The Peerless Kobold - Chapter 69
We started making another batch of charcoal as soon as the first batch was out of the kiln.
Steelmaking seems to consume quite a lot of charcoal for some reason…
“Wauu, gauaru, waonn.” (Ax, Knuckle, I’m counting on you.)
“Waonn, guruah!” (You got it, Boss!)
“Guruouh.” (Got it.)
I left Ax and Knuckle, who have been on good terms lately, in charge of making firewood and supervising the charcoal making team while I went with Barrack and the others to work on the draft furnace.
“Mr. Silver, I’m thinking of making a leather bellow, but… do you have any tanned animal skins I can use?”
Holding my pen, I crouched down and wrote on the ground as usual.
“I have about four pre-dried stomachs from huge boars that I prepared for making water flasks.”
“Then, I’d like to have it.”
“Mr. Grimer, won’t we be needing some hollow trunks for the bellow’s vents too?”
“I’ll go and find some. Mr. Grimer, please start making the bellow, and Barrack, please start making the furnace too.”
With one hand waving and the other holding onto the machete, Joseph disappeared into the trees, followed by the two Kobold escorts I assigned to him.
If anything happened to him, then I wouldn’t be able to face Wallace and Liz, so I can’t risk it…
After Joseph left, Barrack started digging in a corner of the square using a stone axe.
The hole did not seem to be that large, though…
“Hey, that small, floppy-eared guy over there, look closely, okay?”
“Wafuh?”
Over the past few days, the craftsmen have become familiar with the Kobold Smith who often accompanied them.
He beckoned to Smith to show him the process.
“First, we line the hole with stones and charcoal, then cover it with clay.”
Most of the hole he dug earlier was filled in.
“Then, just like the earthen kiln earlier, we’re going to make a furnace with the furnace opening facing the upwind direction and the impurity outlet facing the downwind direction.”
As Smith stared at him, the Blacksmith formed a cylindrical furnace from the base to a height of about 1.2 meters and dug a shallow circle in front of the fire pit and outlet. He also drilled holes in the four corners of the furnace to serve as air vents for the leather bellows.
“Well, that’s about it, I guess.”
“Uau, guruo garuah!” (Smith, we’ll help you make one too!)
“Wann, guruah!” Guruoaoh!” (Roger, Boss! Everyone, let’s do this!)
The construction of the simple hearth and furnace wasn’t that difficult, so the floppy-eared kobolds and I were able to complete a second draft furnace in no time.
“Well, that’s it for today. We still have to let the clay dry after all. By the way, is the fox girl not around today?”
“Ah, she accompanied the kids to bathe in the river.”
“I see. Then let’s make a fire this time.”
Barrack takes a flint and a hammer from his pocket and I take the hemp fiber tinder out of my pouch and hand it to him.
He placed the burning tinder into the mouth of the hearth and blew on it to increase the intensity of the fire, and placed the charcoal in it. The black charcoal turned into a reddish hue and dried the furnace from the inside out.
“Woankuruu garuaoh?” (It’s burning even without fire?)
Smith, sensing the danger from the heat, withdrew his outstretched hand and stared fascinatedly at the unusual object. He continued to watch the coal gradually turn to ashes without getting bored.
“Archer, we’ll be using the ashes from the charcoal so don’t throw it out, okay?”
“Waon.” (Understood.)
I nodded to let him know that I understood.
Just then, Joseph returned with some hollow trunks cut at a reasonable diameter. As he started adjusting them, Grimer brought out the body of the leather bellow, sticks, and some thread.
On its side was a small entrance for air with a round valve made of layers of leather attached from the inside to prevent air from leaking out of it when it was depressed.
“I’ll be putting an anti-backflow valve on the nozzle too, so give me some of those.”
He stretched one of the leather valves, making it take on a rectangular shape. He then glues it to the tip of a short, thin, piece of wood with glue.
“When the air is pumped in, the joint of the leather valve goes up due to air pressure, later the weight of the leather valve closes naturally. Its dimensions allow it to be pushed up when air goes out and pushed down when it takes in air.”
He further cuts a short portion of one of the thicker trunks and expands its cavity using the chisel he brought from Lucua village. Then the thin, valved trunk is inserted and the rest of the sawed-off trunk is inserted on the other side of the cavity and hardened with glue.
A nozzle is then created, with the thicker trunk in the middle and the slender ones on each end. The leather bellow is completed after the wooden parts are glued to the leather body.
