Chapter 374 - 161: First Forging, Part 4
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Of course, even though Chen Zhou felt pretty good and thought that he wielded his hammer as fast and powerfully as the old blacksmiths,
he was, after all, just an outsider when it came to this profound and complex craft of forging.
Without the support of experience and skills, even if he swung the hammer beautifully, this iron block would not easily transform into the shape he desired.
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The long initial forging lasted for over two hours.
The strong and robust Chen Zhou drank at least four pounds of water during the process.
The muscle fatigue was not the main concern; it was the high temperature and enclosed space that made him feel uncomfortable, as if it was not the iron block being forged in the furnace, but himself.
Without a mirror, Chen Zhou knew his face must have been roasted red already.
The two natives had it even worse.
Saturday, who was adding coal, had a blackened little face full of sweat streaks.
Sunday, who was operating the bellows, was also extremely exhausted, showing a fatigue on his face he never displayed even after a full day of farm work.
When Chen Zhou simply quenched the workpiece and announced the end of the day’s work, both showed expressions of relief.
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Before starting forging, the iron block that had been cut through spacetime at least had a proper shape.
After Chen Zhou completed the forging, it had turned into an iron plate full of hammer marks, uneven and bumpy.
Actually, during the forging process, Chen Zhou had a rough goal—
He wanted to emulate the famous Zhangqiu iron woks and manually forge a large pot that could be used for frying and stewing.
At this moment, looking at the "oddly-shaped large iron pot" lying on the ground, Chen Zhou believed his face was blacker than the bottom of the pot.
There is always a huge gap between ideal and reality.
In the end, blacksmithing is different from carpentry; it’s not something a novice can pick up quickly.
Transforming metal is far from being as simple as carving wood.
In addition, factors like insufficient tools, an unwieldy hammer, no suitable anvil, and short tongs made Chen Zhou’s failure unsurprising.
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Having mentally prepared for the initial forging failure, Chen Zhou was not disheartened.
Drinking water, he summarized the experience and lessons learned from this failure.
"To do a good job, one must first sharpen their tools.
My preliminary goal should shift from high-difficulty items like iron woks to practical and simple tools like iron hammers and long-handled iron tongs.
Forging these tools can not only improve my skills but also facilitate subsequent work."
"Besides tools, I also need to find a way to get a decent anvil..."
Thinking this, Chen Zhou touched the "temporary stone anvil" he’d used only once.
This gray-blue stone had hardness on par with the iron block, but its toughness was poor, and it couldn’t withstand high temperatures.
After some hammering, the surface that had been cut smooth and flat had shattered into a web of cracks, with pits and fissures everywhere.
One could say it was essentially a disposable item.
And even as a disposable item, it was inadequate.
The fragments flying off during the hammering caused considerable trouble.
Once they embedded into the iron block, they would undermine the structural strength, affecting the durability of the finished ironware.
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Nevertheless, the hammerhead was small in volume, simple in shape, and not too difficult to forge.
In contrast, an anvil, being relatively large and heavy, had a more complex shape and required higher hardness.
Even if one could forge a rough shape, enhancing the anvil’s function and usability, such as smoothing the anvil face or drilling holes at the horn, was no simple task.
Without a complete set of tools, forcing Chen Zhou to forge an anvil was truly too demanding.
Attempting to pour it using molten iron might have a bit more chance of success.
Of course, compared to these methods that required one’s own effort, relying on mysterious rewards seemed more straightforward and convenient.