A Song for Winter: Hobby - Blacksmithing

    Clang! Clang! Clang! The heavy smithing hammer struck the red hot metal repeatedly. William picked up the metal billet with the tongs to examine his work so far. With a grunt, he thrust the partially shaped metal into the forge to give it some more heat. Using a quick set of rising and falling notes William worked the bellows hands-free stoking the flames in the forge hotter. A smile crept across the folf’s face as he looked across the forge at the list of work orders nailed to the wall. He may not be his clan’s best smith but he got more than enough work to keep himself occupied.

 

    As the son of Warking Odin Drackonas and Witch Queen Katherine Wintersong, William didn’t have to work but he found smithing enjoyable. Swinging the smithing hammer in a hot forge all day was a great way to build up strength and endurance. When he broke a weapon training William could repair it by himself without having to wait for someone else to do it for him. Arrows and throwing axes lost hunting or to practice mishaps were quickly replenished for a fraction of the cost of having to buy them from someone else.

   

    The metal selection was always an easy task for William. Being trained in witchcraft he could easily sense which ore had latent magical properties. While these small bits of magic in the metal didn’t make the weapons magic but they did make them stronger and easier to enchant later on. Ore in hand William would next gather the wood to heat his forge. Chopping enough wood to keep the forge going at the appropriate temperature often took a day or two as the folf would sometimes just keep chopping and chopping until his ax broke. He enjoyed the exercise and would give excess wood to anyone that needed it.

 

    Getting the forge up to the right temperature was an easy process since William could control the airflow into the flames hands-free by whistling a few notes of the Wintersong. Without the need to use his hands on the bellows it gave William extra time to plan out his designs or enjoy a quick snack before the actual smithing started. As the metal in the forge was heated bones from animals were added to bestow extra traits upon the metal. Sometimes deciding which animal bones to use was the most difficult part. Was it going to be bear bones for strength, elk bones for agility, ox bones for endurance, or any number of others that could lend their spirits to the weapon or armor?

 

    Hammering and shaping the metal billet was the easiest part for William as he had more than enough strength and dexterity for the task. While the process could be boring and repetitive William didn’t mind as he liked watching his project taking form with each swing. Finally, after hours of hard labor William would have before him a finished weapon or piece of armor before himself. Rather it was for himself or a clanmate that commissioned him he put the same passion and expert craftsmanship behind each piece.