Timestamp - 3rd of Ymiden, Arc 722
There were, it turned out, quite a few more tools used for mining than just the pickaxe Prae had envisioned when he heard the word. Prae had gotten Valbjorn to pick up a miner's toolkit in town, and he now had all the metal parts laid out on his workbench, ready to be copied by Prae's own hands and hammers.
There were five main pieces that Prae would have to replicate, if he was to make more of these kits: A lamp, a pickaxe, a shovel, wedges, and a sledgehammer. Seeing as how it was barely light out, and Prae was still shaking the sleep from his eyes, he elected to work on the smallest and simplest of them first.
A flick of his tail had the forge up and roaring, defiance calling the flames to rouse quickly as Prae measured out the amount of metal he'd need. Purely by weight, Prae estimated one ingot would make one wedge almost exactly, which was very convenient. So he tossed an ingot into the forge, and began to examine the wedge. True to its name, it was little more than a solid triangle of metal with a flat edge on the bottom that would be pressed into a crack, then hammered at to split the crack further. All Prae had to do here was heat and shape the metal, and he'd be done.
Still, the shape of an ingot and the shape of a wedge were quite different. The ingot was long, while the wedge was quite squat. Prae thought about this for a moment, then pulled out a hot cut tool. He'd split the ingot down the middle, he decided, then forge weld the two halves together to make something much closer to the shape he needed.
Pulling the ingot from the flames, Prae eyeballed a mental line halfway down the length of the metal, and lined it up against the sharp edge of the hot cut tool. Holding it steady with his tongs, Prae gave the top of the metal a few sharp taps, just to get a groove lined up, then began hammering more aggressively. The sharp steel edge of the tool dug into the white hot iron, digging a groove into it. Funny, that he would use one wedge to make another, both used for much the same purpose.
Once Prae was almost, but not quite all the way through the ingot, he carefully pulled it away form the tool, and flipped it upside down. The small bridge of metal linking the two halves of the ingot was thin enough now that Prae could just push it against the side of the anvil to fold the ingot in half. Doing so, Prae was satisfied to see that the two halves lined up perfectly, and shifted his grip with his tongs until the metal was lying on the anvil, one half of the ingot on top of the other.
Now, Prae began to hammer much more vigorously, bringing down his arm with all the strength he could muster. Since the metal was currently in two pieces, Prae needed to forge weld them together until they joined. He was going to need several heats to do it properly, but he was hoping to get enough of a join that he could put it back in the forge safely. As he hammered, Prae was careful to hammer starting from the side where the metal was still connected before pushing outwards. The last thing he needed was to accidentally make a gap in the metal that he couldn't close up—that would be a recipe for disaster, weakening the final product. For a wedge, which was mean to be forced into stone and then hammered to split it, that was unacceptable.
Fortunately, Prae was an expert at working iron at this point, so he was able to weld the metal together without issue, and then hammer it into it's proper shape. At the end of it all, Prae had a triangular iron wedge on his worktable, still wet from the quench. It was, upon comparison, a little narrower than the one he'd bought, but that was alright. These things didn't need to be exact, as long as they were functional.
There were, it turned out, quite a few more tools used for mining than just the pickaxe Prae had envisioned when he heard the word. Prae had gotten Valbjorn to pick up a miner's toolkit in town, and he now had all the metal parts laid out on his workbench, ready to be copied by Prae's own hands and hammers.
There were five main pieces that Prae would have to replicate, if he was to make more of these kits: A lamp, a pickaxe, a shovel, wedges, and a sledgehammer. Seeing as how it was barely light out, and Prae was still shaking the sleep from his eyes, he elected to work on the smallest and simplest of them first.
A flick of his tail had the forge up and roaring, defiance calling the flames to rouse quickly as Prae measured out the amount of metal he'd need. Purely by weight, Prae estimated one ingot would make one wedge almost exactly, which was very convenient. So he tossed an ingot into the forge, and began to examine the wedge. True to its name, it was little more than a solid triangle of metal with a flat edge on the bottom that would be pressed into a crack, then hammered at to split the crack further. All Prae had to do here was heat and shape the metal, and he'd be done.
Still, the shape of an ingot and the shape of a wedge were quite different. The ingot was long, while the wedge was quite squat. Prae thought about this for a moment, then pulled out a hot cut tool. He'd split the ingot down the middle, he decided, then forge weld the two halves together to make something much closer to the shape he needed.
Pulling the ingot from the flames, Prae eyeballed a mental line halfway down the length of the metal, and lined it up against the sharp edge of the hot cut tool. Holding it steady with his tongs, Prae gave the top of the metal a few sharp taps, just to get a groove lined up, then began hammering more aggressively. The sharp steel edge of the tool dug into the white hot iron, digging a groove into it. Funny, that he would use one wedge to make another, both used for much the same purpose.
Once Prae was almost, but not quite all the way through the ingot, he carefully pulled it away form the tool, and flipped it upside down. The small bridge of metal linking the two halves of the ingot was thin enough now that Prae could just push it against the side of the anvil to fold the ingot in half. Doing so, Prae was satisfied to see that the two halves lined up perfectly, and shifted his grip with his tongs until the metal was lying on the anvil, one half of the ingot on top of the other.
Now, Prae began to hammer much more vigorously, bringing down his arm with all the strength he could muster. Since the metal was currently in two pieces, Prae needed to forge weld them together until they joined. He was going to need several heats to do it properly, but he was hoping to get enough of a join that he could put it back in the forge safely. As he hammered, Prae was careful to hammer starting from the side where the metal was still connected before pushing outwards. The last thing he needed was to accidentally make a gap in the metal that he couldn't close up—that would be a recipe for disaster, weakening the final product. For a wedge, which was mean to be forced into stone and then hammered to split it, that was unacceptable.
Fortunately, Prae was an expert at working iron at this point, so he was able to weld the metal together without issue, and then hammer it into it's proper shape. At the end of it all, Prae had a triangular iron wedge on his worktable, still wet from the quench. It was, upon comparison, a little narrower than the one he'd bought, but that was alright. These things didn't need to be exact, as long as they were functional.
