Chapter 20: Now Try It
The piece of rough iron that Pops handed Dominic for his second attempt was much smaller, so he assumed that he would be making a dagger for his first attempt.
He had made a number of edged tools already, but they had just been shaped out of the blocks that Pops had already brought up to his standard for tool making. He hadn't had to try to refine the metals before, and he was overjoyed that Pops didn't want him to try to bring the metals down from ore to a workable standard.
Four times he folded it before the crudely smelted piece of metal was beginning to look decent for use on tools, and then another six attempts before it was starting to look like a decent carbon steel, the way that a good knife should.
Then he began to work the metal into a simple dirk, with the handle and crossbar integrated as a single piece.
That was similar to what Pops had done for the sabre, to create the landing to mount the hand guard, and Dominic found that once the blade was formed into a simple wedge dirk that he actually enjoyed hammering the curved shape into the handle's grip, forming ridges so it wouldn't slip out of the hand when it was wet with blood.
It was a lesson he learned the first time that he had to help his dad skin an animal for dinner. Where he grew up, most would wrap their handles with wire for that reason, allowing the slippery fluid to flow down from the surface without impeding the user's grip.
A round of dimples completed the look, and Dominic was satisfied that he wouldn't be embarrassed to take out this dagger anywhere.
"Now for the rune." Pops instructed his with a gesture to the diagram he had made on the chalkboard by the forge.
Very carefully, Dominic carved the rune on each side of the blade, and took out a level one Goblin Core to crush while the blade heated enough for the last step.