After trading iron ore with the leader of the Bamboo Rat Tribe, Jiang Xuan checked other stones hoarded by the Bamboo Rat Tribe, but unfortunately he could not find coal.
But this is normal. How could a small tribe of bamboo rats happen to have these two ores at the same time?
Even so, Jiang Xuan was very happy to successfully obtain the iron ore.
He couldn't wait to let the warriors of the Teng tribe carry the iron ore to the ship, and asked the Bamboo Rat tribe to dig more iron ore in the future, and then started to return to the ship with Jie Jie and others.
After returning to his new territory, Jiang Xuan couldn't wait to start trying to make iron.
Iron smelting is actually not very different from copper smelting. The difference is that the temperature required for iron smelting is higher than that for copper smelting.
Therefore, if you want to make iron, the first step is to build a blast furnace.
The people in charge of smelting in the Teng tribe are already familiar with this process. They had already built a blast furnace with clay before Jiang Xuan brought the iron ore back.
The second step is to refine the charcoal.
In fact, the best way to make iron is to use coke made from coal that has been carbonized, but the Teng tribe currently does not have access to coal, so they can only refine a large amount of high-quality charcoal as a substitute.
This step is also familiar to the people of the Vine tribe, because smelting bronze also requires a large amount of charcoal, and they have repeated it countless times.
The third step is to smash the iron ore to make it easier to heat and melt.
The warriors of the Vine tribe have a lot of strength, and they already have bronze hammers, so this step is relatively easy for them.
After completing these preparations and waiting for the clay blast furnace to dry naturally, ironmaking can officially begin.
On September 28, Jiang Xuan personally guided the people of the Teng tribe to smelt at the blast furnace.
"First lay a layer of charcoal under the furnace, then lay a layer of iron ore, then lay a layer of charcoal, then lay a layer of iron ore, and so on until the blast furnace is filled."
Jiang Xuan demonstrated once, then suddenly remembered something, so he walked not far away, picked up a few fist-sized pieces of limestone, mixed them with iron ore and put them into the blast furnace.
A soldier in charge of smelting asked curiously: "Chief, why do you need to add a few stones to it?"
Jiang Xuandao: "This kind of stone is called limestone. It can remove some of the impurities in the iron ore, making the iron we refine more pure."
Another soldier asked: "Can I add other stones?"
Jiang Xuan thought for a moment, but did not dampen their enthusiasm and creativity: "I haven't tried it either. You can try it in the future and see the difference in the iron made by adding different stones."
Jiang Xuan believes that the courage to try and innovate is a rare quality. If they are lucky, they may be able to use different ores to refine alloys with better properties than iron, or derive some other products.
After all, there are many new stones in this world, and there must be some new metal minerals, which may be more powerful than the metals Jiang Xuan is familiar with.
The warriors nodded excitedly, eager to smelt the iron and try more.
"Crack, crackle, crackle..."
After stacking the iron ore, charcoal and limestone in layers, Jiang Xuan personally lit the blast furnace.
At the bottom of the blast furnace, Jiang Xuan asked a tribesman who was good at carpentry to make a simple hand-operated blower, plug the outlet air into the fire inlet of the blast furnace, and then asked a soldier to be responsible for blowing the air.
With the wind support of the simple blower, the high-quality charcoal is fully burned, the temperature in the blast furnace rises rapidly, and the furnace gradually becomes red.
When the temperature in the furnace reaches above 1,500 degrees, the iron ore begins to gradually dissolve into a liquid state. Some of the impurities in the iron ore react with the limestone and turn into slag, and the purity of the molten iron becomes higher.
However, due to the crude smelting conditions, the molten iron in the furnace cannot flow out directly. Instead, it slowly flows into the bottom of the furnace at high temperatures and turns into lumpy sponge iron.
Since the long-lasting burning ability of charcoal is not as good as that of coke, it is necessary to re-add charcoal every once in a while, and then add new iron ore fragments.
With the efforts of everyone in the Vine tribe, more and more sponge iron was piled at the bottom of the blast furnace.
After the blast furnace burned for a day and night, the furnace was basically filled with slag and sponge iron. The Vine tribe warriors opened the bottom of the blast furnace with excitement, and then took out the slag and sponge iron inside.
At this time, the slag and sponge iron were still mixed together, red as charcoal fire.
"Pa bang bang..."
Jiang Xuan used a bronze hammer to break up a large ball of slag, revealing the sponge iron with a more compact structure and higher hardness inside.
After Jiang Xuan carefully knocked off most of the slag, he clamped the lump of sponge iron onto a flat stone aside: "Water."
"Okay!"
Nepeta volunteered to lift the wooden bucket filled with water, and then poured it into the large ball of sponge iron.
"Chichi..."
When the cold water encounters the high-temperature sponge iron, part of it is immediately evaporated and turns into a large amount of water vapor, and the remaining water further reduces the temperature of the sponge iron.
After the bucket of water was poured, the red sponge iron revealed its true appearance.
It was dark brown all over, similar in shape to slag, but some of the smoother parts showed a metallic sheen.
To be honest, the appearance of this thing is very poor. It is dark, bumpy, and contains a lot of impurities. It doesn't look like a treasure at all.
However, in Jiang Xuan's eyes, this thing is still very precious, because it is the first ball of pig iron in this primitive world!
It is said that the jade steel of the Japanese country looked like this when it was first made. After subsequent processing many times, it could become the samurai sword that they were proud of.
"Put up another open stove and continue to burn it. When it's red, use a bronze hammer to forge it and punch out the impurities inside."
Under Jiang Xuan's command, the warriors of the Teng tribe quickly built another stove, filled it with a large amount of high-quality charcoal, and then buried the sponge iron in it for heating.
Under the power of the hand blower, the sponge iron gradually burned red again.
Jiang Xuan took matters into his own hands, using bronze clamps to clamp the red-hot sponge iron onto a flat, hard stone, and then hammered it hard with a bronze hammer.
"Ding, ding, ding..."
Jiang Xuan was very strong. Under his hammering, the impurities in the sponge iron were hammered away little by little. Its structure gradually became more compact and its surface became more rounded.
Half a day later, after repeated heating and beating by Jiang Xuan, the piece of sponge iron was first hammered into a long iron rod, then cut into pieces, and then hammered into five long iron pieces.
Finally, Jiang Xuan hammered the iron pieces into the shape of a short knife and immersed the blade in water to quench.
"Dangdang..."
Jiang Xuan picked up two rough daggers and collided with each other. The sound was much clearer and sweeter than when he hit the sponge iron before.
Jiang Xuan said with satisfaction: "Not bad, continue processing!"
He took the rough embryo of the short knife to the river and sharpened it with a rough stone. The edge soon revealed a snow-white metallic sheen.
After grinding the edge of the blade, he chose a relatively fine stone to further smooth and smooth the rough blade.
This is a job that tests patience and endurance, and impatient people simply cannot do it.
Since there were five rough iron knives, in addition to Jiang Xuan, Jing Jie, Shi Loach and others also went to the river to help. They followed Jiang Xuan's example and each sharpened an iron knife, and the speed was not slow.
When the sun was about to set, Jiang Xuan finally polished the short knife. The snow-white edge looked very sharp.
Then, he used small bark ropes to wrap around the handle of the knife layer by layer until it felt comfortable to hold.
At this point, the first real iron sword of the Teng tribe was finally born!
Jiang Xuan, nervous and excited, held the iron knife and chopped off the branches of a shrub by the river.
"Click..."
The branches broke with the sound, and the fracture was very smooth.
After Jiang Xuan finished cutting, he immediately picked up the iron knife and looked at the blade.
He saw that there was only a shallow mark on the blade of the iron sword, and there was no chipping or curling. He was immediately overjoyed: "The forged iron sword is indeed better to use than the bronze sword!"
Although bronze knives can be polished to be very sharp, they are very easy to chip when cutting things. They can generally only be used to cut softer things, such as skinning animals, cutting meat, peeling wild fruits, etc.
But the iron knife is different. After being forged thousands of times, the iron knife becomes very tough. As long as the thickness is appropriate, it can cut things or chop down trees without any problem. It is much easier to use than a bronze knife.
When the sky darkened, the iron knives of Jie Jie, Shi Loach and others were also polished. After simply wrapping a rope around the handle of the knife, everyone couldn't wait to test this new material tool with branches and weeds.
Soon, bursts of surprised cheers rang out from the river. Like Jiang Xuan, they were very satisfied with the toughness and sharpness of the iron knife, a new material tool.