121 – Iron Age (2)
Before melting the ore, Chester took a piece of wood and started carving it with a machete.
“Does it really have to be carved with a machete?”
“The claw knife is too dull. I want to cut it as well as possible.”
Place a machete on top of two pieces of firewood, float it a little on the floor, hold down on it, and move the piece of wood you want to carve while cutting it.
Chester, who carefully and carefully carves the block of wood, unlike when he usually carves as a hobby, took a little rest while kneading his shoulders and trapezius muscle, which were tense from tension.
‘You don’t have to be too perfect. I just need to carve it out of stone and polish it.’
But as perfectly as possible.
Chester carved a knife that fits his hand and is the most familiar shape.
Considering Chester’s large hands, the handle part was made a little longer and thicker, and a groove was made between the blade and the handle so that the hand could be accidentally slipped and cut when handling the knife.
After carefully shaving the shape of the knife, I press the knife firmly on the mud to stamp out the shape.
On top of the mud where the knife was dipped, the mud was again covered like a lid, and finally, the hole where the molten iron was injected was poked with a twig.
After letting the mud dry, Chester removed the two clay plates and checked that the knife-shaped molds were properly formed.
“yes. Sounds good.”
After examining the situation, Chester nodded his head in satisfaction, finished all preparations, and began preparing to melt the ore in earnest.
Put about two ores in the cup you made, and put it into the kiln.
And he started to light a fire.
* * *
“It doesn’t melt. It won’t melt no matter what!”
To begin with, melting the ore failed.
“It seems to be burning red.”
“Yeah, it gets heated, so it must be hot.”
“right.”
However, it was only to the extent that it received heat, not enough to melt the ore.
“… … I need to increase my firepower.”
“how?”
“First, let’s increase the hole to inject air.”
After a brief pause in melting the ore, Chester began repairing the kiln.
First, after breaking and collapsing a part of the kiln, a passage is made to inject new air into it.
By further modifying one of the two remaining presses, a device for injecting air is made and connected.
Afterwards, Chester and Monia rekindled the fire and worked hard together to melt the ore by injecting air into it while pressing down on the suppressor.
But.
“Ahhh! really! Melt some!”
“Why doesn’t it melt! damn it!”
The ore was redder than before, but still not enough to melt.
“But I did confirm that adding more air makes the fire stronger. … … I need more air.”
Chester broke the kiln and drilled a new hole next to the air inlet he had already made.
The idea was to inject air by pressing the two presses with both arms at the same time.
“Let’s not just put firewood, but put charcoal underneath. And don’t mind the impurities, let’s cover the whole cup with firewood. Impurities can be retrieved later, or you can tolerate a little bit of impurities.”
“Yes.”
Monia and Chester nodded and put charcoal under the kiln.
I made a hole in the center of the charcoal, inserted a cup containing ore into it, fixed it, and started covering the area with firewood.
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Light the fire again, and begin the third attempt.
“Melt!”
“Melt!”
The two prayed so earnestly and pressed down on the pad.
* * *
Chester tried various means.
I pay attention to the ratio of firewood that burns well and firewood that burns for a long time, reducing the time to open the lid and replenish firewood as much as possible and increase the time to inject air into the fire.
Rather than putting ore and firewood together in a cup and covering the ore with fire, they also burned it with direct fire.
When the ore melted, the stone that was not taken care of to remove it was cut away as much as possible to expose a lot of ore and increase the area that the fire touches.
I made another kiln to extend it to the air inlet, and borrowed the power of Monia’s discerning eye to make a new lid that covers the kiln, and then cut the lid along the bumpy part of the kiln’s edge to fit the kiln as much as possible so that the flame spilled out and created an airtight space.
How many times have you tasted failure while trying and trying again to melt the ore?
A sense of skepticism developed in Monia’s heart little by little, but Chester did not give up and steadfastly tried to melt the ore.
Perhaps Chester’s efforts paid off, and the results finally came.
Chester carefully pushed off the lid of the kiln, which had been heated by the long fire, with his foot, pushed away the firewood piled up inside and inspected the cup.
“… … Five.”
“why? Didn’t it melt again?”
“It melted.”
“… … Yes?”
At Chester’s small word, Monia also let go of the weight she had been working hard on and ran to the palanquin.
And the moment she saw the silvery liquid dripping in the cup, Monia unconsciously clenched her fists and threw them towards the sky.
“aaa! melted!!”
It resembled what Chester did whenever he did something difficult.
In fact, Chester was also shouting with both arms poked into the sky next to Monia.
“aaa! melted! It melted!”
“done! finally! Finally! Aww! It was so hard!!”
“You’re giving people a hard time, you bastard!”
“Why the hell hasn’t it melted until now! Thank you for melting me!”
They stomped their feet and made a fuss, they clung to each other and danced and cheered, or sang strange songs that ran wild in their hearts.
Melting the ore was such a painstaking task for them.
“Ah, this is not the time!”
Chester stopped spinning while holding Monia in his arms, put her down, and raised the two tree trunk tongs.
The one I used before kept putting cups in and out of the kiln, and it got burned and weakened by repeating it, so I made a new one.
Using tree trunk tongs, he carefully pulled out the cup, and then using two twigs as chopsticks, he pulled out impurities that swayed in the molten metal.
A piece of stone that escaped as the ore melted. Or the ash mixed in when firewood burns. After getting all that dross out, Chester took the molten iron to the clay slab.
Carefully, so as not to spill it by any chance, the molten iron was poured into the hole in the clay plate with such care that even the slightest tremor of the nervous hand felt irritating.
As he watched the molten iron slowly fill the hole, Chester tilted the cup back down and shook the clay slab.
“… … .”
Monia, who had been silently watching the work in a nervous state, carefully looked at Chester.
“Are you done?”
“yes. Now we have to wait for it to harden.”
“Hey, don’t you knock on the ground?”
“minor? Not possible in our environment. I know that forging makes you stronger than not forging… … .”
“I made it after all this hard work, but isn’t it better to do what I can to the best I can?”
At Monia’s words, Chester thought for a moment.
“Well. exactly… If you’re going to do it, it’s better to do whatever you can as best you can.”
Wasn’t that the reason why Chester built the canal? It is difficult to go from home to the river every day to fetch water, so in the hopes of doing so, a large-scale construction was made to build a canal.
“yes. … … So, let’s do the best we can. There must be a lot of ore, so you can make enough tools.”
“Yes?”
Chester nodded earnestly, and Monia smiled and lifted a bamboo.
“What is that?”
“Oh, I want to remodel some water bottles. Even if you do, it’s not something grandiose, and if you make a narrow hole instead of opening all the drinking ports, won’t the water flow less when you carry it around?”
“Well. Surely there are water bottles. Instead of covering the entrance with a lid, make the entrance narrow and carry it around.”
“Oh yeah? Anyway, I’m trying to make it.”
Monia had been thinking about it ever since she challenged the coming-of-age ceremony, and after a lot of things happened and dragged on, she was finally doing this work.
But Chester thought Monia was considering this because of her experience of running out of water as the river disappeared along the way as she went on an expedition upstairs.
Whatever it is, good is good, Chester patted Monia on the shoulder, telling her to make it better.
“Because the shape is simple, I was able to make it sooner than I thought. If I had known it would be like this, I would have made it a long time ago.”
Monia intended to make this and get praised by Chester, but somehow her conscience stung her conscience to receive praise for such a simple task.
“No, great. I wasn’t paying much attention to the water bottle. I’m glad Monia thought of it for me.”
As Chester said that and hugged her from behind, Monia gave a smile that soon loosened up.