Demesne 291 - Prototyping (Patreon)

The smithy was… probably warm, but Lori couldn't tell. It had lightwisps in the ceiling to brightly illuminate the workshop, with sliding covers should the smith need relative darkness to be able to properly judge the color of the metal they were working on. Bindings of airwisps circulate air, both to cool down anyone working there and to prevent deadly gasses from the furnace from gathering or worse, being pulled into her Dungeon. Like the lightwisps and airwips in the rest of her Dungeon, all these bindings were wired directly to her core, since it was close enough to do conveniently.

Despite all their discussion during breakfast, both Lori and Rian had been forced to agree that it would probably be best if they tell the smiths their intended result, though the list of possible approaches would still be brought up. Lori had a glass bowl full of samples, as well as the mortar and pestle to grind the samples down if needed, which it probably would be.

Several men waited for them in the smithy area, looking very professional, though some wore more shirt than she was used to with blacksmiths. Tools had been laid out, such as the ceramic crucible that had been used to cast the copper ingots back during winter, hammers, tongs, chisels…

"Your bindership, these are the metalworkers of our fine demesne," Rian said. "These five are our blacksmiths, these three fellows are redsmiths, and this good sir is a tinsmith, though they've all been helping each other with projects in the demesne." He sighed. "I'd introduce everyone, but they suggested I not bother since it would only get in the way of whatever work you wanted done."

Lori blinked. That… that was very thoughtful, actually. "I see. Thank you for your consideration," she said gratefully.

For some reason, Rian sighed before shaking his head. "Well, on to work, then. Her Bindership thinks she can make bound tools. Unfortunately, we don't have a glassworker in the demesne that I know of, and the closest we have is Jeordoj and Artelego knowing how to make tools for them." Ah! Well, that was useful to know. "So for now, we're going to try to do it with copper, since that will be easier to work than iron or steel, and easier to rework. Whatever we come up with will probably make someone who makes bound tools for a living cry at the amateurs getting above themselves—" there were some chuckles at that, though the tinsmith winced as well, "—but we don't care about them because they're not here. If we're successful, than it will be a good start to reducing our need for firewood, and will let Binder Lori have to keep track of fewer things. Personally, I'm hope it gets to the point we can all have bound tool lamps or warmers in our houses in the winter."

Lori shrugged noncommittally as everyone looked interested. The idea of a bound tool for such things was probably beyond what they had thought possible for themselves in their old lives, even ones for something as simple as heat or light.

Rian glanced at her, then at the sample bowl. She gave him a brief nod.

"All right. What we need help with is a way to keep some of this," he gestured at the glass bowl of white samples, "in place and not moving or rolling around in the bound tool we're triyng to make. Binder Lori has deduced that they use glass to hold it in place in bound tools, but…" he shrugged. "Whatever we come up with, it can't use water, and by extension any glue with water because that would ruin this white stuff. Binder Lori and I have discussed the possibility of pressing it between two sheets of copper and hammering that copper flat, but you would know what you can do better than I do."

The smiths crowded around at a gesture from Rian, peering down at the sample bowl.

"Is this salt?" one of them—Lori though it was one of the redsmiths—asked.

Rian titled his head. "No, but it looks, feels and acts like it. Some of you might remember this from the cracking we did last winter." That caused some looks, and every examined the samples again, recognition in some of their eyes. "Whatever method we come up with, it can't get wet at any point. No, don't try to taste it, we don't know what it does but best to assume it might be poisonous."

The one who'd picked up some between two fingers quickly put the samples back on the bowl.

"So, we need to put this… bead stuff… onto a setting?" one of the other redsmiths asked.

Rian frowned, then seemed to come to a realization. "Ah, no… although… huh, would that work, your Bindership? Just set one of the big shards like some kind of gem?"

Lori blinked, then looked down at the sample bowl with fresh eyes. The samples of white Iridescence were a variety of sizes, but the ones closer to powder had settled to the bottom, so most of what the smiths could see looked like pebbles and larger, though no piece was bigger than half a grain of vigas. "It might work mounted like jewelry…" Lori said contemplatively, "But even so, it would still need to be completely enclosed in some kind of capsule to keep water out. I'd prefer a solution that would work with the smaller pieces, though, the ones like ground sand. It gives me more to work with while potentially using less material. Still, we should test the idea for viability."

"We could make a cup," the tinsmith saidsuggested. He was the scrawniest of the smiths since tin was mostly worked cold, or cast in molds. "A shallow cup, say, just an indent on a sheet. Fill that with the finer pieces, the ones most like salt or sand, then use a stamp to press it down flat and crimp the stamp in place."

"That's far better than our best idea," Rian said. He glanced at Lori. "Shall we try both, then?"

Lori nodded.

"Very well then," Rian said. "What do you all need to be able to do both of these in the least time?"

––––––––––––––––––

They all had to start with copper sheets and wire.

Lori still had coils of gold wire, and they didn't need all that much to try to wrap some of the larger samples in a setting that would hold it in place no matter the orientation or amount of shaking that it would be facing. 'Some of´ because Lori had to give the tinsmith and one of the redsmiths a few pieces so they could test the material's tolerances to being worked. It wasn't a hard rock, after all, and it was the first time they'd be working on it. Fortunately, they had a well-worn leather work sheet to lay out to catch any fragments that fell off for recovery—even small amounts of tin and copper couldn't be wasted, not in relatively poor edge communities—so they were able to recover the little bits of white Iridescence that they unfortunately removed from the samples they were practicing on.

Meanwhile, the copper sheets were being made. An ingot was slowly being hammered flat at one end, occasionally being heated on the furnace to relieve the work hardening that resulted. Once it was thin enough, it would be cut so that the smiths would have less material to have to hammer. The other smiths returned to work maintaining the metal tools of the demesne. Fortunately, none of it required the use of the forge, merely files to remove little nicks and other damage.

According to Rian, normally the owners of the tools could have done that sort of maintenance themselves, and some did, but not everyone had a file or a good enough whetstone to deal with such things. The smiths did, and so they were taking care of these little bits of maintenance. Fortunately, it was the kind of work that they didn't actually need to be in the smithy for, so those who weren't currently working on Lori's prototypes had dispersed to more refreshing places.

Lori, for her part, was also working. Using stone, she was making a die form that the copper sheet would hammered on to make the cup that would contain the Iridescence. It was shallow, only five chiyustri high for now, but the stone needed to be dense and hard enough to not crack under subsequent hammering… and she also wanted it to be as flat and even as possible. Once the die form had been made in the copper, she'd be able to make a stamp that would press down on the white Iridescence to keep it in place. The stamp wouldn't be completelycopper—it would be copper wrapped stone for mass and solidity—but it needed to fit snuggly in the cup full of white Iridescence to tamp it down.

Still, both projects felt like they had promise. Putting a relatively large fragment onto a metal setting was a relatively quick and simple solution, though on consideration, it probably wasn't something they could do with glass. In this instance though, such a mounting, sufficiently covered by a metal shell to protect it against water, would probably suffice for use in her demesne, provided it was secured to a solid base. The binding for such a thing wouldn't be something she'd have been able to easily make with Whispering alone… but she was a Dungeon Binder now, so that wasn't a problem.

The more involved procedure involving the container and stamp, however, seemed like it would be easier to integrate with glass, and having the white Iridescence as a powder meant they didn't need to be as careful with handling the samples beyond keeping water away from them. The maximized surface area and contact with metal might also be a boon. She wasn't sure yet.

Rian came to check in on progress every so often as he went about his usual chores around the demesne. He seemed to have assumed the smiths would be done far sooner, and that they'd be testing the resulting prototype that morning. Truthfully, a part of Lori had thought so as well, but the more work-experienced had understood that wouldn't be the case. The attempt to try and put some of the white Iridescence in a wire setting was unlikely to be finished before lunch at the earliest. Not when the two smiths involved had to fabricate something from wire using material they weren't all that familiar with. It wasn't anything as simple as drawing metal though a plate, after all.

Listening to the sounds echoing through the smithy, of metal being filed and hammered occasionally, of the occasional pump of the bellows to the furnace, of the indistinct voice just loud enough to reach the person they were meant for, had a soothing familiarity to Lori. While she had never done this sort of work in those places, the atmosphere gave her a rhythm as she worked, shaping the stone die form, measuring the lengths and angles with straight-edged metal rulers she retrieved from her own box of equipment, cutting and scraping out excess with her belt knife. It was… well, crude, but it was the best tool for the job since it was long, straight and sharp, and she was careful not to damage the edge while shaping the stone.

Once the shape was done, after one last measurement with the rulers Lori deliberately put her tools aside to resist the temptation to make it just a littlebit straighter and flatter. This was just a quick and dirty die form for the prototype, after all. If she wanted or needed better, she could have the stone masons chisel it out and flatten it properly, or have the smiths make it out of all metal so it could be used repeatedly for a long time.

Instead, she claimed the earthwisps of the stone of the die form she had just made and did something she hadn't needed to do in months: form them into a binding that reinforced the physical structure of the stone. After all, she didn't want anything to break in the process of the copper being formed. She then tested the resulting durability of the reinforcement by picking up the die form, turning it so that the shape she has made was pointed downwards, and then slammed it into the ground three times.

Fortunately, the impact was a dull instead of loud, though it still prompted the smiths to glance towards her. She ignored the sudden flush of self-consciousness at being under the scrutiny of master craftsmen—and one probably journeyman in the tinsmith, since he had neither the age or self-assurance to be a master, in Lori's experience—judging her crude method, and reminded herself she was a Dungeon Binder and a very experienced wizard. The reminder just barely helped, so she just ignored them and focused on her work. Focusing on your work made you look professional and capable, right?

The floor didn't crack, and neither did the die form, though the former ended up with three little white marks caused by the die form's corners striking the ground. Turning the latter the correct side up, Lori examined it for damage, laying it back down gently and using her fingers to feel at the die form's edges. She found no unevenness that implied anything had broken off, and all the edges and points felt as sharply defined as when she'd put away her tools.

Satisfied, Lori set the little die form aside for the moment, as she waited for the copper sheets to be finished. She was certainly not going to pick it up and show it to the smiths who would be using it like a child trying to get her mothers to praise her, and while the smithy had a wooden workbench along one wall, she wasn't going to put anything on it until the men who actually used it told her two. She was a Dungeon Binder, not delusional.

Resisting the urge to get her tools and flatten out everything again, Lori simply picked up the die form and continued to imbue the binding of earthwisps for when it would finally be used, and used her fingers to continue double-checking for any damage from her little impact test. Now it was only a matter of waiting to see what happened first: the tin- and redsmith finishing with setting a sample of white Iridecence on gold wire, the copper finally being beaten thin enough sheets or the call to lunch.

Staying in the little space of the smithy she'd claimed to work in, Lori leaned back against the wall and waited, her fingers still checking the stone die form for damage.