26 26. Battle Axe Preparations

Once the pellets had melted, Mark positioned the bone with the carvings in it on the anvil. He set it up to receive the molten metal on one side.

"If this actually works then maybe I could make a one-handed war hammer with one of the horns as the pick and another for the handle. . . probably the one I cut apart would be good as the handle if it makes it through the rest of the tests."

Mark poured the molten iron into the spiderweb pattern as he thought to himself out loud.

While the metal cooled, he thought about the alloy he would make for the axe part of the weapon.

"With a bit of the metal with a green sheen, it should reinforce the axe enough to prevent any damage from using it in fights."

Mark grabbed the fifth-step hammer in preparation for the procedure that he would soon try out on something other than bone.

"I wonder if they really used the fifth step for this hammer. If they did, then what did they use to do it?"

After letting himself get distracted he moved his attention back to the beginnings of a new battle axe.

With the special hammer in hand, he began the fifth-step process. This time was a little bit different since he was trying to bind metal to bone but after a few strikes of the hammer, he was able to intuitively feel what he needed to do.

'hmm, it seems this will work just fine I just need to strike it a bit softer every half second instead of every second. . .'

With his new rhythm picked out, Mark continued to bind the metal and bone together with what sounded like the beat of a snare drum.

The ping of the metal was combined with the dull thud of the bone while having the sound altered by the strange blasts of purple light from the crystal that seemed to travel through the metal that the fifth-step hammer was made of.

The pattern of strikes came naturally to Mark as he just struck where he felt it was needed. He worked off a combination of visual cues as he could spot the next area that needed some work as well as the sound and vibrations that he received in feedback with every strike of the hammer.

Since he was unable to actually quantify each strike with a precise technique, he instead had to rely on how he 'felt' with each previous strike to decide where the next strike would be placed. After years at the forge, this process was somewhat instinctual to Mark.

The decision had to be made in a fraction of a second because of the cadence needed for these materials, hence the need to 'feel' where each strike would go.

After he got the hang of the cadence and pattern needed for the bonding process, Mark fell into his trance as the purple blasts of light and the sound of the hammer hitting the materials pulled him in.

He continued working for nearly an hour as he systematically merged the metal and bone on the first side of what would soon be a battle axe.

With a weird-sounding 'thud' he was broken from his trance and he looked at his finished product with little memory of the entire process.

To Mark, it had just been a couple of minutes.

Looking at the finished work, he knew it had been much longer than it had felt to him.

"Damn, this is just like the crystal!"

He picked up his creation and looked at the parts where metal and bone had merged while holding it close to his eyes.

"There is a seamless bonding of the metal and bone here, I am unable to tell where the metal ends and the bone begins. It is as if the metal and bone have always been part of each other."

After he was over his amazement, he began to work on the other side of the bone handle.

The second side did not take nearly as long to get finished since he had already figured out the method, he just had to allow himself to fall into the groove of working on the battle axe and he soon found himself in a trance.

The entire process still took about an hour but when he was done, he realized that he could actually make a nice battle axe out of the bone.

"All I need to do now is cast the hammer and the blade and I will have a brand new battle axe."

He walked over to his stock of metals that he currently had ready.

"I should just need 2 bars of iron to make the axe. . . if I split it into thirds I should be able to have a ratio of 3:2:1 for iron, aluminum, and the green sheen metal."

He then grabbed the metals he needed and placed them in a clean crucible.

Since he only needed 2/3 of a bar of aluminum, he placed it on the anvil and used a vice clamp to fix it in place before scoring it with a scoring tool. He then used a two-handed square head hammer to knock off the 1/3 he didn't need before adding the 2/3 he needed to the crucible as well.

He then placed the crucible in the forge area for melting metal.

While he was waiting for the metal to melt, he looked at the horn that was still boiling in some water.

He reached into the boiling water with some forceps and grabbed the horn before setting it on the anvil.

Then, he grabbed a hammer and gave it a good smack to see if it was still as tough as before it was boiled.

"Thunk, ding!"

The horn was still just as hard as far as he could tell and there were still no marks from the hammer strike.

"Huh, I guess this horn is still quite sturdy even though I can cut it with my spear. This stuff really could be used for a weapon."

He then grabbed the horn with one hand and used his knife in the other to cut it into workable pieces.

When he was done, he also grabbed the other half of the smaller horn and cut it into identical pieces which he would use with an aluminum alloy to make a sturdy handle for a one-handed battle hammer pick.

After he set those pieces to the side, he looked at the crucible with the alloy he was going to cast as his battle-axe blade and counterweight.

The molten metal was glowing red-hot and had the occasional bubble pop up from the bottom of the crucible which told Mark that it was time to get the cast ready for the blade and counterweight.

Since he had already planned to eventually make a battle axe like this one, he just checked his pre-made mold to ensure it would have appropriate dimensions and, when he was satisfied, he placed both molds in a good spot to cool.

He then grabbed the molten alloy and poured it into both molds and was happy to see that he even had some leftovers that he dribbled into some water to make filler beads.

He collected the beads and put them into a small leather pouch and put symbols on it that signified it as being a special alloy before he placed them to the side where he could grab them when needed.

Since he still needed to bond the blade and counterweight to the shaft, the beads could prove to be useful before they even went to storage.

Mark then turned to the cooling molds.

"All there is to do now is wait."