cross-guards and pommels. He had to be careful not to sand too deeply, or he'd erase the etchings he'd just made, but aside from that, it was a calming, almost meditative activity. Once everything was gleaming, Prae raised one dagger to the light, admiring the way it shone. 



Only one thing left to do. One thing left to determine how good a job Prae had done totrial. 



Returning to the grinder, Praetorum began to sharpen each dagger in turn, pausing frequently to inspect the metal for flaws. If he'd forged the metal improperly, this was where it would show, as the metal flaked or cracked. Whole batches of weapons could be ruined by the slightest change in temperature at the wrong time. 



But not tonight. Tonight, every dagger kept its edge, unbroken, unblemished. It wasn't quite of the quality that Prae's own weapons were, but Prae's weapons had been crafted by a master smith, and Prae... well. He was proud of what he'd done here. He could only hope his client would feel the same.

[Pig Boy]

Player Name: Praetorum

Points awarded: 10 xp
Magic xp: None.

Knowledge:

Smithing: A Father's Memory [1/3]
Smithing: A Father's Memory [2/3]
Smithing: A Father's Memory [3/3]

Strength: A Father's Memory [1/3]
Strength: A Father's Memory [2/3]
Strength: A Father's Memory [3/3]

Renown: 0, although he worked with adamantite his work was good+ at best. Check again when he starts churning out masterworks

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriately to PC's level

Notes: I enjoy crafting threads. They're so relaxing and zen-like to read. It's fun reading about the process each pc takes toward their craft, and I learn a lot in the process.

Forged in Fire Idalos Edition needs to happen.

But seriously, the way you describe Praetorum's process in building the adamantite daggers from a larger piece was very meticulous and detailed. I never had any doubt that he wasn't doing it the right way, the prose was very clean and efficient.

I enjoyed the smithing process with Praetorum, and his use of defiance to clear the air was probably a very good idea, as those fumes can be dangerous.

Great job!

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this review, feel free to PM. Enjoy your rewards!