Chapter 763: Folding and Forging
After forging the iron block flat enough, Li Gan used pliers and hammer to fold it, and after it was completely folded together, he continued to forge it repeatedly.
Looking at this forging technique, Zhou Xu suddenly thought of something and couldn't help but ask.
"What is this forging technique?"
"Li Gan figured it out himself. He said this forging method can forge steel more stably."
In front of Zhou Xu, the forging minister did not dare to take the credit for himself.
"Normally, when forging an iron weapon, after it is hammered flat, the initial form of the weapon has been forged. Therefore, every time he folds it, the energy he needs to consume is equivalent to forging an extra iron weapon. And he has to do this folding process fifty or sixty times!"
Speaking of the latter part, the Minister of Forging himself couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
This is equivalent to using the time and effort of forging fifty or sixty iron weapons to forge one weapon!
As they were talking, a member of the project team excitedly presented the only finished weapon currently available to Zhou Xu.
After taking a look at Li Gan who was still concentrating on forging, Zhou Xu had no intention of disturbing him.
"Let's go to the testing ground."
As a department that forges weapons, the Forging Department undoubtedly has a special place for testing weapons.
Holding the hilt of the sword, Zhou Xu exerted a little force, and suddenly a cold light flashed in front of his eyes. A sharp blade was unsheathed and exposed to the cold winter sun.
On the sword body, special lines appeared faintly in the sunlight, creating a unique charm that made Zhou Xu gasp.
"My goodness, this is no ordinary steel!"
In the time it took to say a word, Zhou Xu's mouth couldn't help but grin, and the joy on his face had already reached a point where it could no longer be concealed.
Steel with special patterns like this has different names in different places. In Europe, it is called Damascus steel, the Russians call it Bulat steel, and in China, it is uniformly called patterned steel!
The patterns on this patterned steel are formed during the process of continuous folding and forging.
Iron is refined over time into steel, steel is refined over time into softness and purity, and finally into blue.
This 'blue' refers to patterned steel!
During this time, Silk and the others who were following beside him also looked at the sword with a hint of brilliance in their eyes. Obviously, there was no enchantment, but the sword was shining coldly in the sun, and its edge was exposed! In this test field, there was naturally no shortage of weapons for testing. According to Zhou Xu's instructions, he directly took out an iron sword and chopped it against it.
After the strike, a visible gap was cut on the blade of the iron sword, while the blade of the sword had almost no damage.
Zhou Xu was overjoyed when he saw this, but at the same time, he also had some bad thoughts in his mind.
"Silk, how about trying it with your silver steel sword?"
Hearing this, Silk subconsciously hid the silver steel sword behind him, and looked at Zhou Xu with a hint of vigilance.
"Let's not do that."
Seeing this, Zhou Xu just smirked twice. He didn't really intend to use the silver steel sword to test it.
The raw material of the Silver Steel Sword is Mithril Steel, a special alloy, which is smelted from Mithril and steel.
Not to mention anything else, just the steel used in the silver steel sword, Zhou Xu felt that it was most likely not as good as this patterned steel.
After all, the silver steel sword was the standard weapon of the elven knights in the old civilization period, and it was probably manufactured in large quantities at that time.
In the era of cold weapons, when craftsmen relied solely on their own strength, skills and experience to forge steel, it was undoubtedly unrealistic to mass-produce or even mass-produce patterned steel.
Of course, out of caution, Zhou Xu still asked...
"Have other craftsmen in the forging department tried forging using this forging method?"
Faced with this question, the forging minister showed a hint of embarrassment on his face.
"Many craftsmen have tried, and the failure rate of others who follow Li Gan's forging method is very high."
During the entire folding forging process, no problems occurred. In fact, when forging weapons, accidents often occur during the quenching and tempering stages.
At this stage, the weapons they forged using this method would break easily, and even the Minister of Forging himself was no exception.
When asked about this question, Li Gan didn't know what to say.
After all, from Li Gan's perspective, he succeeded by following his forging method. He would be very surprised if it broke every time you hit him.
In this regard, Zhou Xu, who understood the situation, could only say, "Master Forger, awesome!"
It turns out that blacksmithing also depends on talent. The existence of Li Gan undoubtedly made the craftsmen in the forging department experience firsthand what a genius is.
Perhaps in an attempt to save the face of their forging department as much as possible, the forging director spoke again...
"But aside from the folding forging technique, we just adopted the method of repeated forging, and the success rate has increased a lot. After some attempts, we also forged two weapons. After a simple test, they are both stronger than the original iron weapons."
As he was speaking, a member of the team beside him presented two sharp swords to Zhou Xu.
When the swords were drawn out of their sheaths, it was very obvious that compared with the sword forged from patterned steel, the two swords did not have any patterns on the blades.
But according to the test results, these two swords have most likely been forged into steel swords.
Under this premise, Zhou Xu could roughly understand why Li Gan adopted folding forging.
Because they had never seen steel before, they couldn't be sure whether the iron was forged properly.
Under this premise, Li Gan gave a standard, that is, if it is directly folded and forged fifty or sixty times, then it is 100% steel! This genius method is really simple and crude.
If he had never seen the patterned steel sword, Zhou Xu would undoubtedly be very satisfied when he saw the two swords in front of him.
But now with the patterned steel beads and jade in front, looking at these two steel swords again, they feel a little underwhelming.
However, encouragement should be given to those who deserve it, and Zhou Xu will naturally not be vague about the rewards that should be given.
"You guys need to optimize this steel sword. Take into account the weapon strength, success rate, and forging cost. Find the most stable and cost-effective one."
For weapons like this that require large-scale manufacturing, we cannot simply pursue strength madly. Stable mass production and sufficient cost-effectiveness are the key.
Otherwise, who could afford to equip every soldier’s weapon with patterned steel?
Even if the funds allow, Li Gan's arm that swings the forging hammer may not allow it!
When relying purely on manual forging, the folding forging of the patterned steel is extremely energy-consuming. Every time Li Gan completes a round of forging, he has to take a break for a while, otherwise he won't be able to lift his hands the next day.
Although this is also affected by his current physical fitness, it is not difficult to see that forging patterned steel weapons is by no means an easy job.
(End of this chapter)
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