Ye Feng spent a few more minutes making the other blower.
More than an hour later—
The sky had already cleared, and everyone gathered together to set up a makeshift shelter outdoors to prevent rain from falling again.
Tang Weiwei cut down a nearly mature locust tree that was as thick as a thigh, and it took the four of them a long time to drag it back.
The three of them took charge of chopping, while Ye Feng started making the blower casing on his own.
Fu Changxiong had already mixed the soil for him, and he picked off a clump of soil the size of a basketball.
After kneading several times, flatten it into a round disc, then shape it into the form of a frying pan (including the shape of the handle).
Additionally, a hole the size of a sports bottle cap was cut in the middle to house the bark blower.
After that, Ye Feng rolled the mud into long strips and began to build them up in circles.
The finished blower casing resembles a deep frying pan or a large ladle with a handle.
Half an hour later, to prevent insufficient wind power, he made another outer shell.
Obviously, the smelting effect will be better if two blowers are directed at the furnace opening.
After finishing, I made some minor adjustments and then lit a fire on the upper edge of the two outer shells to bake them.
Tang Weiwei and Zhan Pengwu, who were chopping wood, were sweating profusely, but they still kept stealing glances at Ye Feng.
Clearly, they still didn't understand what Ye Feng was going to do next.
But just over ten minutes later, the two felt like their worldviews were about to collapse.
Ye Feng ate a few pieces of jerky and then began working on building the furnace.
For him, once he has done a piece of manual work, he will do it faster and better the next time.
Having learned from his previous experience, he decided to make some minor improvements to the furnace.
After all, this time there are 29 knives, which are much larger than the last time in both quantity and weight.
Therefore, the quality of the furnace must be up to standard, and it also needs to be relatively large.
Ye Feng picked up the shovel and first dug an "n"-shaped groove in the ground.
Then, mud was used to build the furnace wall along the grooves...
Then, wrap mud around a wooden stick about the thickness of a finger, knead it, and press it into a square shape. Place it near the firewood opening of the furnace to be used as a grate bar.
The grate is located below the grate bars…
In addition, a chimney was dug next to the main furnace for ventilation and smoke extraction.
Only when air flows out can the temperature inside the furnace reach equilibrium.
Ventilation is a crucial step, especially in charcoal making.
Poor ventilation can lead to incomplete combustion of charcoal, resulting in a mixture of half charcoal and half wood.
Conversely, it helps improve the carbonization quality of charcoal, increasing its combustion efficiency and durability.
The charcoal he made last time was mostly strange.
After Ye Feng laid the foundation, all he needed to do next was to gradually widen and expand the furnace on that basis.
In short, this is a troublesome task that requires patience.
An hour passed quickly…
Ye Feng lit a fire inside the stove and began to slowly roast the food.
Once the wet mud inside the furnace is dried, a smelting furnace can be completed.
The final product looked like two pale yellow mud pillars that had sprouted from the ground.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and went to another campfire.
Liu Sisi and the others were in charge of flipping the blower casing, so the baking process went very smoothly.
"Brother Feng, the crust looks like it's done baking, listen..."
Liu Sisi gently tapped the mud with a stick, and the mud was completely dried out, making a "bang bang bang" sound.
Ye Feng stepped forward and examined it carefully for a while, then nodded with satisfaction.
Zhan Pengfei, who had been holding back for a long time, finally couldn't hold back any longer. He watched Ye Feng busy for nearly two hours.
His methodical hands transformed the mud into these things he had never seen before.
He excitedly pressed his hand against the blower casing, sizzling and yelling as he was burned.
"Ouch! Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
He quickly blew on the air and kept shaking his hands.
"What are you going to do? If you're feeling cold, how about I throw you into the furnace when we're making charcoal later?"
Hehe~
At this moment, Zhan Pengfei looked at Ye Feng with eyes full of admiration.
He crouched down, grabbed Ye Feng's hand, and began to examine and stroke it repeatedly...
If you learn this craft, you'll become an inventor! It's much more interesting than traditional Chinese medicine.
"My God... Brother Feng, I... I admire you so much."
Your mud-playing skills are absolutely amazing! You absolutely have to teach me sometime!
Ye Feng frowned. "A traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, why isn't he studying herbs properly, instead of learning about mud?"
"Alright, alright, hurry up and urge your two older brothers. My goal today is to refine the smelting pot and charcoal first."
"good."
Just as Zhan Pengfei got up, the sound of chopping firewood not far away stopped.
What followed was Tang Weiwei's panting voice...
"No...no need, we've...taken care of it."
Ye Feng got up and went forward to take a look. He found that the team members were quite efficient.
The locust tree, which was about ten meters long, has now turned into a pile of firewood that is thirty or forty centimeters long.
"Good job, now we can start burning charcoal..."
Tang Weiwei and Zhan Pengwu did not reply; they were both panting heavily.
It was clear that they were all exhausted, while Fu Changxiong was still breathing heavily and in good spirits.
This perfectly proves the saying that everyone has their own area of expertise.
People who frequently do manual labor are indeed more resilient.
Even with their martial arts backgrounds, they are still no match for professionals in this regard.
After waiting for half an hour, the furnace hardened completely.
Ye Feng removed the fire and waited for the furnace to cool down before directing everyone to move firewood.
He then began to methodically stack the firewood into the stove.
A rough estimate suggests that if all the firewood here were successfully carbonized, it would weigh approximately 200 to 250 kilograms.
That's enough to refine that steel.
Soon, the furnace was overflowing with firewood, yet less than a third of the pile of firewood had disappeared…
It was obvious that the tree Tang Weiwei had chosen was too big; it simply couldn't be completely smoked today.
But since we've already cut it down, we can't let it go to waste.
After Ye Feng lit the furnace, he covered the furnace opening with a mud lid, waiting for the chimney next to him to ventilate automatically.
This stove is much easier to install than the last one.
He picked up a blower casing and inserted the stick of the blower blade through the round hole in the center of the casing…
In this way, the bark and blades remain inside the shell, and when the shell is placed on the ground, the wind generated will fly out through the pre-existing ventilation ducts, thus gathering the air together.
When the time comes, simply align the pipe with the firewood inlet of the furnace, and the flame's intensity will be greatly enhanced.
"Da Xiong, you try it out, let me see how strong the wind is."
Fu Changxiong immediately placed both hands on the stick and began rubbing.
It's similar to the action of rubbing sticks together to start a fire...
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