The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 572 Helmet You have to dress up before you are willing to find a companion, right? !
When a new soldier goes to the battlefield for the first time, he just needs to make sure he doesn’t die - if he can successfully kill the enemy, he will surpass the original owner’s record.

But what if he is promoted to squad leader?
What about being promoted to captain?
Leading an army alone?

Shen Le has started to have a headache. Now, the only thing that can comfort him is that he doesn't have to clear this illusion all at once, he can start over again -

Start from the beginning, over and over again. Even if there is no expert to help with the guide, you should be able to pass the level, right?
Unless you are a top-level clumsy player, not to mention relying on Feng Ling Yue Ying to hit the big head, even the guard in front of you has to rely on Feng Ling Yue Ying to "ding" past him.

Shen Le felt that he was not at that point yet. His physical fitness, which had been repeatedly strengthened by the copper plates, should still be able to surpass those warriors, right?
Forget it, let’s talk about the future later. Shen Le held the helmet, looked left and right, and tried hard to input heat flow.

In the illusion, the original owner of the helmet was wearing a suit of armor, as well as a bow and arrow, a sword, and a warhorse. I can't count on the warhorse, but the other parts of the armor...

At least give some direction?

He sat with his eyes closed, the golden ball in his dantian spinning rapidly, trying to inject heat into the helmet. The helmet accepted everything, absorbing as much as it was given, but other than that, there was no reaction.

Shen Le waited patiently for a long time, but to no avail. He could only hold the helmet and run the heat flow to connect the copper sheets.

Let the copper sheet vibrate gently and connect with the helmet, then unfold the map and look for something that can resonate with the helmet... one hundred miles, two hundred miles, three hundred miles, five hundred miles, eh, why is it not there?

On the map unfolded by the copper plate, the boss saw a blank space and could not see the object corresponding to the helmet at all.

Not only is there no light spot, there isn't even a very far, very vague direction!
This is wrong!

Shen Le came out of his state of concentration, opened his eyes, frowned, and walked around a few times.

A long, long time ago, when he was repairing the dressing box, oh, when he was repairing the blue makeup, he was in a trance in Zhuxi Town, and he could feel that the other parts of the dressing box were far away in the north;

Later, when he was repairing the shrine, he looked for the Buddha's head and even felt that the Buddha's head should be in the direction of Europe;

Times have changed. It has been a year or two, and his skills have greatly improved. There is no reason why he cannot find the other parts of the armor!
Did the armor go abroad? Or was it destroyed?

Or maybe... this helmet has no intention of gathering its brothers?
Shen Le pondered for a while, calmed down, and tried to feel the spirituality of the helmet.

The helmet in his hand was quiet and cold. Even though it absorbed a large amount of heat from him, the helmet still looked dead and strange, and did not intend to give any feedback at all.

This was completely different from before when they untied the ropes and scattered on the ground on their own after a disagreement.

Shen Le felt as if the memory he had transmitted to him before and had him repeatedly practice in the memory had drained all his strength, not even a drop was left...

"So what do you want me to do? Re-do it and get the perfect ending, where none of my comrades die?"

Shen Le put the helmet on his head, put it down, put it on again, and put it down again. After a long time, he still couldn't get any feedback, so he could only sigh:
"Oh, I can't fix it. Forget it, let's start with the basics - there's still a part of this helmet that hasn't been completely repaired and needs further processing..."

His fingers flew, untying the leather strings one by one and taking apart the armor plates. He selected those that were marked and should have silver patterns on them, but now they have all faded, and picked them out one by one:
"So, you have to pay for what you have done. I was lazy before and didn't learn this craft. I left it all to the alloy master. Now, I have to learn it from the beginning..."

However, it is much more convenient to do silver plating now than when he was in his old house in Zhuxi Town.

There was nothing in the old house except a yard. You had to light the stove and buy medicine yourself.

To prevent the inhalation of mercury vapor, one must either use a high-power exhaust fan to extract it all, or rely on one's own body to bear it. As for how to dispose of the mercury vapor harmlessly, this is even more of a big project...

At the Dunhuang Research Institute, Shen Le only needed to say a word, and someone would prepare all the instruments and equipment and put them neatly in front of Shen Le:
"Mercury? Yes, yes, yes!"

"Nitric acid? You want chemically pure? No problem!"

"Crucible... nail-shaped anvil... hammer... anvil... let's go to the storehouse and see if there is anything ready-made... copper hammer... gilded stick... copper wire brush... this will be quick!"

"Do we need a set of ventilation equipment to extract the mercury vapor produced by the heating of the silver amalgam and purify it? This... we don't have it here..."

Shen Le silently took out his phone and opened the payment interface. The administrative staff of the institute who was in contact with him brightened up:
"Oh, how can I be so embarrassed...Okay, okay, no problem, no problem, just get a fume hood and a purification device, it's very simple!
Don't worry, the institute will provide you with land for whatever you need. We will build it for you in three days!"

But he was short of money. Shen Le thought silently. Fortunately, he didn't need the money, and he didn't mind leaving a set of equipment for the institute, so he swiped his card:

"Apart from anything else, the fume hood must be good! Gilding is a very delicate operation. If the operation is a little troublesome, it might fail!"

"No problem, no problem." The chubby administrator nodded quickly, turned around, and started making a call immediately.

Shen Le walked out a few steps and heard him raise his voice and yell:
"Use the best for me, use a big brand, don't fool me with local stuff! The fume hood you installed before, several teachers said it was not easy to use, difficult to operate, and easy to make mistakes, you know!"

Shen Le shrugged and walked away slowly. Fume hoods and glove boxes seem very simple. They are just a cabinet with a piece of glass on top, allowing people to see clearly what is inside through the glass.

Then drill two holes at the bottom and install two gloves so that people can put their hands in and operate with gloves on without being contaminated by any toxins in the fume hood.

In terms of principles and craftsmanship, it seems that anyone can do it. There is no need for professionals, even a carpenter can do it.

In fact, a slight mistake can lead to a huge error. If the height is wrong, the opening position is wrong, and the gloves are of poor quality, how difficult it is to operate a fume hood, only those who use it know...

With Shen Leken's money, a fume hood, along with the silver-plated equipment inside, was quickly prepared.

All the gold-killing furnaces, gold-anointing tables, and yellowing covers, one by one, are placed in the fume hood and can be operated through the glass;

At the top of the fume hood, the air pump pumps the mercury-containing waste gas into the spray tower. The acid-resistant pump pumps the acidic saturated potassium permanganate solution into the spray tower, spraying it in the tower in the form of mist, reacting with the mercury-containing gas...

This set of ready-made equipment comes with a plan and drawings. You can show it to the designer and start installing it right away.

Shen Le only needed to wait for the equipment to be assembled, and while waiting, he began to tinker with the preparatory work for silver plating.

He customized 100 pieces of armor plates, made uneven patterns on them, and waited for silver plating. Then, he began to pre-process the purchased armor plates:
First, use a fine steel file to polish off the remaining small bumps or convex parts on the surface of the nail piece to be silvered;
Then use coarse sandpaper and fine sandpaper to polish repeatedly until there are no traces of sandpaper left on the gilded surface.

According to the ancient method of silver plating, it was necessary to use copper charcoal dipped in water to do the final round of polishing until the silver surface was smooth and bright, showing a mirror effect. But now, it is not so troublesome:

Coarse sandpaper, fine sandpaper, extra-fine sandpaper, extra-fine extra-fine sandpaper - 2000 grit, 3000 grit, 5000 grit, 10000 grit, as long as you dare to buy it, you can definitely buy it.

There is no need to use a hand grinder, and it is very convenient to find various grinding heads of different sizes...

Shen Le patiently shaped it, polishing it round after round until all 100 pieces of armor were as smooth as a mirror.

Then rinse with clean water - Wahaha pure water three times, and make sure that all the water stains are on the gilded surface, indicating that there is no oil stain on it:

If there are oil stains, it will affect the subsequent gilding and silvering, and it must be polished again until the oil is polished away...

It's a delicate job, not too heavy, but annoying.

Shen Le immersed himself in work, not even looking up for hours, let alone taking out his phone to check Weibo, chat, play games, and collect food;

Instead, the senior professors in the institute pointed fingers at him and used him to educate their students:

"Look at him, he's so focused, no wonder he's successful. If you could be half as focused as he is, you would have written the paper long ago, and you wouldn't have to use my old face to help you find a journal!"

"...Boss, let's not talk about the thesis. Does concentration have anything to do with success? He succeeded because he has superpowers!"

"Nonsense! If you don't have the energy, you can't use your superpowers even if you are given one! Why don't you try to enter a state of meditation? If you stick a steel wool ball on your butt, you will jump up and scratch your ears and cheeks in less than a minute after sitting down!"

The students ran away in panic. Shen Le didn't even hear them. He patiently polished the iron sheets one by one and prepared them all.

Then, wait until the fume hood and purification device are all ready, move the silver-plating equipment and materials into the fume hood, get ready, and start working!
Silver plating is easier than gold plating, mainly because silver is cheaper.

To make gilding, Shen Le would either have to go to Jinling and buy a batch of gold foil, or he would have to take out gold bars and beat them into gold foil himself. If it wasn't kept in the research institute, he would have to worry about it being stolen.
As for silver plating, even if it is a thin silver foil for scientific research with high purity material, 0.01 mm thickness, it doesn’t cost much. You can just close your eyes and place an order...

The first step in making silver plating is to "kill the silver", that is, to melt the silver amalgam (silver amalgam). Shen Le cut the silver foil into silver wires with scissors, put them on a high-precision electronic scale, and weigh them carefully:

"Put a little more... put a little more... When 'killing gold', the ratio of gold to mercury is 1:7, but when 'killing silver', the ratio of silver to mercury is 1:15..."

In other words, "killing silver" requires twice as much mercury as "killing gold". Shen Le weighed the silver wire and the mercury, placed them on each side, brought the crucible, and began to burn:
In the early days, white charcoal (cedar charcoal) was used for heating. Now it is not necessary. There are special electric crucibles and spray guns. You can choose from them.
The advantage is that whether it is an electric crucible or an acetylene spray gun, it will not burn out carbon ash to pollute the silver-plated surface, and it is also convenient to control heat and heat quickly.

The downside, well, is probably “not being able to stick to the old ways”?

Shen Le naturally chose the electric crucible: he didn't need to use a spray gun, which saved him a hand. He poured the weighed silver wire into the crucible, turned on the heating switch, and stared at it without blinking:
The silver thread became brighter... turned redder... and began to soften! It had a tendency to liquefy, and the surface was also slightly oxidized and began to turn black... He quickly took the mercury next to him and poured it in. The mercury poured over the surface of the silver thread, and the silver thread soon floated on top of the mercury.

Shen Le was prepared for this phenomenon: the materials he had read had already reminded him that because the specific gravity of mercury is greater than that of silver, silver will not sink into mercury like gold, nor will it melt in mercury.

At this time, pour in nitric acid and stir with a red-hot charcoal stick...

Shen Le calmly picked up the weighed nitric acid. According to the empirical formula of the predecessors, one ounce of silver and half an ounce of nitric acid, he poured it into the crucible:

A cloud of yellow smoke rose up instantly, obscuring the view. By the time the exhaust fan worked hard to suck away all the yellow smoke, the silver thread had already sunk and disappeared.

Shen Le stared at the crucible in front of him. The silver threads in the crucible were gone, but it also did not form a silvery-white, thickened, mud-like substance as described in the book.
On the contrary, the mercury is still mercury, and the silver thread still seems to be a little silvery. Wait, it needs to be stirred!
Use the red-hot end of the charcoal stick to stir!
Where are the charcoal sticks?!
Shen Le exclaimed, "Ouch!" The ancient method of gilding is to heat the crucible with white charcoal. When stirring is needed, a tongs is used to pick up a piece of charcoal from the furnace and use it directly for stirring.

For convenience, he changed the charcoal crucible into an electric crucible. The charcoal was gone, and of course the red-hot charcoal sticks were gone too...

So I should have a stove nearby and heat a charcoal stick separately?

Before Shen Le could finish his thought, steam rose rapidly in the fume hood. He turned around and hurriedly turned off the heating device, and saw an unusually tangled shape inside the crucible:
A part of the thick non-Newtonian fluid was clumped together, with a few thin, black silver threads inserted in the middle. As for the mercury, sorry, the liquid level in the crucible has dropped by half...
"After the gold wire is melted in the mercury, the crucible must be taken out of the furnace immediately without wasting any time." Shen Le suddenly remembered the description of the "gold killing" process in the materials he had read:

"Because mercury evaporates very quickly at high temperatures, if you don't remove the crucible in time, the mercury will continue to evaporate, and you won't be able to 'kill the gold' in one fell swoop, and all your previous efforts will be wasted!"

Alas, the process of making gold amalgam, no, silver amalgam, is really difficult. It is indeed as stated in the materials, requiring steady but fast progress, busy but not chaotic.

If you are a little slow, or fail to grasp the timing, problems will arise immediately...

Shen Le sighed, cleared out the materials in the crucible and started from scratch.

This time, he did not dare to use the electric crucible for fear that after the power was cut off, the heating wire would continue to supply heat and cause a large amount of mercury vapor to evaporate.

He found two pieces of charcoal, heated them in an electric crucible, and replaced it with a brand new crucible. He put the silver wire in with one hand and held the acetylene torch with the other hand, spraying fire into it continuously:

Burn the silver thread red!
Pour in the mercury!

Pour in the nitric acid!

Use long tongs to pick up the red-hot charcoal stick and stir it quickly!
Well, as the charcoal sticks stirred, the feel under my hands became denser and more viscous, and it really felt like it was developing into silver amalgam, or what craftsmen call "silver mud."

Shen Le estimated that it was almost done, so he changed the tongs, picked up the crucible, and poured the silver mud into the porcelain basin filled with cold water:
A wave of hot steam rose up violently. Shen Le waited patiently for the silver mud to cool down, reached into the basin, and kneaded the silver mud flattened at the bottom of the water into a pile.

While pinching and feeling the silver mud, he pricked up his ears and listened:
Well, you can hear a slight "squeaking" sound, and the touch is also wonderful, heavier and harder than plasticine, but still has a delicate feeling and can be easily deformed.

He fished out the piled silver mud from the basin and placed it on a clean porcelain plate for later use. Then, he officially prepared to gild the silver:

Polished nail plate...

Silver mud...

Nitric acid...

Gilded stick, brown bolt, cotton wool...

After everything is prepared, spread clean Korean paper on the workbench and place the nail pieces on the table.

Dip some nitric acid on the bald spatula of the gilding stick, then use the gilding stick to pick up a piece of silver mud, and then dip some nitric acid and apply it on the nail piece to be gilded:

Apply one piece after another, leaving no gaps between the pieces...

and many more!

This piece has been scraped off too much! It has been applied too thickly!

This piece was missing again! When I wiped it over, there was a piece missing in the middle!
There is a lump of silver mud here!
This piece... is broken. The silver threads did not dissolve in the mercury. It is still a lump of silver threads, hard!

Shen Le wanted to cry but had no tears. Before he even got to the next step, he had a premonition that this silver-plating would definitely fail. He didn't know what kind of monster would be created...

Forget it, I have prepared a hundred nail plates anyway, so if it’s not enough, I can continue to make more. Just keep working hard and practice hard!

Fortunately, uneven application can be remedied. After applying the silver mud, use a brown plug dipped in nitric acid and brush it on the nails that have been coated with silver mud to even out the uneven thickness of the silver mud and brush off the silver mud lumps.

Then rinse with boiling water to clean the nitric acid on the silver mud layer, and then bake it over fire...

The silver-plated nail pieces were flipped back and forth above the electric furnace, and were gently pressed with a bristle brush while turning.

Shen Le held his breath and watched the silver layer being baked to a certain degree, slowly starting to shine like a pool of mercury:
Well, the mercury has been baked and can be wiped off. Use absorbent cotton to wipe the mercury layer, wipe all the corners, wipe off any remaining lumps, and then continue to bake, continue to bake...

"The result of baking gold is that the gold layer changes from white to dark yellow. What does baking silver look like? Silver is also silvery white! Does it have to be baked until it turns black and oxidized?"

Shen Le was struggling and guessing. No matter how many materials and videos he had read beforehand, it was not as good as trying it himself:
I memorized too much information, but when I really started, I still felt panicked!

"It's okay! For ordinary objects, you can gild them with silver two or three times. For some special objects, you can gild them five, six, or even seven times! Anyway, I have money and time, so I can just try again and again. I'm not afraid!"

Relying on the unlimited number of experiments brought by the power of money, Shen Le tried it over and over again.

Gradually, he finally mastered the timing of heating, pouring sulfuric acid, and turning off the fire, and he made a delicate silver amalgam that reacted fully by relying on his naked eyes and mental observation;

His control over applying the silver mud became stronger and stronger. With a small shovel, he could apply it in one stroke without any bumps, extra patches or lumps.
The book says, "Silver mud is more coarse than gold mud. When applying silver mud to the grooves of silver-gilt patterns, it should be applied more times than gold mud." I have found the right amount and thickness.

As for the "yellowing", that is, heating the silver-plated utensils to burn off the mercury on the amalgam, the timing was perfect:
The silver plating is completed in one step, and the thickness of the silver on the nail plate is uniform, without any bumps, bumps or burrs.

Then use a special agate roller to roll it back and forth horizontally and vertically, one by one. The whole nail piece will be shiny, bright and dazzling.

"This is how a young master - no, a rich man, a wealthy military officer - dresses!" Shen Le took the newly completed armor piece, looked at it up and down, turned it back and forth, and finally nodded with satisfaction.

He patted the helmet that was lying quietly on the side:

"Be good, wait a moment. I'll get enough rest and I'll gild you with silver tomorrow. After the silvering is done and you put on the red tassel, your spirituality should be restored!"

The helmet was silent and quiet. Next to the laboratory, Professor Bai slapped his student on the head:

"Look at him! Look at him! It's only been a few days, but he has already mastered the silver-plating craft and can do it steadily!
——If you have this ability and master a skill, even if you can't enter the research institute, you can still make a living outside!"

The disciple covered his head and dared not say anything back. Boss, you only saw that he practiced day and night and mastered it in one breath, but you didn't even look at the premise of such practice?

Unlimited silver foil, unlimited mercury, unlimited sulfuric acid!

Oh, and there is also a dedicated laboratory with a dedicated fume hood + purification device, which is available to him 24 hours a day. He can practice as long as he wants!
Don’t you have any idea how many hours of equipment we can get in a day?
We are in class, writing papers, reports, helping our supervisors write application forms for National Natural Science Foundation of China, and going out with our supervisors for social events all day. Don't you have any idea how much time we have available to practice our skills on the computer?

If I had his conditions - never mind, even if I had his conditions, I probably wouldn't be able to work day and night like this and never get tired of it...

The gilding process consumes a lot of gold, takes a long time, and causes great environmental pollution. It has now been eliminated. Modern jewelry is made of gold plating. Who still bothers with gilding!

Shen Le also bothered with gilding. Cultural relic restoration requires ancient methods. It was originally gilded, so you can’t just gild it for convenience.

As the process is completed, the armor leaves become silvery and are woven into helmet tassels with dyed silk threads and carefully threaded into the tassel tube.

When the pieces were put together, they shone brightly before our eyes. It was exactly the iron helmet that the owner of the helmet wore on his head when he set out in a heroic and proud manner.

With a soft buzzing sound, the copper sheet quietly unfolded in the meditative vision, and dots of light lit up faintly on the map...

Shen Le was speechless for a moment.

Well, you will only look for a companion after I have gilded you with silver, put on a helmet and dressed you up beautifully, right? !

(End of this chapter)