We helped him resolve a worry, and Kong Laoxie's attitude was much better than before.
At around 11 o'clock in the evening, he said he couldn't sleep anymore and decided to help us build a Luoyang shovel with an earthen stove all night long. Brother Yu helped with the things and I sat on the ground to help push the bellows.
Kong Laoxie went into battle shirtless, with a cigarette in his mouth and only wearing a greasy leather apron.
"Dang! Dang! Dang!"
The sound of blacksmithing was loud, with the hammer falling and sparks flying.
The fire cannot be small, so I have been pushing and pulling the old bellows hard.
Sweating profusely, Kong Laoxie said while hammering: "Traditional craftsmanship requires 480 hammers, but I am different. The shovel I make requires 1,480 hammers."
I pushed the bellows and asked, "What's the difference?"
"You bastard! You know your stuff!"
He cursed and said a lot, and I summarized it. Kong Laoxie spent his whole life playing Luoyang shovel from his teens to his 60s. His criteria for judging a good shovel are:
"It will not fall when you carry it full of soil, it will be quickly and easily removed when you dig out the soil, it will be easy to lift the shovel without any effort, and it won't bend the blade when it hits a stone."
Even the descendants of Li Yaya, the inventor of the Luoyang shovel, say that he played well because of his ancestral methods.
As we all know, the Luoyang shovel body has a curvature. If the curvature is too large, it will be difficult to dump the soil, and if the curvature is small, it will not be able to carry the soil. The curvature that Kong Laoxie hammered out with his hammer hand depends entirely on visual inspection and experience, which is called
Golden arc.
"Has the aluminum dissolved in water?"
Brother Yu looked at it and said yes, and the can completely melted.
"Has the copper water dissolved yet?"
Brother Yu said it again.
Someone may ask this, I see that the Luoyang shovels sold online are all made of steel, what's going on with you, they are made of both aluminum and copper?
In fact, steel feels very hard, but in some cases it is very brittle. This is the so-called "over-steel is easy to break."
Why do I say that Luoyang shovel forging skills are intangible cultural heritage and it is unfair to Kong Laoxie, because his unique skills are unique.
Let's just say, he's a complete shovel.
They use wooden poles, steel tips, aluminum arcs, and iron edges!
He brought the various characteristics of hard metal and soft metal to the extreme!
The most difficult thing is to make the wooden pole, because the ash wood used must be hollowed out and made into a sleeve like a screw if it is to be made into a split type.
Sparks were flying on the chopping board, and the tinkling sound of iron in the deserted village hut on the mountain continued all night...
It's daybreak, the next morning.
I pushed and pulled the bellows mechanically, leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, almost falling asleep.
"alright."
"alright!"
I immediately opened my eyes and sat up.
I saw a Luoyang shovel lying flat on the table. The blade of the shovel was shining with cold light. The internal curvature of the shovel was in golden proportion. It was connected to a peeled and matte white wood pole.
I walked over and picked it up.
The size fit perfectly in my hand, and it was very light in weight. It was effortless to swing it. I couldn't wait to run out and shovel the soil twice. The soil I brought was stuck in the shovel arc and it didn't move at all.
I was so satisfied and liked it so much that I kissed the wooden pole and said with a smile: "Good buddy, from now on we will depend on each other. As long as I am alive, I will not abandon you. From now on, you will be called Xiang Tuan."
.”
In the past, swords had names, such as Ganjiang Moye, Qixing Longyuan, Yuchang Xuanyuan, etc. Why can't my favorite shovel have a name? It's called Xiang Shovel, because it is my shovel, Xiang Yunfeng.
In this way, Brother Yu and I stayed on the mountain for two and a half days, almost continuously, and made three shovels in total. After finishing the work, Kong Laoxie seemed to be completely exhausted, lying on the chair motionless, if not for looking at his mouth
The cigarette I bit was still smoking, so I thought he was gone.
"Why..."
"I can't stand it anymore, you bastard. I'm exhausted. Let's go. I need to have a good rest for two days."
I put down my bag, cupped my fists and said, "Master Kong, please rest. My name is Xiang Yunfeng. Thank you very much."
The old man was still lying on the chair, smoking a cigarette, motionless, and just waved his hand.
After Brother Yu and I came out, we went to see the dog thief. He was still tied to the tree, with his head hanging down.
"Brother Yu, are you dead?"
"He's not dead. Look at the many bumps on his head. They were all bitten by mosquitoes on the mountain at night. Mosquitoes don't suck human blood." Brother Yu said.