Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

Chapter 92

Lin Yuan walked to the materials shelf and took the two rough blanks that had been properly tempered yesterday onto the worktable. Nelson's Bowie hunting knife and Jason's camping knife could now be finely ground. He turned on the belt sander, first loading a coarse-grit belt, and ran it over the oxide scale on the surface of the rough blanks, revealing the uniform metallic base underneath.

His phone vibrated on the desk. He took off his gloves, picked it up, and glanced at it. It was an email from Zhang Yue.

The email subject was "Data Summary of Domestic Platforms," ​​and the content was short. After the video was simultaneously released on Bilibili, it garnered over 60,000 views and more than 2,000 comments and bullet comments. On Douyin, the views were even higher, approaching 100,000, but the depth of comments was not as great as on Bilibili.

The data on Weibo and Xiaohongshu was relatively stable, mainly due to people asking for links in the comment sections under the reposted videos. Zhang Yue mentioned at the end of the email that an editor from Bilibili contacted her, asking if she could put the video in the recommended section of the knowledge area. She replied that she could, but hoped that the original title would be used and not changed when it was displayed on the homepage.

After reading the email, Lin Yuan put his phone back on the table, put his gloves back on, and continued pushing the sander belt.

Nelson's Bowie hunting knife has a nine-inch blade and a slender shape. During fine grinding, the curves on all four sides need to be kept symmetrical, and the edges cannot be rounded off. He ran his fingers over the blade several times to check the smoothness of each transition surface, and then switched to fine-grit sanding belt to begin the second grinding.

Matt walked over with a cup of coffee and stood by the worktable for a while.

"There's a message on YouTube that an account that makes replicas of game items wants to collaborate with you. Their model is that you make the weapons, they create videos and do joint promotions, and the profits are split 50/50."

"You tell him that we're not considering cooperation for now; let's focus on establishing the channel first."

Matt nodded, took out his phone, and started typing a reply.

Lin Yuan continued pushing the sandpaper. After the fine mesh count was completed, the surface of the blade had a uniform metallic luster. The layers of the cloud pattern were very clear under the light. The light gold layer of silver-iron alloy and the dark layer of 1085 were arranged alternately. Unlike the cold white tone of the divine leather stitching, it was closer to the effect when making short cross-section knives for Doug.

He placed the Bowie hunting knife rough on the workbench and picked up the camping knife rough to begin fine-sharpening. The camping knife was a size smaller than the Bowie hunting knife, with a rounded tip, making fine-sharpening easier. However, Jason required that the flat-edged area on the back of the blade be treated separately. That unsharpened flat back needed to retain the original forging marks and couldn't be ground too smooth, otherwise the contrast in texture with the sharpened part wouldn't be obvious.

He covered the flat-backed area with masking tape, only grinding the edge and the main body of the blade. He lowered the belt sander's speed by one level and pushed slowly, ensuring a smooth transition of the blade's curve from the hilt to the tip. Half an hour later, the fine grinding of the camping knives was complete. He placed the two knives side by side on the workbench, wiped away the metal shavings with a soft cloth, then took two photos with his phone and sent them to Zhang Yue with the caption: "Nelson and Jason's order, fine grinding complete. Heat treatment and fittings tomorrow."

Zhang Yue replied quickly: "Received. Should I post a separate update for these two people's orders? The fans want to see the progress."

""

Lin Yuan thought for a moment and replied, "Okay."

When Nielsen and Jason's order entered the heat treatment process, the video data of Shenpi's stitching was still increasing.

The first thing Matt did every day when he arrived at the forge was to check the data on his YouTube channel. The second day, the number of views reached just over 20,000, and the third day it surpassed 30,000. The discussion in the comments section did not show any significant decline; new messages continued to pour in every day. Some were urging for the next episode, some were asking about custom orders, and others were seriously discussing the details of the craftsmanship.

What really excited Matt was the fourth day.

As he walked into the forge with his coffee, the numbers on his phone screen made him pause. He stood at the doorway and looked at it again to make sure he wasn't mistaken, then walked to the workbench and held the phone up to Lin Yuan.

"Forty-eight thousand. We've passed forty-eight thousand today."

Lin Yuan was chamfering the handle of his camping knife, his file never stopping. "It's rising faster than the last two days."

"The YouTube algorithm has started pushing." Matt pulled over a folding chair, sat down, and turned his phone sideways to look at the detailed data. "The traffic source breakdown has changed. Previously, 60% came from search and channel pages, but today, recommended traffic accounts for over 40%. This means the algorithm is pushing videos to people who haven't subscribed to channels."

He placed his phone on the worktable, crossed his hands on his knees, and watched Lin Yuan push the file. "At this rate, we should reach 60,000 by the end of the week. For the first video on a new channel, that's a pretty good start."

Lin Yuan put down the file, picked up the handle patch of the camping knife, and checked the evenness of the chamfer under the light. Then he clamped it back into the vise and continued working. The grain of the black walnut wood showed alternating light and dark stripes under the light. He used fine sandpaper to give the surface of the patch one last pass, then removed the vise and put the two patches together to check for symmetry.

Nelson's Bowie hunting knife uses the same black walnut wood for the handle, but the fittings are different—the Bowie's guard is made of cast brass, while the camping knife uses a lighter aluminum alloy. He verified the feasibility of aluminum alloy printing in the fittings of the Shenpi Sewing Needle and decided to continue using this approach in subsequent orders.

Daniel walked over from the materials shelf, carrying a bundle of newly arrived sanding belts. After stacking them on the shelf, he went to the office area and glanced at Matt's computer screen. "Forty-eight thousand? Yesterday it was just over thirty thousand."

"The algorithm has started running," Matt repeated.

Daniel shook his head and said in a tone that was somewhere between admiration and感慨, "The Internet is really a great thing," before going back to continue organizing the materials shelf.

In the afternoon, Lin Yuan began heat treatment on the Nelson and Jason knives. The quenching and tempering process was the same as when he made the short crossbow, only the blade dimensions were different, and the angle and speed of oil immersion were slightly adjusted. The Bowie hunting knife's blade length was longer than the short crossbow's; when immersing it in oil, the blade edge contacted the oil surface first, and then the entire blade slid in at a uniform speed, ensuring that thermal stress was evenly distributed along the blade's axis. The camping knife's smaller size made quenching easier to control, so he didn't spend too much time on it.

After the tempering was complete, he took the two knives out of the tempering furnace and placed them on the worktable to cool naturally. The blades were covered with a uniform layer of oxide scale, which would reveal the underlying cloud-like patterns after fine grinding.

Matt walked over and glanced at it, then took out his phone from his pocket and turned the screen towards Lin Yuan. "I just received a private message. A YouTuber with about 300,000 subscribers specializes in creating realistic recreations of game weapons. He wants to do a collaboration video with you—you make a weapon he specifies using traditional forging techniques, and he does the comparison and performance testing of game assets. Profits split 50/50."

"What weapon?"

"He said it was negotiable, depending on what type of weapon you're good at. He values ​​the accuracy of the craftsmanship more than the size of the weapon."

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