>>94677991Archive under the Exiled Sanallite at /vtwbg/.
I'm surprised a Hooman has taken interest. He's a fairly old fellow who almosts looks like an owl with his balding white hair and beard. The man is very excited to greet me.
"So you're a miner you say?" He asks.
"I was,' I reply.
The man peers at my bandaged hands. "I never seen a miner with soft hands. Or the voyage just made you weak. Good thing you started out with light work then." The man says with pity, "shame you're so knowledgeable. So how will these experiments work exactly?" I explain to him that we will be casting bismuth brass into various sand casts that have been dried out at different times in the kiln. "I see," the councilman says rubbing his beard. "See we're using bronze here because iron will turn the beach sand into glass. And to be honest I'm looking forward to the failures."
"You want the experiments to fail?" I ask.
"Hoo no," the man replies. "But I want to see the explosions."
I shrug. With an extended cauldron welded on a long rod I begin pouring the bronze into the sand casts starting with the dryest first. Everyone stands behind the sandbag blast shields while I work. It's so far so good with the first three samples. The fourth sample begins to crackle and pop. I immediately take shelter and watch the sample bubble within the cast. The cast immediately cracks. Sand and liquid bronze comes pouring out. I shudder to think how the fith cast will go. The hooman applauds.
I take my chances with the still wet sand. I pour the bronze in. Immediately steam begins to bubble up inside. I drop the cauldron and high tail it out of there. The cast after a while explodes. Sand and bronze gets everywhere. The wood holding the cast is on fire. The fire crew and I begin assessing the damage. We make sure we quench whatever hot metal we can. We make sure triple check nothing flammable is in the area. The hooman applauds. "This is valueable data," he says. "We'll have to see if the other samples are useable once they cool off. Eh what did you cast?" I tell him, "kama scickle heads. They'll be useful for cutting grass for thatch and basket weaves."
"Aaahhh, I like how you're thinking of the community," says the old man. "You're not just making things easier for yourself but for everyone around you." I say to the old man, "I know how to smelt ore but the tool making is in your hands. I'm no blacksmith." The old man chuckles, "hoo! I wouldn't think you were. Still you say you believe you can squeeze iron out of the sand?"
"I can try. Even low quality iron is still iron. And iron can be wrought into steel with enough work."
"First we'll see how the experiment goes with the bronze. Then we'll talk about iron. Deal?"
"Deal."
