Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

Chapter 82

Pat kept his word. Within three days, the fire department's receipt and the union's safety certificate were delivered to the forge. Lin Yuan put the two documents into a folder, stored them in a cabinet in the office area, and then began preparing the materials for the divine leather sewing needles.

Matt arrived at the forge earlier than him. On the back seat was a hard-shell equipment case, which, when opened, revealed a Sony FX30 camcorder with a Sigma 18-50mm lens, along with two LED fill lights, a tripod, and a top-mounted microphone.

"An entry-level model." Matt placed the equipment case on the worktable, unpacking it as he spoke. "It can't compare to the ones used by film crews, but it's more than enough for filming the forging process. I tried it out with my phone a few times before, and it's a completely different story—"

To put it another way, a phone camera shoots 720p, this is 2K.

Lin Yuan leaned closer to take a look through the viewfinder. The image was clear, with high color fidelity; the firelight in the furnace appeared as a realistic orange-red on the screen, unlike the overexposed, washed-out white image on a mobile phone.

"How much did it cost?"

"Never mind that, consider it a stake in this." Matt mounted the camera on the tripod and started adjusting the angle. "You focus on forging, I'll focus on filming. If the edited result isn't good, it's on me; if the knife work isn't good, it's on you."

Lin Yuan didn't ask any more questions. He walked to the materials shelf and pulled out a 1085 high-carbon steel billet. He had prepared this piece of material a couple of days ago; its dimensions matched the specifications of the sword blade for the Divine Leather Sewing Needle, a little over two feet long with a rectangular cross-section. He measured it again with calipers to confirm the dimensions were correct, then carried the steel billet towards the newly built coke oven.

The blower was turned on at its lowest setting, and the coke in the furnace turned from dark red to bright orange. Lin Yuan fed the steel billet into the furnace, placing it horizontally above the coke layer to ensure the entire billet was heated evenly. The furnace was 1.6 meters long, and a two-foot steel billet could fit in more than enough, unlike a propane furnace which required segmented heating.

Matt fixed the tripod two meters in front of the anvil, adjusted the angle, and ensured the viewfinder covered the area between the anvil and the power hammer. He then pulled out a phone holder from his backpack and mounted his iPhone to the side as a second camera position, angled towards the furnace door and quenching tank. Although the image quality wasn't as good as the main camera, having an extra camera position provided more options during post-production editing.

The steel billet slowly turned red in the furnace. Every minute or two, Lin Yuan would turn it over with tongs to ensure the heat penetrated evenly into the steel from all directions. This was a basic operation, without any fancy techniques, but he did it very carefully—uniform temperature was the first hurdle in forging; uneven temperature would lead to all sorts of trouble later.

When the steel billet turned a bright orange color, Lin Yuan used pliers to remove it and quickly walked towards the anvil.

Matt took the camera off the tripod and held it in his hand, following behind him. After the main camera moved, the tripod was empty, and the phone to the side continued recording. The orange of the billet and the dark gray of the anvil formed a stark contrast in the viewfinder.

The power hammer started, and the hammerhead fell. The steel billet stretched on the anvil, and Lin Yuan controlled the feed speed and hammering frequency, gradually lengthening the billet from two feet in length. Each strike landed precisely in the predetermined position, no more, no less, without deviation.

There is no forging, no sandwiching, no water quenching; it is just the most basic single steel forging, heating, stretching, and shaping.

Matt followed the filming diligently the entire time, only changing the battery once.

He put the camera back on the tripod, pulled up the playback, and watched it. In the footage, Lin Yuan's movements were smooth and fluid, without any unnecessary pauses, and the rhythm of the hammer falling was as steady as a metronome.

The billet was stretched from two feet to nearly five feet, and the basic outline of the sword blade emerged.

Lin Yuan removed the broken sword from the power hammer, used pliers to flip it over, and checked the thickness transition.

From the root to the tip, the decreasing arc of thickness is uniform, with no sections that are too thick or too thin.

He returned the broken sword to the furnace to heat it, preparing it for a second round of fine shaping.

This time he used a hand hammer. The power hammer is responsible for rough shaping, while the hand hammer is responsible for the details, such as curves and symmetry. He stood in front of the anvil for nearly an hour, hammering away at the diamond-shaped cross-section of the sword blade.

After every few hammer blows, use a protractor to measure the symmetry of both sides. If it's off-center, add two more hammer blows until the curves of all four sides are perfectly aligned.

Matt fixed the camera to the side and front to film the entire hammering process.

He didn't speak or ask any questions, but occasionally adjusted the angle of the fill light or replaced the memory card.

After the sword was shaped, Lin Yuan began to apply the proper fire.

He reheated the sword blank to the critical temperature, then took it out and placed it on refractory bricks to cool naturally. The purpose of this step was to eliminate forging stress and refine the grains, preparing it for the subsequent quenching.

The normalizing process takes time, so he used the break to clean the oxide scale off the anvil and put the scattered tools back in their place.

After normalizing, quenching is next. Lin Yuan walked to the quenching tank, which was filled with rapid quenching oil.

First, I used tongs to hold the sword blank above the oil and preheated it, then I immersed the entire sword blank into the oil.

The hissing sound of the oil was short and crisp, and the fumes surged up from the trough and were drawn away by the exhaust pipe.

He silently counted a few seconds, then took out the sword blank and checked its straightness—no warping, no cracks.

The tempering was carried out in the tempering furnace. Lin Yuan set the temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and kept it at that temperature for two hours.

He closed the furnace door, took off his gloves, walked to the worktable, sat down, and picked up his thermos to drink a few mouthfuls of water.

Matt walked over and sat down on the stool next to him: "We've shot enough footage to edit a piece."

"This is just a rough test." Lin Yuan put the thermos on the table. "Once the equipment arrives, I'll make the official version. After the hilt and scabbard are finished, we'll take pictures of the finished product for display."

"You only used basic techniques today," Matt said, leaning back in his chair. "Those forging and bending methods are useless."

"This is a test version. We'll run through the entire process with ordinary high-carbon steel first to make sure the furnace and equipment are working properly before making the official version." Lin Yuan stood up, walked to the tempering furnace, glanced at the temperature gauge, and then walked back. "The official version will use cloud-patterned steel and silver-iron alloy, which is much more complicated. If something goes wrong with the test version, it's ruined, so be it. I won't feel bad about it."

Matt nodded and didn't ask any more questions. He took out his phone and sent Zhang Yue a message, saying that some footage had been shot and they would be edited together once the final product was released.

After two hours of tempering, Lin Yuan took the sword blank out of the furnace and let it cool naturally in the air. The surface of the sword was covered with a uniform layer of dark gray oxide scale, the blade lines were clean, and the four sides of the rhomboid cross-section showed a symmetrical luster under the light.

He picked up the sword blank and looked at it, then used calipers to measure the thickness transition again. The data was exactly the same as the target marked in his notebook.

He placed the prototype sword blank in the corner of the workbench against the wall and covered it with a cotton cloth.

Lin Yuan didn't intend to attach a formal hilt and scabbard to this sword, nor would he give it any fine surface treatment. Its mission was to verify whether the new furnace and equipment worked smoothly together, and to familiarize Lin Yuan with the forging process of such a large weapon.

Judging from today's results, everything is fine.

As for the sword itself, Lin Yuan didn't intend to waste it, but he hadn't figured out what to do with it yet, so he decided to keep it for now.