With the long process of grinding and the initial polish completed, I yawned. Ashes and soot covered my face and forearms, sweat glistening off my skin. It had been a long day so far and there was still more to do. I placed the blade into the furnace and stoked the fire beneath it. The fires were alive, still hot from the heart of the mountain having been summoned forth, but they were not hot enough to heat treat the weapon.
I closed the furnace and pulled the chain that controlled the bellows, air blasting into the furnace, causing it to roar with heat once again. It would take a while to heat the furnace to the appropriate temperature. “If you would, stoke the flames with the Force. The furnace must be hot in order for this to work properly and my attention will be elsewhere.” I said to the twi’lek that was standing nearby, watching patiently for her weapon.
Once she had, I dropped the dust of a few Lignan crystals into the furnace, whatever dark side power was left in them to be used to help enchant the blade as she desired it. I turned my focus onto the blade itself. The Force hungered and growled as I did, the heat of the furnace bellowing into the blade, and being trapped there, never to escape. As the fires rose within the metal box, they flooded into the sword, its blade heating and turning red, and yet it did not melt. As the temperature increased further and the heart of the mountain rumbled up greeting the blade with its own heat. The melted rock, still cooler than the blade was, and yet, it held its shape, and devoured the heat of the mountain.
This process took some time, what felt like hours, but had actually only been about forty five minutes the furnace was opened and the weapon set back into the oil and blood, flames erupting as the blade touched anything that resisted it’s heat. For a moment, flames engulfed the trough, but they died down as the blade learned its place as the Force within it settled.
Withdrawn from the oil, I set the weapon on the work bench and quickly wiped it clean, placing a wroshyr wood hilt on the tang and wrapping it with leather. The pommel was swiftly welded on the base of the tang and the blade was sat in front of its buyer. “You must polish it one last time with these.” I handed her a pair of wetstones and showed her the process, holding the small stones against either side of the blade with the thumb and the index finger. “Once that is done, the blade is finished. Wield it with pride.”
[member="stardust"]