The special hole at the lower end of the furnace was opened, and soon, some hot molten material quickly flowed out.
This is slag, and their current state is actually no different from magma.
The pure smelting work can basically be declared over at this point. After most of the slag has flowed out, what is left in the still hot furnace must be sponge iron that has been riddled with holes. .
If ordinary iron ore is thrown into the furnace, what is in the furnace will be pure iron in a sponge state with almost no oxygen or carbon. But how can a pure substance exist in the world? Even if it is wrought iron (pure iron), not only does it contain carbon, oxygen, and sulfur, it will definitely contain a little bit of other metals, and you can even find gold atoms.
The overall impact of trace amounts of impurities on the performance of metal materials is weak, unless the impurity content reaches a certain proportion.
Hot gas is still gushing out from the furnace mouth, and the fuel in it has not been exhausted. Even if the charcoal blocks have turned into smoke, the furnace can still maintain a high temperature for a long time.
The internal composition of the sponge iron is very special and burns red. Compared with ordinary sponge iron, if you want to melt them, the furnace must be baked to 1800°C.
They are really special sponge iron. After being baked in a furnace at 1100°C for no less than four hours, they finally became malleable.
After a night's hard work and half a day's struggle, Kawei looked at the drained slag with relief.
His sore and strong arms suddenly held a huge fire tongs.
Some blacksmiths with poor skills will first destroy the furnace in order to take out the smelted sponge iron. Because the clay stove itself was treated as a disposable tool, destruction was done.
Clavason did not dare to mess around like this. He was a professional blacksmith, and his furnace had to be used repeatedly and repaired frequently. When his son Kawei arrived, he would rather use a huge fire tongs to "take chestnuts from the fire."
He stood on a high place, holding the fire tongs with both hands. He held his breath and gritted his teeth to endure the spurting hot gas. The sweat was quickly dried, and he felt that his face was about to be roasted. Curly hair also seems to be on fire.
Finally, the tongs caught a twisted piece of sponge iron and he pulled it out. The red and whitish iron block suddenly fell to the ground, and Kawei yelled: "Kamne! Hurry!" Seeing this, Kamne hurriedly held the small fire tongs and used all his strength to pull it. Clamp the sponge iron and bring it to the blacksmith's bench that Kawei brought from home - a large iron weight that was shaped into a flat surface.
What Rurik saw was really thrilling, and he couldn't help but sweat for Kawei. At the same time, he was also very worried that his valet Kamne would accidentally get seriously burned. Simply speaking, everything went according to plan and no one was injured.
Kawei jumped down. He ignored the mercenaries who continued to watch the show and the boys who were stunned.
He ran directly to the wooden barrel placed aside and used it for quenching.He poured the river water of karma directly on his head to cool down his head that was about to catch fire.
His strange behavior could not help but shock Rurik.
"What's wrong with you? Are you injured?!" Rurik asked nervously.
"It's okay." Kawei's spirit has not fully recovered, and he feels that his face is still hot. He roughly pushed Rurik away, then strode forward and shouted: "Ah! It's time to be forged! This is a man's business!"
Rurik looked a little confused, and then , Kawei was stunned to give orders to him. In the final analysis, Kawei did not expect some little boys to take control of the situation when forging sponge iron.
Kawei knew Rurik’s strong concern for smelting. His rough and hot hands were placed on Rurik’s shoulders, and his eyes lit up with fire: “Rurik, I hope for your support now.”
"You...just say it. I will support you."
"I want your mercenaries, I want them to help me smelt iron."
< p>"This...Okay!"Considering that Kawei threw in a lot of ore so early in the morning, the slag flowing out is not very much. There must be a large amount of sponge iron in this towering furnace. However, if the sponge iron obtained with great effort cannot be immediately forged into embryos of tools or weapons at the right time, it will actually be a foolish and extravagant waste.
Then, Rurik noticed the "support forging" order he issued, and the mercenaries just said it feebly. They are not tired because of frequent relay operations to operate the blowers. It is just because they are mercenaries and warriors. Given their identity, including the blow just now, they also resisted in their hearts. Now they have to serve as temporary blacksmiths. How can they Are you so aware?
Haha, it seems that you are really a group of guys who are eager for material rewards and excitement.
Forging is a physical job, and it cannot be delayed. Rurik understands the work that Kawei arranged for the mercenaries. In fact, the work is extremely simple, which is to use the tongs to clamp the sponge iron to stabilize it. The real forging is of course the professional blacksmith Kawei himself.
Rurik shouted in public: "I am your sponsor! Listen, you must work for me. You are now working as a blacksmith, and you will receive a bonus after the work is completed. Your bonus is no longer It's some silver coins or grain, but an axe! You will make your own ax yourself. All the axes produced today will be bought by me, and they will all be your reward. I believe this will be what you see! The best ax I have ever had is also the best weapon you can master now."
When Rurik said this, the attitude of the emotionally resistant mercenaries changed. What about Kawei? He also had a strong motivation to continue fighting, because his most reliable partner, Rurik, was here. This kid claimed that he would spend money to buy it, which meant that he would really buy it at the market price.
For warriors, there is indeed nothing more exciting than getting a magical weapon or strong armor..
Rurik's mercenaries all hope to save enough money to buy a steel sword, or to perform meritorious service in future battles and be rewarded by their sponsors.
In fact, the mercenaries are really innocent. They can completely curry favor with Kawei and buy steel swords at a theoretically low price from this master who forges steel swords in a real sense.
However, it is okay if you can get an ax that has always been unparalleled. I think that in battle and life, axes are more commonly used than swords.
A strong man struggled to hold a lump of sponge iron, and Kawei used his own special hammer to forge it, carburize and quench it.
On the first impact, he would feel the strong force of the sponge iron.
"Ouch! It's really hard?! What's going on?"
His exclamation was a little loud, and Rurik hurriedly approached: "What's going on? "
"Rurik, it must be because of the strange thing in the ore. It's really hard."
"That's a good thing! What else do you have to explain? "?" Rurik asked.
"Then let others keep the furnace hot. Also, light up the small stove. I need to keep the iron high when forging."
Open air by the river The smelting plant soon became busy, and many people began to perform their duties. However, Kawei was the only one who actually made iron, and the others were all assistants.
Indeed, Rurik cannot expect his mercenaries to suddenly become blacksmiths. Their skills are not as good as those blacksmith apprentices who are only nine or ten years old. Even the blacksmith apprentices are just beginners, and their weak bodies allow them to do odd jobs.
Even though the forging has become more strenuous than ever, Kawei sweats and sweats. He feels that he can obtain a brand new metal material, and things are heading in the direction he desires.
A lump of sponge body was smashed into two pieces. After all, making a small hand ax mainly used for fighting and cutting the leg bones of prey does not require as much iron as a large forest ax. .
Although the forging was very strenuous, Kawei was sweating profusely, fully demonstrating the strength and bravery of a man.
Every time it was forged, sparks were thrown out, and the sponge iron also "collapsed" rapidly, finally turning into a dark red iron block.
Kawei threw the iron embryo into a small makeshift stove next to the big stove and stuffed it into hot coals to warm it up.
The iron material became suitable for forging again, and he began to refine it.
The iron block was beaten thinner and thinner, and the edge began to be sharply curved, and then the edge reserved for polishing was punched out.
It finally has the appearance of a small Nordic forest ax, such as a very curved ax blade and a narrow ax back.
The narrow Nordic-style ax back was continuously curled by Kawei's beating, and finally curled into holes. Based on this, he further forged it to create a plug-in structure to accommodate the ax handle.
His forging work suddenly stopped,Rurik, who was anxiously waiting for the result, suddenly shouted: "Kawei, how are you doing now?!"
Soon, Kawei responded to Rurik with a smile. Without saying much, he picked up a pair of pokers and clamped the ax that was still red and forged into a beautiful shape, and slowly put it into the wooden barrel filled with cold water.
The ax head cooled rapidly in the water, which showed that a thin oxide layer suddenly formed. It was not surprising that it turned black when it was taken out.
However, when Kawei started to use the sandstone whetstone he brought from his hometown to polish the ax embryo to remove the blackness and want to see the silver inner substance, something magical happened!
A large number of mercenaries rushed to Kawei, and Rurik simply got into the crowd and stood in front of the card position.
"What are you yelling about?" Rurik asked disdainfully, "Forging has made you crazy?!"
"Just take a look!" Kawei said nothing. He showed the slightly polished ax embryo in his hand.
Seeing this, Rurik frowned: "This... is actually darker than silver?"
"And the texture of the color is very delicate! It's so delicate." Kawei added .
"Is that just that?"
Kawei shrugged and showed his whetstone: "Compared to polishing other things, this ax embryo is really terrible. "
"Isn't it good enough?"
"No!" Kawei categorically denied, "It's so good that it will destroy my sharpening knife in no time. Stone. I'm sure it's harder than I thought!"
Hard? Is it really hard?
Rurik decided to conduct an experiment, and the experimental prop was the dagger he wore.
He pulled out his bright white dagger and couldn't help but ask: "They scrape each other, who can leave traces?"
"Of course it goes without saying. It’s this ax embryo,” Kawei said without hesitation.
"Not necessarily! When did you feel that it took a lot of effort to build this sword of mine?"
"This..." Kawei was speechless for a moment. A weird idea came to mind. Could it be that a mere ax embryo has become harder than ever before? !
In fact, Rurik is now struggling to withstand a lot of pressure. In full view of everyone, he placed the ax embryo on the blacksmith's bench and scratched the polished section with his steel sword. What's the result? It wasn't that his hands lacked strength, there really weren't any scratches on the axe.
“Strange, so hard?!”
Rurik didn’t believe it. He threw the sword to Kawei and ordered, “Take it and chop it. Ax embryo."
Kawei took the sword and did not dare to act rashly in front of everyone. "Rurik, what's the matter? This is your sword."
"It doesn't matter, the sword is just a tool." Rurik crossed his arms and stared at the blacksmith's bench with determination on his face, " Give me a chop, hurry up!"
"Cut it!" Some mercenaries shouted.Said, the rest of the people raised their fists and yelled to encourage Kawei who was holding the sword.
Kawei made up his mind. Although he had an ominous premonition, he had to take risks with Rurik's sword.
He held the hilt of the sword with his strongest right hand, rounded it, and struck hard at the ax head. The strong impact caused him to let go. When Kawei picked up the fallen sword, he couldn't help but let go again.
Because he has never seen such a thing.
"What's going on?!" Rurik was a little impatient. He picked up his sword, and it was finally his turn to be shocked.
"Oh! It's unexpected! The blade of the sword broke?! It didn't have a curled edge, it just broke!" As he exclaimed, Rurik immediately rushed to the blacksmith's bench and took a closer look. He never thought that the ax embryo was just broken. There are small scratches. However, the blade of his carbon steel sword had cracked. Rurik knew very well that the sword must have had a large number of small cracks invisible to the naked eye. It could be said that the entire sword was scrapped.
For a moment, a sense of loss came to my mind. However, during a dazed moment while staring at the ax embryo, and seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar texture of the object, Rurik was finally able to make an accurate judgment.
"It's chromium! This thing is a ferrochromium alloy! If it is placed on a firewood pile, burned and carburized, its strength can be improved!"
Rurik's sense of loss only lasted In less than ten seconds, he thrust the scrapped sword onto the ground and happily held the ax embryo in both hands.
"Rurik, you..." Kawei really didn't know what to do. He tried so hard that he broke Rurik's treasure. He never thought that the child seemed to like the new and dislike the old.
Rurik burst into tears with joy: "We have finally made harder iron! It is chromium! It is really chromium! We will soon be able to make chromium steel! I want to use chromium steel Make a brand new sword! With it, all the steel swords are worth mentioning!”
It seemed that he was really excited, Kawei changed his expression and smiled reluctantly.
Actually, Kawei is still not sure what happened. On the surface, it is true that the ax embryo is harder than a steel sword, but just because at this time, he believes that Rurik will not be so excited that he goes crazy. This kid is not a man of impulse.
This is indeed the case. Rurik already understood that as long as the ax embryo undergoes a little carburizing work, it can be said to be stainless steel.
This ax embryo and even a lot of sponge iron in the stove are indeed ferrochromium alloys, and the key to stainless steel is that it contains a large proportion of chromium.
Now that it is confirmed that it is chromium, everything is clear.
Chrome steel is so hard that it can be tough on your will. Of course it is possible to use it to make weapons, but it is not suitable for making swords or steel crossbows at all. Now that the identity of the mysterious metal substance has been confirmed, Rurik overturned all his previous ideas.
Rurik was sure that even in theory, it was impossible for him to use the chromium steel here to make a crossbow. If he tried his best to make full use of the hardness of chromium steel, then it would be of great use. especially forRussian people, logging is a very important skill for everyone! Now, making axes out of ferrochromium alloy is really the most correct decision!
Rurik tried to calm down, and he returned the ax embryo to Kawei: "You can make me a good sword in the future, but now, you must make me a good sword from all the sponge iron." Ax embryo! You will spend the whole afternoon to complete this matter. After that, I will send people to carry out the carburizing treatment that will be smoldering all night." Kawei asked hesitantly: "I broke you. "Sword, have you forgiven me?"
"When did I get angry?" Rurik's sincere eyes spoke louder than words: "I know you are tired, but I still ask you to continue. Go down. Listen, you are making the hardest axe, it is chromium steel!" Rurik temporarily spelled out the word "Crstel" to describe chromium steel, but some onlookers preferred to call it "Crstel". The hardest iron.”
Ah! After all, it was Rurik who made the promise that every mercenary could have an ax made of these materials.
The mercenaries never expected that the financial owner would dare to sacrifice his own sword in order to obtain the hardest thing. They felt that they had made a lot of money, and they praised it with all their praises, praising it as a magic weapon. Then, for the subsequent forging of sponge iron, they changed all their sluggishness and became extremely excited.
It can be said that Rurik did sacrifice his sword and obtained chromium steel. This is indeed the case. The Russians already have the ability to obtain stainless steel tools using traditional methods and consuming a lot of manpower and material resources. ability.
In the face of the ultra-high performance of excellent metal materials, he felt that a series of efforts were worth it, even if it cost him his sword.