v.0.1
03/21/2007
No, we’re not talking about using Lunar
mana to record and combine musical performances. This is a guide to creating mixes in the
forge.
First, a few words about what this guide is not. I’m hesitant to call it a forging guide,
because as a Moon Mage of only modest combat skill, I cannot provide wisdom on
grinding, tell you the best roars or dances to use to pound efficiently, or
even give you a good idea of how much skill you need to accomplish forging
tasks. This guide won’t have information
on how analyze works, forging syntax, or most of the “how-to” nitty gritty normally involved in forging.
This guide will, however, deal with the topic that is
frequently the most enigmatic when it comes to forging. Anyone can take some pre-made mixes and pound
them out once they learn the syntax, but how do you come up with these mixes?
As an initial warning for the math-shy, the way I do my mixing is fairly number intensive. Nothing beyond simple algebra is required, however, so hang in there and you too can have a “mediocre but better than nothing” knowledge of making mixes!
Before we get into the details of number crunching, I’d like
to first establish a common terminology and definition of a few
properties. These names may not match
those used by the well-known forgers in prime because most of this is cobbled
together from short conversations and lots of experimentation.
Without further ado, let’s begin with the properties of the
mix itself. We have three basic physical
properties we’re concerned:
Mass
Volume
Density
Note that density is derived by (mass/volume). Because these names sometimes are used to
describe more than one thing, we will further specify them as “ingot”
properties. I sometimes refer to them as
“ingot” properties because they describe the ingot you would create by pouring
your mix onto an ingot mold, but prior to any pounding. I know you could also pour onto a chain or plate
mold. Whatever. Ingot properties may also be referred to as
“mix” properties, because they refer to the attributes of your mix itself.
Ingot Mass (or weight)
Ingot Volume
Ingot Density
Ingot Mass is determined by simply adding up the weights of
all the crap you throw into your mix. A
mix made with 1 iron bar and 1 zinc bar would weigh 51 stones (iron bar) + 48
stones (zinc bar) = 99 stones. Again,
I’m using mass and weight interchangeably here, even though they do not
technically mean exactly the same thing.
Ingot Volume is determined by adding up the amount of
“slugs” worth of material you put into the mix.
In our above example, your mix would be 10
slugs of volume per bar, so 20 slug volume in total. Volume is frequently stated as “slug volume,”
because slug is our unit of volume measurement.
Each slug of material has a volume of (shockingly) one slug, and each
bar has a volume of 10 slugs.
Ingot Density is a derived value equal to mass/volume, so we
simply divide our above ingot mass by ingot volume to get 99/20 = 4.95. If you want a unit of measurement on this,
technically that’s 4.95 stones/slug (stones per slug). This will be important when determining your
finished item weight.
For now, let’s move on to discussing the mold
properties. These could also be referred
to as the finished product properties, or the “item” properties. I will occasionally use “item properties” and
“mold properties” interchangeably. Mold
properties refer to the characteristics of the specific type of item you’re
trying to create. Molds have the same
three properties that ingots have, but they are determined in a different
fashion.
Mold Mass
Mold Volume
Mold Density
Mold mass might be easier to understand as “item mass” or
even “item weight.” This is the finished
weight of your product. If I make a 31
stone scimitar, it has a mass of 31 stones.
To see how this is derived, see below.
Mold Volume is how much material is required to make that
item. A scimitar takes 6 slugs of volume
to create. No matter how big your mix
is, you will only use 6 slugs to create a scimitar. The scimitar mold does not change in size, so
it always holds the same volume of material.
The way you adjust the weight of an item is by adjusting your…
Mold Density. This is
the only aspect of the mold properties that you manipulate. The Volume is fixed and the Mass is derived,
but you adjust how dense the material you pour into it is. This property will be identical to your Ingot
(or Mix) Density.
To quickly recap, if we are using a zinc and iron bar to
make a scimitar, our numbers will look like this:
Ingot Mass: 99 (1
iron bar + 1 zinc bar mass)
Volume: 20
(2 bars = 20 slug volume)
Density:
4.95 (99/20)
Mold Mass: ??
Volume: 6
(6, because scimitar mold has 6)
Density:
4.95 (same as your ingot volume)
The only unknown is how much our final product will
weigh. Using our density = mass/volume
formula, we can rewrite that as mass = density * volume. If I am using my above mix of 1 iron bar and
1 zinc bar to make a scimitar, it will have 4.95 density. The volume of a scimitar will always be 6
slugs. Density * volume in this case is
then 4.95 * 6 = 29.7 stones. In mixes,
the decimal is frequently dropped by the system, so we can be fairly confident
in assuming that this mix will produce a 29 stone scimitar.
In the example above, combining iron and zinc would produce
a substance called “iron alloy.” Using
this to pound out a blade would give us an iron-alloy scimitar at 29
stones. This is all right for weight,
but we can do better when it comes to material properties. The goal in almost all forging tasks (barring
special materials) is to turn our iron or iron alloy into steel. This is done by adding coal dust (sometimes
referred to as carbon, or just dust) to the mix
containing iron or iron alloy and mixing one last time.
Any amount of dust (assuming it’s not more than the weight
of the iron) should turn iron or iron alloy into steel, but it also adds an
additional property to the ingot that was not covered above – carbon
percentage. Steel loses the material
properties of your component metals (softness, rigidity) and takes on new
properties depending on how much carbon you use. Thanks to the diligent work of many talented
forgers, the fairly commonly accepted value for “perfect steel” is to add 2.5%
of the mix weight in carbon. More than
2.5% causes the steel to lose hardness, while less than 2.5% causes the steel
to become too rigid.
Let’s try to apply this information to our iron and zinc mix
above. Our mix has 99 weight
and 20 volume. To achieve 2.5% carbon
percentage, we would need to add 99*2.5% (or just under 2.5) stones of
dust. Unfortunately, we can only add
dust in 1 stone increments, meaning that our carbon
percentage would actually be 2/99 (2.02%) if we used 2 stones of dust or 3/99
(3.03%) if we used 3 stones of dust. If
we wanted 2 stones of dust to be 2.5% of our mix weight, we would need an 80
stone mix, or we could hit 2.5% with 3 stones of dust at a 120 stone mix. This forging principle provides us the last
piece of information we need to begin calculating our recipes for perfect
steel.
To simplify, to achieve the best carbon percentage, you want
your Ingot Mass to be evenly divisible by 40.
The further from the nearest 40 stone increment you are, the worse your
carbon percentage will be.
Mix mass divided by mix volume gives you density. Density times the mold volume of your item
determines the final weight of your item.
Try to have a mix mass evenly divisible by 40. Add 1 stone of dust per 40 stones of mix mass
when making steel.
Well, when you’re throwing whatever you want into the pot, it’s easy enough to calculate what it will spit out, but if that was all we wanted to know, we could just pound the item out and weigh it. The REAL reason to learn all these numbers is so you can run them in reverse.
You want to make a scimitar, but you don’t want it to weigh
29 stones! (What are you, a Kaldar? You might as well buy that at the
store!) You want it to weigh a
feather-light 24 stones. I know pure
iron gives me 30, so I just add lighter stuff until I hit the right
weight? Maybe if you want to spend days
pounding out dozens of pre-dust mixes until you hit the weight you want, but if
you want to be scientific about it, you can fabricate the mix in short order.
At the risk of being redundant, let’s check out what we know
about our item properties.
Ingot Mass: ?? (divisible by 40)
Volume: ?? (at least as high as the mold
volume, so at least 6)
Density: ??
Mold Mass: 24
Volume: 6
Density: ??
Let’s start with what we can easily calculate. First of all, our mold density is pretty
straightforward. Originally we defined
it as “the same as the ingot density”, but we can also calculate it using the
same mass/volume formula with our mold mass and volume. 24/6 gives a nice even density of 4.
By plugging that 4 into our ingot density, we don’t solve
anything immediately, but if we limit our ingot masses to numbers divisible by
40, narrow our options to just a few values.
For something as small as 6 volumes, you may be able to finish the mix
with only 40 stones. You may need 80, or
very occasionally 120, but probably you would only need more than 120 if you
were making a larger item. That means
that we can “run the numbers” a couple of times to determine possible volumes.
If Ingot Density is 4 and Mass is 40, the volume will be
40/4 = 10 slugs.
If ingot Density is 4 and Mass is 80, the volume will be
80/4 = 20 slugs.
Pretty easy so far. Let’s go with a mass of 80, just as an
example, and update our item properties.
Ingot Mass: 80
Volume: 20
Density: 4
Mold Mass: 24
Volume: 6
Density: 4
Now we just need to determine how much carbon to use to make
this into steel. 2.5% of 80 is an even 2, so we will want 2 stones of dust (or one
“whole dust” from the vendor that has not been broken into parts.)
Up until now, we’ve been dealing with purely abstract
numbers for the most part. You want 80
mass, 20 volume, 4 density, which multiplies by 6 slug
volume to give you 24 mass for your finished product. It can be kind of difficult to wrap your mind
around initially. To put it another way,
we’re mixing 80 stones of metal that takes up 20 slugs of volume. This gives it a density of 4. When we pour that metal into a 6 slug mold
(scimitar), only 6 slugs of metal are used.
6 slugs of metal with a density of 4 produces a
scimitar that weighs 6*4 = 24 stones.
That still doesn’t address the problem of HOW to make a mix
with a mass of 80 and a volume of 20, and that is the real challenge of
mixing. Let’s begin with a simple table
of material masses:
|
|
bar |
slug |
|
Ni |
61 |
6 |
|
Pb |
78 |
8 |
|
Fe |
51 |
5 |
|
Zn |
48 |
5 |
|
Sn |
71 |
7 |
|
Cu |
62 |
6 |
|
C |
|
1 |
All bars are 10 volume, all slugs are 1 volume. There are plenty of combinations of materials
that probably result in 80 mass and 20 volume, but is
there a simple way of figuring one out?
In order to address that question, we first have to deal
with a few of the constraints of simple mix creation.
Disclaimer: some of
these constrains can be worked around through more complex mixing techniques
that I will not be discussing extensively in this guide, as I do not have a
complete understanding of them. I would
rather avoid spreading misinformation than include possibly false assertions.
Kind of a boring heading title, sorry. This section is the crux to a lot of other problems, but also the key to a mix creation formula. If I have 1 iron bar and 1 zinc bar, I can mix them and get iron alloy. However, if I mix 1 iron bar with 1 lead bar, I now have 129 stones of lead alloy. In order to use 1 bar of lead and still make iron alloy, I’ll need to have more than 79 stones of iron to mix it with so that I have more iron than lead. You also have to make sure you add all the iron at once, or else you risk simply adding an iron bar to the lead alloy, making a new mix called lead alloy that now weighs 78 + 51 = 129 stones, and therefore requiring even MORE iron to create iron alloy.
The resulting rule of this mechanism is that most simple
mixes will be at least half iron by weight.
More explanation on this under pre-dusting.
First of all, there are very few materials in the forging
system that are less dense than iron. A
comparison of the bars column above shows that zinc is slightly less dense, but
even zinc slugs weigh the same as iron slugs.
Carbon, however, is vastly lighter than all the other metals. The problem is that we cannot mix carbon
directly with iron or iron alloy without creating steel. If we wish to use carbon for its material
properties, we must mix it with a non-iron substance first and then mix that
resulting substance with iron.
Due to the material masses and labeling mechanics, we also
have to be careful that we don’t mix in more carbon than we have other
metal. If you want a mix that uses 12
stones of dust, you’ll want to make sure you have enough metal to outweigh that
dust, or else your resulting charcoal or charcoal alloy will create steel when
mixed with iron.
This gives us the basic procedure for mixing our materials:
Note that because we mix ALL the non-iron materials first, we don’t really have a good way to sneak more than half the weight of the iron into the mix. Say for example that you mix 4 stones of dust with 14 stones of tin. If I mix less than 18 stones of iron with this tin alloy, it will remain tin alloy. In order to create iron alloy, I will need to use at least 4 slugs of iron in order to outweigh the tin alloy and create iron alloy.
If you take 8 iron slugs and mix them, add 1 stone of dust and create steel, you will have a mix with 40 mass, 8 volume, density of 5, and 2.5% carbon. This mix can be pounded into 10 stone daggers, 15 stone short swords, 25 stone katars, 30 stone scimitars, or 35 stone broadswords, all remarkably close to their storebought weights. Armor accessories made out of a mix with a density of 5 will become “neutral” chain or plate, while accessories made with a density less than 5 will be light and more than 5 will be heavy. Whether you make weapons or armor, iron, with its density of 5, is about as close as we can get to a “base line” for metal properties.
When you add to this the fact that all steel must be made
from an iron or iron alloy, and that all our simple mixes will (for the purpose
of this guide) have at least half iron, you can make a pretty solid case for
using iron as the core for any mix you make.
Another Disclaimer! The method
I describe below is something that I came up with on my own. Since people tend to be fairly closemouthed
about how they make mixes, I do not know if anyone else uses this method or has
a claim staked on it. Regardless, the
steps taken to devise mixes may or may not match other methods with which you
are familiar, but if they do, it is entirely coincidental (and since I think
it’s a fairly good method, I imagine someone else has contrived the same
strategy at some point.)
Most people will not find the idea of using iron as a base
to be a staggering concept. However, in
my early days of mix crafting, I would go about the process in a kind of trial
and error fashion. For example, if I
wanted to make some light chain gauntlets, I might start with 1 bar of
iron. I would decide I was aiming for a
density of 4, which I could make with a 40 stone mix that had a volume of 10
slugs, or an 80 stone mix with a volume of 20.
Since an iron bar already weighs 51 stones, I would have to aim for the
80 stone mix.
Then I might try to figure out how to add a few dust and
some other metals and come up with the remaining 29 stones needed to hit 80
stones total for the mix, while adding 10 more volume to hit 20. If I add 4 stones of dust, then I need to
come up with 6 slugs of metals that equal 25 stones. Even if I use zinc, I can’t get that low. If I add 6 stones of dust, then I have to
combine the other metals in a way to get 23 stones in 4 volume. I could add 3 iron
(15 stones) and 1 lead (8 stones) in this particular case, for example.
The above example works well enough in some scenarios, but
sometimes you may be trying to hit a very specific weight and it can be
difficult to grapple with the numbers in an easy to manage fashion. To help formulize the process, we once again
will return to our list of knowns and unknowns.
Let’s use our above example, because we already have at
least one possible solution. We’ll start
with the statement that we want to make light chain gauntlets that weigh 36
stones.
Mix Mass: ?? (divisible by 40)
Volume: ??
Density: ??
Mold Mass: 36
Volume: 9
Density: 4
We know density is the same for both mix and mold. We also know we need at least 9 volume of material
and our above example used a full iron bar, so to make life marginally less
complicated, we’ll go for a weight of 80 instead of 40. With a density of 4 and a weight of 80, we
know the volume must be 20 (80/4).
Now to construct the mix, let’s just focus on those numbers.
Mix Mass: 80
Volume: 20
Density: 4
We know that we want at least half the mix (40 stones) of
iron so that we can ensure our mix will be iron alloy, but let’s take that a
step further. Pretend that we’re going
to make this hypothetical mix entirely out of iron. Of course, iron does not have a density of 4,
so we can’t actually make the mix out of all iron, but we can choose to
think of the mix in terms of “what would I need to replace in an all iron mix
to make up the difference between an all iron mix and my desired mix?”
Notice that, while almost all the materials have different
masses, they all share the same volume for slug or bar. Because mass varies by metal but volume is
interchangeable, we’re going to think of all iron mix in terms of the required
volume of the item in iron slugs. Think
of it like this. If I have 6 slugs of
iron, I can replace 2 of those with lead without changing the volume while
changing the mass by a known, whole number amount.
So, to return to our above mix, we will hold volume constant
at 20 and use 20 slugs of iron as our starting point for mass. This gives us a setup that looks like this:
Mix Mass: 102 (or
100, depending if we use bars or slugs)
Volume: 20
Density:
5.1
Since Density is a derived component and volume is constant
as long as we’re replacing slugs 1 for 1, all we have to do is replace iron
slugs with other materials to make our mass equal to 80 and the density will
follow suit. The one complication when
dealing with mass and metals is that it varies depending on whether we use iron
bars or slugs, since 10 iron slugs do not weigh the same as 1 iron bar. This will be addressed later. For now, we will assume that our starting
point is 2 iron bars.
If we start with 2 iron bars, our mass is 102, which means
that our mix is 22 stones heavier than our target of 80. Because we can replace iron with other
materials at a 1:1 volume ratio, all we have to do is replace enough iron with
other materials to reduce the total mass by 22.
To do that, we must know how much each material adjusts the total mass
when used to replace iron. Below is a
chart showing the difference in mass that each metal has when compared with an
iron bar or slug respectively.
|
|
Bar |
Slug |
|
|
Compare |
Compare |
|
|
Weight |
Weight |
|
Ni |
10 |
1 |
|
Pb |
27 |
3 |
|
Zn |
-3 |
0 |
|
Sn |
20 |
2 |
|
Cu |
11 |
1 |
|
C |
|
-4 |
This chart is made by subtracting the weight of an
equivalent volume of iron from each metal.
For example, a nickel bar weighs 61 stones and an iron bar weighs 51
stones, so if you replace an iron bar with a nickel bar, you add 10 stones to
the weight without changing the volume.
If you’re trying to make a heavier than iron mix, you simply
replace iron with the appropriate metals until you add enough weight to meet
your difference. Trying to lower weight,
however, is a little more challenging.
Note that there are only 2 ways to introduce a negative
weight modifier: zinc bars and coal dust.
Also remember that if any predusting is
required, a non-iron metal must be used as a base.
Using this information, I use the following technique to
calculate mixes if they require predusting:
Now, there is one complication that we haven’t accounted
for, and you may notice that this mix is slightly different than the one we
originally came up with. That is because
we started with 2 iron bars, but broke one of the iron bars into 10 slugs for replacement
purposes. 10 iron slugs are slightly
less dense than 1 iron bar, as they have a total weight of 50, instead of
51. This means that for every iron bar
you break into slugs, you have to add 1 additional weight to compensate. In our example, we can simply replace the tin
slug with a lead slug, bringing our weight up the required 1 remaining stone.
A corollary of this complication is that you can also break
an iron bar into 10 iron slugs if you’re trying to lower the weight by only 1
stone and don’t want to change any other materials.
Sometimes you will want to create an item that does not produce a density that returns an even number volume. You can check if the current weight of your mix will actually produce an item of the desired weight by rounding the volume down and then recalculating your actual density.
Here is an example.
Desired item: 51 stone HC gloves
Mold Mass: 51
Volume: 9
Density:
51/9 = 5.667
Mix Mass: ??
Volume: ??
Density:
5.667
We’re going to have to make mass at least 80, because even
with the lowest volume possible for this mold, our total mass will be greater
than 40. If the mass is 80, our volume
will be 80/5.667 = 14.11. As we can’t
have a fractional volume, we’ll round down to 14. This will give us an ACTUAL density of 80/14
= 5.714. Now we multiply this density by
the slug volume of the mold, or 9, to determine how much the item will really
weigh. This gives us 51.426. Even with a density of 5.714, our item will
still weigh 51 stones, so we can continue as planned.
Let’s finish the example using the iron base method. First, here are our desired numbers:
Mix Mass: 80
Volume: 14
Density:
5.714
Here are our numbers with all iron:
Mix Mass: 51 (1
iron bar) + 20 (4 iron slugs) = 71
Volume: 14
This shows us that our mass is 9 stones too low. Now we can consult our differences table and
we see that lead gives +3 weight per slug replaced. By replacing 3 iron slugs with lead slugs, we
reach our +9 weight modifier. Our mix is
now 1 iron bar, 1 iron slug, 3 lead slugs.
Let’s do a few trial cases to clarify the method.
31 stone broadsword
Mold Mass: 31
Volume: 7
Density:
4.429
Mix Mass: ??
Volume: ??
Density:
4.429
Again, we’ll start with trying an 80 stone mix. 80/4.429 gives us a volume of 18.06. Not exactly even, but fairly close. If our volume is 18, our actual density will
be 80/18 = 4.444. 4.444 * mold volume of
7 gives us 31.11 so we should still hit our target weight.
Mix Mass: 80
Volume: 18
We start with 1 iron bar, 8 iron slugs, giving us a weight
of 51 + 40 (8*5) = 91. This is 11 higher
than our desired weight, so we need to come up with –11 weight
to compensate. We use enough dust to
exceed that, so 3 stones of dust, which gives us –12 weight,
meaning we now need a +1 weight to reach 0.
1 slug of copper gives +1.
Because this mix weighs 80 stones, we need 2 stones of dust
when creating steel for 2.5% carbon.
Final mix:
1 copper, 3 stones of dust, 1 iron bar, 1 iron slug,
2 stones final dust.
206 stone chain shirt
Mold Mass: 206
Volume: 50
Density:
4.12
Mix Mass: ??
Volume: ??
Density:
4.12
To start, we have to figure out what mass we want to
use. 80 stones will certainly not be
high enough to fit the 50 slugs of volume we need into the mix. 120 stones won’t be either, nor will
160. A quick way to calculate the bare
minimum mix weight is to use your desired item mass and round up to the next
increment of 40. In our case here, we
take 206 and round up to 240. Note that
the increment immediately above the item weight is technically possible, but
may not always be practical, so occasionally you will have to jump up an
additional 40 stones.
At any rate, we will try 240 stones, giving us a volume of
240/4.12 = 58.252. We’ll round this down
to 58 volume and recalculating density as 240/58 = 4.138, which will give us a
chain shirt weighing 4.138 * 50 = 206.9 stones, which will end up as 206, so
we’re still ok.
Mix Mass: 240
Volume: 58
If this were made entirely from iron, it would weigh 255
(5*51 for the bars) + 40 (8 * 5 for the slugs) = 295 stones. This is 55 stones higher than we want. We start by adding enough dust to result in a
difference greater than 55 stones, so 14 stones of dust, for –56. Because this forces us to break an iron bar
into slugs, we lose 1 additional weight, so we essentially are at –57, which
puts us 2 below our target, so we have to add 2 stones to compensate. If we add 2 copper slugs, we now are at
0. But wait!
There is one problem with this mix so far. We have 14 stones of carbon, but only 12
stones of copper to mix it with. This
will create charcoal alloy instead of copper alloy, which won’t mix with iron,
but will instead create steel (and pretty rotten steel at that probably.) Fortunately we have an option. Zinc can replace iron slugs at a 1:1 ratio
without altering weight! So, let’s take
2 iron slugs and replace them with zinc.
This won’t affect our total weight, but will provide enough metal to
support 14 stones of dust. Our final mix
looks like this:
This mix is 240 stones, so we’ll need 6 stones (240/40) of
final dust.
2 copper slugs, 2 zinc slugs, 14 stones of dust, 4 iron
bars, 6 stones final dust.
So far we’ve only created material lists, but haven’t spent
much time talking about what to do with them.
Let’s take a couple of the mixes we’ve come up with and figure out how
to interpret them in a practical setting.
First, here is our mix for a 31 stone broadsword:
1 copper, 3 stones of dust, 1 iron bar, 1 iron slug,
2 stones of final dust.
I’ve tried to write the mixes in the general order that you
would perform the actions, but let’s dissect the process.
As mentioned before, our steps generally go like this:
The order your combine materials is
very important, primarily so you don’t create steel too early, but also in
maintaining the right material label. In
our above example, the copper and the 3 stones of dust may be added in either
order, because the copper will outweigh the dust either way. Also, the crucible will only hold 5 items at
a time, and none of these steps exceed that, so mixing these ingredients is
fairly straightforward.
Reminder: 1 purchased dust weighs 2 stones. 3 stones of dust = 1 and ½ pieces of dust.
Our final mix could be written as follows:
1 copper slug, 1.5 dust, mix
1 iron bar, 1 iron slug, mix
1 dust, mix
Those who have spent more time working on mixes than I have come up with many useful shorthands for this language. I prefer the method used by Bakan’s player, who contributed greatly to my understanding of these processes.
In his method, each item is written as a combination of a
number and the chemical label for that metal.
The number is written as a decimal, with integers referring to bars and
the decimal referring to slugs. Carbon
is written as a decimal as well, with integer referring to a full dust (2
stones of dust) and .5 referring to a half dust (1 stone of dust.) Each mix is written as an asterix
and the final mix is written as a double quotation mark. The above mix could be condensed as follows:
.1Cu1.5C*1.1Fe*1C”
Now let’s look at our 206 stone chain shirt mix:
2 copper slugs, 2 zinc slugs, 14 stones of dust, 4 iron
bars, 6 stones final dust.
In this case, the copper and zinc slugs must be mixed prior
to adding the dust. Otherwise, the dust
weight might exceed the metal weight and become a charcoal alloy.
2 copper slugs, 2 zinc slugs, mix
4 full dust, mix
3 full dust, mix
4 iron bars, mix
3 full dust, mix
OR
.2Cu.2Zn*4C*3C*4.0Fe*3C”
Note that sometimes where it says mix, you must mix two
times, while sometimes only 1 is necessary.
A second mix is necessary if you must first combine a number of
components with each other and then mix again to make that combine with your
current component. Sometimes this
behaves in an inconsistent fashion, and occasionally things will combine
differently than you expect. I do not
fully understand this process, but it may render theoretically correct mixes
unusable or cause them to yield unpredictable products. Testing and development of other mixes to get
around this are part and parcel of becoming an experienced forger, and I make
no claim to be one, so you will have to undertake that on your own.
If you have studied forging or mixing metals at any point
prior, you may have come across mention of the dreaded compression. Compression is a difficult to control factor
that may cause your mixes to return products whose weights do not appear to
meet your expectation. While I cannot
provide a comprehensive guide of every situation that will cause compression, I
can give you a few pointers on how to identify and avoid it, or even
occasionally put it to use intentionally.
What is compression?
Compression occurs when an item you add to a
mix contributes mass but not volume. For
example, if I combined 4 iron slugs with 1 copper slug and the copper slug
compressed, I would have a mix that weighed 20 (4x5 for the iron slugs) + 6 =
26 stones, but only had a volume of 4.
Compression increases density without changing mix weight. This has a couple ramifications.
First, and most importantly, unintentional compression will
NOT change your carbon percentage. That
is because carbon percentage is a percentage of weight. Even if you inadvertently compress slugs when
mixing and produce an item of an unexpected final weight, it should still be
perfect steel because your dust/mix weight ratio will NOT CHANGE. If you add x amount of
material mass, compression will not change that value, it only prevents some of
your items from adding VOLUME.
This is a good thing.
Secondly, compression will make your final product
heavier. This is because your mix is
denser. In some ways, it’s almost easier
to think of compression as a volume lost, rather than a weight gain. Especially if you are generating mixes using
my method described above, your mix weight should always equal the sum of your
components. If compression occurs,
however, your volume will be less than expected, causing density to increase
and finished product weight to be higher.
So we know what compression is, but how does it happen? Well, the (sort of) general rule of thumb is
that compression may occur whenever you’re combining an even number of slugs
with an odd number of slugs. In the
example above, we’re adding 4 to 1. I
haven’t tested that particular scenario to show whether it compresses or not,
but I do have an example of a simple mix that compresses.
Earlier, we made a mix for 51 stone heavy chain gloves:
1 iron bar, 1 iron slug, 3 lead slugs. It’s an 80 stone mix, so 2 stones of final
dust.
There is nothing wrong with this mix, but we can accomplish
an identical result by putting compression to use. Because we’re trying to hold volume constant,
compression can sometimes be a way to help meet our “weight goal” without
adjusting volume.
Returning to the requirements of this mix, we have:
Mix Mass: 80
Volume: 14
If this mix were entirely made of iron, it would have a mass
of 71, so we need to come up with +9.
Originally we achieved this by adding 3 lead. 3 Lead should work, because we’re combining 3
lead with 11 iron, or odd with odd. If
we instead combine 13 iron with 1 tin, we have the
right volume but are still 7 stones short on weight. We can reach this weight by compressing
another slug of tin into the mix, which will not change volume, but will add 7
stones of weight.
Note that you do not have to mix these two tin slugs
separately, because combining 2 tin slugs with 13 slugs of iron is even to odd, and will compress as is. The full description of the mix using
compression is as follows:
1.3Fe*.2Sn**1C”
I have used this mix, and it produces 51 stone HC gloves, as
expected. The weight of the materials in
this mix is 80 stones, and in order for 51 stone HC gloves to come out, the
volume MUST be 14. A volume of 15 would
have produced 48 stone gloves.
As a somewhat existential question, some may ask “well is it
the iron or the tin that compresses in that case?” I am not sure, but somewhat like an agnostic
asked which of the gods he believes in, my answer is “it doesn’t matter.” Because we still add the full value of the
weight of all items and volume is constant, whether the tin compresses or the
iron compresses is irrelevant.
Compression is volume loss, and the volumes of 1 iron slug and 1 tin
slug are identical.
All our examples so far have been fairly middle of the road, for easy explanation. Usually people try to forge items that are as light as possible (weapons), or very heavy (plate armor), which forces us to bring all our mixing techniques to bear. Very heavy items are generally created by figuring out how to induce compression and then adding slugs 1 at a time until the desired weight is achieved. I do not have much experience in this area and have little more to offer on that subject, though to be truthful, as someone without the skill to forge plate armor, I doubt I’ll ever have to use the technique much.
Very light items are much more popular, however, because
they may not be vastly superior to storebought items
in quality, but their weight makes them much more useful, even if created by
less than masterful forgers (like myself.)
As mentioned initially, the lowest density with which an
item can be completed is 3.0 stones/slug. This will give us 18 stone scimitars, 21
stone longswords, 28 stone bastard swords, or 150
stone chain shirts. At a whole 2 stones
per slug lower than iron, this mark can be quite a challenge to reach. Let’s look at the process for a few of our
common items.
18 stone scimitar
Creating a mix with a density of 3.0 exactly is impossible
unless it is at least 120 stones, because 40 and 80 are not evenly divisible by
3. Nevertheless, we can come close
enough to create items that weigh the same as if they were made with a density
of 3. Let’s take a 40 stone mix to try
and keep our material components as cheap as possible.
At 40 stones, we would need a volume of 40/3, or 13.333 to
reach a density of 3.0. This isn’t
possible, so we’ll have to use a volume of 13, giving us a density of
3.077. This still would create (3.077 *
6) 18.46 stone scimitars, so that works just fine for us. 13 stones of iron would weigh 51 + 15 = 66
stones if made using a bar and 3 slugs, but we know that there’s no way we’re
going to be able to drop 26 stones from our weight in only 3 slugs, so we’re
going to have to break that iron bar into slugs as well. This means our real iron weight is probably
more like 13*5 = 65 stones. To reach our
target of 40 stones, we’ll need to drop 25 stones.
That means we’re going to need at least 7 stones of dust,
which would give us –28. Now we need +3
to get back to even, so we’ll use 1 slug of lead. That results in the following mix:
.1Pb3.5C*.4Fe*.1Fe*.5C”
The only problem with this mix is that we’re mixing 8 slugs
with 4 slugs with 1 slug, which may put us in danger of compression when we mix
in the last slug. It may not result in
compression, but if it does, it could yield a heavier scimitar than we want. Sometimes it is possible to avoid compression,
but whenever your total volume is an odd number, you will eventually have to
mix an even and an odd amount of slugs, so it may be useful to plan for it.
Since compression causes one slug to add weight without
volume, we need to replace more iron with dust to compensate and keep our total
weight to only 40. If we use 8 stones of
dust we’re dropping 32 stones from iron weight, which means we need to use
materials to raise our weight by 7 to reach 40.
One slug of tin gives us +2, so now we only
need 5 more stones. Of our initial 13
volume, we’ve used 9, leaving us 4 for iron.
If we compress 1 additional iron slug, we add that last 5 stones without
changing our volume.
We run into an additional problem with this mix,
however. We have 8 stones of dust and
only 7 stones of tin with which to mix it.
Time to take advantage of the way material type is determined. By only mixing 4 stones of dust with the tin
slug, we create 11 stones of tin alloy.
We can now mix this with 4 more stones of dust safely. (Note: this seems to behave unpredictably in
some circumstances, so you may have to experiment to determine a workable
combination.)
Our final mix in that case would look like this:
.1sn2C*2C*.4Fe*.1Fe*.5C”
I have to give credit for this mix to Bakan’s
player, though he is no longer with us.
I always found that it was a very clever use of compression, advanced
mixing techniques, predusting, and a solid knowledge
of math to formulate an easy to use mix at very low density and perfect carbon
percentage.
The chain shirt mold has a slug volume of 50, which means
that in order to achieve a weight of 150 stones, we
once again are trying to create a density 3 mix.
The catch this time around is that we need at least 50 slugs
of material in order to fill the mold.
While at first guess, you might suppose you could just take a mix that
works at 6 slugs and multiply it by 9 or so and use that for larger items. Theoretically this might work, but you are
limited by the number of items you can fit in a crucible, which makes it
difficult to manage compression and balance item properties.
One thing is certainly true – in order to drop the density
of this much metal down to 3, you’re going to need a LOT of carbon.
When determining our minimum mix weight, we have a few
options. We need at least 50 volume at density 3, so the closest weight divisible by 40
is 160 stones. A quick density
calculation at 160 stones shows that we would need a rounded volume of 53
slugs, giving an actual density of 160/53 = 3.019. This is an odd number of slugs though, which
can sometimes cause compression complications.
200 stones doesn’t cause that problem, since
200/3 rounds down to 66 slugs, which is even.
However, 200/66 gives us a density of 3.03, which multiplied by 50 gives
us a final mass of 151 stones. Note that
we can’t round up to 67 slugs, because this would give us a density of less
than 3, which causes the mix to explode and kill everyone in Leth Deriel.
The next higher amount we can try is 240 stones. This gives us a nice and even volume of 80
slugs. It takes more material, but
should be easier to make the mix work out.
Here are the numbers:
Mix Mass: 240
Volume: 80
Density: 3
8 bars of iron would weigh 408 stones, meaning we need to
shave off a whopping 168 stones.
Dividing that by 4 gives us 42 stones of dust. If we used 42 stones of dust, we would be
down to 38 stones of iron, making our new weight 42 + (3 * 51) + (8 * 5) =
235. Because we broke 5 iron bars into
slugs, we lost the extra stone from each of those bars, and now we’re actually
5 stones too light.
While we might be able to find a way to pack 42 stones of
dust into metal slugs that add the 5 stones to our mix, it would be kind of a
tight fit and a tedious process.
Instead, use a zinc bar to mix our predust
with. This gives us an additional –3
weight, meaning we now need 8 more stones in our mix. By changing 2 dust back to iron, we make up
the remaining 8 stones.
That gives us the following:
20 full dusts – 40 stones, 40 volume
1 zinc bar – 48 stones, 10 volume
3 iron bars – 153 stones, 30 volume
Totaling these gives us 241 stones, 80 volume. The reason we’re at 241 instead of 240 is
because we converted 8 iron slugs and 2 dust into 1 iron bar, which weighs 1
more than 10 iron slugs. We can drop
that stone by converting the iron bar back into 10 iron slugs.
20 full dusts – 40 stones, 40 volume
1 zinc bar – 48 stones, 10 volume
2 iron bars – 102 stones, 20 volume
10 iron slugs – 50 stones, 10 volume
Now our mix comes out to 240 stones, 80 volume for exactly
3.0 density. Since this mix weighs 240
stones, we’ll need 6 stones of dust for 2.5% carbon, which means 3 full dusts.
The process of putting this mix together could be written
as:
4 dust mix
4 dust mix
4 dust mix
4 dust mix
4 dust mix
1 zinc bar mix
2 iron bars mix
4 iron slugs mix
4 iron slugs mix
2 iron slugs mix
3 dust mix
Frequently when creating this mix, I’ll mix all the iron
first and pour it into a plate, that way I can be sure that I can add all the
iron at once without complication, though I don’t believe that is strictly
necessary.
Final mix:
4C*4C*4C*4C*4C*1.0zn*[2.0fe*.4fe*.4fe*.2fe]*3C"
Note that for a lazy forger, just using 3 iron bars instead
of 2 iron bars and 10 iron slugs is a faster alternative. The resulting mix would have 2.49% carbon and
have a density of 3.0125. This would
still result in a 150 stone chain shirt (as 50 * 3.0125 = 150.625), so all
you’d be giving up was .01% carbon.
For reference, when I had around 150 forging factor, I pounded
the 2.5% carbon mix into chain shirts with these stats:
gg mg gg
mg fg lg mod hinderance moderately strong 150 stones 1312 kronars
Not the best in the world, but almost useful!
Forging mixes seemed highly mysterious to me for a long time,
but eventually I came to understand that perfect steel was perfect steel, and
the exact details of material components have little bearing besides their mass
and volume. If you get the numbers to
add up right and figure out how to mix them without invoking compression, the
results are fairly predictable and not too difficult to reverse engineer. Hopefully this document will prove useful in
clearing up some of the basics of the mixing process without being overly
difficult to wade through. I’ve included
a summary of many of the main points below as an appendix, as well as charts of
commonly used numbers and a few sample mixes with appraisals.
OOC:
I also have put a lot of work into making a couple of helper
spreadsheets. The first one is designed
to assist you in coming up with the materials needed to reach an exact volume
at the mix weight you specify. The
second one is a mix analyzer, which is more useful if you already have a mix
and want to see what the results would be.
The mix analyzer is also a useful tool for determining how much
compression occurred. Feel free to use
as you see fit or make suggestions on improvements. My contact information for either questions or
comments can be found on the player information part of the drplat.com web page.
Mass – sum of the mass of all the items you put in the
crucible
Volume – volume of all the items you put in the crucible,
minus any volume that compresses
Density – above mass/volume
Carbon percentage – the mass of the dust you add to make
steel divided by the above mass
Mass – final weight of the product, determined by
multiplying density by mold volume
Volume – fixed value dependent on the item type
Density – equal to the density of the mix
Predusting is adding coal dust to the mix before creating steel. This is done by combining dust with non-iron materials first and then mixing the resulting metal alloy with iron to make an iron alloy at a greatly reduced density.
Compression causes one of the items in the crucible to not
contribute volume to the mix. This
frequently occurs when an odd volume of material is mixed with an even volume
of material. Mass is calculated
normally, but final volume is reduced, causing the density to be higher.
Phase 1
– determine desired mix properties
1. Choose desired weight of item.
Note – sometimes you may wish to
use higher weights to facilitate easier mixes.
Phase
2 – determine materials necessary
3a. If value is positive, replace iron slugs with
heavier slugs that add the desired amount to the total weight.
3b. If value is negative, divide by 4 to determine
how many dust to add, then exceed by at least 1 to cause the value to become
positive.
·
Iron bars may be broken into 10 slugs to reduce
weight by 1.
·
Odd number volumes are difficult to mix without
compression.
·
1 full dust = 2 stones 2 volume – 1 half dust = 1
stone 1 volume
·
For your current material to take on the label of
your new material, the new material must outweigh the current.
|
|
bar |
slug |
|
ni |
61 |
6 |
|
pb |
78 |
8 |
|
fe |
51 |
5 |
|
zn |
48 |
5 |
|
sn |
71 |
7 |
|
cu |
62 |
6 |
|
c |
|
1 |
|
|
Bar |
Slug |
|
|
Compare |
Compare |
|
|
Weight |
Weight |
|
Ni |
10 |
1 |
|
Pb |
27 |
3 |
|
Zn |
-3 |
0 |
|
Sn |
20 |
2 |
|
Cu |
11 |
1 |
|
C |
|
-4 |
Armor Slug Volumes |
|
Weapon Slug Volumes |
||||
|
Full
Plate Armor |
140 |
|
Dart |
1 |
Hand Axe |
8 |
|
Augmented
Hauberk |
100 |
|
Carving
Knife |
2 |
Hunting
Sword |
8 |
|
Field
Plate Armor |
100 |
|
Dagger |
2 |
Lance |
8 |
|
Half
Plate |
100 |
|
Stiletto |
2 |
Bastard
Sword |
9 |
|
Chain
Hauberk |
80 |
|
Throwing
Dagger |
2 |
Battle
Axe |
9 |
|
Full
Chain Shirt |
70 |
|
Baselard |
3 |
Mace |
9 |
|
Metal
Breastplate |
60 |
|
Foil |
3 |
War
Hammer |
9 |
|
Chain Shirt |
50 |
|
Kris |
3 |
Flanged
Mace |
10 |
|
Chain Lorica |
40 |
|
Misericorde |
3 |
Morning
Star |
10 |
|
Great
Helm |
40 |
|
Rapier |
3 |
Spear |
10 |
|
Bascinet Helm |
34 |
|
Short
Sword |
3 |
Flail |
11 |
|
Visored Helm |
34 |
|
Cutlass |
5 |
Claymore |
12 |
|
Armet Helm |
30 |
|
Falcata |
5 |
Halberd |
12 |
|
Chain Tasset |
30 |
|
Katar |
5 |
Two-Handed
Sword |
12 |
|
Plate Tasset |
30 |
|
Saber |
6 |
War
Mattock |
14 |
|
Scale Tasset |
30 |
|
Scimitar |
6 |
War Club |
15 |
|
Plate Aventail |
22 |
|
Broad
Sword |
7 |
Maul |
18 |
|
Chain Aventail |
20 |
|
Javelin |
7 |
Pike |
19 |
|
Chain
Helm |
20 |
|
Longsword |
7 |
Greatsword |
20 |
|
Chain Vambraces |
20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Full
Chain Helm |
20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Plate
Greaves |
20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Plate Vambraces |
20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scale Aventail |
18 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scale Vambraces |
18 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gauntlets |
10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mail
Gloves |
9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chain
Greaves |
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
.2cu1C*3.0fe**3.0fe**4C"
Good for comparing your goods with generics. Yeah, you could also accomplish it with 2 zinc bars, 4 iron bars, and 4 iron slugs probably, but this shopping list seems simpler. Whatever suits you.
Results at ~150FF
Chain shirt crafted:
gh mh gh mg fg
lg high hinderance MS 250
stones 1312 kronars
Chain shirt (storebought)
gg mg gg mg fg lg
high hinderance MS 250 stones 656 kronars
4C*4C*4C*4C*4C*1.0zn*[2.0fe*.4fe*.4fe*.2fe]*3C"
Make any density 3 items up to and including a chain hauberk, though if you were making something small, like a weapon, I’d probably for a mix that cost less to make and took less work! The bracketed section is mixed separately and poured into a plate, which is then added at the point indicated in the mix.
Results at ~150FF
Chain shirt crafted:
gg mg gg mg fg lg
mod hinderance MS 150 stones 1312 kronars
Density 3.077, 12 volume,
.1sn2C*2C*.4Fe*.1Fe*.5C”
Make any density 3 weapon up to two handed sword in size. Also good for easy light chain gloves or greaves.
Results at ~150FF
Scimitar crafted:
p/f/p
f/p fs 18
stones
Scimitar
(storebought)
p/m/l
f/f fs 31 stones
And for those who may be
interested, here are some less than perfect attempts.
.1ni2C*.2sn*.4Fe*.5C”
I was aiming for something with a density of 4, but my nickel
compressed, costing me 1 volume. I also
made this mix before working under the premise that I had to have mass
divisible by 40, so this steel is only 2.27% carbon.
Results at
~150 FF
Mail
Gloves crafted:
gm mm gm gm
fm pm insig FS 39 stones
Mail
Gloves (storebought)
gm mm gm gm fm pm light FS 45 stones
There you
have it, even with a sub-optimal mix and measly 150 FF, you can still make
chain gloves that are less hindering and lighter than storebought
and protect as well. I also made some
passable greaves out of this mix.
Another example of compression
ruining my plan –
.1Sn1C*.4Fe*1Fe*2C”
There were a couple of mistakes
here. First of all, the mix was supposed
to have a volume of 17, giving a density of 4.7. I was trying to make some perfect steel
gloves that were just under the neutral weight.
The tin compressed and cost me a volume though, bumping the resultant
density up to 5, so my gloves came out neutral.
I also made the mistake of confusing number of dusts with weight in
dust. I intended to add 2 stones of dust
here, but wrote it wrong as 2C, so when I actually created the mix, it had
twice as much dust as necessary. This shows
in the results.
Results at ~150FF
Mail Gloves crafted:
gm
mm gm gm fm pm light hindrance average strength 45
stones
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