| Hail to the smithies! Well, this dosn't really have to do anything with FFXI, but it does have to do with blacksmithing. Just a fun story if you want to read.
Anyway, today I went to a 1800s reinactment fair. The people wore clothers from that era, and several workshops where set up such as cooking, sewing, canning, and livestock handaling. Then one caught my eye. A blacksmithing shop.
I wandered in and asked if I had any prior blacksmithing experience. I said I had only a little, mabye 2 hours worth, and I was handed an iron rod and a hammer(yahoo! I get to start off at iron, no lousy bronze for me!) and kinda stood there, dumbstruck. Then I saw a really cool... pokey thingy come out of the forge, and coated with a beeswax finish. I asked one of the teachers how to make one, and he told me to start sharpening the tip of the rod.
What you have to do is stick the rod in the forge till it's orangish-yellow, but not to long or it will start fizzing like a firework and become useless scrap metal and you'll have to start over... I did this twice ; ; Then You have to strike the rod, turn it 90 degrees, repeat till the rod becomes square. You then have to strike the corners to make an octagon, then again to make a circle. You also have to keep putting it in the forge to turn it golden again.
After that hapens, you have to use an anvil and a hammer(both flat edges) to make a tight coil ._. Sounds hard, and it's harder than it sounds. After you do that, you have to take a chisel and pop it out to make... the handel. 2 hours or sweat and grit and I have a rusty stick with a handle.... yipiee....
Well, after about 4 more hours of fileing, smithing and twisting, I end up with my own really cool pokey thing! Then... I learn what it's used for. Gutting dead animals.
._.
Anyway, I figured out it also makes a handy meat flipper for bbqs!
Anyway, I just can't imagine how hard life must have been for the real smithies in the 1800s... and how hard it would be for the guild support people. Just goes to show how easy our lives are and how much we take for granted...   | Originally Posted by Ellipses | | Really, it's just like pretty much every question about this game that begins with "Why." The answer is "Because." | | Originally Posted by MCLV | | A subjob is like sex, you shouldn't have it untill your 18 but if you don't have it after 21 everyone laughs at you. | | 
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