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Post by Shisou Gen'ei on Jan 12, 2014 12:52:58 GMT -5
KONOHAGAKURE NO SATO
Shisou Clan District Gen'ei's hammer rang out as he pounded steel to anvil. His job was to smith the initial blade. His father would put on the finishing touches before the sealing rituals were performed on it, but the apprentice's job was to forge the core - the hard work, basically. He was shirtless in the heat, sweating profusely and hammering away with all his might. The white-hot metal beneath him bent to his will, folding and shaping with each blow.
His left hand held the tongs that placed the metal between hammer and anvil, and he used them to flip the metal and hammer some more. Fenrir, ever present, watched the shinobi from the corner of the room. Gen'ei stopped hammering, and moved the metal to a quenching trough next to the anvil - steam exploding into the air and increasing the humidity tenfold. Once the glow of the metal dulled, he stuck it back in the furnace and pumped the bellows, heating the metal again.
This sequence of hammering, quenching, and re-heating would last for hours before the blade was halfway done. At that point, he began to shape it. Gen'ei's focus was so intense that he failed to notice his father, Jin, who had entered from the shop. "My apprentice works hard." He said loudly, drawing not a glance from his son. Instead, Gen'ei simply replied. "Only as hard as his master."
Jin's laughter echoed through the smithy.
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Post by Shisou Gen'ei on Jan 13, 2014 16:11:38 GMT -5
The blade is complete.
Jin had finished the putting a proper edge on the weapon and cleaning up the metal minutes ago, and it was now time for the ritual sealing. Gen'ei did not get to partake in this particular ritual, as he didn't have the elemental affinity required. His father, however, did. Gen'ei watched his father disappear into a building covered in wards and seal tags, just opposite the forge in the Shisou district.
On the inside of the building the walls, floor, and ceiling were all decorated with symbols and runes, interconnected and crisscrossing the room. At each intersection there is a seal tag with the kanji for 'chakra' on it. In the center of the room, covered in symbols as well, sat an altar in which Jin placed the tantô. The Shisou clan leader knelt and began forming handseals.
As Jin formed hand seals, the tantô began to glow. His chakra flowed through the weapon, causing it to crackle with electricity. The electricity slashed across the blade, etching a single seal into the blade - the kanji for 'Lightning' in the center of the seal, with the edges of the seal comprised of the kanji for 'chakra' 'creation' and 'protection'. The seal took several hours to etch, and the entire time Jin knelt, forming handseals.
When the seal was finally etched, the electricity that had been surrounding the blade flowed into it, vanishing within the seal. Jin formed the final handseals to finish the ritual, and then lowered his hands. He inspected the blade and it's seal to ensure there were no imperfections.
There weren't.
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Post by Shisou Gen'ei on Jan 15, 2014 6:51:41 GMT -5
The blade was finished.
The tantô had been polished to a mirror shine and it's final edge put on. Now razor sharp, the crossguard is hammered on and the hilt glued to the tang. Once all that had set, the hilt was wrapped in leather and the blade placed in the scabbard which had been fashioned the previous day.
Shisou Jin wrapped the blade in brown paper and tied it off tightly before handing it to his son, who took it and vanished - heading off to make the delivery.
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