Chapter 763 Folding and Forging
After forging the iron block flat enough, Li Gan used iron pliers and a hammer to fold it over. After completely folding it together, he continued to forge it repeatedly.
Looking at this forging technique, Zhou Xu suddenly thought of something, and couldn't help but ask.
“What is this forging technique?”
“Li Gan figured it out himself. He said that this forging technique can forge steel more stably.”
>
In front of Zhou Xu, the forging minister did not dare to take the credit for himself.
“For normal iron weapons, after hammering them flat, the preliminary form of the weapon has been forged. Therefore, every time he folds it, the energy he needs to consume is equivalent to forging an additional weapon. He has to fold iron weapons like this fifty or sixty times!”
After talking about it, the forging director himself couldn’t help but sigh.
This is equivalent to using the time and effort to forge fifty or sixty iron weapons to forge one weapon!
While talking, a member of the project team had already presented the only finished forged weapon in front of Zhou Xu with excitement on his face.
After taking a look at Li Gan, who was still concentrating on the forging work, Zhou Xu had no intention of disturbing him.
"Let's go to the testing site."
As a department that forges weapons, the Forging Department undoubtedly has a site dedicated to testing weapons.
Holding the hilt of the sword, Zhou Xu exerted a little force, and a cold light suddenly flashed before his eyes, and a sharp blade was unsheathed, exposed to the cold winter sunshine.
On the sword body, special lines loomed in the sunlight, creating a unique charm that even Zhou Xu couldn't help but gasp.
"Good guy, this is not ordinary steel!"
Within one sentence, Zhou Xu's mouth could not help but grin, and the joy on his face had already reached a level that could not be concealed. situation.
Steel with special patterns like this has different names in different places. People in Europe call it Damascus steel, Lao Maozi calls it Brat steel, and in Europe They all call it pattern steel!
The pattern on this pattern steel is formed during the process of continuous folding and forging.
Iron is refined over time to become steel, steel is refined over time to become soft and pure, and then refined into green.
This ‘green’ refers to patterned steel!
During this period, Silk and the others who were following them looked at the sword with a hint of brilliance in their eyes. It was obvious that no enchanting method had been used, but this sword was. The cold light shimmers in the sun, showing off one's sharpness!
In this testing field, there is naturally no shortage of weapons for testing. According to Zhou Xu's wishes, he directly took an iron sword and chopped it with it.
After one blow, a visible gap was cut out on the iron blade of the sword. On the other hand, there was basically no damage to the blade of the sword.
Zhou Xu was overjoyed when he saw this, but at the same time, there was a hint of bad water in his heart.
"Hilke, how about trying it with your silver steel sword?"
Hearing this, Hilke subconsciously hid the silver steel sword behind him and looked at Zhou Xu's eyes. , with a hint of vigilance.
“It’s better not to give it up.”
Seeing this, Zhou Xu just laughed evilly. He didn’t really intend to test the silver steel sword.
The raw material of the silver steel sword is mithril steel as a special alloy, and mithril steel is smelted from mithril and steel.
Not to mention anything else, just talking about the steel used in the silver steel sword, Zhou Xu felt that there was a high probability that it could not compare with the patterned steel.
After all, the silver steel sword was a standard weapon for elf knights in the old civilization. It was probably produced in large quantities at that time.
In the era of cold weapons, when craftsmen relied solely on their own strength, skills and experience for forging, it was undoubtedly unrealistic to mass-produce or even equip large-scale pattern steel. Of course, out of caution, Zhou Xu asked...
"Have any other craftsmen in the forging department tried using this forging method for forging?"
Faced with this question, the forging minister's face clearly showed a hint of embarrassment.
“Many craftsmen have tried it. According to Li Gan’s forging method, the failure rate of others is very high.”
During the entire folding and forging process, there was no Any problem, in fact, when forging weapons, the most frequent and unexpected stage is during the quenching and tempering stage.
At this stage, the weapons they forged using this method were constantly cracking, and even the forging director himself was no exception.
In response to this question, I asked Li Gan, and Li Gan didn’t know what to say.
After all, from Li Gan's perspective, following his own forging method, it was a success. If you hit and break it every time, he would be very surprised.
In this regard, Zhou Xu, who understood the situation, could only say, 'Master forger, awesome! ’
As expected, blacksmithing also depends on talent. The existence of Li Gan undoubtedly allowed the craftsmen in the blacksmithing department to experience first-hand what genius is.
Probably wanting to save the face of their forging department as much as possible, the forging director spoke up again...
"But leaving aside the folding and forging technique, we just use repeated forging. The success rate of this method has improved a lot. After some attempts, two weapons were forged. After simple testing, they are both stronger than the original iron weapons.”
While talking, the members on the side presented two sharp swords to Zhou Xu.
The swords were unsheathed. Compared with the swords forged from patterned steel, these two sharp swords were very obvious, and the swords did not have any patterns.
But according to the test results, these two sharp swords have most likely been forged into steel swords.
Under this premise, Zhou Xu can generally understand the reason why Li Gan adopted folding forging.
Because they had never seen steel before, they could not be sure whether the iron was forged in place.
Under this premise, Li Gan gave a standard, that is, if it is directly folded and forged fifty or sixty times, then it is 100% steel!
This genius' method is really simple and crude.
If he had never seen the patterned steel sword, Zhou Xu would undoubtedly be very satisfied when these two steel swords were placed in front of him.
But now that there are patterned steel beads and jade in front, looking at these two steel swords, I feel that they are not enough.
However, those who should be encouraged should still be encouraged, and Zhou Xu would naturally not be vague about the rewards that should be given.
"For this steel sword, you can optimize the strength, success rate, and forging cost to find the most stable and cost-effective one."
A weapon like this that requires large-scale manufacturing is We cannot simply pursue strength crazily. Stable mass production and sufficient cost performance are the key.
Otherwise, who can afford to give every soldier a weapon made of patterned steel?
Even if the funds allow it, the arm that Li dares to swing the forging hammer may not allow it!
In the case of purely manual forging, the folding and forging of this pattern steel is extremely labor-intensive. Every time Li Gan completes a round of forging, he has to slow down for a while, otherwise he will not be able to lift his hand the next day. .
Although this has an impact on his current physical fitness, it is not difficult to see from it that forging patterned steel weapons is by no means an easy task.
(End of this chapter)