Snippet #2688846

"Thank you. Mr Merekson and you just happen to be in luck I'm in the middle of making a sword." Ragnar lifted the 7 rods in his left hand, "i know these don't look like much at the moment but if bare with me i can have you a sword in less than a hour", with that said he began heating the 7 rods as he began pumping the bellows. "If you want a large number of my swords I will need an assistant or preferably two, I'm hoping with your connections you might be able find some suitable candidates," Drawing the longest steel rod first along with one of the iron rods when the tips were cherry red and placing them side by side he began hammering the tips together before returning them to the forge and reheated the tips he continue the heating and hammer till he had the steel core rod heat welded till the 4 rods of iron followed by adding the last two steel rods to the outside of the tangle of twisted metal rods, turning to Doran and showing him what he had done so far.

"Now we attach the 7 rods together at the end leaving the extra length of the central rod to become the tang which allows the blade to be attached to the handle." he quickly heated up the other end of the sword and using the heat and hammer to weld this end of the sword together. "This is were the real work begins" he chuckled as he set his work into the flames of his forge and replaced the small hammer on his tool rack and taking down his medium sized hammer and set of tongs setting the hammer beside his anvil, returning the to the forge he began heating the blade faster as he pumped the bellows hard forcing the air into the forge as he used the tongs to turn the blade making sure it was evenly heated till it was glowing almost white hot. he pulled it out and began to hammer it using the weight of the hammer, the heat of the metals and his huge strength to meld the 7 rods into one deadly blade, he accomplished this in minutes were to would take other smiths hours maybe even days to do this after giving it another final heating he hammered the blood channels into each side of the blade before taking a small die and placing it on the blade struck it once with his hammer to stamp the letter R deep into the Blade satisfied with his work he thrust the blade into the water trough to quench the blade. He would have preferred to have used oil but he was unable to acquire any so far.

Walking over to the treadle wheel in the corner on the bench, he began he got it spinning it up to speed to grind and hone the blade. he was lost in a world of his own as he remembered the first time he had ever polished a sword blade in the Dad's forge all those years ago as a child. when he was happy with the blade he took it over to his work bench by the window and selected two ash wood hand grips which he riveted on before wrapping the grips in soft leather and attaching the pommel.

"Here you are Doran" he presented the sword hilt first to him. "I hope you find this sword satisfactory ive given her some beauty but she is a tool nothing more. just like my hammers. also i have been think while i made the sword there may be away to improve your iron swords so that your customers might be able to survive a few battles and return to buy more swords from us and i could also use a wood worker to make spear handles and axe handles for the weapons i make. I could make them myself but that would mean less time i can spend at the forge."

"What do you think of her is she acceptable to you and when it comes to your more valued customers i can make unique custom swords for them." As he stepped back out of Doran's sword reach picking up his axe to give him room to try out the sword if he liked but also letting him see if he turned out tracherous he wouldn't go down without a fight.