Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

Chapter 83

The next day, Lin Yuan began preparing the materials for the official version of the divine leather sewing needle.

He took 1085 high-carbon steel plates and 15N20 nickel steel sheets from the material shelf and cut them into sheets of the appropriate size according to the proportions of the cloud-patterned steel. The core material for the silver-iron alloy was one of the blanks from the batch that had been prepared in a previous batch—a few extra were prepared when making rough blanks for Nelson and Jason last time, and they were just used here.

Matt arrived at the forge earlier than the day before. He imported the footage he had shot the previous day into his laptop, did a rough cut, and then wrote the final shooting plan on a sticky note and stuck it next to the tool rack: forging, bending, fusion, quenching...

The process involves seven stages: fine grinding, tooling, and finished product. The camera positions and shooting routes for each stage are clearly marked.

"I have a lot of work to do today, so I might not have time to talk to you," Matt said while adjusting the camera. "Don't worry about me, just keep shooting at your own pace."

Lin Yuan nodded and sent the stacked billets into the coke oven. This time it was a seven-layer structure with a silver-iron alloy core in the middle, and 1085 and 15N20 stacked alternately on both sides, with the outermost layer covered with 1085. Before stacking, the oxide scale of each layer was sanded off with a belt sander, wiped clean with acetone, and then fixed with a spot welding machine.

The coke in the furnace was thoroughly burned, and orange-red flames peeked out from the gaps in the coke. Lin Yuan placed the billet horizontally in the middle of the furnace, closed the furnace door, and adjusted the airflow of the blower. The melting point of the silver-iron alloy is lower than that of pure steel, and the forging temperature window is narrower. He needs to precisely control the heating rate so that the heat is gradually conducted from the outer layer to the core layer, preventing the silver from melting prematurely before it has fully combined with the steel in its solid state.

Matt stood to the side, holding a camera. Orange light shone through the gap in the furnace door in the viewfinder, illuminating Lin Yuan's profile. He didn't zoom in immediately, but maintained a medium shot, capturing Lin Yuan's expression as he observed the color of the furnace, along with the furnace door itself, in the frame.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Yuan judged that the temperature had reached the target. He used tongs to remove the billet and strode towards the power hammer. The goal of the first round of forging was to initially fuse the silver-iron alloy core with the steel layers on both sides, eliminating the oxide scale and gaps between the layers, and ensuring that each layer was tightly bonded while maintaining its own material properties. The hammer head fell, and the billet spread out on the anvil. With each strike, he adjusted the position of the steel billet to ensure that the hammering force evenly covered the entire contact surface.

His perception of the fusion forging process activated with each hammer blow. He could sense the silver layer gradually thinning, extending evenly from the center outwards without localized agglomeration or edge tearing. A clear interface formed between the silver-iron alloy layer and the adjacent 1085 layer, but without oxide inclusions or microcracks; the bonding strength between the two materials was sufficient. After one round of forging, the billet's length increased by approximately one-third, while the width remained unchanged.

He returned the billet to the furnace and adjusted the damper to raise the temperature. For the second round of forging, he switched to the anvil and used a hand hammer. The feedback from the hand hammer was more precise than that of the power hammer. He could sense the bonding state between different material layers the moment the hammer fell. If the bonding was not good enough, he would add a couple more hammer blows. If the temperature was too low, he would slow down the pace to allow the heat to redistribute.

Matt followed behind him with a camera, the lens always pointed at the contact surface between the billet and the anvil. His filming was more steady than yesterday, and the trajectory of the hammer falling was clearly visible on the screen.

The third, fourth, and fifth rounds of forging. With each round, the number of layers in the billet doubled, and the interface between the silver-iron alloy layer and the steel layer became increasingly thin, yet always clearly discernible. The pale gold of the silver-iron alloy, the dark gray of 1085, and the bright silver of 15N20 formed alternating stripes on the cross-section. Lin Yuan stopped after each round to measure the thickness and width with calipers, recorded the data in his notebook, and then continued to the next round.

By the sixth round of forging, the number of layers had reached 448. Several layers of oxide scale on the surface of the billet had peeled off during repeated heating and forging, revealing the fine metal texture underneath. Lin Yuan used a steel brush to remove the remaining borax debris, clamped the defective material in front of the belt sander for rough grinding for a few seconds, and then immersed it in pickling solution.

Remove after a few tens of seconds and rinse clean. The pattern has emerged, showing the light gold layer of the silver-iron alloy and the dark layer of 1085.

The alternating layers of 15N20 light-colored material, after acid washing, create a clear contrast between black, white, and gray. Although it's not the final effect yet, the framework of the cloud pattern is already visible—not neat parallel lines, but rather a flowing feel with subtle curves.

"That's about it." Lin Yuan placed the blank on the worktable and took off his gloves.

Matt put down the camera, walked over, and glanced down. "Is this the cloud pattern?"

"Two more rounds of forging are needed. It's only over four hundred layers now. The blade of the divine skin-stitched sword is long, so it's more suitable to have around one thousand five or two thousand layers. Any more and the pattern will become blurred." Lin Yuan wiped the blank clean with a cotton cloth. "We'll continue forging tomorrow, and heat treat it the day after."

"Xiao Li has already sent over the modeling files for the equipment; I'll go to school tomorrow and print them out using the 3D printer."

Matt took out his phone, took a picture of the blank material, and sent it to Zhang Yue with the message: "I have the material, but don't send it yet. Wait for the finished product."

"Is the footage we shot today enough to edit a trailer?" Lin Yuan asked.

"That's enough." Matt took the camera off the tripod and put it into the equipment case. "We'll edit the main feature when the final product comes out, but I can make a trailer tonight. You do your work, I'll handle the post-production."

Lin Yuan walked to the furnace and turned off the blower. The flames gradually died down, and the coke faded from bright orange to dark red, then from dark red to grayish-black. The exhaust pipe ran for a few more minutes, emptying the remaining smoke from the furnace, and then automatically stopped.

The forging workshop quieted down. Matt had already packed up his equipment case and was standing at the door waiting with his bag on his back. Lin Yuan wrapped the blank in asbestos cloth and placed it in the corner of the workbench, next to the test version of the sword blank from yesterday. The two sword blanks lay side by side, one a prototype of ordinary high-carbon steel, and the other a semi-finished product of cloud-patterned steel that was taking shape.

He locked the gate and got into the car.

The car drove out of the parking lot and onto the highway. The streetlights were already on, their orange glow streaking across the windshield.

Lin Yuan leaned back on the headrest, his mind going over the forging process for tomorrow—the temperature window needed to be tightened even more, as the silver-iron alloy was prone to uneven distribution under high forging cycles, requiring more frequent sensing of the state of each layer using stacked forging.

Matt didn't play any music; the only sound in the car was the low rumble of tires rolling over the road.

"I'll send you the trailer once it's edited," Matt said. "Take a look, and if it's okay, I'll send it to Zhang Yue and have her arrange the release time. Ideally, it should be released simultaneously with ours, so that the release effect will be optimal, and you can gain popularity in both the US and China at the same time."

"Okay." Lin Yuan nodded in agreement.