View source for Erebor Smith's Handbook

<font size="+2">ON SMITHING</font>


This tome is large and resplendent with covers of beaten copper, etched with patterns and title. Inside, the pages are all hammered sheets of thin silver with the angerthas runes stamped into them. It looks as though many of the sheets have yet to be stamped.

There is a table of contents with the following entries:

__TOC__


== Arrowheads ==

Arrowheads are very simple to make, utilizing molds or thin rods. When using molds, which can be scooped for any variety of head from standard chisel to leaf-heads, to thin triangular armor-punchers, to bludgeoning bulb-heads, to hollow whistlers, to scythe-heads, etc, one melts steel in ladles to pour into the molds, carefully water-cooling/hardening them afterwards. Then they may be removed for sharpening on stones, to cutting barbs (made by making angular cuts along the edges and pulling out on the metal). Using rods is slower but sometimes necessary when making specialty heads. Heating thin rods in the forge, the hot ends are lozenged out and snipped off, then detail-worked.

== Axes and Battle-Axes ==

The making of axes differs from knives in several ways. The first difference will be the size and number of billets chosen to forge the blade with. Care must be taken when beating the billets out, especially in the case of a steel blade, as some dwarf-axes will be, that owing to the larger surface area, the hot billets do not crack or shatter under the hammer. The standard axe will be fire-welded, the original billet folded around a socket and pinched together, then a steel billet placed between the flap-ends to be welded and beaten into the cutting edge, repeated in the case of a double-bladed weapon. As with all weapons, the axe comes in many varieties, from single-bladed war-axes that sport a stout spike out the back, for punching through armor, to double-bladed choppers that take more strength then mortals possess, to swing for any length of time. Blades can be long and wide, thin and long, etc, but due to the overall weight of the weapon, tend to be smaller than most people imagine, sometimes as small as 7" long at the edge. Blades are riveted to a haft during the finishing process, which will include sharpening, perhaps polishing, or etching.

== Knives and daggers ==

The making of knives and daggers ranges from simple to complex, depending on the intended use and the price paid to ensure quality. This is not to say the forging can be done with the eyes closed! Even a simple, single-edged work knife must be attended to with care, or ruin is risked. Such a blade would require two small billets, one of iron, one of steel, to be fire-welded together. Bringing the paired billets to a white-spark heat in the forge, one apprentice on the billows, another must remove them promptly with tongs to the anvil, where a single strike with a small-gauge smithing hammer will fuse them. Back into the forge with some silver sand flung in, it's returned to white-spark stage, the fused billet then again removed to the anvil. Now fused, the smith is free to shape the billet into knife-form, reserving a tang at the back, using a hammer, and hot-cut chisel if needed. This may take several more mild heatings and quenchings.

More elaborate blades for dirks and daggers will follow this process with exceptions based on the final product desired. Besides fire-welding, a smith may utilize graphite-powdering or even case-hardening. Purely steel knives are possible but as in all other weapon forms, make the final product very brittle. The best blades have a heart of iron. After the blade is formed, it is finished away from the fire, being ground on different wheels, perhaps a blood-groove cut, patterns and runes etched in, and a hilt and/or gaurd fitted to the tang. Hilts can be works of art in their own right, or simple utilitarian fixtures.

== Spears ==

The making of spearheads follows the same process as that of knife-making, with as many options of blade-shape, from triangular armor-piercers to leaf-shaped blood-letters. The one exception will be the tang, which for a spear must be longer, sometimes three times as long, with rivet-holes punched through for fitting in the haft. Cross-gaurds may also be included when shaping the spear-tangs, for such things as boar-spears.

== Swords ==

Swords are made on the same principle of knives with a few exceptions. One, the billets used will be longer. Also, the method of fire-welding differs somewhat, in that a bar of iron and steel will be twisted around each other, fired, then beaten out, folding the metal over through as many heatings and quenchings as the smith wishes. The more folds put into this "pattern-welded" blade, called so for the marbling effect gotten of the twisted bars, the better it will be. When it is ready for finishing blood-grooves may be cut, the blade will be honed to a razor-edge, and any polishing and etching will e done, before the hilt is attached. Legendary blades, that will pass down through the generations in blood and death, can take as long as a year to finish from bloom to buy, crooned over a few hours a day with runes of power as well as tools, master works a smith may put their name on for all the ages. And some will take a few weeks only to forge, but dwarven weapons have a well-deserved reputation for being the best no matter how much effort is put into them.

== War Hammers ==

War hammers, like most hammers, will start with a chunk of iron, which will be pounded (and later filed) into shape, with a spike rolled out of the back end. Many hammers are case-hardened by baking graphite into the head, and others have a cap of steel fire-welded to the pounding end. Some hammers are forged with double pounding-heads. During the hot phase a hole will be awled out through the head to slip the haft through. Many hafts are half (or all) steel themselves, and can be welded into place with a top-spike protruding. Most hafts tend to be long, to lend the head inertia power when swinging.

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''IC-source'':

This tome comprises some knowledge of weapons crafting as related by the
master smiths of Sigin-Taragathol. Any errors are, of course, the scribe's
and not the smiths!

-Arawn, Lorekeeper of the Khazad

''OOC-Source'':

This volume is an amalgamation of Glo's "Smithing Guide", Ordy's "Dusty Old Book", and Da Dorf's information in ".news ironwork". Thanks also to Tysgin and Tandora for original help with Glo's and Ordy's work.

[[category:Erebor]]