After making the first bronze hammer, Jiang Xuan first smelted a large amount of copper ore and tin ore twice, and cast it into copper and tin blocks with a pottery mold.
Then, he first cast a bronze dagger about thirty centimeters long, and ground the blade very thin on the stone.
However, when he tried the bronze dagger, a serious problem arose, that is, the blade was too soft. When he cut twice on the tree, the blade curled directly.
"How could this happen?"
Jiang Xuan held the bronze dagger and scratched his head, feeling that there must be something wrong somewhere.
The bronze hammer I made before is very easy to use. Why can’t I use the same bronze liquid to make a bronze knife?
Bronze can definitely be used to make weapons. He knew this for sure, because he had seen an imitation bronze knife in his previous life and it was quite sharp.
"Does bronze need to be quenched like iron?"
Jiang Xuan frowned and thought for a long time before deciding to give it a try.
He first put the bronze dagger into the furnace and burned it red. Then he took the knife out with a wooden stick and immersed half of the blade in cold water.
"Chi chi chi..."
The water surface that came into contact with the bronze dagger instantly boiled, releasing a large amount of steam.
Afterwards, Jiang Xuan placed the dagger on the ground and let it cool down slowly.
"Try again."
After the bronze dagger cooled down, Jiang Xuan picked up a branch as thick as his thumb, placed it on the ground, and then used the bronze dagger to cut off the branch.
"Dah!"
The bronze dagger was chopped on the branch, and the branch was broken, but not neatly. It was because Jiang Xuan's strength was too great that the branch could not bear it and broke, and the fracture was irregular.
Jiang Xuan picked up the bronze dagger and took a look. Good guy, the blade has been curled again.
"It seems that the quenching method is useless for bronze."
Jiang Xuan felt a little frustrated. He sat next to the smelting furnace, looking at the bronze dagger and the bronze hammer placed aside, thinking about the key to the problem.
The two warriors were also standing aside, but they didn't understand anything new about bronze, and they didn't dare to talk nonsense. They could only look at the leader eagerly, hoping that the leader would come up with a solution.
Jiang Xuan sat for a while, then looked at the smelted copper and tin blocks on the other side of the room, and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind.
"Could it be that there is a problem with the copper-tin ratio?"
He walked over, picked up a piece of copper and a piece of tin, and knocked it. Copper was harder than tin. There was a small dent in the tin piece, but there was no change in the copper piece.
"Try increasing the proportion of copper!"
Jiang Xuan did as he said, and immediately opened the furnace to smelt a second bronze dagger. This time, he put in three pieces of copper and one piece of tin.
In the evening, the second bronze dagger was cast.
He spent half the night sharpening the edge of the bronze dagger to make it thinner and look sharp.
The next day, he tried again with a branch.
"You have spent so much effort, please don't let me down!"
Jiang Xuan held the bronze dagger and chopped off the branch as thick as his thumb.
"Gaba..."
The branches were shorter again, but the breaks were still not neat. However, when Jiang Xuan picked up the bronze dagger and observed it, he found that the blade was not as curled as the previous knife.
"It seems that my idea is right, the hardness has indeed improved a lot."
"Keep trying!"
Jiang Xuan took the two warriors and spent a long time trying again and again.
When the proportion of copper is low, the bronze knife will curl when cutting slightly harder objects, which is obviously unusable.
When the proportion of copper is too high, the bronze knife will not curl, but will chip or even break, making it useless.
He could only change the proportion of copper and tin little by little, and at the same time, increase the thickness of the blade so that it would not break so easily.
On the tenth day, Jiang Xuan once again made a bronze knife. This time, he put five pieces of copper and one piece of tin.
"It must succeed!"
Jiang Xuan held the bronze knife, took a deep breath, and then decisively chopped at the branch.
"Click!"
This time, the branch was cut directly, and the fracture was very smooth.
Jiang Xuan looked at the edge of the bronze sword again and saw that the edge was not curled or broken, it was still intact!
"Great, it finally worked!"
Jiang Xuan held the bronze knife and felt very excited.
"Finally successful!"
"The leader is so awesome!"
The two soldiers were also very happy. After all, so many days of hard work were not in vain.
"I'll go back first, and you can continue practicing here."
"Yes, leader."
Jiang Xuan wrapped the bronze dagger in animal skin, then left the foundry, crossed the river by boat, and returned to his house.
He unfolded an animal skin scroll, which recorded the process and results of his attempts over the past few days.
For example, the first line reads: Two parts of copper and one part of tin can be used to cast a bronze hammer.
What follows is a series of failed attempts and ratios.
Now, he picked up an animal hair pen and wrote on the animal skin scroll: Five parts of copper and one part of tin can be used to cast a bronze dagger.
The reason why I write about short knives instead of directly writing about bronze knives is because long knives and short knives are different.
Long knives are wider and longer, and when used, the force exerted will be very large, so some hardness must be sacrificed to enhance toughness.
Otherwise, if you cut it with a knife, it will break into two pieces. What's the use of being sharper?
Thinking of this, Jiang Xuan understood why most of the bronzes were swords and there were relatively few knives.
Because bronze is a material, as long as the proportion of copper is increased, the hardness and sharpness are sufficient, but it is easy to break.
Compared with a single-edged sword, a flat diamond-shaped sword is thicker in the middle and thinner on both sides. It has a better stress-bearing structure. As long as it is cast thicker, it is not so easy to break.
Moreover, there is another question that he has never thought about before.
That is the craftsman who cast bronze in the early days. It is likely that he discovered the shortcomings of the bronze sword and after continuous improvement, it eventually evolved into a bronze sword.
Otherwise, why wouldn’t there be swords in the Stone Age?
Bronze knives are prone to curling or chipping, so change them to double-sided blades so that if one side is chipped or chipped, the other side can still be used.
When fighting, what should you do if the blades on both sides are curled or broken? Then make the ends sharp and you can still use them to stab people.
Later, it was discovered that this kind of weapon was easy to break, so the middle position was continuously thickened, and finally it became a flat diamond shape.
Therefore, later bronze swords, no matter their length, were thick in the middle, thin on both sides, and sharp at the end.
This issue was something Jiang Xuan figured out after he made the bronzes himself. He had never seen it elsewhere before and it was his personal speculation.
"It seems that we need to make more swords in the future."
Jiang Xuan suddenly felt a little funny. If he had just made the sword directly based on the experience of the ancients in his previous life, wouldn't he have taken less detours?
However, if he had made the sword from the beginning, he would not have discovered the many problems with the bronze sword.
Therefore, after trying for such a long time, something has been gained.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xuan picked up the animal brush again and wrote on the animal skin scroll: Bronze is more suitable for making swords...
After finishing writing, Jiang Xuan looked at the bronze knife carefully and then put it away.
Bronze weapons cannot be revealed for the time being, otherwise, they will definitely attract the covetousness of other tribes, and even bring disaster to the Vine tribe.
What the Vine Tribe needs now are various tools made of bronze.
For example, axes for cutting, chisels, saws, shovels and other tools for carpentry, scissors for cutting animal skin clothing, etc.
With these bronze tools, the productivity of the Vine tribe will be greatly improved, and it will soon be able to leave other tribes far behind.
"First make a pair of scissors, then you must make a pair of scissors!"
Jiang Xuan touched his long hair and the beard that had just begun to grow on his lips. He felt that scissors were particularly important.
It was too painful to cut my hair with a stone knife, and I couldn't even think about shaving.
There are many people in the Vine tribe who, when their hair or beards are too long, just grab them into handfuls and burn them with fire. They are quite brave.
Once you have scissors, you can use them to cut your hair and beard, which is very convenient.
After the paint on the animal skin roll dried, Jiang Xuan rolled it up and placed it properly.
He also placed the bronze dagger in the room and did not take it out.
Later, he planned to visit various places in the Vine Tribe with a happy mood.
After such a long time, his mind was focused on smelting bronze, and he had not bothered with other matters of the tribe for a long time.