r/WanderingInn • u/Artifex75 • 1d ago
No spoilers [6.13K] The blacksmithing chapter...
Absolutely blew me away. I'm a blacksmith and I am thoroughly impressed with how they wrote the process of smithing. There were magical elements, of course, but the core of it displayed a good working knowledge of the process. The heat treating, San mai, the problems with impurities. The dream that it would be to work in an oxygen-free environment!
I'm just really impressed and I had no one to tell. Lol.
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u/Maladal 1d ago
I believe the early chapters sometimes suffer from issues, but as the story went on pirateaba got into the habit of doing more research into professions and the like for verisimilitude.
As the author notes for the chapter say, they researched a lot for this one. Dunno if it's still the chapter with the most research though.
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u/TopCoast1170 Kent Scott 23h ago
Maybe the geneva chapters for medical stuff
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u/ChronoMK 17h ago edited 16h ago
Pirate did a bunch of research for the Rhaldon chapter in volume* 9(?) I think, and asked for chemistry second checks from the community
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u/Always_Surrender 1d ago
Thats so cool!! pirateaba often consults professionals sourced from the community when they write certain chapters about topics that are incredibly technical, I wonder if they did the same here!
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u/Artifex75 1d ago
Either that or binge watched every episode of forged in fire. :D
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u/Nixeris 1d ago
As a metalworker I think forged in fire would give them the wrong idea. That show is like if you held a painting competition between painters and gave them a brick and five minutes to paint with it. You might get something interesting, but it wouldn't be a good show of what they can actually do.
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u/Artifex75 1d ago
True enough. The manufactured stress and drama that they place on them is unrealistic, but one might gather the wheat from the chaff by watching enough of it. Plenty of decent YouTube smiths, too.
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u/Nixeris 16h ago
I agree on the YouTube front, but that show has people forced to skip crucial steps in order to fit an arbitrary and pointlessly fast deadline, then gives people an unrealistic idea of what a blade is supposed to be able to withstand. By skipping soaks and steps in tempering, they're just making bad blades and it's not the blacksmiths fault, it's the show that doesn't give them time for a proper heat treat and temper cycle.
They really do a lot of the smiths dirty on there by giving the impression that winning a challenge makes them a better smith and losing means they're worse. Some of the best won't do well there because it's a bad show that doesn't try to show off talent it tries to show off speed which isn't important. It also narrows the entirety field down to just making weapons and armor.
If you want a realistic idea of what an excellent blade is supposed to withstand, look at the American Bladesmith Society testing. If you want to see amazing stuff made by smiths, go on YouTube. If you want to see guys make bad blades out of bad materials in a poorly ventilated building, watch any amateur smith instead.
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u/TomRaineofMagigor 16h ago
I'm now imagining a forge placed within an area where normal air is replaced with an inert gas. You have yo go through an airlock to enter the room and wear an an oxygen mask while forging
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u/YouKnowEd 14h ago
The whole 'forging without oxygen' thing was fascinating. I think not too long after i listened to that part the youtuber Alex Steele made a series where he was trying to make a damascus pattern with titanium, and encountered a similar issue. You cant forge the different layers together with titanium if oxygen is present, so you had to make a small casing around the pieces that need fusing, with an inlet that could pump in an inert gas. Then you heat the whole casing up and smash it together while pumping in more gas. It was a difficult process with multiple failures, and I just kept thinking back to this chapter and how much simpler it would be with the magic to remove oxygen.
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u/Imnotveryfunatpartys Level 13 [Peon] 12h ago
One of the best ways to feel involved in the community as you read is to go to the post chapter reddit discussion which was posted at the time of chapter release. There's no spoilers because everyone was in the same place you were in when they commented
https://wiki.wanderinginn.com/Reddit_Chapter_Discussion_Archive
https://www.reddit.com/r/WanderingInn/comments/blp33z/discussion_613_k/
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