Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

Lin Yuan reheated the welded steel billet to the forging temperature and then placed it on the anvil of the power hammer.

Instead of rushing things, he controlled the rhythm of the power hammer, first stretching the steel billet into a long strip.

Then, he used a chisel to make a cut in the middle of the hot steel bar, just the right depth, less than half the thickness of the steel plate.

He clamped the steel bar back into the furnace, heated the cut edge briefly, and then quickly took it out and placed it on the anvil.

He picked up his hammer and tapped it lightly on the cut. With a "ding," the steel bar folded along the cut.

Before onlookers could react, he had already reheated the folded steel billet, stretched it out again, and then chiseled another slit, repeating the process to fold the billet once more.

Folded twice, four layers.

At this moment, the judges who had been observing from the sidelines finally understood Lin Yuan's intentions and figured out the trick behind it.

J. Nelson's gaze never left Lin Yuan's workstation. After observing the two folding techniques, he turned his head slightly and whispered to David Baker beside him, "He didn't cut and then weld; he folded it directly. This kid is using the forging method. He's daring, but his technique is very skillful."

The folded steel billet has an oxide layer on its inner surface formed when the cut was previously made.

If these impurities are not treated, they will form fatal defects between layers during forging and welding.

Lin Yuan was prepared for this.

He first clamped the folded steel billet back into the forging furnace.

When the steel billet is heated to a bright orange-yellow color, he takes it out with tongs and quickly and evenly sprinkles a layer of powder—flux, anhydrous borax—on the surface of the hot billet.

Borax melts upon contact with high temperatures, covering the surface of the steel billet with a transparent, glassy protective layer.

This layer of molten borax not only isolates the air to prevent further oxidation, but also dissolves and removes the oxide scale and impurities at the joint during subsequent hammering, bringing them to the forging and welding surface. This is a necessary operation for Damascus steel and one of the keys to the success or failure of forging and welding.

The surface of the steel billet after the flux was applied had a moist sheen.

Lin Yuan strode toward the anvil, but before striking, he picked up a water ladle, scooped up a spoonful of water, and with a flick of his wrist, splashed it onto the surface of the anvil.

Immediately afterwards, he pressed the red-hot steel billet onto the puddle of water.

"Sizzle—" A large burst of water vapor erupted violently, instantly enveloping the contact surface between the steel billet and the anvil.

The water vaporizes rapidly upon contact with the high-temperature anvil and the red-hot steel billet, expanding violently by hundreds of times. The resulting high-pressure steam is ejected at high speed from the gap squeezed between the billet and the anvil, blasting out and blowing away the residual oxide scale, molten borax, and impurities at the folded joint.

At the same time, Lin Yuan's forging hammer began to fall like raindrops! "Clang! Clang!" The hammering was rapid and crisp, each strike hitting the folded joint precisely. Before the moisture had even dissipated, the hammering had already begun.

This is the "water forging" technique, which is extremely difficult in traditional Chinese forging.

The water is not poured onto the steel billet, but onto the anvil. The steam explosion generated by the instantaneous boiling of the thin layer of water between the steel billet and the anvil is used to clean the forging and welding surface.

The shockwave from the expansion of steam blasts out the oxide scale and impurities in the gaps, while the subsequent hammering forges the cleaned weld surfaces into a denser bond, forcing the fresh metal surfaces together to achieve a true forging and welding bond.

Between the alternation of water and fire, Lin Yuan also used another layer of power—[Stacked Fire Fusion Forging].

This skill, acquired from the main questline, had been repeatedly practiced and refined in Professor Robert's workshop, and was now working in secret with every swing of his hammer.

He can clearly perceive the temperature distribution of the flames in the furnace, the heat differences between the layers of the steel billet, and the bonding state of each contact surface on the forging and welding surface.

He precisely guided the temperature of the flame to the location where the folded joint needed the most heat. The two steels with different carbon contents, 1084 and 15N20, produced a more uniform interface diffusion at the forging and welding temperature. He controlled the rate of carbon atom migration from the high carbon layer to the low carbon layer within a just right range—too fast a migration would lead to blurred interlayer boundaries, while too slow a migration would result in insufficient bonding strength.

Every time the steam bursts open the oxide layer, the perception of [Stacked Fire Forging] helps him accurately judge where the hammer should land and how much force it should apply, so that the two fresh metal surfaces can achieve molecular-level bonding at the optimal temperature.

Forty-four layers, one hundred and seventy-six layers, seven hundred and four layers, two thousand eight hundred and sixteen layers—each time the number of folds doubles, the number of joint surfaces also doubles. If other knifemakers were to achieve this number of layers using traditional folding and forging methods, the risk of cavities and delamination would be almost inevitable.

However, with the support of [Stacked Fire Forging], Lin Yuan could clearly feel that the bonding surfaces between each layer were tightly sealed, without bubbles, oxidation inclusions, or microcracks.

J. Nelson, standing behind the judges' panel, watched the rising steam and the sparks flying from the hammer blows, then turned to David Baker and said, "Water forging. This kid's pouring water on the anvil and using steam to blast the oxides. I haven't seen anyone use that in a competition in ages."

"Sizzle—clang clang clang!" The sound of water forging stood out from the monotonous rhythm of the power hammers in other workstations.

Each burst of moisture followed by a burst of intense hammering signifies a perfect forging and welding process.

The judges were completely captivated by Lin Yuan's performance.

J. Nelson and David Baker stood at the side of the workstation, watching the young man repeat the ancient and efficient forging cycle of "stretching—chising—folding—applying flux—water forging" with almost textbook precision.

The first forging and the second folding transformed the eleven-layered blank into a forty-four-layered blank.

Lin Yuan didn't stop. He put the forged steel billet back into the forging furnace, heated it to the forging temperature, and then returned to the power hammer. He did the same thing again—stretching, chiseling, folding, and sprinkling flux. Then he returned to the anvil, poured a spoonful of water on the anvil, and the forging hammer fell as the steam exploded.

The second forging process transformed the forty-four layers into one hundred and seventy-six layers.

The third time, on the 704th floor.

The fourth time, on the 2,816th floor.

Within two hours, he repeated the entire forging process four times.

At this point, the steel billet has nearly three thousand layers, and the interfaces between the layers are so thin that they will diffuse into each other if the forging and welding temperature is not carefully controlled.

Traditional patterned steel can be folded eight times to reach 768 layers, requiring a high-powered magnifying glass to distinguish the number of layers. After being folded nine times to reach more than 1,500 layers, the pattern becomes too fine to be discerned with the naked eye, and continuing to stack layers will only make the pattern blurry.

For a short knife, 2,816 layers is already too many and would actually affect the clarity of the pattern—but cloud-patterned steel is different.

The essence of this set of drawings lies not in the number of layers, but in the fact that after the initial eleven layers are forged, the carbon migration between the soft and hard layers will form a special interface curvature at the folded nodes, presenting a pattern resembling rolling clouds.

It is not parallel lines, nor wavy patterns, but rather layers upon layers of patterns, each independent of the others, like surging clouds.

When I reached this level of layering in the professor's workshop, the beauty of the texture was already visible, but because the control of the heat was not precise enough, there was always a risk of layering at the edges.

Today, with the assistance of [Stacked Fire Forging], he can clearly perceive the forging and welding status of each folded node. The feeling of "almost perfect" has disappeared, replaced by a sense of certainty—this time, it's done.

While the other contestants were still struggling to stack the blocks for the second time, Lin Yuan had already turned around from in front of the power hammer, reheated the nearly three thousand layers of steel billet, and then returned to the power hammer to begin shaping the blade.

Instead of choosing a hunting knife or a Bowie knife, he forged the steel billet into a Chinese dagger—a double-edged, symmetrical blade with a long, slender body and a clean, sharp curve from the tip to the hilt.

The knife blank gradually takes shape on the anvil.

After nearly three thousand layers of folding and forging, the eleven-layer cloud-patterned steel structure has been stretched into alternating patterns as fine as hair, where the originally distinct soft and hard layers have been stretched. The basic framework of the cloud pattern has been broken up and reassembled during the folding process, and the direction between each layer has a fluidity that is different from ordinary Damascus steel. It is no longer a neat parallel line, but a subtle arc like the rolling of clouds.

J. Nelson, arms crossed, watched as the dagger blank in Lin Yuan's hand gradually took shape. He turned to David Baker and said, "Folding and water forging, nearly three thousand layers. He's using the traditional Chinese folding forging method. I've never seen anyone do this on this show."