Does Smith know the little blacksmith in Milan? He knows nothing.
All he knew was that if those little brats misbehaved, he could only show them the hammer in his hand.
However, the hammer was clanging away incessantly.
"My lord, you said that if we pour that molten iron onto this iron later, we'll get better iron?" Smith asked Ed uncertainly. His puzzled expression revealed that he didn't quite agree with Ed's claim.
Is there better iron? He couldn't imagine it, and he couldn't believe that simply combining two types of iron and hammering them together would produce better iron.
"Yes, Smith, aren't you testing it right now? Okay, the molten iron over there is almost ready, take these over there."
Smith threw these small pieces of iron into the molten iron, then took them out and repeatedly heated and hammered them.
Ed just wanted to show him the method; of course, he wouldn't gather a lot of materials, just enough to forge one or two swords.
"Clang, clang, clang," the forging workshop was filled with Andrew's figure striking iron.
The more Andrew hammered, the more uneasy he felt. The iron block grew harder with each strike, surpassing the hardness of all the iron he had ever hammered before. Could it be that the lord was right, and that this thing, changing shape under his hammer, might indeed be iron of superior quality to all that he had encountered before?
"My lord, what should we do next?" Smith asked Ed, looking at the increasingly hard block of iron.
"You will forge a longsword according to this design. Now all you need to do is create the blank." Ed handed Smith a piece of paper with the design of a longsword drawn on it.
Smith took the paper. The sword was longer than any he had ever forged, and the blade was wider than a typical longsword; its appearance was also rather unusual. However, he didn't ask any questions, but instead began to hammer it according to the design on the paper.
"Ding ding ding"
"My lord, is this alright?" Smith asked breathlessly, handing the finished sword blank to Ed.
Ed took the sword blank and weighed it in his hand. The weight was acceptable, and the general shape of the blade was also quite good.
"Okay, that's good enough. Heat it until it's red-hot, then immediately put it in water and take it out."
"Ah! My lord, why do you do this?" Smith is asking a lot of questions today!
"Just do as I say, and you'll find out soon enough. It's basically just quenching the sword. Smith probably doesn't know that, and Ed doesn't plan to explain it to him now; that would be too much trouble. He'll understand once the sword blank is finished."
"My lord, it has been done as you instructed." Smith examined the unfinished sword from all angles, trying to see what was so special about it.
Do you have any other sword blanks here? If you need any, bring a few over.
Smith quickly went to find other sword blanks. A few days ago, Andrew came over and asked him to forge weapons, so he made some sword blanks.
"My lord, what do we do now?"
"Clash the newly forged sword blank with the old one."
"Oh! Is this okay?"
"Ding ding ding" followed a series of ding ding sounds.
"Ah! My lord, this newly forged sword blank is too powerful! It has cut so many holes in these old sword blanks."
Smith stared dumbfounded at the sword blank in his hand. This was the second time he had seen something unbelievable since the last time he saw molten iron.
"Lord...sir, what's this called?" Smith felt that something so powerful needed a powerful name.
"Let's call this steel! But this technology is currently known only to you and cannot be passed on to others. Later, you will also need to distinguish between pig iron, wrought iron, and steel so that you can use their differences to make more suitable tools and weapons."
"Yes, my lord, I will study them carefully from now on, even when I'm eating, using the toilet, or sleeping. I'll make our tools more usable and our weapons more powerful."
"Yes, these are all about weapon improvements and manufacturing methods. Study them carefully." Ed handed Smith a large stack of papers.
Smith looked at the thick stack of papers.
"My lord, I was just saying."