Start with a blacksmith shop.

The two-row van carrying the three of them headed toward Yuanmi's specialty store. Li Zhenhua drove very steadily.

The three of them bought what Guo Shugui considered to be suitable equipment at the Yuanmi specialty store.

By this time, all the necessary items had been purchased, and the preliminary work was considered complete.

At noon, the three of them found a local donkey meat restaurant in the county town and ate something.

There's a saying that goes, "Dragon meat in the sky, donkey meat on the ground." Dragon meat refers to the flying dragon, which is now a protected animal. But donkey meat on the ground is still edible.

There are sixteen places in the country famous for making donkey meat, and their county is one of them.

Furthermore, this place is near Dong'e, a water city. While the other side needs donkey hides to make glue, this county needs donkey meat for food. In short, not a single part of the donkey is wasted.

Li Zhenhua was very happy with the meal. He had been in Shanghai for so long, and all he wanted was the taste of his hometown meat.

Guo Shugui, a young man from out of town, was also won over by the donkey meat. He had always thought that the donkey meat sandwiches in Hejian were delicious, but this time, the donkey meat here was just as good as the ones in Hejian.

After the three of them had eaten and drunk their fill, Li Zhenhua continued driving forward, while Guo Shugui took out the equipment he had just bought and started fiddling with it.

Liu Xiaodong, who was sitting in the back, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and soon fell asleep.

Liu Xiaodong didn't wake up until the car had driven all the way back to the blacksmith's shop.

Especially when traveling through towns, the swaying and rocking made Liu Xiaodong sleep even more soundly.

The three people carried the purchased items to the lobby of the store on the first floor.

After leaving the two of them behind, Li Zhenhua took a hundred yuan to the small supermarket, gave the car keys to the supermarket owner, and after several refusals, the owner finally accepted the money he had prepared for the car rental.

It's easy to incur debts of gratitude, but difficult to repay them; sometimes it's best to incur as few as possible.

When Li Zhenhua returned, he didn't touch anything else, but he had Liu Xiaodong help him carry a large plastic bucket into the warehouse and then locked the door.

This huge bucket is full of hydrochloric acid. If something goes wrong, no one can afford the consequences.

After properly storing the dangerous hydrochloric acid, Li Zhenhua led the two men to move the remaining items and put them away one by one.

By the time the three of them had finished packing, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon.

Li Zhenhua had intended to let the two of them rest, but for the other two, what they were really interested in was what was to come.

Li Zhenhua could only respect their wishes, and then led the two to the backyard to start forging iron.

If Li Zhenhua wanted to create the Damascus pattern, he had to forge two different types of steel together.

They brought out the cutting machine from the warehouse. This wasn't the handheld angle grinder, but the kind with a stand.

Replace the cutting disc with one specifically designed for cutting steel and adjust the cutting dimensions.

The task of cutting the two types of stainless steel strips was assigned to Liu Xiaodong.

He grew up playing in the blacksmith shop, so he knows some of the procedures and can use the tools.

Guo Shugui also took out a handheld camera and started filming in the courtyard.

He pounded on the stove, then on the air hammer, and even the long bench with the grinder didn't miss a beat.

He also told Li Zhenhua that this millstone could be considered a testament to the blacksmith's shop.

"squeak"

The ear-piercing sound of metal being cut could be heard, and Li Zhenhua had already lit the furnace.

Take some of the two kinds of cut steel bars next to Liu Xiaodong and put them on the anvil.

Then Li Zhenhua arranged the two types of stainless steel alternately, one piece of 410 and one piece of 420, and arranged them in a 30-centimeter-thick layer.

Then Li Zhenhua turned on the cold welding machine next to him and welded the many stainless steel sheets together.

Next, the welded stainless steel was placed into the furnace for firing.

Taking advantage of this moment, Li Zhenhua went to the air hammer, adjusted it to its highest setting, and adjusted the downward force to the optimal level according to the data provided by the analytical eye.

The three people were doing their respective jobs, and everything was progressing in an orderly manner.

The stainless steel gradually glowed red in the furnace until it was ready to be forged.

Li Zhenhua used iron tongs to remove the raw materials from the furnace and place them on the forging hammer platform.

Li Zhenhua stepped on the foot switch of the forging hammer, and the air forging hammer fell forcefully, slamming onto the stainless steel with a "clang".

With clanging sounds, the stainless steel gradually changed shape according to Li Zhenhua's needs.

As the work progressed, the size of the stainless steel gradually exceeded Li Zhenhua's expectations because he used too much material; a 30-centimeter thickness had to be pressed into a 4-millimeter thick steel bar.

You can imagine how long it would be if it were pressed from such a large piece of stainless steel.

Li Zhenhua had no choice but to change his strategy, pressing the material little by little, cutting off the excess material after pressing the beginning, and then pressing the remaining material.

After pressing this piece of material, Li Zhenhua gradually became familiar with it, knowing exactly how much material to use.

The stainless steel, which Li Zhenhua had reforged into steel bars, was cut into pieces again and welded back into a stainless steel cuboid.

The stainless steel was put back into the furnace and burned, and then the process was repeated.

The stainless steel produced this time weighs a total of one kilogram.

Each knife weighs 80 grams. After removing the scraps, you can make ten kitchen knives.

After the stainless steel had been forged several times, Li Zhenhua felt that he was ready to proceed to the next step.

Next, with the aid of the analytical eye, the prepared materials were divided into ten equal portions.

Li Zhenhua threw one of the raw materials into the furnace to calcine, and then the large forging hammer was no longer needed.

All you need to do is use a hammer and hammer it by hand. Of course, this is when the blacksmith's assistant comes in, who is the one swinging the sledgehammer.

"Fatty, stop cutting and come over here to swing the sledgehammer."

Li Zhenhua shouted loudly to Liu Xiaodong, who was still cutting raw materials. He had to shout loudly because the yard was very noisy at the moment, and if he didn't speak loudly, he wouldn't be able to hear anything.

"Okay, go get some water first, I'll be right back after I finish cutting this one."

Liu Xiaodong, wearing goggles, didn't even look up, continuing what he was doing, and shouted something to the people behind him.

Li Zhenhua didn't say he would start immediately. He walked to the table next to him, picked up the cooled warm water, and drank it down his throat.

Guo Shugui faithfully recorded everything, capturing every single detail.

In his eyes, everything he photographed was top-notch material.

With some post-production work and editing, it becomes a promotional video.

After Li Zhenhua finished drinking the water with salt added, Liu Xiaodong wiped the sweat from his brow and came over to take a sip as well.

Once the two had calmed down, they walked towards the blacksmith's forge.

Liu Xiaodong walked straight to the anvil and grabbed a large iron hammer that was placed next to it.

Li Zhenhua used tongs to remove the burning raw material.

This time it's different from the watermelon knife he made before, when he only roughly shaped it using existing materials.

This time, however, a piece of raw material was transformed from its original, unremarkable shape into the form of a dinner knife.

This can be considered a normal, complete forging process.

Li Zhenhua wielded a small hammer, while Liu Xiaodong held a large hammer. The material began to deform under their hands, accompanied by clanging sounds.