The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 402: For the sake of the inkstone, do I have to learn blacksmithing?

"rise--"

With a gentle shout, the greenness surges.

From the bow to the stern, dozens of giant bamboos rose from the ground, each one about 20 to 30 meters high, as thick as a bowl, and spaced two meters apart, in a neat and uniform pattern.

The bamboo trunk was smooth and straight, with almost no branches sticking out. It grew to near the top of the tent, then suddenly paused and stopped.

After a while, a green vine hung down from the ceiling, holding onto a bamboo pole, which creaked and tightened inwards.

The bamboo poles bent obediently toward the center, two by two, forming an arch. At the bow and stern, four particularly sturdy bamboos bent over, following the arch formed by the left and right bamboo poles, and grew all the way toward the center.

At this point, the bamboo is finally allowed to grow branches and leaves.

The arched top, with its intertwined branches and intertwined leaves, binds the curved bamboo poles firmly together, preventing them from springing apart as their nature would allow;

Four vertical bamboos are built into a horizontal beam and then tied together with the horizontal bamboos.

Teacher Lu opened his eyes slightly, feeling that there might be something wrong with his vision:

Are the bamboo branches and leaves growing from the top of those bamboo poles fused together, with one end rooted in this bamboo and the other end rooted in that bamboo?

The bamboo branches intersected to give shape to the ceiling, and the vines finally relaxed and no longer tied tightly to the bamboo poles.

They wrapped around the bamboo poles a few times to gain leverage, and then hung down in a myriad of ways, close to the hull. Then, they grabbed a plank on the forecastle and pulled it outward with all their might.

The bamboos creaked and trembled, and Shen Le stared at the bamboo roof, his hands on the bamboo poles, ready to transfer spiritual energy at any time.

However, these bamboos that were forced to grow held on very strongly!

There was no breakage, no collapse, no tilting, and it was not even out of control. A few more bamboo shoots grew under the boat and in the mud!

It steadily took on the task of the gantry crane, using the vines to gain leverage and removing a piece of wood!
"it is good!"

Shen Le was delighted:

"It's been taken down! - Come, put it on the shelf next to it and number it! Zheng Mo, take a sample from it. It doesn't have to be too big, 5*5 cm will do. I'll use it for the experiment!"

The vines rolled according to his wishes, carrying the dismantled wooden boards out of the bamboo shed and onto the shelf against the wall.

Xiao Modou immediately directed his subordinates to use the saws, rushed over and worked hard with a squeaking sound.

With such tacit cooperation, they dismantled the forecastle, and then the little guys rushed forward to deal with the stern.

Shen Le took his hand away from the vines, went back to writing labels, affixing them, typing away on his computer, and trying to arrange follow-up work:

What are these samples tested for?
Type of wood?

Era?

Water content?
Shrinkage rate?
Salt content?
Degree of corrosion?

By the way, I haven’t finished filling out the form given by my PhD senior brother regarding the preservation assessment. I still need to fill it out…

He lowered his head and worked hard. The little guys were very diligent and efficient. When it came to breaking up the ship, their skills far surpassed his;

However, for now, he has to do all the work such as overall planning and arranging experimental plans by himself, and no one else can help.

Well, fortunately I don’t have to do the experiment myself, I can just assign the task.

In the laboratory next door, the junior students who came here for internship (×) and to use the equipment (√) have been replaced by another batch. As long as the remuneration is negotiated, they have enough motivation to help produce results...

Of course, Shen Le himself also had to do some experiments, one to make friends with his fellow students, and the other to keep himself familiar with the techniques.

Third, some simpler jobs do not necessarily require exploiting other people's labor. For example, to identify the type of wood:
"Pine, pine, this one looks like pine, this one should be camphor, camphor, fir, huh?"

Shen Le has some experience in identifying wood, especially common wood.

Pine, camphor, fir, even nanmu and common red wood, you can almost recognize them all by looking at the color and texture of the wood and measuring the density.

If all else fails, make a slice and look at the cells under a microscope, and you can probably identify them almost exactly.

There is no other way. Those who restore ancient buildings must always try their best to understand what materials these beams, columns, rafters and girders are made of, and try to use the same materials to replace them.

It would be too inefficient to send each item to the laboratory for testing. My boss won’t allow it!
Therefore, Shen Le could recognize most of the wood on this colorful boat at a glance. The forecastle and poop were made of fir, and the deck was made of pine, most likely Masson pine from Fujian.
The mast and rudder are made of camphor wood, which is not surprising. Camphor wood is hard, not easy to rot, and can bear weight.

But why did he feel unfamiliar with some pieces of wood?

Not only did he not recognize it, but he couldn't even cut it. Little Modou directed the saw to cut it once, and then came back complaining:
[Shen Le, this wood is too heavy. My saw is about to curl the edges. Can you get me a piece of iron to beat it? To reinforce it?]

Uh……

Do I still need to learn blacksmithing?
Or just ask the alloy master to help reinforce the saws?

Shen Le was at a loss for a moment. He could only touch the inkstone:
"Okay, okay, I'll think of a way later. What about now? Should I replace the saw blade or buy a brand new electric saw? You can try it and see if you can control the electric saw?" [Electric saw.] Xiao Modou was silent for a long time, and turned around on the spot:
[I couldn't do it before, I couldn't control them. But I'm much stronger now! I want to give it a try! Maybe, maybe I can do it! ]

Just your words are enough!

Shen Le opened Taobao and quickly placed an order for a set of the best woodworking tools.

Made in Germany, an electric drill costs several thousand yuan, and a complete set of tools costs more than six figures. It is said that a carpenter can use them from the time he enters the industry until retirement, and then a set can be passed down to three generations, and the tools will still be there even after the person dies.

Then, if you want to make specimens of hard-sawn wood and put them under a microscope, there are other ways:

Boil it in water first to remove the air from the wood.

Mix glycerol and 70% ethanol in a 1:1 ratio and soak the cut wood samples in it.

Then, put it in the oven and soften it at 60-70°C. After softening for a while, take it out and try to cut it with a blade.
If it doesn't feel soft enough, continue to soften it, then take it out and cut it...

After much back and forth, Shen Le sweated profusely before he finally cut all the unrecognizable wood into thin slices in three dimensions: horizontal, radial and tangential.

Stain with 5% alcohol, dehydrate, make transparent with xylene, place on a slide, seal with neutral gum, and make permanent sections…

Then, observe under a microscope, take photos, mark them, and package them into a file.

"Brother! I'm counting on you!"

Professional matters should be left to professionals. After the file package was sent, the feedback came in a few days:

"Most of them are hardwood from Southeast Asia. Where did your ship come from? What has it been through?"

"I don't know either... By the way, what kind of wood are these?"

"It's not clear in one sentence, let me send you the form!"

The entire appraisal result was indeed sent to the mailbox very quickly. Shen Le clicked it and frowned:

The wood used in the entire ship was of many different types, some of which he did not recognize.

From the perspective of plant species, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species, at the "family" level alone, there are Dipterocarpaceae, Verbenaceae and Sapotaceae;

Under the Dipterocarpaceae family, there are five genera: Dipterocarp, Salvinia, Borneolum, Hardylocarp, and Softylocarp.
Two genera, Perronia and Lithops, appeared in the Verbenaceae family;

The Sapotaceae family is not so bad, with only one genus, Asteraceae.

What’s even more troublesome is the stone. There are many trees here, and they are purely foreign goods. They don’t grow in China at all!
"So what happened to this ship... Why is most of the wood made in China, but a large part of it is wood from Southeast Asia?"

No one answered him. The colorful boat—no, the dismantled wooden planks and wooden pillars of the colorful boat were sorted and laid quietly on high and low shelves.

The paper figures, wooden puppets, paper lanterns, cardboard cages, drums, and various flags taken down from the colorful boats lay quietly in the safe deposit box, unable to speak or even rustle.

"It seems that I can only repair it slowly, and understand its past while repairing it..."

Shen Le rolled up his sleeves and started to work. Thank God, this colorful boat was well preserved and had not been soaked in the sea or lake for hundreds of years, so the water content was acceptable.

Probably because it was made into a ritual implement and has been stored in a special place, it has been naturally dehydrated, the wood has a natural color, and has very little shrinkage in all directions.

However, it may be that the owner did not cherish it enough and did not protect it according to the standards of a cultural relic.

The surface of the boat was quite dirty, and there were even a lot of shells, snails, water plants, algae and the like attached to the bottom of the boat and in the damaged cabin.

Shen Le had to start from scratch and clean up one by one:
If this is an ordinary wooden boat cultural relic, it would be necessary to use a variety of methods such as sweeping, sucking, blowing, picking, and washing, and use alternating dry and wet methods to clean some parts of it.

Vacuum cleaners, powerful hair dryers, brushes, bamboo sticks and other tools are all used. For special areas, homemade special cleaning tools are also used. Distilled water and compound cleaning agents are also indispensable.

But when Shen Le took action, it didn't need to be so troublesome. He just walked slowly around the parts of the wooden boat and cast spells one by one:

Cleaning technique!
Cleaning technique!
Cleansing technique...

The middle keel is four zhang and five chi long, the front keel is thirty zhang and six chi long, and the rear keel is twenty zhang.

The sandalwood beam is 29 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 foot 5 inches thick.

The main mast is nine zhang long and seven feet in circumference.

The small foremast is six zhang long and four chi in circumference.

While working on these huge pieces of wood, Shen Le couldn't help but sigh:

Fortunately, the bamboo gantry crane is powerful, and fortunately, the vine crane is powerful.

If I were to use modern tools, even if they were remotely controlled, I would still be busy to death - the crane can be operated remotely, but I have to do the bundling and fixing myself!
　Thanks to @慕淹 for the 100 starting coins

　　
　
(End of this chapter)