Finally, Old George completed the last shaping strike, placing the axe which was taking shape back into the blazing forge for the next heating.

"Kid, you’re here." His voice was hoarse and strong like the steel he hammered.

On Old George’s serious face, a rare smile appeared.

"I thought you’d become a big star and forgotten about your appointment with this old man." Old George’s tone carried a bit of good-natured teasing.

"How could I forget?" Lin Yu’an chuckled. "I just finished celebrating Christmas, settled things at home, and came here right away to prepare for learning forging from you."

This appointment was made fifty days ago when Lin Yu’an went to participate in Alone in the Wilderness.

He shifted the topic, "I just got the chickens back from Stan today, and on the way, I noticed something unusual in the woods..."

Lin Yu’an briefly recounted what he saw at the hunting scene on the way and Stan’s concerns. "Stan thinks they might target the chicken coop."

Old George’s eyes became sharp in an instant. "Oh? Those beasts are making moves?"

"Hmph, it’s expected." Old George snorted, the smile vanished from his face, replaced by the seriousness typical of a blacksmith. "Take a few traps back with you later, you know how to set them up. You must prepare to prevent those beasts."

Then, he picked a thick leather apron and a pair of goggles from a nearby shelf and tossed them to Lin Yu’an.

"Alright, let’s start the lesson, put these on."

Lin Yu’an did not hesitate and quickly geared up. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Seeing the determination in Lin Yu’an’s eyes, Old George nodded in satisfaction. His rock-like resolute face seemed to soften a bit.

As Old George spoke, he used iron tongs to retrieve a piece of iron, glowing like lava, from the furnace and placed it on the anvil.

"The first lesson in forging, and also the most important one, is to maintain respect for the piece of iron before you."

"It’s alive now, it’s hot, and it’s soft. But soon, it will become cold and hard. You must use your hammer to tell it what you want it to be while it’s still willing to listen."

"Are you sure you’re ready now?"

Lin Yu’an solemnly nodded.

"Good."

Old George grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, a smile carrying the satisfaction of finding an heir.

"To learn forging, you must first forget your carpentry rules."

He didn’t hurry Lin Yu’an into taking the hammer but pointed to the fiercely burning forge, his voice steady and powerful. "The first lesson for a blacksmith is not on the anvil, but in the fire. You must first learn to ’read the fire.’

He gestured for Lin Yu’an to come closer, "Forging, to put it simply, is the ’art of temperature control.’ If the temperature is wrong, no matter how much effort you use, you’re just ruining a good piece of iron. Use your eyes as thermometers, remember each color I’m about to tell you."

Old George slowly moved a semi-finished piece in and out of the fire with the tongs.

"Look, now it’s just visible as a dark red, approximately 650 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the iron just starts to soften, but it’s still brittle. We call it ’red short,’ definitely can’t hammer it! One hit and it’ll crack."

As the iron block stayed in the furnace longer, the color started to change, "Now it’s cherry red, around 800 degrees. Suitable for some fine shaping, corrections, or punching."

"Going further, bright orange, about 1100 degrees, is the most common temperature range for forging carbon steel, where the iron becomes soft, its ductility is at its best."

"Do you see that blinding bright yellow inside? Close to 1250 degrees, that’s the ’forge welding’ temperature, only at this temperature can two pieces of iron truly merge under hammer blows."

"But this temperature is also very dangerous, any higher and the iron will ’burn,’ start to spark, and by then, this piece of iron is completely ruined."

He explained just once, and Lin Yu’an firmly inscribed this complex "iron color spectrum" and its corresponding temperatures in his mind, remembering them at a glance.

"Remembered?" Old George asked.

"Remembered."

"Good." Old George nodded, "Theory is done, now for practice. Today, we’ll make one thing, a truly usable survival knife."

He pulled out a roughly thirty-centimeter-long, seemingly gray and dusty round steel rod from a pile of inconspicuous materials in the corner.

"This is 5160 spring steel." Old George handed the rod to Lin Yu’an, letting him feel its weight, "Taken from the leaf spring of a scrapped Ford pickup, it’s tough, durable, and maintains well. It’s the best choice for making a reliable outdoor tool knife."

"Our goal is to forge it into a knife blank, remember the steps, tapering, edge-opening, shaping the handle, and finally cutting off."

Old George placed one end of the steel rod into the fire, "First step, tapering, watch my actions carefully."

When the steel rod reached a bright orange-yellow, he quickly took it out and placed it on the anvil.

"To make it sharp, you don’t just hammer the tip." He said while demonstrating.

"Look, start from about five centimeters away from the tip, use the side of the hammer closest to your body, exert downward and outward force, we call it ’half-face hammering,’ with each strike, ’push’ the iron towards the tip."

"Clang! Clang! Clang!——"

His hammering was rhythmic, each strike precisely landing on the shoulder of the steel rod, that round steel rod tip, under his hammer, stretched like dough, rapidly becoming longer and thinner, forming a uniform taper.