Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

Chapter 114

Nelson and Jason agreed to meet on Saturday morning.

The two vehicles turned into the forge's parking lot almost simultaneously. Nelson was driving a dark gray Toyota Tundra, its body speckled with mud from a long drive.

Jason's car was a black Ford F-150, newer than Nelson's, with a barely noticeable scratch on the bumper.

Lin Yuan and Matt were already waiting at the door.

Nelson got out of the car first. He was wearing a dark blue work shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his eyes behind his silver-rimmed half-rimmed glasses glanced at the iron walls of the forge and the few abandoned oxygen cylinders at the entrance.

"The place is bigger than I thought." He walked up to Lin Yuan, shook his hand, and said, "There was a bit of traffic on the way here."

Jason took a cooler from the back of the pickup truck, walked over, put it on the ground, straightened up, and clapped his hands.

He was a few years younger than Nelson, with a bushy beard, wearing a faded military green T-shirt, and a scar from an old burn on his forearm. "I brought some homemade smoked sausages, leftovers to eat on the road, don't mind them."

He opened the lid of the insulated box a crack, and inside was not the leftovers he had mentioned, but a neatly arranged box of sausages.

"Let's look at the knife first." Nelson didn't sit down and walked straight into the workshop.

Lin Yuan pushed open the door and stepped aside to let the two of them in.

The workshop was very clean; the worktables had been wiped, the floor swept, and the sanding belts on the material racks were neatly arranged according to their mesh size.

The door of the coke oven in the corner was closed, and the cast iron handle was polished to a shine.

There was no oxide scale residue on the cutting board of the power hammer, and the sanding belt of the belt sander had been unloaded, rolled up, and placed on the shelf next to it.

Nelson's gaze swept around the workshop, first spotting the power hammer, then the metallographic microscope, before pausing briefly in front of the coke oven.

He walked to the furnace, bent down to look at the length of the furnace chamber and the joints between the refractory bricks on the inner wall, straightened up and patted the ash off his hands.

"Did you build the stove yourself?"

"Yes. The stitches on the leather were too long to fit in the propane furnace, so we built this instead."

"The refractory brick joints are filled evenly," Nelson commented, then continued moving around the workshop without saying anything more.

His gaze shifted from the equipment to the wall, and then stopped.

The three-foot-long bass specimen hung above the tool rack, directly facing the doorway.

The scales gleamed with a deep olive-green luster under the fluorescent lights. Its back was broad, its tail fin was spread out, and its posture was fixed as if it had just emerged from the water.

Frank found a taxidermist who was indeed very skilled; even the fine lines on the edge of the gill cover were preserved very clearly.

Nelson looked up for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. "You fish?"

"I'm just starting out," Lin Yuan said. "I've been there a few times with Professor Robert and the others."

"This one's quite large." Nelson turned his gaze from the specimen to Lin Yuan. "South Carolina's reservoir?"

"Fished in the river. Lucky me."

Jason also came over to look at the bass specimen, took out his phone to take a picture, and then turned to Lin Yuan to ask, "What kind of rod do you use for fishing?"

"Spinning reel, seven feet, medium-fast. Beginner gear."

Jason nodded, not asking any further questions. He was clearly less interested in fishing than Nelson, his gaze already shifting between the unfinished products and tools on the worktable.

Lin Yuan walked to the cabinet in the office area, opened the door, and took out two knife cases. The cases were black hard gift boxes he had ordered online, lined with high-density foam so the knives wouldn't wobble once they were inside. He placed the two cases side by side on the worktable, unlocked the latches, and lifted the lids.

Nelson's Bowie hunting knife lay on the left, and Jason's camping knife was on the right.

Nelson reached for his knife. He didn't rush to examine the blade, but instead held it in his hand to feel its center of gravity.

The blade was long and slender, its nine-inch length perfectly proportioned to the ebony handle, the brass guard gleaming a warm gold under the light. He pinched the end of the handle between his thumb and forefinger, letting the blade hang naturally, confirming that the center of gravity was about three inches in front of the guard, consistent with his preferred weight distribution.

He flipped the knife over, his gaze sweeping from Qinggen to the tip of the blade.

The cloud pattern on the blade surface presents a clear black and white contrast under the light, with dark and light layers arranged alternately. It is not the flowing cloud pattern of the leather stitching, but a more regular parallel wave pattern.

Lin Yuan's basic skills in forging and heat treatment were solid enough that the clarity of the pattern and the straightness of the blade line exceeded Nelson's expectations.

"Can I try?" Nelson pulled a small piece of hemp rope from his pocket, probably brought from home.

Lin Yuan gestured with his chin toward the discarded wooden stake in the corner: "There are planks over there, try them out."

Nelson walked to the wooden stake, gripped the knife in his right hand with the tip pointing upwards, and with a flick of his wrist, reversed the blade, slashing at the side of the stake. The sound of the blade cutting into the stake was crisp, not the dull thud of a blunt object, but the distinctive crispness of sharp metal cutting through wood fibers.

The blade cut in about half an inch, and there was no resistance when it was pulled out.

He glanced down at the blade; it was intact, not even the ray of light reflecting off it after the sweeping motion was broken. Then he gently ran his thumb along the blade, from the base to the tip, confirming that the sharpness of the entire blade line was uniform.

"It's even better than I expected." He put the knife back on the worktable, took out his phone from his pocket, opened a transfer page, and waved it at Lin Yuan. "I'll pay the balance now."

Lin Yuan gave Nelson a number. Nelson made a few moves on his mobile banking app and then showed him the successful transfer page.

Lin Yuan glanced at the payment notification on his phone and nodded.

Jason had already picked up his camping knife. He flipped the knife over twice in his hand and tested the unsharpened flat back of the blade with his thumb. The friction was just right; it wouldn't slip when scraping fire pokers. The blade was rounded, a multi-purpose design, and felt substantial in his hand, with the center of gravity behind the handguard, making it easy on the wrist when handling food.

He picked up a scrap piece of wood from the tool rack and shaved it a few times with the blade. Wood shavings curled out from the edge of the blade, thin and even, leaving a smooth cut. He then tested the function of scraping a fire starter with the back of the blade—by pressing the flat edge of the blade against the fire starter and scraping hard, a cluster of sparks flew out, landing on the pile of wood shavings and emitting smoke.

"I won't be using this one for camping from now on." Jason put the knife back in its case and took out his phone to transfer money. He was faster than Nelson, probably because he frequently uses mobile banking.

After confirming the receipt of payment, Lin Yuan closed the lids of the two knife boxes, locked the latches, and pushed them in front of the two men.

Nelson tucked the scalpel case under his arm, not in a hurry to leave. He glanced at the metallurgical microscope next to the workbench and gestured with his chin towards Lin Yuan. "Will that work?"

"Yes. What do you need to see?"

Nelson pulled a small piece of metal, about the size of a fingernail, from his pocket, wrapped in a tissue. He unfolded the tissue and placed the metal on the workbench. "After we parted ways in Atlanta, Jason and I tried making some wavy steel in the workshop a few times. We did it according to your idea—alternating stacks of 1084 and 15N20, forging to the seventh or eighth round."

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