Rurik stared with wide eyes and saw ten silver coins placed in a clay crucible.
The blacksmith's furnace is one meter high. It looks like a volcano made of clay, with red flames burning at the mouth of the furnace.
Clawson's son Kawei pressed down and pulled out the leather bag blower. Every time he moved, the flames at the furnace mouth became a fierce dance.
"What is this doing? Increasing the temperature?" Rurik asked deliberately.
"Yes, the future leader."
"Just call me Rurik. I'm very interested in your work."
"Really?" Clavarson muttered in his heart, because so far no leader has paid attention to smelting.
Liuli affirmed: "I will continue to watch you work. I want to see how you turn the ore into iron blocks, and then turn the iron blocks into my sword."
"What? You...you still know this?!" Klavasen paused his movements and stopped to look at Rurik's delicate little face. "Do you know what we do?"
"Huh? Isn't it strange? Because there are some wastes in the ore, you light a carbon fire to take away the wastes, and continue to beat the remaining things to get iron. But if you are grilling the copper ore and adding some other things, it will
You can get hot water. This water is unusual. It can be poured into special clay molds to make many things, such as the basin in the longhouse of the priest."
"You...you actually..."
Klavasen's beard was trembling, because Rurik should not understand the work of a craftsman, but what he just said was the basic principle of metal smelting. In fact, as long as he masters this principle, any blacksmith can turn the ore into a piece
iron.
People who really understand the whole process will not think it is complicated, but will complain about the difficulty of the forging process.
Those who don't understand the situation will think that the blacksmith used some kind of magic to turn the stone into an ax that can cut wood. Most of them at least understand that the ax will be deformed if it is heated red, and the ax will deform when knocked. Their understanding is basically
It stops here.
Taking iron or copper out of ore is very technical.
"What's wrong with me? I said that I am very interested in your work." Rurik emphasized.
"Oh, that's great. My little master, I hope our work will satisfy you."
"Go on, I have nothing else to do before the ice and snow melt." Maybe he briefly described the principle of smelting, which made the blacksmith think it was too magical. Rurik casually made an excuse: "No need to be surprised, I got Odin
Wise man, I also received some revelations from those boards in the chief priest’s house. Now, please turn your silver into jewelry.”
"Okay." Klavason nodded deeply, and urged his son Kawei to continue to work hard to keep the fire strong.
Rurik, at this moment, was holding Rumia, who didn't understand at all, and the two of them witnessed the changes in the silver coins.
If you just burn a pile of charcoal fire, its core temperature will hardly reach 800 degrees.
But if you make a stove with clay and make an opening under the stove to let the charcoal burn inside, the temperature can reach 900 degrees, which can melt pure silver.
If the air outlet of the original leather bag blower is connected again and more oxygen enters the furnace, the temperature can exceed 1100 degrees, which can melt pure copper.
Therefore, Klavasen's small furnace is fully capable of smelting pure copper and can also smelt bronze and cast bronze castings.
Rurik knew without thinking that melting bronze was the limit of this small furnace.
Want to melt iron? Impossible!
In the far east, the state-owned iron smelting factory of the Han Dynasty used clay to bake bricks and rammed earth to build a very huge blast furnace. A blast furnace was equipped with multiple blowers, and each blower was actually more than twenty small blowers.
Series connection. Furthermore, the blowers of the Han Dynasty were of the animal-powered winch-pull type. It was a very complete mechanical system, much more advanced than the traditional Western human-powered air bag compression type.
Strong cattle are driven to turn the huge winch, and the wooden gears are converted into the power of the blower. In fact, this system is replaced with electric drive, the wooden gears and blades are replaced with metal, and it is a standard electric blower.
Therefore, a matrix of multiple blowers blows a huge amount of gas into the blast furnace, resulting in a large amount of oxygen and more charcoal to complete the combustion.
Although its temperature can reach the extreme high temperature of 1400 degrees for a short period of time, it still cannot reach the 1500 degrees where pure iron melts.
However, complex alloys containing large amounts of sulfur, silicon, manganese, carbon and other impurities have been turned into molten metal under the extreme high temperatures of this ancient giant blast furnace.
The huge demand for metals in the far East forced state-owned iron smelting plants to manufacture huge equipment.
It is a giant blast furnace that can smelt more than forty tons of ore at a time, and every smelting operation is a protracted battle. They generally do not pursue the crazy 1400 degrees, and do not risk the life of the blast furnace or even the collapse of the furnace.
When the liquid silicide slag flows out and the ore turns into a large amount of sponge iron, all the hot sponge iron is taken out, hammered by thousands of craftsmen, and then directly quenched into crude pig iron.
As for refining pig iron and even making iron into steel, it is another complete set of processes.
This is the advantage of the East. The huge population has a huge metal consumption market. In the prosperous times, there were nearly tens of millions of homesteader families. They were the foundation for maintaining the operation of the country, and their demand for iron farm tools must be met.
The market forces craftsmen to improve their skills from generation to generation.
The Shang Dynasty invented the rammed earth blast furnace, the Chu State realized the high temperature limit of the rammed earth blast furnace, the Han Dynasty built a giant rammed earth blast furnace, and then the Jin Dynasty invented a variety of mass production technologies for steel.
By the ninth century AD, the iron smelting capabilities of the East were no longer an order of magnitude higher than those of medieval Europe, and the quality far exceeded that of Europe.
If there is anything lacking in the East, it is that it has not yet fully learned the fine steel forging that was born in the Indus River Basin. However, this technical disadvantage will inevitably spread to the East along with the commercial network.
But in Western Europe, their blacksmiths only know how to toss the ore, and finally beat it into pure iron, which is the so-called soft wrought iron with almost no carbon, and use it to make a variety of weapons and agricultural tools.
The situation in Northern Europe is exactly the same. The fine steel from the Indus River Basin flows into this area through special channels, and the weapons made from it are magical weapons.
The same is true for Klavasen. His blacksmithing and calcining skills were all learned from his father's generation, who also learned from their ancestors. If we follow up further, the Ross tribe's blacksmithing technology came from the Roman Empire at least 800 years ago.
The stove emits blue flames, which means that the charcoal fire has begun to burn completely due to the entry of excess air.
Such a flame color already shows that the temperature limit of this furnace has been reached.
"Look out, silver will soon turn into water!" Clavarson said this deliberately in order to attract the attention of the leader and future leaders.
The hard clay crucible was clamped into the furnace with iron pliers. Due to the change in temperature, the flame instantly turned yellow.
But after a short time, the green flame completely enveloped the entire crucible.
The shape of the silver coin can be completely noticed with the naked eye. The portrait of the Roman emperor on it was flattened. Then the silver coin lost its round appearance, like a small tower collapsing. After a while, only a hot metallic liquid was left in the crucible.
.
"Haha, this is the knowledge that Thor gave us blacksmiths." Klavasen shook his beard and said proudly, "Chief, you have received the blessing of Odin, and we have received the blessing of Thor. Now the silver coins have melted,
Then just put it in the mold and cast it.”
"It is indeed Thor's blessing." Otto's eyes widened, because as a leader, he had no idea why metal could be burned into water.
Here, we don't have the abstract concept of "liquid". All flowing things, except milk and oil, are simply called water. Of course it is not water! Some silver actually has the fluidity of water. Isn't this a shilling?
Magic?
Of course, the most shocking thing was Rumia. Rurik, who was standing next to her, felt the tremor of her arms and heard her muttering - magica.
Magica, an ancient Latin word, has been integrated into the life of the Norse-speaking people and has also infected other peoples.
"It's not magic at all, Rumia, don't be surprised." Rurik suddenly said loudly, "Dad, this is not Thor's blessing either."
"Huh? Isn't it the blessing of the child or what?" Klavasen was in a happy mood. Hearing the words of the future leader, he felt unhappy but could not refute.
Rurik knew that it was impossible to explain the matter in such a profound way. If he explained it in depth, he would have a large number of later generations of metal smelting terminology that Klavasen did not understand at all.
He suddenly thought of a good example, raised his head and said: "For example, iron, there are impurities in the ore and necessary iron. We want iron and not impurities. The priests cut off the white meat of the seal and slowly separated it in the pot.
Useful oil, not useless dregs. Will the oil be similar to iron?
If the oil is placed outside the house, it will solidify quickly. At least once it is roasted by fire, it will turn into hot oil.
It also includes water, which is ice when left outside. Ice can kill a deer, but water can only soak its fur.
So everything in the world should be like this, as long as the temperature is high enough, everything will melt.
For example, these silver coins are not the blessing of Tol, but a rule set by Odin who created the world. Tol is Odin's son, and he can only follow the rules set by his father and will not create a new rule."
Rurik's statement is of course nonsense, and it does have scientific basis. In order to consider the audience's understanding, he had to use mythology.
And this is indeed his advantage.
Rurik understood the messages on those wooden boards, which gave him a deeper understanding than ordinary people of the Norse mythology system mastered by the Ross tribe in this time and space. In a sense, as long as he fully understands the mythology system, such a person can play a role in the tribal society.
In the group, you are born with good material to become a priest.
As Klavathon got older, he naturally became stubborn. He could not change his beliefs and abandon Thor to follow Thor's father Odin just because of the words of the future leader Rurik.
But what Rurik said does make sense.
This child is extraordinary! If he is not blessed by Odin, but by Thor. I am afraid that such a child will become the best blacksmith, because at the age of seven, his understanding of metal smelting is far better than his own.
Son Kawei!
Klavasen was so excited that his hairy hands could not help but tremble, and he was no longer able to take out the hot crucible.
He ordered his son, "Kawei, you! Go get the mold, pour the silver water into it, and finally put a gem on it. Go quickly!"
Kawei immediately rushed to the side. Taking advantage of this gap, Klavasen walked straight to Rurik and said tremblingly: "My child, maybe you can become the best blacksmith."
"What? Blacksmith?!" Otto was unhappy when he heard this, "He is going to be the next leader."
"Yes! My leader, but Rurik is really a happy man. It is very likely that he has received revelations about smelting from God." After saying that, Klavasen lowered his head with a humble look, "Child,
Please tell me truthfully, do you...do you...know better smelting technology? I believe you should understand."
"Me?" Rurik was a little panicked. Wasn't he being questioned by a bearded old guy this time?
Hiding my abilities? Bah! I already hide too much.
Rurik's eyes widened and he declared seriously: "Yes, blacksmith Klavason, I have observed your furnace, and I can say that your furnace is very bad. It is like a rusted axe, a hole.
A boat full of problems. Such a furnace can only smelt the most ordinary things, and cannot make a good sword at all. If it has anything to be proud of, it is that it can smelt gold and silver and make some jewelry."
Klavasen took a breath. He no longer felt that Rurik's criticism was unacceptable. It was obvious that this child knew how to change some very difficult problems.
He asked humbly: "The leader is your father. You know the Destroyer Divine Sword. Everyone knows that you once held that sword tightly. In my dreams, I hope to make a sword that can rival it.
But I don’t have this ability at all. I am just a mortal, as humble as a grain of sand on the seashore, and I have not received Thor’s personal blessing at all. If you..."
"I can! I'm not a blacksmith, but I know some methods that I haven't tried. I believe these methods can be successful." Rurik said bluntly.
"real?!"
Just when Klavasen was filled with joy, Kawei found the corresponding clay mold for making jewelry that had not been used for a long time, as well as a thumb-sized ruby that had been carefully preserved.
"Dad, Rurik must be wise. If you have anything to say, tell him later. Now, let's finish the jewelry first."
"Oh! Okay!" Clavarson was shocked and happily wanted to settle the jewelry issue.
Because once this is solved, the next step is for Rurik to teach him the skills he knows.