With the arrival of Nagi Senzaemon, the dinner at Nagi Kei's family began.

The Nagi family is a glutton from top to bottom, and although it is an ordinary family feast, there is no shortage of delicacies and dishes on the table. At least Li Xiang was satisfied.

After dinner, everyone went back to their respective homes, and Li Xiang was left alone by Nagi Senzaemon.

"Emiya, why are you going to the blacksmith?"

Li Xiang replied: "I need my own kitchen knife that fits my habits." Because I have experience, I want to make my own kitchen knife. ”

"Is that so?" Nagi Senzaemon lowered his head and thought for a few seconds. In the end, he agreed to Li Xiang's request

"The day after tomorrow, I'll help you find a place, common tools are usually available there. But I'll just help you find a good venue, and I'll leave it to you what you want to do.

Li Xiang nodded and smiled: "It's okay to have a venue and tools, and I can handle the rest myself." ”

Although Li Xiang himself has no experience in forging iron, the Heroic Spirit he is currently possessed by is a master of forging, and Red A has a lot of experience in making metal swords. Add to that a large piece of Uzi ingots that he got from the arms dealer. He is confident in making a good kitchen knife.

For the next two days, everyone was fine, and Li Xiang frantically taught himself the language in the room, and spent all his time studying except for eating and sleeping.

"I love to learn, and learning makes me happy."

Hearing this sentence that Li Xiang said in Japanese, Erina Nagikiri had a black line on her face:

"Emiya, are you a little crazy?"

"If you don't go crazy, you won't survive."

"Even the ancient text is here, Emiya, you're enough!"

Erina frantically took out a handkerchief and covered Li Xiang's mouth.

After joking, Li Xiang changed back to his normal appearance, and Erina Nagikiri told him:

"The blacksmith has got you covered. Are you going now? ”

"Have you already made an appointment?" Li Xiang touched his nose, "Okay, I'll take my things and go right away." You wait for me. ”

Li wanted to take out a heavy burden from his luggage.

"I'm ready, now I'm ready to go."

The Nagi family still helped prepare a special car, which is worthy of being a long-term local tyrant family, and it is really leaky in this regard

I don't know why, Erina actually got into the car with Li Xiang.

"Miss Erina, I'll go by myself, you don't actually have to come with me."

Erina Nagikiri said: "It's okay, Scarlet Sako has something to do at home today, but it just so happens that I don't have any arrangements today, so I just go to see you make knives." ”

"Since Erina-sama is willing to see it, there's nothing wrong with that."

But what Li Xiang didn't know was that Shinto Scarlet Sako did have something to do today, but Erina came with Li Xiang on purpose.

Erina wanted to learn how to cook, but she didn't know where to start. "Kitchen heart" is like a kind of realm, which can only be understood but not spoken. And her arrogance did not allow her to ask for help from others. Therefore, she plans to find the secret of the kitchen heart by observing Li Xiang.

It's a pity that in the past few days since he came to Japan, Li Xiang has been studying in the guest room arranged for him by Nagi Cut's family in addition to taking a Yuanyue transfer student exam with her.

Today, Li Xiang came out for a rare time, and Erina thought it was a good opportunity to observe it up close. So he followed.

The place they were going to was a long-established blacksmith shop called Fujimaru Blades, whose owner's surname was Fujimaru, and the shop had been handed down for four generations from 60 years ago to the present day.

"Are you Mr. Emiya and Ms. Erina Nagikiri who came to borrow our house and tools today?"

Upon arrival at their destination, they were greeted by a young man.

Erina Nagikiri smiled and nodded, showing the perfect etiquette of a lady in front of outsiders.

"Yes, is Mr. Fujimaru at home?"

The young man replied:

"Grandpa is resting in the backyard, he asked me to tell the two of you that the tools and materials in the store can be used at will, but please try not to damage them, if there is any problem with the tools and facilities, he is in the backyard, and the two of you can ask him at any time."

The young man said as he walked into the store with Li Xiang and Erina Nagikiri.

This young man and the "Mr. Fujimaru" referred to in Erina Nagikiri's words are none other than the current owner of this blacksmith shop, Fujimaru Ryōkazu, and also the grandfather of the young man in front of him.

The old man was now nearly fifty-five years old, and he was the most skilled blacksmith in the Fujimaru family.

However, this title is actually a bit "invincible". After all, there are no descendants willing to inherit his craft. As a blacksmith, especially those who still follow the ancient method of making handicraft swords, thirty or forty years old is the best age. After all, being a blacksmith is not like doing archaeology as a cultural relic, experience is important, but in terms of skills, it still depends on the strength of the craftsman.

As the city continues to modernize, the family's blacksmith's craft has gradually diminished in its appeal to the family's descendants, and to this day, only Fujimaru and the old blacksmith are still holding on to their ancestral business. This old shop may disappear after Fujimaru and Shiro retire.

When you enter the store, dirty clutter and tools are piled up haphazardly on the floor and in the corners of the walls. There is still ash in some places. This dirty and messy environment made Erina, who was used to the cleanliness of the workbench, very uncomfortable.

Although the working environment is a bit cluttered, in fact, this seemingly random arrangement is actually the most convenient working environment for craftsmen who have been working here for a long time.

Many people will also have this experience, and it is not just a matter of having a clean desk and neatly organized items. Sometimes the table is full of things, but the owner of the table can always find the tools he needs, but after tidying up, he will slow down his work efficiency because he can't find the tools he needs.

Li Xiang's current possession of Yingling Red A was originally also a "Japanese blacksmith". So Li Xiang is now like a fish in water and has started his work skillfully.

Although the technology of artificial wrought iron and steel forging is different for various reasons in China, India, the Middle East and other places, in the final analysis, the principle is still similar. That is, iron is heated and plasticized in various ways.

In ancient Japan, the reason why it was necessary to repeatedly fold and forge the material of the casting knife was because of the defects of the material.

The so-called folding forging is to beat a piece of iron into a thin sheet, constantly fold it in half, break it into a thin sheet, fold it in half, and then break it into a thin sheet, and so on many times. In this way, a piece of iron becomes a harder piece of iron made up of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of layers of iron pieces stacked on top of each other. At the same time, there will also be some patterns on the knife body due to folding and forging. This patterned steel is known as cast patterned steel.

In the folding and forging process, the carbon content in the iron decreases due to oxidation and folding forging, and finally the carbon content becomes uniform in the whole steel, and the overall carbon content drops to between 0.8%~1.0%. If the carbon content is uniform, the properties of the steel will be relatively uniform, and if the carbon content is low, the material will change from iron to steel.

However, this method is essentially an adaptation to address the lack of materials in Japan. For areas that already have high-quality iron ore mines, this forging method of exchanging manpower and man-hours for quality is somewhat redundant.

The material used by Li Xiang is a high-quality smelted pattern steel produced in ancient India, which is different from the casting pattern steel, the pattern of the smelting pattern steel has been produced when the steel is formed, and the processing method is much simpler due to the excellent quality of the steel itself. It only needs to be heated and forged, and the knife blank is made.

The legendary Damascus knife has a cloud-like pattern, high strength and extraordinary willfulness. The retention is also excellent, and the sharpness is indestructible, making it the most perfect knife in the era of cold weapons.

Unfortunately, the craftsmanship of making this legendary knife was eventually lost.

In Li Xiang's view, the Damascus knife is already a legend that is difficult to reproduce.

Damascus knives are made of smelting pattern steel from India, also known as Uzi steel, which is made from the smelting of ore produced in a specific area, which contains certain trace elements in a specific proportion to form an alloy with excellent mechanical properties. Later, after the veins were mined, the material was lost, and the authentic Damascus knife was lost.

Now this large piece of ancient Uzi steel ingot in Li Xiang's hand may be the raw material for the last piece of orthodox Damascus knife.