A Smith's Primer

A frontier smith's working notes on iron, temper, and what the wilds will and won't forgive in a blade.

Iron forgives a lazy man twice and kills him the third time. Quench too hot and the edge is glass; too cold and it folds like wet bread. The ash here eats steel — oil your blade nightly or bury it clean. A good cuirass is not the one that turns every blow, but the one you can still run in after the third hour. Remember it.