Chapter 10
10-10 Jin’s Skill
“Thank you very much . It was helpful . ”
Jin thanked Duston .
“Hannah, were you watching? Your grandfather made lots of things just like that . ”
“Yep, I saw . It was very different from how onii-chan does it . ”
Jin patted Hannah’s head and said,
“Yeah, I on the other hand am not capable of working like that . ”
Then he asked Elsa,
“So, what are your thoughts?”
Elsa replied with a slightly flushed face .
“Mm . I came to understand just how kitchen knives and other edged tools like that are normally used are made . It’ll be useful . ”
“Right . Also, the final quenching and tempering is very important for iron and steel . ”
Jin explained . Of course, Elsa threw back a question .
“What do you mean?”
“You see, steel is a variety of iron, and when it’s heated until it’s the color of a Citran and rapidly cooled down it becomes harder . That’s quenching . ”
“Mm . ”
“But if you leave it just like that then it’ll be hard and brittle and will soon break . So to make it more tenacious it has to be tempered . That can be done by warming it up to the point that droplets of water spilled on it begin skittering around, then letting it slowly cool down . ”
“Mm, I understand . ”
“Whether you know this or not has an effect on the quality of the Magi Craft . ”
Once Jin had explained that far, Duston came nearby with a grim look on his face .
“H–hey, youngster! Who did you hear that secret from? Normally a master teaches that only when you’ve become qualified, right? Even I was taught it only when I had reached my thirties!”
He seemed to be surprised that Jin who looked like he was less than 20 years old knew this (although Jin was already 21 years old) .
“Who, well, my teacher . ”
“Your teacher’s generous, or maybe I should say they’re amazing…”
Duston was amazed .
“Hey, onii-chan, show us how you make a kitchen knife too . ”
“Mm . I also want to see Jin-nii make one . ”
Encouraged by Hannah and Elsa, Jin turned to Duston while smiling strainedly and asked,
“May I use your workshop?”
“Yeah, go ahead and show me how a Magi Craftsman works . ”
Duston said and gave his permission .
Jin immediately went to where the iron ingots were .
“[Analyse] . …hmm…”
After confirming the quality of the iron, Jin called Elsa over to teach her .
“Elsa, come over here for a bit . …Listen, to examine the composition of this iron you can use [Analyse], but you won’t be able to understand substances you’re not familiar with . So knowledge is important . ”
Jin said and after once again using the [Analyse] magic to confirm the composition for himself, he told Elsa to give it a try .
“Mm . [Analyse] . ”
It went well on the first try, but,
“…I could somehow tell what was iron . But everything else is a mess and I couldn’t tell what was what at all…”
Elsa said with a frown .
“Haha, that’s natural . Look, [Extraction] copper . [Extraction] silicon . [Extraction] sulfur . [Extraction] phosphorus . ”
Jin used [Extraction] four times on the large ingot . With it, although the amounts were small, copper, silicon, sulfur, and phosphorus were separated from it . They all were in amounts small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but considering they were impurities it was an amount that couldn’t be disregarded .
“Look, these are the impurities . Each one of them are pure substances, so give a go at using [Analyse] on them . ”
“Mm . [Analyse] . …Ah . ”
“How is it?”
Elsa looked a little surprised so Jin asked . Elsa blushed and,
“I can kind of recognize copper and sulfur . ”
Since they both were materials she was kind of familiar with, even Elsa became able to differentiate between them .
“Alright . Since taking too much time would probably be a bother, let’s stop today’s lesson here . Watch me do the rest . ”
“Mm . ”
Jin ended lecturing Elsa and resumed making the kitchen knife . Behind him it seemed like Duston’s jaw had become disconnected but he didn’t notice it . At the side, Reiko was proudly throwing out her chest .
“[Separation] . [Forming] . ”
Jin separated a necessary amount of iron using Craft Magic . With the next magic he changed the shape of the iron in his hand into a kitchen knife .
“Alright, let’s have the shape like this I suppose . I’d want to use [Heat Treatment] next but there’s a bit too little carbon for that, huh . ”
Jin had checked it and the carbon content was about 0 . 5 percent . The amount of carbon was the most important component that determined the hardness when quenching, and for a kitchen knife a carbon content of 0 . 8~1 . 2 percent was suitable .
“[Carburising] . ”
He then decided to draw carbon from the carbon dioxide in the air and mix it with the iron . This magic could only mix the carbon with the surface, so he used the [Homogenize] Craft Magic to make the composition uniform .
Gloria who had been similarly watching Jin’s way of working was likewise absentminded until now when she also rebooted .
“Ji–Jin-dono! You’re amazing! What Lithia said really wasn’t a lie! Could you please make my sword soon too!?”
The pitiable beauty showed her character .
Jin gave a nod and asked,
“Alright . So, what kind of a sword would you like?”
“The official equipment for us female knights is a short sword . A sword with a blade of 50 centimeters and a handle of about 20 centimeters would be preferable . ”
These short swords were called such to contrast with the long swords used while riding a horse . It didn’t mean that the sword was particularly short
“Got it . ”
Jin said and secured a necessary amount of iron from the ingot from earlier using [Separation] . Since he was familiar with Lithia’s sword he already had a rough idea about the general amount needed .
He then used [Forming] and [Carburising] followed by [Heat Treatment], [Shaping], and finally [Finish] .
Additionally he applied [Hardening], completing the sword’s main body .
Elsa who had watched him work asked a question .
“Jin-nii, why did you use [Carburising] fewer times compared to earlier? And you didn’t use [Homogenize] . ”
“Oh, well spotted . Breaking is the worst case scenario for a sword . An ideal sword doesn’t break, bend, and cuts well . To realize this I use composite materials . ”
Jin explained .
“Composite materials?”
“Yeah . To put it simply, comparatively soft iron is used in the core portions and the edge portions use hard steel . The surfaces are then hardened . ”
After Jin told her that, Elsa said she understood and raised her eyes .
“If the core is soft it doesn’t fracture easily . By using [Carburising] on just the surface it becomes difficult to bend . And after hardening it cuts well . ”
“You got it . ”
Elsa seemed happy and slightly blushed when Jin spoke well of her .
“Y-y-y-you! T-this is the first time I’m hearing about that kind of a manufacturing method! Is it alright to thoughtlessly spread a secret like that?”
Behind them, Duston seemed agitated as he spoke .
“Eh, it’s alright . I borrowed your workshop and even used some of your iron, Duston . Ah, do you have any materials for making the sword’s sheath or the handle?”
Duston was taken aback by Jin’s calm reply and his agitation ended .
“Yeah… Missy, what a guy you brought with you . ”
While speaking he pointed at a material shelf in the back .
“You can use whatever you like that’s there . ”
Jin then searched the shelf .
He chose heavy leather for the sheath, bronze for the guard, and solid wood for the grip . He quickly shaped and processed these with Craft Magic too, and soon the short sword was completed .
“Gloria, I’ve had you wait for quite a while . Please take a look . ”
“Uhm, thank you . ”
After accepting the short sword Gloria immediately drew it and tried swinging it lightly .
“How is it? Since the weight can be adjusted a little, please don’t hold back . ”
“I see . It feels like the tip is a little heavy . ”
Gloria told her impressions to Jin .
“Got it . You can keep holding to it just like you were . …[Forming] . ”
Jin made the sword taper a little more towards the tip .
“How about now?”
Gloria tried swinging the short sword once more and,
“Mh-hm, this is good! Thank you, Jin-dono!”
She smiled with her whole face and thanked Jin .
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login