sword making part 3

Metallurgy didn't require her customer to be here, which made it the best way for the Artificer to unwind, letting the corner of this room, her forge, to light up the place in an orange glow. The bellows roar to life as Iosefka turns on the furnace, taking the kiln off to the side and placing the hefty amount of arcanium into the crucible-in-waiting.

Sparks fly almost immediately, magic released into the air as the critters occupying the other rooms squeak in shock and hide, and the Neries spends her time poking and prodding at the magic metal as it slowly, slowly melts down.

But that would still be some time. She had other things to do still, and the Neries didn't have all that much time. She first goes to a clay mold of the original Nyeshk portion of the blade, layering an inch of extra clay on top of it and sanding it down to size as it begins to dry. This would serve to make an imprint into the mold, stretching from side to side, which she would then allow to harden and serve as the new mold.

Once the mold was made, she'd remove the extra layer she had applied to it. Thus, her positive and negative mold were ready for the arcanium…

That would come up later, of course, since she still had to do the actual working with the arcanium. Back she goes to her furnace.
(Iosefka Coza)

The Arcanium was beginning to bubble, a good sign that it wasn't impure - Sin had taken some good stock when he had brought in these rocks. She hardly, if at all, scoops out the impurities. Pretty soon, the green ore is turning a lurid white, and the Neries is delighted to see the metal in such good quality.

The kiln is removed from the furnace and brought to the mold, poured in until it filled every crevice of it. As the metal finally settled, the other half of the mold is then pressed against it, causing a loud hissing to echo across her lodge before finally, the arcanium cools and hardens, squished between the mold beneath it, and the other mold above it. A few minutes pass before she feels comfortable with shattering the clay top mold, revealing the arcanium 'shell' within.

This arcanium would be affixed to the outside edge of the Nyeshk weight, adding sharpness, absurd sharpness to the weapon. But for now, it was merely an arcanium edge that had not yet been affixed to the rest of the weapon.

And besides. It wasn't even ready yet.
(Iosefka Coza)

Iosefka pried the arcanium blade outer shell from the mold remains, letting the metal glitter and catch in the orange light of the forge while she got out the necessary tools for this rigorous practice. Rigorous because it would take a long time before it showed any change as she took to filing down, sharpening, and polishing the outer edge properly.

The Nyeshk blade is taken down from the wall once more as she presses the arcanium edge against it, fitting it as best she can and beginning to grind and taper the metal properly against the darker 'body' of the weapon.

Over and over she'd grind and whet the arcanium, letting it shine from the constant polishing she was doing. It was still unattached to the rest of the weapon... But not for long. Iosefka takes out her torch and begins her tireless work, lighting it with a jet of blue energy, and beginning to fuse the two pieces together.
(Iosefka Coza)

The burn of the energy, with such a fresh piece of arcanium, is just enough for the two metals to finally begin fusing together, and Iosefka begins to feel the heat reach her brow as sweat pools around her features, gathering at the point of her chin. She is careful not to damage any of the designs she had already established on the Nyeshk - Last thing she wanted to do was redo all her etchings.

The arcanium that she had worked so hard to polish, unfortunately, was beginning to once again cloud over and lose its luster, but she could go back to that later. The arcanium was a perfect fit in the Nyeshk 'body', so that wasn't a big deal. What WAS a big deal was just how much energy she had to expend just making sure the metal would even begin to bubble.

It IS a long time until Iosefka can finally break away from her work, the weapon, with its hilt now clearly installed into the back of the blade, uncleanly fused with the arcanium edge. Once more she takes out her sanding paper and whetstone, but her work is far less diligent now. It was just to clean up where the two metals now met... And the alloy she had created through torching them together.

This would do for now. It was almost ready to be passed on to Sin. Almost.
(Iosefka Coza)