Material Empire

There was a coal stove in the blacksmith's shop, and the fire was raging. Apparently Zhang Laosan was also forging iron just now, and he stopped his work when he heard their voices.

In his previous life, Qin Hai was a person with a wide range of hobbies. In order to discover traditional folk material processing techniques, he once went to a blacksmith's shop as an apprentice for a few days, so he had some understanding of the tools and rules in the blacksmith's shop. He picked up a tongs from the ground, put the shovel head that needed to be repaired into the fire, and started roasting.

"Brother, do you really know how to quench fire?" Fatty also sneaked in at some point, and asked Qin Hai in a low voice.

It was midsummer, and the temperature inside the blacksmith shop was seven or eight degrees higher than outside, almost like a steamer. Qin Hai already found it unbearable to stay in this room. Fatty, who is most afraid of heat, actually sneaked in, ignoring the hot sweat on his body like rain, which shows how much he attaches importance to this matter.

"Can you forge iron, brother?" Qin Hai didn't answer Fatty's question, but asked a question instead.

"I am a blacksmith." The fat man replied, "I made all these farm tools."

"That's great." Qin Hai said, "The blade of the shovel has curled and needs to be forged again. I will leave this to you."

"...Okay." The fat man nodded hesitantly. It is already a great favor for someone to help quench the fire, so why not let him swing the sledgehammer?

Qin Hai heated the shovel head to a certain temperature, took it out with tongs, and put it on the anvil. Fatty, a blacksmith, also had a few brushes. He lifted the big hammer next to him with ease, and forged it on the head of the shovel. Because it was just repairing the curled edge, the workload of forging was not heavy, so the fat man raised the hammer and hit it a few times, Qin Hai told him to stop.

"Okay, can it be quenched?" The fat man pointed to a basin of water next to him and said to Qin Hai.

"Not busy." Qin Hai waved his hand, and returned the forged shovel head to the stove for reheating. His eyes were fixed on the color of the spade head through the fire, waiting for it to heat up to the desired temperature.

"What are you waiting for?" Fatty asked in a low voice when he saw Qin Hai's serious expression, and he couldn't help but become solemn.

"Heat treatment is not that simple. The metal must be heated to Ac3, which is the temperature at which the free ferrite is completely transformed into austenite, resulting in solid solution strengthening, and then taken out and slowly cooled in the air to make the grains finer. Homogenization and uniform distribution of carbides..." Qin Hai introduced the introductory knowledge of heat treatment to the fat man in a low voice.

"This... is too troublesome." The fat man directly rejected the precepts and deeds of the post-doctorate of the Academy of Sciences. Austenite, grains and other things are too far away from him. He only cares about when he can see the quenched result.

Outside the blacksmith's shop, Zhang Laosan chatted with Mangu and the others, while peeking at the movement in the house. Seeing Qin Hai unhurriedly heating the workpiece, the teasing expression on his face restrained slightly.

"What's the matter, third child?" Mangu sensed the change in Zhang's third attitude, and asked in a low voice.

Zhang Laosan said: "This young man has some tricks..."

"What about you?" Mangu laughed, he knew that Zhang Laosan had always regarded himself as a superb artist, and liked to brag about himself when he was fine, now that he said that a young man had some tricks, he couldn't help but take the opportunity to belittle him .

Zhang Laosan said insincerely: "Compared to me, he still has to wait 20 years... However, I don't understand what he means by doing this..."

At this moment, the short young man who went to find the chemicals came back panting, holding a cloth bag in his hand, which contained several medicine bottles.

"Hey, where's the passer-by?" The short man asked the tall man who was waiting outside the door. Qin Hai hadn't informed them of his name, so he could only use "passer-by" to refer to Qin Hai.

The tall man pointed his mouth into the room, and said, "It's inside, it's been ironed just now."

"Am I coming back late?" The short man was a little depressed.

"It's not too late, the time is just right." Qin Hai replied in the room, "Have you got anything yet?"

"I've got them all." The short man happily replied, after running such a long distance to find something in this hot weather, it would be uncomfortable if he couldn't use it when he found it.

Qin Hai had already taken out the heated shovel head at this time, but instead of putting it directly into the water, he threw it into a pile of ashes next to it to keep it warm. This practice is called tempering, and it is also one of the several major processes of heat treatment. Just now Qin Hai said that these agricultural tools should be quenched. In fact, it is just a popular saying. What he wants to do is to integrate various processes such as normalizing, tempering, and quenching to achieve a comprehensive heat treatment of the workpiece.

While the shovel head was keeping warm, Qin Hai took the medicine that the short man had found and started pouring it into the quenching basin next to it. Precise weight control is obviously impossible, Qin Hai can only use experience to estimate the appropriate amount of a medicine, and then pour it into the water for mixing.

"Young student, what are you doing?" Zhang Laosan had already entered the blacksmith's shop at some point, watching Qin Hai's busy work, his curiosity suddenly arose.

Qin Hai turned back to Zhang Laosan and smiled, and said, "I'm making a quenching solution. This kind of No. 65 manganese steel needs to be quenched with trinitrate solution, and the effect is the best."

"This is the first time I've heard of it." Zhang Laosan said in surprise, "Isn't quenching just water?"

"Master Zhang, have you ever heard of oil quenching?" Qin Hai asked rhetorically.

"Oil quenching... I've heard of it." Zhang Laosan said, the so-called oil quenching is to use vegetable oil instead of water as the quenching medium, and its quenching effect is different from that of water. Zhang Laosan knows that oil quenching is better for some ironware, but due to the high cost, it is not used much in practice.

Qin Haidao: "My reasoning is similar to oil quenching. Different materials and different uses require different quenching processes, which involve the use of different media. The trinitrate aqueous solution I use is the most suitable for this kind of steel. .”

"San Nitrate..." Zhang Laosan was completely intimidated by Qin Hai. If you want to say that Qin Hai is wrong, he speaks clearly and logically; but if you want to say that he is right, Zhang Laosan has never heard of such things as trinitrate. Could it be that this young man understands things better than himself? More old blacksmiths?

"You'll see the effect later." Qin Hai smiled and stopped explaining these issues. The scientific principles of material heat treatment are really not something a folk blacksmith can understand. Of course, this does not prevent these folk blacksmiths from relying on instinct and years Through the practice, we can find out the heat treatment method that makes the material experts admire.

Qin Hai took the cooled shovel head off the ashes and put it into the furnace to heat again. After it turned slightly red, he took it out and stuffed it directly into the prepared trinitrate solution.

"Hey!"

There was a clear sound of water, and a stream of water vapor rose from the quenching basin, and everyone in the room smelled a strange smell whether it was sour or salty. Qin Hai soaked the shovel head in the water for a minute or two, then took it out, threw it on the ground, and said to the fat man, "Okay, take it out and let those uncles try the blade."

"Really?" The fat man was overjoyed, and he didn't care about the residual heat on the head of the shovel, so he carried it out of the house with his hands.

"Okay, try it." The fat man shouted to several farmers.

"Okay?" asked the farmer named Mangu. He took the head of the shovel, looked at it carefully, nodded and said, "Well, it looks like the color is right. I just don't know if it's firm or not..."

"Can this shovel really split bricks?" asked a farmer next to him, just betting on his anger.

"This..." Fatty lacked confidence, he didn't know if Qin Hai's statement about splitting bricks was an exaggeration. Farm tools that have been tempered with great difficulty, if a brick falls down and the blade curls again, it will lose face.

"It's okay, let's chop." Qin Hai also came out of the room, and said with a smile while crossing his arms.

Hearing what Qin Hai said so confidently, Man Gu also became curious, wanting to see if the shovel was really as strong and durable as Qin Hai said. He put the head of the shovel on the wooden handle, then found a half-cut red brick from the side, tapped it lightly with the shovel, and asked Qin Hai, "Young student, can your shovel really chop bricks?"

"Cut it off." Qin Hai was full of confidence. No. 65 manganese steel is a material that is widely used. Later generations have done extensive research on the heat treatment process of this steel. If such a heat treatment still causes an oolong, Qin Hai can just wipe his neck and wear it again.

Mangu still didn't dare to do anything wrong, he took the shovel and smashed it back and forth on the brick a few times, then lifted it up to look at the edge, saw that the edge was intact, he became terrified, he swung the shovel vigorously and smashed it on the brick. one time.

"impeach!"

The bricks shattered into several pieces, and hearing the crisp sound of the shovel hitting the bricks, everyone except Qin Hai couldn't help grinning, thinking in their hearts that the shovel had to be used no matter what. a small gap. Man Gu hurriedly lifted up the shovel, wiped off the remaining brick dust on the head of the shovel with his hands, looked intently, and couldn't help laughing loudly: "Haha, there's really nothing wrong with it!"

"let me see!"

"Let me see!"

Several other farmers and Zhang Laosan rushed forward to examine the edge of the shovel. I saw only a faint trace of friction at the place where the brick was smashed, and there was no damage or curl. Everyone could feel the force Mangu used just now, and he was unscathed under such an impact, which shows the excellent quality of the blade of this shovel.

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