After engraving her na into the letter opener, Kana smiled, holding it in her hand as if it was a precious treasure. Seeing Kana treating her first creation like that caused Old Gamm to smile. "Now everyone has seen the process. Each of you take a room and begin working on your own. Ring the bell in the room when you need assistance. I will co as soon as I can." After handing out instructions, he turned and stopped Kana from going to one of the rooms. "Lass, you stay here. You will work on sothing else this ti. As I see it, you will be fine making your first weapon. We will make a small dagger. I will let you do one on your own first. Do not worry about the hilt for now. Just get the base done, and afterward, I will show you how to add a hilt to it."
Kana nodded and happily went over to the large box of tal scraps and began digging through it trying to pick the perfect piece out. After searching for a while, she picked a shiny bluish grey piece and held it in her hand. "Hmmm… This seems about right. So first, I need to heat this up…"
Kana took the tongs and placed the piece of tal in the forge. She then sat down and began using her foot to work the foot bellow to make the fire hotter. The flas in the forge roared as Kana continued to work the bellow. She noticed that the piece of tal she chose was taking more ti to heat up and turn red. Although it was taking more ti, it was slowly turning a bright red. After almost fifteen minutes, the tal beca hot enough to begin forging the starting shape of her dagger. All that could be heard throughout the main hall was the sound of hamring from the forge Kana was working at.
Old Gamm was keeping a close eye on Kana's progress and was really impressed at how quickly she learned. He didn't even need to tell her that thicker pieces of tal will need to be heated multiple tis before the first shape could be completed. Unlike these others who kept ringing the bell over and over.
While Kana was working, Dean Williams ca walking into the forging building. He was quite surprised that Kana was on the main teaching forge working. But he could see why when he noticed that Old Gamm was running to and from between the rooms. As he passed by, he would pause to look at the water screens to check Kana's progress. But what surprised him the most was how well Kana was doing. The entire ti he had been standing there watching, not once did Kana ask for help. But yet her dagger was slowly taking form. With nothing better to do and not wanting to disturb anyone, Dean Williams sat down on a bench in a cooled waiting room to watch the water screen of Kana's work.
"Okay… Now, I finally got the basic shape down, but the tal looks a bit odd… Maybe I should hamr it a bit more… Maybe I can get the color to blend better." Kana thought out loud as she rubbed her chin. The piece of tal she was holding had a rough dagger shape but was far from being finished. But the color was half grey and half blue. The grey was dull and looked very inferior, while the blue looked glossy and top grade. "Hmm… no… hamring it like it is will not blend it better. In order to make it blend, I will need to tl it all down and then hamr it…"
With this thought in mind, Kana went right to work. Dean William was confused as to what she was doing. But when he saw Old Gamm stop and look at the water screen and smile brightly before going to help the next student, Dean William knew that whatever Kana was doing must be correct.
Another hour went by, and a few students had finally created their very first work. They all held their letter openers in their hands and exited their forges. About twenty students stood outside the main forge watching the water screens as Kana worked. But the more they watched, the more confused they beca. Kana kept shaping a dagger, then lting it down and hamring it back into a ball as if she was playing with bread dough. She had already done this process a few tis.
"Master Gamm, what is Miss Kana doing?" One of the students finally asked.
"Hmmm? That Lass's na is Kana? Where have I heard that na before… Well, never mind. Anyway, what she is doing is a beginner's technique for blending low quality tal and high quality tal together. Sotis when you get ore, it will be mixed with two qualities of tal. The scrap she picked out was a mix of these two kinds of tal. In order to blend them together, she is using what we forgers call the tal dough technique. It is used among beginner forgers to blend two types of tal. The surprising thing is that this Lass figured this out on her own. She has not asked for my help once. This is the difference between soone talented in forging and soone who is not. But fret not, it is also fine to ask questions when you are being taught like this. But it is also good to try to figure things out on your own. By doing so, you will start to form your own thod of forging.
"As ti goes on you will want to have your own forging thods that suit you better than following the thods of others. Only then will you be on your own path of forging." Old Gamm was very impressed with Kana's ability to see and try new things without asking for assistance. Even when he was young and first starting out he had asked his masters how to do this and that. It was only until he learned all the basics and began his own workshop did he start exploring his own thods of forging.
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