Rise of Rurik

What is martensite, pearlite, ferrite, Kravason has no metallographic concept.

In fact, before the microscope can directly see the metallographic phase of the metal, blacksmiths all over the world are relying on their own experience to do things, and in the long-term smelting and processing, they have gradually concluded that quenching, tempering and annealing can be used under existing conditions. The heat treatment technology achieved, and through these measures, the properties of iron have changed significantly.

Perhaps the birth of block smelting carburized steel was originally the result of a craftsman's sudden idea of ​​repeatedly burning red iron mounds for continuous forging.

For example, an owner of an iron farm tool would like a blacksmith to refurbish his farm tool or make it into a more usable shape.

The blacksmith is just lazy and saves trouble. He uses the most common charcoal stove to burn the iron farm tools red, and then begins to forge them into the shape required by the customer, and then quench them with cold water and deliver them for use. And the laziness of the blacksmith is just a kind of steel-making process.

An ordinary family in this time and space, their survival is almost farming and food. Iron and bronze ware are more useful. Although iron ware is not an unacceptable price for a family, it is still a precious treasure and is to be passed down from generation to generation. .

The process of repairing is also a process of secondary heating. Due to the low temperature heating, the most cost-effective fuel charcoal that people can get in this time and space, its incomplete combustion heats the wrought iron to a maximum of seven hundred degrees, often only five hundred degrees. At such a temperature, a large amount of carbon monoxide sound dissipates with the hot air, and a large amount of carbon molecules penetrate into the carbon-free wrought iron.

Carbon infiltrates every time it is scorched, and as long as it infiltrates enough, the iron mound becomes low carbon steel. If the blacksmith continues to repeat it, even a hundred times, the iron mound will gradually become high carbon steel. Go ahead and it will turn into bad pig iron with too much carbon infiltrated.

This large-scale man-made carburizing work on block ironmaking began in Guodadi during the Spring and Autumn Period.

On the other hand, in Greece and Rome in the same period, although iron tools have been used, since the fall of Western Rome, the blacksmiths in Western Europe have not developed a relatively sound artificial carburizing technology for block iron making, but have to import large-scale imports from the North under the control of the Parthian Empire. Steel knives in India.

Otto's destroyer, the source comes from the Indus Valley.

The patterns on the Sword God are actually derived from some trace elements, not complex forging techniques. Although the local people's level of making steel swords is indeed high, the process is complicated and time-consuming.

The local people use local ore for smelting, but any sword made of local ore will have beautiful patterns. However, after more than 2,000 years, they can no longer make swords with patterns, and the era has entered the industrial age. The local special iron ore was mined, and the technology of making patterned steel was immediately lost.

But human beings have been industrialized,

Large-scale steelmaking becomes possible. In the time it took the ancients to make a steel sword, future generations can make thousands of tons of pure molten iron.

Controlling the carbon content of molten iron is a systematic science, and almost all the technologies of later generations came from chemical exhibitions, which brought technological leaps. If there is any successor to the predecessors, it is the blast furnace.

In Europe, before they learned the national blast furnace technology, they had always been rammed earth furnaces that were half a person high. At most, individual blacksmiths built the furnaces to the height of one person.

Here at Kravason, he finally waited for the first cooling of the iron bars.

During this period of slow natural cooling, Rurik's spirit relaxed and quickly became lethargic. He really curled up on the ground, like a golden kitten, wrapped in a hide and fell asleep.

Seeing that Rurik was resting, and feeling deeply that a wrought iron house was never a good place to sleep, Kravason urged his son Kawhi: "Just do what he asked us to do again. Don't be afraid to wake him up, let's get started."

The smithy rattled again, and Rurik fell into a daze until he suddenly felt drowsy as he was being picked up.

"Child, you're awake." Clavason asked kindly.

"Um... you hold me, where are you going?"

"Go to the longhouse where my house is staying, don't worry, it's really too late now. When we all wake up, we will continue to beat, which will definitely satisfy you."

"Okay, that iron..."

"I beat it again, and the furnace was out. I didn't quench the iron bar directly. I just put it in the room and let it cool freely."

Hearing him say this, Rurik was very satisfied.

He was placed on the warmer hide, and he saw the lit oil lamp again. In the dim light, Rurik saw the figure of an old woman and Rumia's peaceful sleep.

It's funny, Clavason's elderly wife obviously doesn't mind Rumia's special status as the daughter of a deer breeder, and the two are like an elderly mother and daughter. Maybe Clavason's wife was hoping for a daughter? Who knows?

Rurik felt that he was well taken care of by the blacksmith, and he built the building by himself.

Now that he has woken up, Rurik muttered quietly: "Tomorrow you...you do as I say. By the way, what about the scum in the stove? Just throw it away?"

"The slag must be thrown away, and the ashes." Kravason said indifferently.

"No! The slag is thrown away, and the ashes of the coals remain."

"Huh? Are they important?"

"Of course, this way..." Rurik suddenly hesitated. He estimated that it would take a lot of words to talk to the blacksmith about carburizing, so he simply didn't want to say more. "Just do what I want, and you will continue to strike tomorrow. Remember, don't quench directly with cold water."

"I understand, hehe, it's called tempering, which is to make it as cold as ice by the cold wind."

"That's it." Rurik smiled every day: "Tomorrow, please ask Brother Kawei to send me to the long priest's house first."

Kawei, he is very happy that Rurik calls his brother, does this mean that the future leader Rurik will value him? "To the longhouse? Important?"

"Of course! I'm going to see what the soap is doing, and I think you guys want to get a bar too! I'm going to get some seal oil in addition to the soap."

"Oil lamps?" Kawi asked naturally.

"Of course not! Starting tomorrow we have to start quenching with grease, using seal oil to cool the hot iron bars instead of ice water."

"This..." Kawhi listened inexplicably, and Kravason's situation was even worse.

Quenching with grease, not to mention that it is unbelievable, is that this kind of behavior is a huge luxury, because quenching always requires a wooden barrel full of grease!

Rurik didn't want to explain more, but said bluntly: "Do as I say, and remember all my requirements, when you build me a good sword that can cut through ordinary iron swords, you know that now The effort is worth it. At that time, I will fertilize and tell you the real secret here for a long time. Remember, that is the real wisdom of Odin, and now you are just practicing wisdom at my request."

Rurik didn't say anything else so far, and Kravason and Kawi were so excited that they couldn't calm down for a long time. Cooling red sword embryos with grease is really weird.

Another busy start to the new day.

Kawi, as promised, sent Rurik to the door of the chief priest's house.

"Rurik, go in by yourself."

"Huh? You don't want to come in?"

Kawei inadvertently revealed his own unspeakable secret, "I... maybe I shouldn't go to Odin's realm."

His words were a little sloppy, and Rurik thought about it carefully, probably because Kawhi claimed to be Thor's servant.

"Then wait, I'll come when I go."

After all, Rurik's small body got into it.

His sudden appearance was not abrupt in the slightest, and as expected, the priests continued to carry out various measures to make soap.

The aged Vilia spends most of the day in meditation and meditation, and does not want any labor to damage her fragile body.

She also felt more and more the philistine of the successor Bona. The next high priest is not so devout to the gods, and he is more interested in silver coins.

But the daily life of the priesthood is very dependent on Bona.

The priests rested for a day, and Bona realized that everyone's sore arms had recovered, and they began to cook oil for the cheaply bought white meat of seals.

They even ate some raw seal fat directly as a different kind of food.

"It's Rurik, I heard you went to the blacksmith. Where's Rumia? She didn't come. Without her, I'd have to ask someone else to herd."

Rurik nodded: "I will bring her back tomorrow. I have done something for her, so don't embarrass her when she's grazing. I'm here to ask you for some grease."

"Grease? Don't you want soap?" Bona looked good.

"I'm going to take some grease to the smithy. It has nothing to do with soap. Don't ask any more questions about that."

"Well, hopefully it's not a problem."

Bona didn't think much about it, because now there was just boiled fat, although there was still a lot of unfiltered residue in it.

Rurik took another bar of soap, which had been baked to dryness, and tucked it into his leather coat. He didn't say much, he just handed Bona a silver coin to shut her up completely.

He personally struggled to get out of the longhouse carrying the barrel full of warm grease, and it really came and went in a hurry.

Because he really can't spend too much time.

He went out and told Kawi who didn't want to stay for a long time: "You go with the wooden barrel. When you go back, we will use grease instead of ice water to quench it."

"Huh?" Kawhi was sure he heard it right. "Grease? You question doing this, I'm fine, won't it burn?"

"No, don't ask too much. We will use it immediately when we arrive at the smithy." After speaking, Rurik took out the soap: "This is what the priest sold you specially, or two silver coins for your father to give to you. I."

"All right."

Kawai was actually touching soap for the first time. This thing has a greasy texture but is not sticky at all. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen in my life.

Kawei was not worried at all that the grease in the barrel would be spilled. Because of the cold outdoors, when the two returned to the blacksmith's shop, a barrel of seal oil had become a big lump of white solid.

From this day on, due to the addition of grease, the manufacture of block smelting low carbon steel can finally be officially started.

The cooled stove was lit again, and unlike yesterday, Rurik didn't ask Kawi to struggle to operate the blower. The blower is still used, it only plays the role of regulating the combustion intensity.

Yesterday's slag in the furnace was cleaned up, and according to Rurik's request, Kravasen meticulously collected the ashes of the plants and trees.

There was a dark red flame inside the stove, and a yellow flame was missing from the top of the stove.

The two blacksmiths understood that such a flame could only burn the ore red, but not so much as to separate the slag waste from the iron.

But that was Rurik's request.

The iron mound was knocked into bars yesterday, and it was smeared with a layer of solidified seal oil and covered with a "clothing" of ash and charcoal scraps.

Cravason and Kawhi had to do the same, and doubts were natural.

"Is this the key? Maybe we should have done this yesterday." Cravason wondered.

"But yesterday we had no grease. Go ahead and put the iron bars in the charcoal and let it smolder for a while."

It is wrong to just take it out and beat it as soon as it is red. Only by increasing the contact area between the wrought iron and the insufficiently burned carbon fire, will a large number of carbon atoms penetrate into it.

As for applying grease and ash and toner, another purpose is involved.

Plant ash contains potassium nitrate, nitrate has nitrogen, and the presence of nitrogen is very meaningful for the careful entry of carbon. Grease is not simply for sticking to plant ash, oil itself contains a lot of carbon, but also a small amount of nitrogen.

Substances containing carbon and nitrogen can be attached to the wrought iron at zero distance, and processed by low-temperature smoldering heat treatment, carbon will penetrate the surface of the iron bar more efficiently.

The smoldering deliberately went on for a while, and since there was no such thing as an hourglass, Rurik had to think of a trick temporarily.

Clavasson didn't mind cutting a hole in one of his barrels, because with the money given by Rurik, the financier, he could order hundreds of barrels from the tribe's shipbuilders. The barrels were worthless, it was Rurik's "water timer" that made him feel necessary.

Holes were drilled in the keg at the bottom of the bucket, and Kravassen poured half of the melted snow water.

When the water ran out, the dark red iron bar was taken out.

Forging begins!

It's still the same routine as yesterday, bending and folding, desperately smashing it into an iron mound, and then smashing it into a long strip again. Rurik temporarily set a cycle for it, that is, two beats per fold.

"Okay, stop! The iron bar has cooled down, now put it in grease."

Kawei didn't blame it at first, but it was Kravason who blamed it: "It must be quenched with grease? Is it really necessary?"

"Just do as he says," Kawhi urged his father.

"Okay, since you insist."

The temperature of the iron bar has naturally cooled to less than three hundred degrees, and its metallographic phase is changing. Iron at this temperature does not cause fat burning, and it still sizzles the oil it touches in the grease barrel.

Oil quenching is gentler, and that's what Rurik needs now. Only in this way, the hard force of iron will not become extreme due to rapid cooling, and those carefully entered carbon can better penetrate into the deep layer, so as to make the overall carburization uniform.

The iron bar was taken out, and it became a black bar with greasy substance attached.

Rurik ordered: "Now follow the first steps, wrap it in charcoal and ashes, and continue to smolder. Remember, the barrel is full of water, and when the water leaks, take out the iron bars. Please be sure to repeat it ten times today. "

"Huh? So many times? So complicated?" Clavason snorted in disbelief.

"Today is just the beginning." Rurik said without changing his face: "This is Odin's wisdom, so that he can forge the hardest sword and easily cut off other people's ordinary iron swords. Do you think the money I gave is not enough? ? You continue to work, there are still four days of work in the future, and you must repeat it fifty times from today."

What more can I say? It would be foolish to annoy the financier. And Kravatsen also wanted to arm himself and his son with the legendary sword. As long as it succeeds once, Kravason is confident that the successful experience can be replicated. Think about it, a sword that cuts iron like mud, I believe in the effort I put into it. Generally, the iron sword is three silver coins before and after, and the sword is at least thirty silver coins. Could a wealthy warrior give up a sword for thirty silver coins?

It is such a reverence for the future of FE that the two blacksmiths quickly corrected their mentality and devoted themselves to the most difficult work.

They began to sweat like rain, and Rurik and Rumia were spectators.

Hundred Steelmaking, this is Hundred Steelmaking, is the second use of Hundred Steelmaking technology in the Nordic world to manufacture block-smelting low carbon steel. But with the crazy means of carbon and nitrogen osmosis, and the high-intensity work of "Fifty Refinements", is it still mild steel?

I'm afraid it's already carbon steel.

Use carbon steel with both flexibility and hardness to make sword embryos, and then do a few times of covering the soil and burning the blade and oil quenching. 8}14