Chapter 286: Chapter 179 Copper-Tin Ratio
After making the first bronze hamr, Jiang Xuan first slted a large pile of copper ore and tin ore twice, casting them into copper and tin blocks using clay molds.
Then, he first cast a Bronze Short Knife about thirty centiters long and ground the blade very thin on a stone.
However, when he tested the Bronze Short Knife, a serious problem arose: the edge was too soft, and after two chops on a tree, the edge was directly rolled.
“How could this be?”
Jiang Xuan, holding the Bronze Short Knife, scratched his head, feeling that sothing must have gone wrong sowhere.
The bronze hamr he made before worked perfectly, so why did the sa Bronze Liquid fail when forming a Bronze Knife?
Jiang Xuan knew clearly that bronze could indeed be made into weapons because he had seen a replica Bronze Knife in his previous life, which was quite sharp.
“Could it be that bronze also needs to be quenched like iron?”
Jiang Xuan frowned and thought for a long ti, deciding to give it a try.
He first placed the Bronze Short Knife in the furnace, heated it until it was red-hot, and then used a wooden stick to clamp the knife and imrse half of the blade in cold water.
“Hiss hiss hiss…”
The water surface that ca into contact with the Bronze Short Knife instantly boiled, releasing a large amount of steam.
Then Jiang Xuan placed the knife on the ground to let it cool down slowly.
“Let’s try again.”
Once the Bronze Short Knife had cooled, Jiang Xuan picked up a thumb-thick branch, placed it on the ground, and slashed at it with the Bronze Short Knife, intending to cut it.
“Thunk!”
The Bronze Short Knife struck the branch, and while it did break, it was not a clean break, but rather due to Jiang Xuan’s force being too great for the branch to withstand, making the break uneven.
Jiang Xuan looked at the Bronze Short Knife and found that it had rolled its blade edge again.
“It seems that quenching doesn’t work for bronze.”
Feeling a bit defeated, Jiang Xuan sat next to the slting furnace, looking at the Bronze Short Knife and the bronze hamr beside him, pondering what the critical issue might be.
The two Warriors stood by as well, but since they were completely unfamiliar with this new material of bronze, they didn’t dare to speak randomly and could only look longingly at their leader, hoping he would co up with a solution.
Jiang Xuan sat for a while, then looked toward the copper and tin blocks that had been slted on the other side of the house when an idea suddenly flashed in his mind.
“Could it be a problem with the copper-tin ratio?”
He went over, picked up a piece of copper and a piece of tin, knocked them together, and noticed that the hardness of copper was sowhat higher, causing a small dent in the tin block, while the copper block was relatively unchanged.
“Let’s try increasing the copper ratio!”
Jiang Xuan imdiately got to work, starting to slt a second Bronze Short Knife. This ti, he used three units of copper and one unit of tin.
By evening, the second Bronze Short Knife was cast.
He then spent half the night grinding the blade edge of this Bronze Short Knife to be rather thin, making it look quite sharp.
The next day, he took another branch for the test.
“After all this effort, don’t let down!”
Jiang Xuan gripped the Bronze Short Knife and resolutely chopped the thumb-thick branch with it.
“Crack…”
The branch broke again, though the break was still not very neat. However, when Jiang Xuan inspected the Bronze Short Knife, he found that the edge had not rolled as badly as the previous knife.
“It seems my idea was correct; the hardness has indeed improved significantly.”
“Keep trying!”
With the two Warriors, Jiang Xuan spent a considerable amount of ti continuing his tests, repeatedly adjusting the copper-tin ratio and increasing the blade’s thickness to prevent easy breakage.
Until the tenth day, Jiang Xuan produced another Bronze Knife, this ti using five units of copper to one unit of tin.
“It has to succeed!”
Jiang Xuan gripped the Bronze Knife, took a deep breath, and decisively chopped at the branch.
“Snap!”
This ti, the branch was cleanly cut, and the cut was extrely neat.
Jiang Xuan again examined the edge of the Bronze Knife and saw that it had not rolled or shattered and remained intact!
“Great, it finally succeeded!”
Jiang Xuan gripped the Bronze Knife, overwheld with excitent.
“It finally succeeded!”
“The leader is amazing!”
The two Warriors were very pleased, glad that all the hard work over the days hadn’t been for nothing.
“I’ll head back for a mont, while you continue refining here.”
“Yes, leader.”
Jiang Xuan wrapped the Bronze Short Knife in Beast Hide and left the forging workshop, crossing the river by boat back to his house.
He unrolled a Beast Skin Scroll, which recorded the process and results of his attempts over the days.
For example, the first line read: Two parts copper, one part tin can cast a bronze hamr.
Further down, a series of failed attempts and ratios were recorded.
Now, he took a Beast Hair Brush and wrote on the Beast Skin Scroll: Five parts copper, one part tin can cast a Bronze Short Knife.
The reason he wrote ‘short knife’ instead of simply ‘bronze knife’ was because there is a difference between long knives and short knives.
Long knives are wider and longer; when used, the force applied will be substantial, so they must sacrifice so hardness for more toughness.
Otherwise, if a swing breaks the knife into two pieces, sharpness alone is worthless.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xuan began to understand why bronze was more frequently used for swords and less for knives.
Because as long as the copper ratio in bronze is high enough, the hardness is sufficient, the sharpness too, but it is prone to breaking.
Compared to single-edged knives, the flat diamond-shaped sword is thicker in the middle and thin on the sides, offering a better stress structure and is less likely to break if cast thicker.
Also, there was another aspect he had never considered before.
The early bronze artifact craftsn might have continuously improved upon discovering the disadvantages of bronze knives, ultimately evolving into bronze swords.
Otherwise, why were there no such swords in the Stone Age?
Bronze knives are prone to rolling or breaking, so they were altered to dual blades, so when one side was flawed, the other side could still be used.
In battles, if both sides’ edges were flawed, one could still stab with the pointed end.
Eventually, finding this weapon easily broke, the middle part of the sword was thickened, resulting in the flat diamond shape.
Thus, the subsequent bronze swords, whether long or short, had a thicker middle, thinner sides, and a pointed tip.
Jiang Xuan only realized this after making bronze artifacts himself; it was his personal conjecture, not seen docunted elsewhere.
“It seems more swords need to be made in the future.”
Jiang Xuan found it sowhat amusing; if he had used ancient people’s experience from his past life and directly cast swords, would it have saved so detours?
However, if he had started with swords, he would not have discovered the many issues associated with bronze knives.
Therefore, the extended period of trials was still fruitful.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xuan picked up the Beast Hair Brush again and wrote on the Beast Skin Scroll: Bronze is more suitable for casting swords…
After writing, Jiang Xuan carefully checked the Bronze Knife and then put it away.
Bronze Weapons, for the ti being, should remain hidden; otherwise, they would definitely attract other tribes’ covetousness, possibly bringing disaster to the Vine Tribe.
What the Vine Tribe needs now are various tools made from bronze.
Such as axes for cutting, chisels, saws, and shovels for woodworking, scissors for cutting Beast Hide Clothing, and so on.
With these bronze tools, the Vine Tribe’s productivity would greatly increase, quickly leaving other tribes far behind.
“First make a pair of scissors, definitely need to make a pair!”
Jiang Xuan felt the importance of scissors as he touched his long hair and the stubble starting to grow on his lips.
Cutting hair with a Stone Knife was really painful, shaving was unthinkable.
Many in the Vine Tribe, when their hair or beards grew too long, would grab them in a fist and burn them with fire, being incredibly brave.
After acquiring scissors, they could conveniently cut hair and beards.
Once the ink on the Beast Skin Scroll had dried, Jiang Xuan rolled it up and stored it properly.
He also placed the Bronze Short Knife in his room, not taking it outside.
Then, in a cheerful mood, he planned to wander around the Vine Tribe.
For so long, he had been focused on slting bronze, having not attended to other tribal affairs for quite so ti.
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