Chapter 039: Golden and Silver Plates

Big Mouth, Monkey, Big Hair, and Second Hair returned after a day's work with hundreds of white poles suitable for making spears, but the adults tasked with cutting down cedar trees had a much harder time. After a full day's labor, they managed to fell less than ten trees, and three of their stone axes broke in the process. Despite their exhaustion, Luo Chong told them the work would continue the next day, promising new equipment to those who performed well, piquing everyone's curiosity about what could possibly be better than a stone axe.

After dinner, as the others enjoyed their leisure time, Luo Chong set about rendering wax. He melted the collected wax blocks in a pot, skimmed off impurities with a spoon, and poured the purified wax into large clay molds to solidify. He then cut the solidified wax into smaller blocks, carving them with a bone knife into the shapes of various tools—axe heads, small hammers, planes, chisels, and clamps.

These wax models were crafted to exact size specifications, then encased in clay leaving only a small opening. After pressing the clay around the wax models to ensure no gaps, the molds were left to dry. Once dry, they were heated to melt the wax inside, which was then poured out, leaving a hollow cavity in the shape of the tool.

This intricate "lost-wax" casting method allowed Luo Chong to create precise and efficient molds without wasting materials. The melted wax could be reused, making it a sustainable process. While the women collecting the wax didn't fully understand the significance of their task, they knew it was important to Luo Chong and planned to continue gathering wax the next day.

Big Tree and Cripple were intrigued, the former guessing the wax models might be for weapons, though unsure how such soft material could function as an axe. Cripple, familiar with pottery, wondered if Luo Chong intended to make weapons out of clay.

The following morning, Luo Chong explained that wild animals could do more than provide food—they could also work, highlighting the multiple uses of resources like grass that were abundant.

With the charcoal ready and the ceramic tools fired from the previous day, Luo Chong prepared for the smelting process. He assigned Big Mouth, Monkey, Big Hair, and Second Hair to operate the bellows, keeping the fires of two furnaces intensely hot. Layers of copper ore and charcoal in the furnaces melted the copper into a semi-pure form, a slow process requiring several hours to accumulate a substantial quantity.

Once the copper and tin were melted separately in crucibles, Luo Chong skimmed the impurities off the molten metal. The cleaner metal was then poured into molds to cool and solidify into copper and tin plates.

The children, including Qubing, were fascinated by the shiny, warm metal plates. Luo Chong explained the basics of copper and tin to them as he prepared for the next step: bronze casting. He combined the molten copper and tin in a new crucible, adjusting the ratio to ensure the alloy was both sharp and durable.

The first items cast were axes and hammers, requiring a copper-tin ratio of 5:1.5 to enhance their sharpness and hardness. As the molten alloy filled the molds, white smoke and a brief flame signaled the intense heat of the reaction.

Luo Chong watched closely, eager to see the fruits of his labor transform into practical tools that would significantly enhance the tribe's capabilities. As the metal cooled in the molds, the transformation from raw materials to valuable tools symbolized a new era for the tribe, ushering in advancements that would shape their development for generations.