Straight man of steel

Chapter 32 Good steel is used wisely (recommendation ticket requested)
"Go get a log."

Zhang Yuan yelled to the side, and then someone brought a fairly thick trunk of the green bar tree.Aiming at the tree trunk, Zhang Yuan raised his ax and chopped it up at once. With a click, the tree trunk snapped off.

The ax made of steel is more than twice as easy to use as the ordinary pig iron ax.

"Young master, did you use that piece of steel to forge an axe?"

The tree trunk was moved by Uncle Zhao, who also asked this question. We all work in the same yard. Although he has never participated in the smelting of this iron billet before, when everyone eats and chats on weekdays Also know what happened.

"That's right, this power is much better than the one you usually use, Uncle Zhao. You should use it first, and drain the water from the crouching wheel as soon as possible."

Uncle Zhao was obviously surprised by Zhang Yuan's waste of using fine steel to make an axe, and he was even more surprised when he heard that it was for himself.

"My lord, a sword made of fine steel can sell for hundreds of gold in the market, but if it is made into an ax, the price will be much lower."

Zhang Yuan looked at Uncle Zhao's digging and searching, and while handing him the ax, he pointed to a few iron billets leaning against the edge of the blacksmith's table. These iron billets were forged by Zhang Yuan in the past two days. They were poured according to Zhang Yuan's instructions.

"Do you think we will still be short of steel in the future? Take it, and build the horizontal wheel water row earlier. The price of a water row will not be lower than a steel sword."

Seeing the iron slabs that Zhang Yuan pointed at, Uncle Zhao realized that his son had mastered the technique of smelting steel. In the future, not to mention that the axes are made of fine steel, it is very likely that his hoes will be made of fine steel.

"Old slave knows, with this ax it should be able to shorten the time by a day or two."

"Okay, let's go to work."

As soon as he learned the price of steel knives and steel swords from Uncle Zhao, Zhang Yuan came up with the idea of ​​making a fortune by himself. Originally, he just wanted to make some household utensils and then fool the tasks given by the system. Forget it, now he has a new plan, which is to forge a batch of weapons made of fine steel, and then sell them for money.

The first pot of gold is very important to upgrade from a wage earner at the mercy of others to a capital that can spend without worrying about running out of money no matter how much you spend.

It is not difficult for Zhang Yuan to forge some iron pots or axes, but if a whole knife is produced, these murderous weapons will take a lot of energy and effort, the most important thing is the skill of forging.

Among the people selected by Zhang Yuan, there are only four people who really have their own craftsmanship, the cook in the kitchen, Uncle Zhao who goes out to chop trees with a refined steel ax, and two blacksmiths who are mixed in the metal smelting business.

"Xiong Da, Xiong Er, you two come here."

Well, when Zhang Yuan chose these two blacksmiths, he was looking at their lives.

"Young master, what do you want us to do?"

A man with a strong back and a waist is a necessary condition for becoming an excellent blacksmith. The two brothers Xiong Daxiong Er are no exception. Perhaps because of their names, Zhang Yuan feels that the two of them may have a kind of honesty than ordinary people. If there is really that, it will not be seen until the days of getting along with each other get longer and longer.

"Have you two made swords before?"

Xiong Daxiong Er is not very old. Although it is said that he has been with a bunch of blacksmiths since he was a child, it has only been six years since he really took the blacksmith's hammer and started working for the Zhuo family. Zhang Yuan is very skeptical about objects such as swords and swords.

"When I was young, I followed my master and forged several swords and daggers."

Zhang Yuan thought about it, when Xiong Daxiong Er was young, it was probably at that time that the Seven Kings Rebellion broke out, and then the Zhuo family asked their blacksmiths to make swords in order to earn money from the Han court.

"Well, there are two anvils here, how about the two of you sharing a stove?
Take those billets and forge two knives here. "

Although it is said that they share a stove, as long as the rhythm is grasped, there will be no problems.

"No big problem, we two brothers have shared a stove before."

A look of joy appeared on Zhang Yuan's face, and he personally took two iron billets and placed them on Xiong Da Xiong Er's anvil.

The two first picked up the anvil and looked at it for a while, probably weighing it in their hearts, then each picked up a chainsaw and started sawing.

Xiong Da Xiong Er is a real blacksmith, not a half-way monk like Zhang Yuan. The two of them operated smoothly, making Zhang Yuan who was standing by the side want to applaud.

If I had half the skill of others, I wouldn't have to spend a few days forging an axe.

The main material is an iron billet poured with pig iron, which has inherent advantages for making a knife or sword.

The pig iron in the middle has basically been converted into carbon steel by the process of carbon infiltration, while the two sides are still wrought iron due to force majeure, but wrought iron has better ductility than steel, and it is suitable as the back of the knife or the backbone of the sword. However, carbon steel, which is already in the middle of the billet, naturally plays the role of the blade.

Good steel should be used on the blade.

What Xiong Da made was a knife, and what Xiong Er made was a sword. Obviously, it took more effort to make a sword than a knife. The knife made by Xiong Da soon became a knife. The shape it should have.

Immediately afterwards, he put down the knife in his hand, ran to the kitchen and fetched three buckets, two buckets were filled with water, Xiong Da put down the two buckets filled with water, and ran to the side of the stream to pick up another bucket. Bucket of clear snowmelt water.

Zhang Yuan is not a fool. He knows that Xiong Da is preparing for tempering. These three buckets of water, one bucket of snowmelt water, one bucket of oil water, and one bucket of water are no different from ordinary water. Zhang Yuan knows it is salt water at a guess. Thinking about tempering with urine by myself, it is really shameful to throw it at grandma's house.

But what Zhang Yuan didn’t know was that the reason why Xiong Da used oil, water and salt water was all because he felt that Zhang Yuan was rich and powerful and looked like a scholar. Usually, other blacksmiths used urine to temper swords. Urine In addition to salt, it contains other elements, and the effect of tempering swords is more obvious.

After Xiong Da's set of operations, Zhang Yuan realized that the most important thing in making a sword is tempering. Because the composition of water is different, the time and location of Xiong Da's immersion of the knife in the bucket are also different.

Without several years of practice, it is estimated that these things cannot be mastered. Zhang Yuan began to feel that to complete the task, it would be more realistic to build tools such as axes and hoes.

(End of this chapter)