Saltmarsh billet shop · night shift

Runesmith

Three commissions on the board and one bar of steel for each. Shape it on the stake, read the fire off the colour of the steel, and put it in the trough at the moment the brief asks for. The colour is the temperature. Nothing else will tell you.

1. Shape it first, and pay for it in blows. Every movement on the stake spends a blow, and blows spent on the ruler are blows the steel does not get. You cannot go back and fix the profile later.
2. The fire only heats because you work the bellows, and the steel only cools because time passes. Both go on whether or not you are ready for them.
3. Quench on the colour, not on the number. Too hot and it parts in the trough; too cold and it is soft iron with a shine on it. Then cut the bevel inside the tolerance, and temper on the straw.