Smithing Techniques

[Mirannan]

Another idea: Borrow a process from RPGs and make the sword out of extremely pure clear glass and then magically transmute the blade into transparent steel.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

This may help. It's a few paragraphs taken from The Godlost Land in which I had my MC smelt ascendant metal. There's a lot of background missing here - for a start he's an arcane smith and completely fireproof. And the gods are getting invoved. But the key thing is that even though it's about the smelting the passage is less about the actual process and more about the emotion.

"Ascendant metal. No one knew how to make it. No one even knew what it was save that it was the metal of the gods. It was what their armour was made of. Their weapons too. But suddenly Harl knew what it was. He knew how to smelt it. He knew the recipes that went into it and the spells that had to be cast on it. He knew it all. And he knew that it had to be cast.

And as the rage consumed him he set to work smelting it. Adding the ores in the right amounts at the right time. Casting the spells on it as he did so. Heating the smithy to the right temperatures. Testing it with his fingers for its texture. Tasting it. Slowly filling his smelter with it. With three hundred weight of ascendant metal.

It took time, but time was all he had left. No lover, no baby. No family and no life. He had time and he had rage. That was all he had.

Hours passed, but he scarcely noticed. Then it was days and he didn't care. All he really knew was that light faded to darkness and then back to light again. It happened several times. People came and left. He paid them no mind. Rain fell and the sun came out again. He hardly noticed. The ground shook constantly but he refused to fall over. The roof of his pit burnt down at one point, the flames from the smithy leaping too high. It was nothing. And when the very bricks of the smithy started melting with the fury of the fire, he didn't care either. All he did was push the molten fury back into shape and shore it up with earth. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered except the smelting."

Cheers, Greg.

 

[stygianelectro]

The prefix Aero- refers to the aetheric nature of the material. By the way, Aether in my setting is somewhat different from the classical. If you go to this link, you'll see what I mean

 

[stygianelectro]

Although, Venusian Broon, you might be onto something with the idea of making the Aeroliths come mainly from meteors. The stuff forms far more prolifically in space, where aether currents are more free-flowing, so it would make sense that it's associated with space rocks.

Okay, so Aeroliths cannot be smelted unless the forge fire is fueled with a material called Arcana. This is a mineral that is found in large underground deposits; it is midnight blue, speckled with flecks of gold. The mineral's magical properties allow a forge fire to melt the Aerolith and prepare it for shaping.

The shaping process for Aerolith is called spinning. It's similar to glassblowing; the smith takes the semimolten Aerolith and uses a tool called a spinning-rod to pull the Aerolith into the desired shape. The object cannot be quenched in water or oil; it must be allowed to cool on its own. Much of the Aerolith's mass moves naturally to its surface and leaves the inside of it in a pattern not unlike bird bones, making it extremely durable, as well as light.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Although, Venusian Broon, you might be onto something with the idea of making the Aeroliths come mainly from meteors. The stuff forms far more prolifically in space, where aether currents are more free-flowing, so it would make sense that it's associated with space rocks.

Okay, so Aeroliths cannot be smelted unless the forge fire is fueled with a material called Arcana. This is a mineral that is found in large underground deposits; it is midnight blue, speckled with flecks of gold. The mineral's magical properties allow a forge fire to melt the Aerolith and prepare it for shaping.

The shaping process for Aerolith is called spinning. It's similar to glassblowing; the smith takes the semimolten Aerolith and uses a tool called a spinning-rod to pull the Aerolith into the desired shape. The object cannot be quenched in water or oil; it must be allowed to cool on its own. Much of the Aerolith's mass moves naturally to its surface and leaves the inside of it in a pattern not unlike bird bones, making it extremely durable, as well as light.

Sounds cool Stygian! Hope you are getting closer to getting all this down (obliquely, and with great cunning) in your WiP

 

[stygianelectro]

Sounds cool Stygian! Hope you are getting closer to getting all this down (obliquely, and with great cunning) in your WiP

Thanks Venusian!

 

[stygianelectro]

Okay, here's the link to the finished page: Aelenite