The special hole at the bottom of the furnace was opened, and some hot molten material quickly flowed out.

This is slag, and their current state is actually no different from magma.

The work of pure smelting can basically be announced at this point. After most of the **** has flowed out, what remains in the still hot furnace must be the spongy iron that has been burned torn apart.

If it is ordinary iron ore that is thrown into the furnace, it is pure iron in a sponge state that contains almost no oxygen and carbon. But how can there be a pure substance in the world? Even if it is wrought iron (pure iron), not to mention containing carbon, oxygen, and sulfur, it will definitely contain some other metals, and even gold atoms can be found.

The influence of trace impurities on the performance of metal materials is generally weak, unless the impurity content reaches a certain ratio.

The mouth of the furnace is still gushing with hot air, and the fuel in it is not exhausted. Even if the carbon blocks have been turned into soot, the furnace can still maintain a high temperature for a long time.

Sponge iron with a very special internal composition is burnt red. Compared with ordinary sponge iron, it is intended to melt them. This furnace may have to be baked to 1800C.

They are really very special sponge iron. After being baked in a furnace at 1100C for no less than four hours, they finally become malleable.

After one night's hard work, plus half a day's struggle, Kawei looked at the draining **** with satisfaction.

With his sore and strong arms, he suddenly grasped a huge tongs.

Some blacksmiths with poor skills will destroy the furnace first in order to take out the smelted sponge iron. Since the small clay stove itself is used as a disposable tool, the destruction is destroyed.

Cravason didn't dare to mess around like this, he was a professional blacksmith, and his furnace was to be used repeatedly and often repaired. When he arrived at his son Kawei, he would rather use the huge tongs to "take chestnuts from the fire."

He stood on a high place, holding tongs in both hands, holding his breath while gritting his teeth and enduring the scorching hot gas. The sweat was quickly dried. He felt that his face was about to be roasted, and his curly hair seemed to be burning. Start a fire.

Finally, a twisted piece of sponge iron was clamped by the tongs, and he tore it out abruptly. The red and whitish iron suddenly fell to the ground, and Kawei shouted, "Camnier! Quick!"

Upon seeing this, Kamnier hurriedly held the small torch, used all his strength to clamp the sponge iron, and took it to the blacksmith's table that Kawei brought from his own house-a large iron mound that was made into a flat surface.

Rurik looked so thrilling and couldn't help but sweat for Kawei. At the same time, he was very worried that his footman, Kamnier, would be accidentally severely burned. Simply, everything went according to plan, and no one was injured.

Kawei jumped down, he ignored the mercenaries who continued to watch the show, and the boy who was stunned.

He ran directly to the wooden barrel set aside and poured the river water that was originally used for the quenching operation directly on his head to cool the head that was about to catch fire.

His weird behavior could not help shocking Rurik.

"What's wrong with you? Could it be hurt?!" Rurik asked nervously.

"It doesn't get in the way." Kawei's spirit didn't fully recover, he felt his face still hot. He roughly pushed Rurik away, and then yelled, "Ah! It's a forging! It's a man's business!"

Rurik looked a little dazed, and then Kawei was stunned to give orders to him. In the final analysis, Kawei did not expect some little boys to control the situation when forging sponge iron.

Kawi knew that Rurik's strong concern for smelting, his rough and hot big hand was placed on Rurik's shoulder, his eyes lit up a fire: "Rurik, I now hope your support."

"You... tell me. I will support it."

"I want your mercenaries, I want them to help me smelt iron."

"This... okay!"

Considering the large amount of ore thrown in by Kawei early in the morning, the **** flowing out is not a lot. There must be a large amount of sponge iron in this towering furnace, but the sponge iron obtained after a lot of effort, if you can't grasp the opportunity to immediately forge the embryo of a tool or weapon, it is actually a stupid and extravagant waste.

Then, when Rurik noticed the order he had issued to "support forging", the mercenaries just uttered a weak voice. They are not exhausted because of frequent relay control of the blower, but simply because they are mercenaries and fighters. They are given a position of their identity, including the blower just now. They are also internally resisting. Now they are going to be temporary blacksmiths, how do they Have such awareness?

Hehe, it seems that you are really a group of guys who are eager for rewards and excitement.

Forging is physical work, and it cannot be delayed. Rlik understands the work that Kawei arranges for the mercenaries. In fact, the job is extremely simple. It is to use the tongs to clamp the sponge iron to make it stable. The real forging is of course professional Blacksmith Cavy himself.

Rurik yelled in public: "I am your gold master! Listen, you must work for me. You are now blacksmiths, and you will get bonuses when things are done. Your bonuses are no longer some silver coins or food. It's an axe! You will make your own axe yourself, and I will buy the axe produced today. They are all your rewards! Believe it, this will be the best axe you have ever seen, It is also the best weapon you can master now."

With what Rurik said, the attitude of the mercenaries who resisted emotionally changed by the way. Where's Kawei? He also has a strong motivation to continue fighting, because his most reliable partner, Lurik, is here. This kid claims that he will spend money to buy, that is, he will really buy at the market price.

For soldiers, there is indeed nothing that excites them more than getting a weapon or a strong armor.

All the mercenaries of Rurik hope that they can save enough money to buy a steel sword, or make achievements in future battles, and be rewarded by the gold master.

In fact, the mercenaries are really innocent, they can go to Kawei, and from this master forging steel swords in a practical sense, they can buy steel swords at a relatively low price in theory.

However, if you can get an axe that has always been unparalleled, you think that in battle and life, the axe is more commonly used than the sword.

A brawny man struggled to clamp a tuft of sponge iron, and Kawei used his own special hammer for carburizing and quenching.

Only for the first impact, he would feel the strong force of the sponge iron.

"Oh! It's really hard?! What's the matter?"

His exclamation was a bit loud, and Rurik hurriedly leaned over: "What's the matter?"

"Liurik, it must be because of the strange things in the ore, it is really hard."

"Hard? That's a good thing! What else do you want to tell?" Ruriek asked.

"Then let others keep the hearth hot. Also, burn the small stove. I need to keep the iron block hot when I forge."

The open-air smelter by the river quickly became busy, and many people began to perform their duties. However, the only one who really hit the iron was Kawei, and the others were all auxiliary.

Indeed, Rurik can't expect his mercenaries to suddenly become blacksmiths, and their skills are not as good as those of the blacksmith apprentices who are only nine and ten years old. Even the blacksmith apprentices, they are only beginners, and their weak bones make them can only do miscellaneous tasks.

Even though the forging has become harder than ever, Kawei sweats, he feels that a brand-new metal material can be obtained, and the situation is heading in the direction he desires.

The sponge body was smashed into two pieces. After all, to make a small hand axe mainly used for fighting and cutting off the leg bones of prey, it does not need to consume too much iron like a large forest axe.

Although the forging is very hard, Kawei sweats, fully demonstrating the strength and bravery of a man.

Every time it was forged, sparks were smashed out, and the sponge iron was rapidly "collapsing", and finally became a dark red iron block.

Kawei threw the iron embryo into a small makeshift stove next to the big stove and stuffed it into the hot charcoal block to raise its temperature.

Iron materials became suitable for forging again, and he began to refine operations.

The iron block was beaten thinner and thinner, the edge area began to be beaten into a strong arc, and then beaten out of the reserved blade to be polished.

It finally has the appearance of a small Nordic forest axe, such as a large radian blade and a narrow axe back.

The narrow back of the Scandinavian style axe was constantly curled by Kawei's beating, and finally curled into a hole. Based on this, he further forged and made an insertion structure that accommodates the axe handle.

His forging work suddenly stopped, and Rurik, who was anxiously waiting for the result, suddenly shouted: "Kawei, how is it now?!"

Soon, Kawei responded to Rurik with a smile. He didn't say much, picked up a tongs to clamp the still red axe that was forged in a beautiful style, and slowly put it into the wooden barrel filled with cold water.

The sharp cooling of the axe in the water indicates that a thin oxide layer has suddenly formed, which is not surprising when it is taken out.

However, when Kawei started to use the sandstone whetstone he brought from his hometown to polish the axe embryo and get rid of the blackness, and wanted to see the silver inner substance, something magical happened!

A large number of mercenaries rushed to Kawei, and Ruriek simply got into the crowd and stood in front of the card slot.

"What are you yelling about?" Rurik asked disdainfully, "Is the iron making you nervous?!"

"Look at it!" Kawei said without saying, he showed the axe embryo that had been slightly polished in his hand.

As you can see, Rurik frowned: "This... is actually dimmer than silver?"

"And the texture of the color is very delicate! It's too delicate." Kawei added.

"Is it just that?"

Kawei shrugged and showed off his whetstone: "Compared to polishing other things, this axe embryo is really terrible."

"It's not good enough?!"

"No!" Kawei categorically denied, "It's so good! So good that it will destroy my whetstone soon. I can be sure that it is harder than I thought!"

hard? Is it really hard?

Rurik is determined to experiment, and the experimental item is his own short sword.

He drew out his bright white dagger, and couldn't help asking: "They scratch each other, who can leave a trace?"

"Then need to say, it must be this axe embryo." Kawei said without hesitation.

"Not necessarily! When did you find it hard to build this sword of mine?"

"This..." Kawei was speechless, and a weird idea emerged in an instant. Could it be that an axe embryo has become harder than ever before? !

In fact, Ruriek is now struggling to withstand a lot of pressure. In full view, he placed the axe embryo on the blacksmith's table, holding a steel sword against its polished section. what's the result? It's not that his hands lack strength, this axe embryo really doesn't have scratches.

"Strange, so hard?!"

Rurik didn't believe in evil anymore. He threw the sword to Kawei and ordered, "Come and take it and chop the axe embryo."

Kawei took the sword, and he didn't dare to act rashly when everyone was watching. "Rurik, as for? This is your sword."

"It's not in the way, the sword is just a tool." Rurik hugged his arms and stared at the blacksmith's counter with a certain expression, "Chop it for me, hurry! Try who is harder!"

"Slash!" I don't know which mercenary roared, and the others raised their fists and screamed Kawei holding the sword.

Kawei has a heart, and even though he has an ominous premonition, now he has to take risks with Rurik's sword.

He held the hilt with the strongest right hand, rounded it and slashed at the axe embryo. The strong impact made him get rid of it altogether, and when Kawei picked up the fallen sword, he couldn't help but get rid of it again.

Because he has never seen such a thing.

"What's the matter?!" Rurik was a little impatient, he picked up his sword, and finally it was his turn to be shocked.

"Oh! Actually! The blade is cracked?! It doesn't have a sharp edge, it is cracked!" In exclaim, Rurik immediately rushed to the blacksmith's stand, and looked intently, never thinking that the axe embryo had only small scratches. However, the blade of his carbon steel sword had cracked, and Rurik knew that there must have been a large number of small cracks invisible to the naked eye in this sword. It can be said that the entire sword has been scrapped.

In an instant, a sense of loss came to mind. However, at a certain moment of trance staring at the axe embryo, looking at the familiar and unfamiliar texture of this object, Rurik could finally make an accurate judgment.

"It's chromium! This thing is ferrochrome! If it is placed in a wood pile and carburized, its strength can be improved!"

Rurik's sense of loss only lasted for less than ten seconds, he plunged the scrapped sword into the ground, and happily held the axe in both hands.

"Ruriek, you..." Kawei really didn't know what to do. He held it up so that he broke Rurik's baby. He never thought that this child seemed to like the new and dislike the old.

Rurik burst into joy: "We finally made harder iron! It's chromium! It's really chromium! We will be able to make chromium steel soon! I want to make a brand new sword out of chromium steel! It, everyone's steel sword is not worth mentioning!"

It seemed that he was really excited, and Kawei changed his sad face and forced a smile.

In fact, Kawei is still not sure that a lot of things have happened. On the surface, it is indeed that the axe embryo is actually harder than the steel sword, but just because at this time, he believes that Rurik will not be so excited that this child is not a person of volition.

The fact is true. Lurik has understood that this axe embryo can be said to be stainless steel if only a little carburizing operation is carried out.

This axe embryo and even a lot of sponge iron in the stove are indeed ferrochrome, and the key to stainless steel is that it is mixed with a large proportion of chromium.

Now that it is chromium, everything is clear.

Chrome steel is very hard, even if wayward is very bad. It is of course possible to use it to make weapons, but it is not suitable for swords or steel crossbows. Now that the identity of the mysterious metal substance is determined, Rurik has overturned all previous thoughts.

Rurik was convinced that even theoretically it would be impossible to use the chrome steel here to make crossbows. If chrome steel is desperately used for its rigidity, then it will be of great use. Especially for the Ross people, logging is a very important skill for everyone! Jingru now, it is the most correct decision to make an axe from ferrochrome!

Rurik tried to calm his mood, and he returned the axe embryo to Kawei: "You will build a good sword for me in the future, but now, you must make all the sponge iron for me into an axe embryo! You will use the entire After finishing this in the afternoon, I will send someone to carburize for smoldering all night."

Kawei faltered and asked: "I broke your sword~www.mtlnovel.com~You forgive me?"

"When am I angry?" Rurik's sincere eyes are more than a thousand words: "I know you are tired, I still ask you to keep doing it. Listen, you are making the hardest axe, it is chrome Steel!" Rurik temporarily spelled out a term "Crstel" to describe chrome steel, but some onlookers preferred to call it "the hardest iron in the human world".

what! After all, it was Rurik's promise that every mercenary could have an axe made of these materials.

The mercenaries never expected that Lord Jinzhu would dare to sacrifice with his sword in order to obtain the hardest thing. They felt that they had made a lot of money, and desperately praised it as a magic weapon. Then, for the follow-up sponge iron forging, they changed all the malaise and became extremely excited.

It can be said that Rurik did sacrifice the sword to obtain chrome steel. This is indeed the case. The Rus people already have the ability to obtain stainless steel tools using traditional methods and at the expense of a lot of manpower and material resources.

In the face of the super-high performance of excellent metal materials, he felt that a series of efforts were worthwhile, that is, he suffered from his own sword.