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Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 01 May 2016, 08:52
by Vyrukas
I'm a working blacksmith with several years experience making ornamental pieces of ironwork, tools including knives and axes, some very limited experience in armor making, and knowledge on smelting and casting. I'd be happy to help answer any questions or offer technical advice, I'd also be happy to help any modders or what have you.

I know that I more than likely won't be any help at all, but I've always been a fan of morrowind and I think openmw is a great idea and I thought that might have a question on metalworking. It's a long shot I know.

Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 01 May 2016, 09:48
by raevol
What are your thoughts on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHD10DjxM1g

Do you think it's worth the effort?

Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 01 May 2016, 10:33
by Vyrukas
raevol wrote:What are your thoughts on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHD10DjxM1g

Do you think it's worth the effort?
It definitely works, although the bucket is rather small so fuel consumption is probably a major problem. Hardwood charcoal or coal/coke would be the preferred fuel as briquettes are rather inefficient at heating. But working with molten metals is very dangerous as any amount of water can make it explode.

If you are working with small amounts of metal and aren't afraid of learning how to deal with dross or how to make green sand molds, then it should work fine, just make sure you wear boots tucked into your pants; having a shoe filled with molten copper is most likely an experience you won't forget.

Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 01 May 2016, 10:47
by DestinedToDie
I´m guessing you have a love for swords. I´m in the process of making my own game on the OpenMW engine and though at the moment I am nowhere near far enough to start modeling weapons, what would be the most badass real life swords you´d like to see ingame? Are there any mistakes developers usually make that are inaccurate about the weapons?

Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 01 May 2016, 17:01
by raevol
Thanks for the feedback! If my friend and I ever get off our asses and make it I will post here.

Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 01 May 2016, 19:02
by Vyrukas
DestinedToDie wrote:I´m guessing you have a love for swords. I´m in the process of making my own game on the OpenMW engine and though at the moment I am nowhere near far enough to start modeling weapons, what would be the most badass real life swords you´d like to see ingame? Are there any mistakes developers usually make that are inaccurate about the weapons?
Blacksmiths loving swords is a stereotype and blade making is a rather specialized subsect of blacksmithing as a whole. The biggest bladed weapon I've ever forged is a lapinleuku which is a 16" long 5/16" thick blade used for chopping down trees and to breaking bones. The Lapinleuku filled the role of a hunting sword in Scandinavia yet all of Europe used similar blades. Honestly there are so many different varieties of hunting swords, some that are duel-edged, some that are straight, some that are curved, some with firearms build into them, that you could honestly fill an entire game with them.
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Are there any mistakes developers usually make that are inaccurate about the weapons?
Most swords are not cast, especially iron or steel swords. However copper and bronze swords were cast. Swords are also never forged with their hilts on, they were also only ever roughly shaped on an anvil and then filed into the final shape. Lone blacksmiths rarely if ever made swords, most blacksmiths worked in teams, usually headed by a master blacksmith who had a few journeymen helping him and apprentices doing all the menial tasks. However a great many swords were imported from other regions as was steel. Sword making is a very long tedious process that I feel would be fairly out of reach for the normal village blacksmith 1,000 years ago, however things like spears, knives, and axes are all comparatively easy to made.

Many people also misunderstand the quenching and tempering process. Many assume that different quenching liquids impart special characteristics into the metal, I've heard that I should quench in crude oil, that I should mix iron tablets into the water, and that I should quench in oxblood to impart 'strength', when in fact all of that is completely useless since the fluid you quench in is just a cooling medium. Iron can absorb substances such as carbon and that's how steel was originally made, however that requires the metal to be hovering around it's melting point in carbon rich environment for literally hours for it to any effect. There are several quenching people use and used. Water is the most popular and it provides the cheapest way to quench anything and is good for most steels but it can be to extreme for extremely high carbon steel. Higher carbon steels are typically quenched in an oil as those have higher boiling points and cool off the metal more slowly, preventing most cracking due to thermal shock. The 3rd most common in brine, as you can get an even harder quench than normal water, this is useful if you have a medium carbon steel and wish to make it as hard as possible. Liquid Mercury was also a quenching medium that fell out of favor for obvious reasons, the conductivity of the metal made it great for that use. The final liquid is a substance called "super-quench" which is more or less saltwater with dawn dishsoap and shaklee in it to prevent the water from forming a steam jacket, it cools the metal down so fast that it can case harden mild steel.

Tempering is rather easy. Different steels have different hardnesses especially after you quench them, tempering is a way of revealing some of those internal stresses and hardness making for a stronger blade. The traditional way of tempering is to heat up a block of iron red hot and then place the blade with it's spine touching the block. Eventually the heat will transfer to the blade and softening the spine, letting the edge keep it's hardness.

I could drone on and on about the various minutiae of blacksmithing and if you need any more information
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I'd be happy to help.

Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 02 May 2016, 00:55
by raevol
I don't know enough about it to know what questions to ask, but it's awesome. Where in the world are you? How do most people get into the craft?

Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 02 May 2016, 01:56
by Vyrukas
raevol wrote:I don't know enough about it to know what questions to ask, but it's awesome. Where in the world are you? How do most people get into the craft?
I live in New York and I'm self-trained. The barrier to entry is very small, you only need a hammer, an anvil, and a forge. The anvil doesn't have to be a huge 500lb monster and for most of human history they were small enough to comfortably carry in your hand.
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A forge can literally just be a hole in the ground, but the most popular material is old break drums from semi-trucks, and they can be put together relatively easy even by someone without a lot of equipment or knowledge.
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I will admit that there aren't a whole lot of us around, at the last state meeting there was maybe 30 people that showed up, which isn't much for a state with over 20 million people in it. I was also the youngest person there by at least 10 years. They are generally very welcoming of newcomers as not many people are interested in blacksmithing or willing to put in the effort to stay with it. If you're in the united states there will probably be a regional group for you to join if you're interested. But it's not hard to start out, maybe a little frustrating while you work out the problems but it's quite fun and handy to do.

I don't normally show off my work, especially if it's half finished but I think you'd like to see the more ornamental side of blacksmithing. This is a small table lantern which is part of a set of ten for a local store in my area.
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I also have a skinning knife I made a month ago that I think came out pretty well.
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Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 02 May 2016, 02:15
by raevol
Wow how cool! I am on the opposite corner of the country. If I get the chance I'll poke around to see if there's any activity in my area. What's the biggest thing you've made? And what's the thing you're most proud of?

Re: Blacksmith, don't know if I'd be any use to the team

Posted: 02 May 2016, 02:36
by Vyrukas
raevol wrote:Wow how cool! I am on the opposite corner of the country. If I get the chance I'll poke around to see if there's any activity in my area.
If you're in California there is http://www.calsmith.org/
What's the biggest thing you've made? And what's the thing you're most proud of?
I'm a single person and I work by myself so things like gates and fences are out of my league, the largest thing I've ever made is probably a 4" steel table. What I'm most proud of is the first knife I've ever made, I still keep it on my belt.