Chapter 3: Chaotic Fists Kill Master Fu

  In the blacksmith's shop, a coal stove was burning fiercely, and it was clear that Zhang Lao San had also been forging iron just now, and only put down his work to come out when he heard their voices.

  Qin Haiyuan was a person with diverse interests and hobbies. In order to explore the traditional folk material processing techniques, he had been an apprentice in a blacksmith's shop for several days, so he had some understanding of the tools and rules in the blacksmith's shop. He picked up a fire tong from the ground, clamped the iron shovel head that needed repair into the fire, and began to roast it.

  "Brother, can you really temper fire?" Fatso had also slipped in at some point and asked Qin Hai in a low voice.

  It was the sweltering summer weather, and the temperature in the blacksmith's shop was seven or eight degrees higher than outside, just like a steamer. Qin Hai had been staying in this room for some time and was already finding it hard to bear, while Fatso, who feared heat the most, actually came in, completely disregarding the sweat dripping from his body like rain, showing how much he valued this matter.

  "Can you iron, brother?" Qin Hai didn't answer Pangzi's question, but instead asked another question.

  "I'm a blacksmith," said the fat man. "I made all these farm tools."

  "That's great." Qin Hai said, "The iron shovel blade is rolled up and needs to be re-forged. This matter will be handed over to you."

  "......Alright." The fat man nodded silently, it was already a great favor that they could help temper the fire, how could he still ask them to swing the big hammer?

  Qin Hai heated the iron shovel head to a certain temperature, then used tongs to take it out and place it on the anvil. The stout blacksmith surprisingly had some skill, easily lifting a large iron hammer beside him and beginning to shape the shovel head. Since he was only repairing the curved edge of the blade, the workload wasn't too great, and after the stout man hammered away for a few blows, Qin Hai told him to stop.

  "Alright, can we temper it now?" Fatso pointed to a basin of water beside him and said to Qin Hai.

  "Not busy." Qin Hai waved his hand, and the iron shovel head that had just been forged was sent back to the furnace for re-heating. His eyes stared tightly at the color of the shovel head through the flames, waiting for it to heat up to the desired temperature.

  "What are you waiting for?" The fat man saw Qin Hai's serious expression and his heart also became solemn, asking in a low voice.

  "Heat treatment is not that simple, you have to heat the metal up to Ac3, which is the temperature at which free ferrite transforms completely into austenite, producing solid solution strengthening. Then take it out and let it cool slowly in air, making the crystal grains finer and the distribution of carbides more uniform..." Qin Hai explained the basics of heat treatment to Pángzi in a low voice.

  "This... is too much trouble." The fatty directly refused the postdoctoral guidance of the Academy of Sciences, things like austenite and crystal grains were really too far away from him, he only cared about one thing, when would he be able to see the results after quenching.

  Outside the blacksmith's shop, Zhang Lao San chatted with Man Kui while keeping an eye on the movements inside. Seeing Qin Hai heating up the workpiece at a steady pace, the mocking expression on his face slightly subsided.

  "What's wrong, Old Three?" Man Ge felt Zhang Lao San's change in attitude and asked softly.

  Zhang Lao San said: "This young man is quite good at writing..."

  "What about you?" Meng Mu sneered, knowing that Zhang Lao San had always been proud of his exceptional skills and liked to boast about himself. Now, hearing him praise a young man's skills, he couldn't resist the opportunity to belittle him.

  Zhang Lao San said insincerely: "Compared to me, he still has to wait 20 years... But what does he mean by doing this, I don't quite understand..."

  At this moment, the short young man who went to find chemical drugs came back panting, carrying a cloth bag with several medicine bottles inside.

  "Hey, where's that passerby?" the short one asked the tall one waiting outside the door. Qin Hai hadn't reported his own name to them, so he could only be referred to as "the passerby".

  The tall one mouthed towards the house and said: "He's inside, he was just ironing a while ago."

  "Am I late?" The short guy was a bit depressed.

  "Not too late, just in time." Qin Hai replied from inside the house, "Are things ready?"

  "We've got everything." The little guy replied happily. It would be a real pain to run so far in this heat and not have anything to show for it.

  Qin Hai had already taken out the heated iron shovel head, but instead of directly putting it into the water, he threw it into a pile of furnace ash beside him to keep its temperature. This method is called "re-ignition" and is also one of the major processes of heat treatment. Just now Qin Hai said that he wanted to quench these farm tools, but in fact, it was just a colloquialism. What he wanted to do was to integrate various techniques such as positive fire, re-ignition, quenching, etc., to achieve comprehensive heat treatment of the workpiece.

  While the iron ladle was still warm, Qin Hai took over the medicine that the short man had found and began pouring it into the quenching fire basin next to him. Accurate weight control was obviously not possible, so Qin Hai could only rely on experience to estimate a suitable dose of the medicine before pouring it into the water for mixing.

  "What are you doing?" Zhang Lao San had already entered the ironwork shop, watching Qin Hai's busy movements with curiosity.

  Qin Hai turned back to Zhang Lao San with a smile and said, "I'm tempering the quenching liquid. This 65 manganese steel requires nitric acid solution for quenching, which has the best effect."

  "This is the first time I've heard of it." Zhang Lao San said in surprise, "Isn't quenching fire just using water?"

  "Has Master Zhang ever heard of oil quenching?" Qin Hai asked back.

  "Oil quenching... I've heard of it." Zhang Lao San said, oil quenching refers to the use of plant oil instead of water as a quenching medium, and its quenching effect is different from that of water. Zhang Lao San knew that some iron tools had better effects with oil quenching, but due to the higher cost, they were not used much in practice.

  "My principle is similar to quenching oil. Different materials and different uses require different heat treatment processes, which involve the use of different media. The trinitride aqueous solution I used is most suitable for this type of steel."

  “Three nitro…” Zhang Lao San was completely stunned by Qin Hai. If you say Qin Hai is wrong, he would say it makes sense; but if you say he's right, what's this "three nitro water" thing? Zhang Lao San had never heard of such a thing before. Could it be that this young man knows more than himself, an old blacksmith?

  "You'll see the effect later." Qin Hai smiled and stopped explaining these issues. The scientific principle of material heat treatment was not something that a folk blacksmith could understand, but this did not prevent these folk blacksmiths from relying on their intuition and years of practice to find heat treatment methods that made materials experts sigh in admiration.

  Qin Hai took the iron shovel head that had cooled down from the furnace ash and put it back into the furnace to heat it up. After it turned slightly red, he took it out and directly inserted it into the prepared trinitrate solution.

  "Hiss!"

  A clear and crisp sound of water, a burst of steam rose from the quenching pot, everyone in the house smelled a strange smell that was neither sour nor salty. Qin Hai soaked the iron ladle head in the water for one or two minutes, then picked it out and threw it on the ground, saying to Fatty: "Okay, you take it out and let those few uncles try the blade."

  "Really done?" Fatso was overjoyed and didn't even bother to notice that the iron shovel still had some residual heat, he grabbed it with his hand and went out of the house.

  "Alright, you try it then." The fatty shouted at several farmers.

  "Alright?" asked the peasant who had been called "Man Gu", as he took over the iron hoe head, looked at it seriously and nodded: "Hmmm, the color seems to be right. Just don't know if it's sturdy or not..."

  "Can this iron chopper really chop bricks?" asked a peasant next to him, who was still fuming from the argument just now.

  "This... " The fatty was somewhat short of breath, he didn't know if the phrase "splitting a brick" was Qin Hai's exaggeration. If the carefully tempered farm tool were to be ruined by one brick and become blunt again, that would be embarrassing.

  "It's okay, split it." Qin Hai also came out of the house, hugging his arms and laughing.

  Man Mu listened to Qin Hai's confident words and became curious, wanting to see if the iron shovel was really as sturdy and durable as Qin Hai said. He installed the iron shovel head on a wooden handle, then found a half-brick from the side and lightly tapped it with the iron shovel, asking Qin Hai: "Young man, can this iron shovel really chop bricks?"

  "Cut it." Qin Hai was full of confidence. 65# tungsten steel is a widely used material, and later generations have done extensive research on the heat treatment process of this steel. If he still made a mistake in such a heat treatment, Qin Hai could directly wipe his neck and try again.

  The barbarian was still afraid to make a move, he took the iron trowel and tapped it on the brick several times, then picked it up to look at the blade, seeing that the blade was intact, he gritted his teeth and swung the iron trowel down hard on the brick.

  "Bang!"

  The brick shattered into several pieces, and as the iron hoe struck it, a crisp sound was heard. Everyone except Qin Hai couldn't help but curl up their lips, thinking that the hoe must have had a small dent somewhere. Man Chui hastily raised the iron hoe and wiped off the remaining brick dust with his hand. Upon closer inspection, he burst out laughing: "Haha, not a single thing happened!"

  "Let me see!"

  "Let me see!"

  Several other farmers and Zhang Lao San all rushed forward to examine the blade of the iron hoe. They saw that in the place where it had hit the brick, there was only a faint mark of friction, and no signs of damage or curling could be seen. The force with which Zhang Lao San had struck just now was something everyone could feel, and under such an impact, not a single hair was damaged, showing the excellent quality of the iron hoe's blade.

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  New book first week, updates are a bit slower, one day update one chapter 3000 words, strive to store drafts. Second week starting to strive for two updates per day.