Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

As the host announced that the afternoon match was about to begin, Lin Yuan took a deep breath and walked into the forging workshop.

The overhead camera lights illuminated the entire forging table as if it were daytime, and he could feel several cameras aimed at him from different angles.

Strangely, the tension that had been lingering in my mind before vanished like the tide the moment I stepped onto the forging table and saw those familiar forging tools. In its place came a focus and tranquility I felt while practicing in Professor Robert's workshop.

He placed the leather tool bag he had brought on the forging table, unfastened the brass clasp, and took the apprentice forging hammer in his hand.

The wood grain on the hammer handle was polished to a warm and shiny finish, and a dragon's head emblem was engraved on the flat surface of one end of the hammer head—the lines were simple but full of charm, and the dragon's mouth was slightly open, as if it were breathing flames.

The center of gravity of this hammer was precisely calculated. The position about three-tenths of the way forward was repeatedly tested and adjusted. Any more would be too aggressive, and any less would be too weak.

He slowly ran his fingers along the Latin inscription on the hammer handle—FORGED IN FLAME, TEMPERED ON ANVIL.

Bathed in the flames of war, forged on the anvil of battle.

He placed the pliers, steel brush, and angle ruler in the most convenient positions.

Everything is ready.

The host, microphone in hand, stood in front of the four contestants, and the camera slowly panned across them.

"Bladesmiths, your challenge today is—Damask steel!" the host announced, as a large screen behind him lit up. "In the first round, you have four hours to choose between stacking Damask forging or using bearing ball bearing Damask to forge a short knife blank with no restrictions on the shape, but no more than 14 inches in length."

Lin Yuan's gaze lingered on the question for a moment, but he didn't hesitate at all.

While Damascus steel can be used to create intricate patterns, it takes too much time to prepare the cans, fillers, and seals, and the pressure of competition makes it easy to fail if not careful.

Stacking damascus steel is the most traditional and fundamentally challenging method, and it's also the method he's most familiar with.

Without the slightest hesitation, he went straight to the materials rack provided by the production team.

Rows of neatly stacked steel plates reflected a cold metallic luster.

He immediately recognized the 1084 high-carbon steel and 15N20 nickel steel—a classic combination for forging Damascus steel. 1084 provides hardness, while 15N20 provides toughness. After pickling, due to the different nickel content, the two steels will exhibit clear patterns of alternating light and dark colors.

He quickly selected several pieces of blank material of suitable size and returned to his workstation.

The first step is cleaning.

Many bladesmiths are too eager to finish and overlook this detail, but it is often the key to success or failure.

Any oil, scale, or impurities remaining on the surface of the steel will form oxide inclusions during subsequent high-temperature forging and welding, leading to delamination or blistering.

Lin Yuan picked up the belt sander and carefully sanded away the oxide layer on the surface of each steel plate until they revealed a bright silver metallic luster.

Next, he repeatedly wiped the area with a cloth soaked in acetone solution to perform the final degreasing and cleaning.

Every movement was quick, quiet, and meticulous.

After cleaning, he began to build the "sandwich" structure.

Holding the pliers, he stacked the two types of steel, soft and hard, one by one, like building blocks: the middle layer was 15N20 soft steel with good toughness, and on each side was a layer of 1084 hard steel with high hardness, alternating in turn, while the outermost layer was 1084.

In the end, he stacked up a rough blank consisting of eleven steel plates.

This arrangement is not arbitrary—according to the design of the "cloud pattern steel", after multiple folding and forging, the original distinct soft and hard layers will be stretched into alternating patterns as fine as hair. The basic framework of the cloud pattern is broken up and reorganized during the folding. The direction between each layer will present a sense of flow that is different from ordinary Damascus steel. It is no longer a neat parallel line, but a subtle arc like the rolling of clouds.

He had tried using cloud-patterned steel several times in Professor Robert's workshop before, and the seven-layer steel was the most comfortable for him. The pattern he made was clear and smooth, and the blade performance was stable.

I've tried eleven layers, but it always falls short – either slight interlayer oxidation occurs during forging, or delamination occurs at the edges after heat treatment. I've never been able to achieve complete satisfaction.

But standing in front of this forging table today, holding this apprentice forging hammer, he felt an indescribable sense of certainty.

His actions immediately caught the attention of the judges who were touring the workshop.

J. Nelson's gaze lingered on Lin Yuan's workstation for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly.

He turned to David Baker beside him, his voice low but filled with obvious concern: "He put the mild steel in the very center. After the blade is forged, the edge will likely be made of that mild steel. This is a cardinal sin in knife forging; he shouldn't have made this mistake."

David Baker crossed his arms, his gaze sweeping back and forth over the bundle of rough billets that were about to be welded, and slowly nodded: "Let's see how he handles it next."

Lin Yuan did not notice the hushed conversation on the judges' side.

His attention was entirely focused on the work at hand—adjusting the welding machine to fix the eleven stacked steel plates into a single unit.

His plan was simple yet bold.

Four hours is a very tight timeframe for making a Damascus steel blade.

The common practice among American knifemakers is to first forge and weld the bundle of steel plates into a single blank, then cut it into several sections, grind and clean them, and then stack and weld them again, repeating this process until the desired number of layers is achieved.

This cycle of "cutting-stacking-re-welding" is safe and reliable, but very time-consuming.

Lin Yuan is going to take a more ancient and efficient, but technically more difficult, path – the “folding and forging method” in traditional Chinese forging.

Not only that.

During these four hours, the various forging skills provided by the system also silently took effect.

When he begins to operate, the [Steady Hand] skill is activated first—this passive skill allows him to keep his hands stable during long periods of precise operation, and even when swinging the hammer hundreds of times in a row, the slight tremor of his fingers is suppressed to a minimum.

Next came [focus]. His attention was highly concentrated. The subtle changes in the color of the furnace flames, the rhythm of the oxide scale peeling off the surface of the steel billet, the force of the hammer's rebound when it fell—every sensory signal was amplified several times over. Distractions were shut out, and the whole world consisted only of him and the piece of steel being tamed in front of him.

As he moved back and forth between the press and the anvil, the [Accelerated Forging] technique quietly took effect. It didn't make him blindly speed up, but rather made his movements smoother—from the furnace to the press, from the press to the anvil, and from the anvil back to the furnace, every turn, every gripping, every hammer blow was executed without the slightest hesitation or unnecessary movement.

The combination of these three skills made his movements fluid and effortless, and the precision of each strike was as if it had been meticulously calculated.

When he inspected the venue earlier, he noticed that the production team had prepared a stamping machine and a power hammer, both of which were well-maintained industrial-grade equipment.

Moreover, he had also come into contact with them in the professor's forging workshop, and if used properly, they could save a lot of time and energy.

He fed the stacked blanks into the spot welding machine, fixed them into a whole with several weld points, and then welded on a long operating handle.

Then, he put the rough blank into the red-hot propane furnace.

The flames roared inside the furnace, their orange-red light casting flickering shadows on his face.

Lin Yuan stared intently at the steel billet inside the furnace.

With the help of the [Focus] skill, he could clearly capture every slight change in the color of the flames—when the color of the steel billet changed from dark red to cherry red, and then gradually transitioned to bright orange-yellow, and the surface showed a moist luster like butter, he made his move.

He steadily used pliers to pick out the steel billet that was radiating scorching heat, and quickly walked to the stamping machine.

"Thump—hum—" The press pressed down slowly and firmly with irresistible force.

The tiny protrusions on the contact surface between the steel plates are flattened and the gaps are squeezed out. Under the combined action of high temperature and high pressure, metal atoms begin to diffuse across the boundary.

Eleven separate steel plates were forged and welded into a solid whole by the power of the stamping machine.

Next, it's time to use a power hammer for bending and forging.