Starting Off With A Blacksmith Workshop

Chapter 5: Watermelon Knife

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Li Zhenhua rummaged through the house. He remembered that he had put away everything he needed before leaving for school.

He quickly found several barrels of sealed liquid. Through the plastic, he saw that the liquid inside flowed very slowly as he moved it.

Li Zhenhua took out a bucket, opened the lid, and looked inside.

He saw that the bucket was filled with a thick black liquid. Li Zhenhua checked the contents.

Satisfied that there were no problems, he nodded and walked out of the room with two buckets of liquid.

Returning to the stove, beside which stood a rectangular iron sink.

At this moment, there was nothing inside. Li Zhenhua opened a bucket and poured it into the sink.

Just as Li Zhenhua was about to pour the second bucket, his Eye of Analysis gave another hint.

A notification appeared in his line of sight:

‘Diesel and motor oil mixture. It can be used in steel quenching coolant.’

The current ratio of the two is not the best. Please continue to add oil to it.’

This hint made him feel that with the Eye of Analysis, the benefits were really great.

This eye could even give the best ratio for such a quenching cooling liquid.

Li Zhenhua returned to the room and once again took out a small 2L red bucket. It was filled with engine oil.

This was the scrap oil that Li Zhenhua had asked for from the repair shop in town.

It was also because there was no place to deal with the waste engine oil that Li Zhenhua could take it away.

If it were now, how could there not be a place to deal with this waste engine oil?

Returning to the sink, Li Zhenhua unscrewed the lid of the small bucket.

Then, he started pouring waste engine oil into it, and his eyes kept giving out notifications.

‘Motor oil difference: 1200ml, 800ml… 100ml, 40ml, 1ml.

Excess oil, please add diesel; current diesel difference: 2ml.’

It was actually fierce, which also caused him to miss the best ratio.

He added some diesel to it in small amounts to save himself the trouble of pouring more diesel.

Finally, in Li Zhenhua’s hands, he adjusted the cooling liquid to the optimal ratio.

The quenching was ready, and now only the actual operation remained. Li returned to the stove and clipped the knife out.

Looking at the hint given by his eyes, the temperature of the blade was slightly high.

Li Zhenhua could only stand there with the knife under his arm and wait for the temperature to drop. Moreover, he was also ready to insert the knife into the quenching cooling liquid at any time.

The temperature finally dropped to the optimal temperature. Without any hesitation, Li Zhenhua inserted the knife into the cooling liquid.

The coolant in the sink caught fire. Along with the flames, the air emitted the smell of burning oil.

‘Please remove the blade. Countdown, ten seconds. Three, two, one.’

Li Zhenhua immediately took out the knife. At this moment, the knife that had been quenched did not look too good.

The surface of the blade was dark and unusually ugly.

Li Zhenhua held the knife in his hand and observed it carefully. At this moment, words appeared beside the knife.

“Watermelon Knife (semi-finished product),

Long: 430mm, Wide: 45mm,

Full weight: 750 g, hardness: 62,

Resilience: Unfinished backfire. This data is incomplete and needs to be processed.”

Li Zhenhua did not expect that he only wanted to test the function of his other loading.

However, ever since he forged this watermelon knife, the subsequent development was more and more out of his expectations.

If this watermelon knife was really completed according to the hint of the Eye of Analysis,

Killing someone was a piece of cake, let alone killing a watermelon. Perhaps this watermelon knife was of better quality than the small daggers sold on the market.

Li Zhenhua actually wanted to know what this watermelon knife would end up becoming.

Therefore, Li Zhenhua planned to strictly follow the instructions of the Eye of Analysis.

‘Please configure the annealing solution next. Ingredients: diesel fuel, motor oil.’

Li Zhenhua followed the instructions strictly and formulated the solution used for the return fire.

Li Zhenhua, the blacksmith who was passed down in his family, naturally knew how to react. He took out a thin rectangular bucket and poured the solution into it.

Then, he squatted the bucket on the stove and carefully controlled the fire.

Until it heated the solution to a near-burn point.

Li kept the temperature up and secured the blade to the solution bucket with wire.

Then there was a long two hours of waiting. The knife was placed in a solution and maintained at 220 degrees Celsius for more than two hours.

Li Zhenhua finally took him off the stove.

Then it was time to continue waiting for the blade to cool slowly in the solution.

When the blade sank to room temperature, the process of this fire would be complete.

The quenching gave the knife a hardness. The backfire gave the knife a toughness. A watermelon knife was forged.

Li Zhenhua made it according to the weapon level.

The sky darkened when Li Zhenhua was maintaining the temperature of the watermelon knife. Li Zhenhua did not intend to continue guarding it.

Instead, he left it there to cool down naturally. The sun had set, and it was time for Li Zhenhua to eat again, but for him, the experience of the day was simply magical.

He had only sold a sickle, but he had actually made himself a Goldfinger.

Li Zhenhua picked up a large piece of noodles with his chopsticks and put it into his mouth.

“It seems that I’ll be a blacksmith for the rest of my life. If I don’t become a blacksmith, I feel that this cheat will immediately leave me.”

After dinner, Li Zhenhua walked to the stove and looked at the knife in the flashback solution.

The dialog box in the eye showed the temperature of the knife wedge at 43°C.

Seeing this temperature, Li Zhenhua knew that he could actually fish it out of the solution.

After securing the gloves, he took the wire hanging from the side of the bucket and fished the knife out.

The blade was filled with a mixture of oil solution. He placed the knife on a cloth that had been prepared long ago and wiped the solution off the knife with the cloth.

The color of the blade appeared before Li Zhenhua’s eyes. The color of the blade was still silvery-gray and a little dark.

Li Zhenhua looked at the hint in his eyes.

“Watermelon Knife (3/4 finished product),

Long: 430mm, Wide: 45mm,

Full weight: 750 g, hardness: 62,

Toughness: Better (This value is more complicated. The specific value is not quantified for the time being.) ”

The knife was already forged at this time. Next was the process of opening the V and opening the blade.

With the aid of machines, these two programs were very convenient for blacksmiths.

However, it was still a little difficult to achieve the level of blowing hair and cutting hair.

Li Zhenhua came to the table beside the kiln and placed the knife on it.

Originally, he’d intended to use the calipers to find the center of the blade, then draw the line before taking the V to the sand belt machine.

However, the Eye of Analysis had played its role once.

Li Zhenhua didn’t need to draw the line. He walked to the sand belt machine and clipped the knife into the holder.

He turned on the machine with his hand and the sand belt machine turned. Li Zhenhua held the clamp in his hand and sent the knife to the sand belt machine.

When the cutter touched the belt machine, the friction between the belt machine and the belt produced many iron filings of sparks.

The knife gradually formed a V shape in Li Zhenhua’s hand, and it became more and more presentable.

At the end, a notification appeared in his eyes. The high waist level grinding was completed. Next was the next step, the second hand opening of the blade.

Having completed this step, the entire watermelon knife was no longer the same color as before. When the V was turned on, the sand belt machine had worn out the color of the steel.

It was now half bright silver, as long as the remaining bit that hadn’t bloomed was still the same color as before.

Li Zhenhua took the knife to a corner of the courtyard where a long bench was placed.

The bench was set with a grinding stone that was said to be older than he was.

Li Zhenhua sat on the bench and began to sharpen the knife bit by bit.