Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

After finishing the first rough blank, he placed it on the worktable to cool, and then began making the second one.

The same stacking structure, the same material ratio, the same forging rhythm. After the second piece is finished, the third piece is made.

Three rough blanks were placed side by side on the worktable, with almost identical size and thickness, and the density and direction of the forging marks were also highly similar.

Matt walked out of the office area, stood next to the workbench, and looked down at the three rough blanks: "These three look exactly the same."

"It has to be exactly the same." Lin Yuan fed the fourth steel billet into the forging furnace, straightened up, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "The core of mass production is consistency. The same material, the same temperature, the same number of forgings—the resulting blanks should be carved from the same mold."

He paused after speaking, then turned to look at the power hammer in the corner.

He had only finished three of the ten rough blanks; the remaining seven were still waiting for him.

However, this was not the most time-consuming part—the real challenge was yet to come: Matt's sword blank, with its divine leather stitching, was over five feet long and had a blade length of more than a meter. It couldn't be finished with a hand hammer; even a power hammer had to be slowly fed with it.

Lin Yuan covered the three rough blanks with asbestos cloth, took out the fourth steel billet from the furnace, and placed it on the anvil to continue forging.

With the same rhythm and the same force, the sensation of molten metal forging confirmed the fusion interface between the silver-iron alloy core and the 1085 outer shell with each hammer blow.

Matt stood by with his coffee for a while, then went to adjust the air damper for him once before coming back to watch.

By the time the fourth piece was finished, it was already dark. Lin Yuan covered the rough blank, turned off the furnace, and went back to the dormitory with Matt.

The next morning, he arrived at the forge half an hour earlier than usual.

The residual heat from the overnight fire in the furnace hadn't dissipated yet, so he relit the fire and sent in the fifth steel billet.

The pace was the same as yesterday, neither too fast nor too slow. Each rough blank went through the entire process according to the same parameters—heating, forging, flipping, reheating, and forging again.

With each hammer blow, he confirmed the fusion interface between the silver-iron alloy core and the 1085 outer shell. He no longer needed to deliberately record the parameters; the feel had become muscle memory.

The fifth piece, the sixth piece, and the seventh piece.

Daniel brought him a sandwich at noon. He stood next to the anvil, ate it in a few bites, drank half a glass of water, and continued eating.

When he finished the eighth piece, Lin Yuan stopped to drink some water, stretched his shoulders, and then put the ninth piece into the furnace.

By the time the last rough blank came out of the furnace, it was already dark outside the forge. He placed the tenth blank on the workbench, stepped back, and looked at it.

Ten rough blanks were neatly stacked on the worktable, all the same size and thickness, with the density and direction of the forging marks as if they were replicated.

Lin Yuan covered them all with asbestos cloth, pressed them in a corner to cool slowly, then turned off the forge, locked the door, and went back to the dormitory with Matt.

The next morning, when Lin Yuan arrived at the forge, Daniel was already cleaning.

He walked to the other side of the materials shelf and pulled out a pre-cut long piece of material from the corner.

It is made of 1085 high-carbon steel with a rectangular cross-section and a length of nearly two feet.

This is the base material Lin Yuan prepared, but he doesn't intend to make it into a cloud-patterned steel sandwich structure.

This was the first time Lin Yuan had ever made a weapon as large as the Divine Leather Stitching Needle. Although he had made a rapier before to familiarize himself with its feel and performance, it was somewhat reckless and impulsive for Lin Yuan to start a high-difficulty battle with such a large weapon right away.

So he planned to first make one out of finished steel to familiarize himself with the process and the technical difficulties that might arise during forging, before proceeding with the formal forging.

He fed the long billet into the forging furnace and adjusted the damper to ensure a uniform temperature distribution within the furnace. The billet slowly turned red inside the furnace, from dark red to cherry red and then to bright orange. He used tongs to remove the billet and strode quickly to the power hammer.

The hammer head of the power hammer falls, and the steel billet begins to stretch on the anvil.

Lin Yuan controlled the feed speed and hammering frequency, gradually thinning the steel billet from the base towards the tip. The diamond-shaped cross-section of the divine skin needle required a precise thickness transition—the blade was long, and the thickness change of each section had to be uniform; any section that was too thick or too thin would affect the final center of gravity and the grip.

Powered hammers are much more efficient than hand hammers.

In less than twenty minutes, the steel billet had been stretched from a two-foot-long rectangular piece into a slender strip nearly five feet long.

The basic outline of the sword is now complete, with a blade length just over one meter. The thickness transition from the base to the tip is smooth and even.

But problems arose at this point.

Lin Yuan removed the sword blank from the power hammer, held it with tongs, and walked to the furnace, preparing for the second round of heating. When he tried to put the sword blank into the furnace, he found that a section of it wouldn't go in.

The furnace chamber was about two feet long. This size was sufficient for making short knives, hunting knives, and even half-swords—the blade of a half-sword is only about three feet long, allowing the blade to be placed in at an angle or heated in sections. But the blade of the sword for the Divine Leather Stitching Needle was over a meter long, which translates to nearly four feet, almost twice the length of the furnace chamber. He inserted the tip of the unfinished sword into the furnace chamber, leaving the hilt and handle exposed; he inserted the hilt, leaving the tip exposed.

Lin Yuan pulled the sword blank out of the furnace, held it in his hand and looked at it, then looked at the size of the furnace, and then turned to look at Matt who was organizing materials in the office area.

Matt looked up from the pile of documents, saw Lin Yuan's expression, put down what he was holding, and walked over. "What's wrong?"

Lin Yuan pointed with the tongs at the furnace, then at the sword blank in his hand. "The furnace isn't long enough."

Matt glanced down at the furnace, then looked up at the nearly five-foot-long sword blank in Lin Yuan's hand, his brow furrowing. "Can't we heat it in sections?"

"Segmented heating is theoretically possible. First, heat and forge the tip section, then heat the middle section, and finally process the root section." Lin Yuan placed the sword blank horizontally on the anvil and gestured with tongs across the blade. "But the problem is heat treatment. During quenching, the entire blade needs to be heated to the critical temperature simultaneously before being cooled in oil. With segmented heating, temperature uniformity cannot be guaranteed. The tip section is heated to the quenching temperature, while the middle section is still heating up. If it's then immersed in oil, the cooling rates of different sections will be different, and thermal stress will concentrate in the area with the greatest temperature gradient—at best, it will warp; at worst, it will crack."

Matt stared at the unfinished sword for a few seconds. "So you mean this furnace can't make a sword this long?"

"I can't do it." Lin Yuan placed the pliers on the anvil, took off his heat-resistant gloves, and patted the dust off his hands. "Regular weapons are fine, but the blade of a half-sword is about three feet long. I can barely fit it in if I place it at an angle, and I can also make do with segmented heating."

However, the blade of the leather sewing needle alone exceeds one meter in length, and with the handle, the total length is nearly six feet, exceeding the design limits of this furnace.

Matt leaned against the materials shelf, arms crossed, and remained silent for a moment. "So what do we do? Replace the stove?"

"Replacing the furnace is one option." Lin Yuan sat down at the workbench, picked up his thermos and took a sip of water. "But the largest propane forging furnace available on the market is only a little over three feet long. There are six-foot furnaces, but those are industrial-grade, expensive, and require a special three-phase power supply, which our factory's distribution box can't handle."

"So you mean—"

"Let's build a traditional charcoal stove." Lin Yuan put the thermos aside and looked at Matt. "It's the kind of stove that uses coke as fuel. You can build the length of the furnace yourself, as long as you want. The traditional Chinese sword-making furnace has this structure—a long, narrow furnace with burning coke in the middle and openings on both sides. The sword blank can be inserted horizontally as a whole, so it's heated evenly without needing to be segmented."

Matt straightened up from beside the materials shelf, walked to the wall of the factory building, and measured the length with his feet. "How big do we need to build?"

"The furnace chamber should be at least 1.5 meters long. The width and depth don't need to be too large, just enough to hold the sword blank." Lin Yuan also stood up, walked to Matt's side, and drew a rough outline on the ground with his toe. "The furnace body should be made of refractory bricks and reinforced with steel plates. The blower should be high-powered, because the combustion temperature of coke is lower than that of propane, so forced ventilation is needed to raise the temperature."

"The exhaust duct needs to be connected from above the furnace to the existing ventilation system; Daniel can handle that."

Matt listened and nodded, showing no sign of difficulty: "Where can we buy the refractory bricks and coke?"

"Refractory bricks are available at building materials supermarkets. As for coke, you need to ask the supplier. There's an industrial fuel company on the list of industrial material suppliers that Pat gave me last time; they should be able to supply it."

"Okay." Matt took out his phone from his pocket and jotted it down in his notes. "I'll call and ask tomorrow. Are you planning to build the stove yourself or hire someone?"

"Build it yourself. It's not difficult. My dad taught me." Lin Yuan put on his heat-resistant gloves again, walked to the anvil, and picked up the unfinished sword blank. "The furnace made of firebricks can be dismantled and rebuilt. You can change the size anytime you want."

First, finish the rough blank of the short knife in the propane furnace. Once the charcoal furnace is built, I'll continue making the long knife. That means you'll have to wait a while. Before the furnace is finished, I'll make Nelson's and Jason's knives first.

"It's okay, I'm not in a hurry anyway." Matt finished writing this down on his phone, then looked up at Lin Yuan: "You just said the blade of the Divine Leather Stitching Needle is over a meter long, and with the handle, the total length is close to six feet. A six-foot weapon—what category does that fall under in reality?"

Lin Yuan thought for a moment. "Strictly speaking, it doesn't belong to conventional weapons. In reality, rapiers generally have a blade length of forty to fifty inches, which is about one to one and a half meters. However, the blade of a rapier is extremely thin, with a diamond-shaped cross-section, and it kills by thrusting."

The design of the Divine Leather Stitch is essentially an enlarged rapier—the size of a one-handed rapier is stretched to the length of a two-handed greatsword, but the slender proportions and diamond-shaped cross-section of a rapier are retained.

"So it's something that doesn't exist in reality."

"Yes. Game designers don't need to consider whether a normal person can wield a six-foot-long rapier with one hand, but the designs they create are based on reality. My task is to turn that design into a usable, aesthetically pleasing, and structurally sound real sword." Lin Yuan held the sword blank up to the light, examining the evenness of the thickness transition. "The prerequisite is to make the furnace first."