Today we spent the day making knives at a medieval-style forge. We planned to make two knives: a kitchen knife and a survival knife that could cut meat, sticks, and plants, and even be used for defense.
First we heated a piece of steel that was made from bomb shells leftover from the Vietnam war in the forge until it glowed bright orange. Then we took it out with tongs and hammered it on the anvil. Sparks flew everywhere and the hammer made loud clang! clang! sounds. We had to heat the metal again and again while shaping it into a blade. After hammering it, we needed to scrape the excess metal off the blade and then refine it on a smooth wet slab of stone. Finally, we worked on sanding and shaping the bamboo handles while the blacksmiths finished the blades with a sanding machine and then setting it by placing it in HOT coals for a few minutes before moving it into cold water.
It was really hard work. Our hands got tired from hammering so much. It took us from —from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.—just to finish the blades. The people who work at the forge every day can make twenty knives in one day, which is amazing!
Even though it was tough, it was still really fun to see the metal slowly turn into real knives.
At the end, we got leather covers (sheaths) for the knives so they wouldn’t cut us during the ride back home.
