Chapter 298: Sacrifice the Sword and Embrace Chrome Steel
A special hole at the lower end of the furnace was opened, and soon some hot molten material quickly flowed out.
This is slag, and their current state is actually no different from magma.
The simple smelting work can basically be declared over at this point. After most of the slag has flowed out, what is left in the still hot furnace must be sponge iron that has been riddled with holes.
If ordinary iron ore is thrown into the furnace, what is in the furnace is pure iron in a sponge state with almost no oxygen or carbon. But how can a pure substance exist in the world? Even if it is wrought iron (pure iron),
Not only does it contain carbon, oxygen, and sulfur, it certainly contains some other metals, and you can even find gold atoms.
The overall impact of trace amounts of impurities on the performance of metal materials is weak unless the impurity content reaches a certain proportion.
Hot gas is still gushing out from the furnace mouth, and the fuel in it has not been exhausted. Even if the charcoal blocks have turned into smoke and dust, the furnace can still maintain a high temperature for a long time.
The internal composition of the sponge iron is very special and it burns red. Compared with ordinary sponge iron, if you want to melt them, the furnace may have to be baked to 1800°C.
They are really very special sponge iron. After being baked in a furnace at 1100°C for no less than four hours, they finally became malleable.
After a night's hard work and half a day's struggle, Kawei looked at the drained slag with joy.
His sore and strong arms suddenly held a huge fire tongs.
Some blacksmiths with poor skills will first destroy the furnace in order to take out the smelted sponge iron. Since the small clay furnace itself is regarded as a disposable tool, the destruction will also destroy it.
Clavarson did not dare to mess around like this. He was a professional blacksmith, and his furnace had to be used repeatedly and repaired frequently. When it came to his son Kawei, he would rather use a huge fire tongs to "take chestnuts from the fire."
He stood on a high place, holding the fire tongs with both hands, holding his breath and gritting his teeth to endure the spurting hot gas. The sweat was quickly dried, and he felt that his face was about to be roasted, and his curly hair seemed to be on fire.
Start a fire.
Finally, the fire tongs caught a twisted piece of sponge iron and he pulled it out. The red and whitish iron suddenly fell to the ground, and Kawei yelled: "Kamne! Quick!"
Seeing this, Kamne hurriedly used the small fire tongs, used all his strength to pick up the sponge iron, and brought it to the blacksmith's bench that Kawei brought from his home - a large flat iron weight.
What Rurik saw was truly thrilling, and he couldn't help but sweat for Kawei. At the same time, he was also very worried that his valet Kamne would be seriously burned accidentally. However, everything went according to plan, and no one was injured.
Kawei jumped down, ignoring the mercenaries who continued to watch the show, as well as the stunned boys.
He ran directly to the wooden barrel placed aside and poured the river water that was originally used for quenching operations directly on his head to cool down his head that was about to catch fire.
His strange behavior could not help but shock Rurik.
"What's wrong with you? Are you injured?!" Rurik asked nervously.
"It's okay." Kawei's energy had not fully recovered, and he felt that his face was still hot. He roughly pushed Rurik away, then strode forward and roared: "Ah! It's time to be forged! This is
Men’s business!”
Rurik looked a little confused, and then Kawei started to give orders to him. In the final analysis, Kawei did not expect some little boys to take control of the situation when forging sponge iron.
Kawei knew Rurik's strong concern for smelting. He put his rough and hot hands on Rurik's shoulders, and his eyes lit up with fire: "Rurik, I hope for your support now."
"You...just say it. I will support you."
"I want your mercenaries, I want them to help me smelt iron."
"That's...okay!"
Considering that Kawei threw in a lot of ore early in the morning, and looking at the slag flowing out, there is not a lot of slag. There must be a lot of sponge iron in this towering furnace, but the sponge iron obtained with great effort will not be able to seize the opportunity.
The embryos that are immediately forged into tools or weapons are actually a stupid and extravagant waste.
Then, Rurik noticed that he had issued an order to "support the forging", and the mercenaries just gave a weak verbal response. They were not tired because of frequent relay control of the blowers, it was just because they were mercenaries.
Warriors, given their own identity, including the blast just now, they also resisted in their hearts. Now they have to be temporary blacksmiths, how can they have such awareness?
Haha, it seems that you are really a group of guys who are eager for material rewards and excitement.
Forging is a physical job, and it cannot be delayed. Rurik understands the work assigned by Kawei to the mercenaries. In fact, the work is extremely simple, which is to use the tongs to clamp the sponge iron to stabilize it. Of course, real forging is still a profession.
Blacksmith Kawe himself.
Rurik shouted in front of everyone: "I am your sponsor! Listen, you must work for me. You are now working as a blacksmith, and you will receive a bonus after the work is completed. Your bonus is no longer some silver coins or grain.
It's an ax! You will make your own ax yourself. All the axes produced today will be bought by me, and they will all be your rewards! I believe that this will be the best ax you have ever seen.
It is also the best weapon you can master now."
When Rurik said this, the attitudes of the emotionally resistant mercenaries changed. What about Kawei? He also had a strong motivation to continue fighting, because his most reliable partner Rurik was here, and this kid claimed that he would
If you spend money to buy it, you will really buy it at the market price.
For warriors, there is indeed nothing more exciting than getting a magical weapon or strong armor.
Rurik's mercenaries all hope to save enough money to buy a steel sword, or to perform meritorious service in future battles and receive rewards from their sponsors.
In fact, the mercenaries are really innocent. They can completely curry favor with Kawei and buy steel swords at a theoretically relatively low price from this master who forges steel swords in a real sense.
However, it is okay if you can obtain an ax that has always been unparalleled. I think that in battle and life, axes are more commonly used than swords.
A strong man struggled to hold a lump of sponge iron, and Kawei used his own special hammer to forge it, carburize and quench it.
Just at the first impact, he would feel the strong force of the sponge iron.
"Ouch! It's really hard?! What's going on?"
His exclamation was a little loud, and Rurik hurriedly approached him: "What's going on?"
"Rurik, it must be because of the strange stuff in the ore, it's really hard."
"Hard? That's a good thing! Do you have anything else to explain?" Rurik asked.
"Then let others keep the furnace hot. Also, light up the small stove. I need to keep the iron high when forging."
The open-air smelting plant by the river soon became busy, and many people began to perform their duties. However, Kawei was the only one who actually made iron, and the others were assisting.
Indeed, Rurik cannot expect his mercenaries to suddenly become blacksmiths. Their skills are not as good as those of blacksmith apprentices who are only nine or ten years old. Even blacksmith apprentices are just beginners, and their weak bodies make them only
Able to do odd jobs.
Even though forging has become more strenuous than ever before, Kawei sweats and sweats. He feels that he can obtain a brand new metal material, and things are moving in the direction he desires.
A lump of sponge body was smashed into two pieces. After all, making a small hand ax mainly used for fighting and cutting the leg bones of prey does not require as much iron as a large forest ax.
Although the forging was very strenuous, Kawei was sweating profusely, fully demonstrating the strength and bravery of a man.
Every time it was forged, sparks were thrown out, and the sponge iron also "collapsed" rapidly, finally turning into a dark red iron block.
Kawei threw the iron embryo into a small makeshift stove next to the big stove and stuffed it into hot coals to warm it up.
The iron material became suitable for forging again, and he began to refine it.
The iron block is beaten thinner and thinner, and the edge begins to be sharply curved, and then the edge reserved for polishing is punched out.
It finally has the appearance of a small Nordic forest ax, such as a very curved ax blade and a narrow ax back.
The narrow Nordic-style ax back was continuously curled by Kawei's beating, and finally curled into holes. Based on this, he further forged and created a plug-in structure to accommodate the ax handle.
His forging work suddenly came to a halt, and Rurik, who was anxiously waiting for the results, suddenly shouted: "Kawei, how are you doing now?!"
Soon, Kawei responded to Rurik with a smile. He didn't say much, picked up a poker, clamped the still red axe, which was forged into a beautiful shape, and slowly put it into the wooden barrel filled with cold water.
The ax head cooled rapidly in water, which showed that a thin oxide layer suddenly formed. When it was taken out, it turned black all over, which is not surprising.
However, when Kawei started to use the sandstone whetstone he brought from his hometown to polish the ax embryo to remove the blackness and want to see the silver inner substance, something magical happened!
A large number of mercenaries rushed to Kawei, and Rurik simply got into the crowd and stood in front of the card position.
"What are you yelling about?" Rurik asked disdainfully, "Forging has made you crazy?!"
"Take a look!" Kawei didn't say much. He showed the slightly polished ax embryo in his hand.
Seeing this, Rurik frowned: "This... is actually darker than silver?"
"And the texture of the color is very delicate! It's so delicate." Kawei added.
"Is that all?"
Kawei shrugged and showed off his whetstone: "Compared to sharpening other things, this ax embryo is really terrible."
"It's not good enough?!"
"No!" Kawei categorically denied, "It's so good! It's so good that it will soon destroy my whetstone. I'm sure it's harder than I imagined!"
Hard? Is it really hard?
Rurik decided to conduct an experiment, and the experimental prop was the dagger he wore.
He drew out his bright white dagger and couldn't help but ask: "If they scrape each other, who can leave a mark?"
"It goes without saying that it must be this ax embryo." Kawei said without hesitation.
"Not necessarily! When did you feel that it took a lot of effort to build this sword of mine?"
"This..." Kawei was speechless, and for a moment he had a strange idea. Could it be that a mere ax embryo has become harder than ever before?!
In fact, Rurik is now struggling to withstand a lot of pressure. In full view of everyone, he puts the ax embryo on the blacksmith's bench and scratches its polished section with a steel sword. What is the result? It's not that his hands lack strength.
, this ax embryo seems to have no scratches at all.
"Strange, so hard?!"
Rurik didn't believe it anymore. He threw the sword to Kawei and ordered, "Take it and chop the axe."
Kawei took the sword, but he did not dare to act rashly in front of everyone. "Rurik, what's the matter? This is your sword."
"It doesn't matter, the sword is just a tool." Rurik crossed his arms and stared at the blacksmith's bench with a determined look on his face, "Chop it for me, quickly! Let's see who is stronger!"
"Cut it!" Some of the mercenaries roared, and the others raised their fists and yelled to encourage Kawei who was holding the sword.
Kawei made up his mind. Although he had an ominous premonition, he had to take risks with Rurik's sword.
He held the hilt of the sword with his strongest right hand, rounded it and struck the ax head hard. The strong impact made him let go. When Kawei picked up the fallen sword, he couldn't help but let go again.
Because he has never seen anything like this.
"What's going on?!" Rurik was a little impatient. He picked up his sword, and finally it was his turn to be shocked.
"Oh! It happened! The blade of the sword broke?! It didn't have a curled edge, it just broke!" As he exclaimed, Rurik immediately rushed to the blacksmith's bench and took a closer look. He never thought that the ax head only had small scratches. However,
, the blade of his carbon steel sword has cracked. Rurik knows very well that this sword must have a lot of small cracks that are invisible to the naked eye. It can be said that the entire sword has been scrapped.
For a moment, a sense of loss came to mind. However, in a dazed moment while staring at the ax embryo, and seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar texture of the object, Rurik was finally able to make an accurate judgment.
"It's chromium! This thing is a ferrochromium alloy! If it is placed on a firewood pile and carburized, its strength can be increased!"
Rurik's sense of loss lasted less than ten seconds. He suddenly inserted the scrapped sword on the ground and happily picked up the ax embryo with both hands.
"Rurik, you..." Kawei really didn't know what to do. He tried so hard that he broke Rurik's treasure. He never thought that the child seemed to like the new and dislike the old.
Rurik burst into tears with joy: "We finally made harder iron! It's chromium! It's really chromium! We'll be able to make chromium steel soon! I'm going to make a brand new sword out of chromium steel! Yes!
It, all the steel swords are worth mentioning!"
It seemed that he was really excited. Kawei changed his sullen expression and forced himself to smile.
In fact, Kawei was still not sure what had happened. On the surface, it was true that the ax embryo was actually harder than a steel sword. But just because at this time, he believed that Rurik would not be so excited that he went crazy. This child was not a man who acted on impulse.
This is indeed the case. Rurik already understood that as long as the ax embryo undergoes a little carburizing work, it can be said to be stainless steel.
This ax embryo and even a lot of sponge iron in the stove are indeed ferrochromium alloys, and the key to stainless steel is that it contains a large proportion of chromium.
Now that it is confirmed that it is chromium, everything is clear.
Chromium steel is very hard, even if you want to do it, it will be bad. Of course you can use it to make weapons, but it is not suitable for making swords or making steel crossbows. Now that the identity of the mysterious metal substance has been determined, Rurik overturned the previous
All thoughts.
Rurik was convinced that even in theory it was impossible for him to use the chromium steel here to make a crossbow. If he tried his best to make full use of the hardness of chromium steel, then it would be of great use. Especially for the Russians, logging is very important to everyone.
Skills! Now, it is the most correct decision to use chromium ferroalloy to make axes!
Rurik tried to calm down and returned the ax embryo to Kawei: "You will make me a good sword in the future, but now, you must use all the sponge iron to make me an ax embryo! You will use the entire sponge iron to make it into an ax embryo."
After finishing this in the afternoon, I will send someone to carry out carburizing treatment that will smolder all night."
Kawei hesitated and asked: "I broke your sword, do you forgive me?"
"When did I get angry?" Rurik's sincere eyes spoke louder than a thousand words: "I know you are tired, but I still ask you to continue. Listen, you are making the hardest axe, which is made of chromium
Steel!" Rurik temporarily spelled out the word "cromstella" to describe chromium steel, but some onlookers preferred to call it "the hardest iron in the human world."
Ah! After all, it was Rurik who promised that every mercenary could have an ax made of these materials.
The mercenaries never expected that the financial owner would dare to sacrifice his own sword in order to obtain the hardest thing. They felt that they had made a big profit, and they tried their best to praise it with all their praises, praising it as a magic weapon.
Later, for the subsequent forging of sponge iron, they changed all their sluggishness and became extremely excited.
It can be said that Rurik did sacrifice his sword and obtained chromium steel. This is indeed the case. The Russians already have the ability to obtain stainless steel tools using traditional methods and consuming a lot of manpower and material resources.
In the face of the ultra-high-end performance of excellent metal materials, he felt that a series of efforts were worth it, even if it cost him his sword.