Alfheimr Renaissance

Eventually I manage to explain what I want, an the glass maker will make some lenses for me, and some that I get to polish and grind. He will make molds according to specifications and can then finish the surfaces and polish them. The glass maker has a bit of what appears to be clear enough glass, without small gas bubbles or large pollutants that most glass has, and especially his yellower glass looks good, but if I want colour yellow won't do. We talk and he will try to keep it hot for far longer to see if that help the micro bubbles rise and disappear. He have basically made window glass, and blowned or cast simple shapes before, so light transmission and working speed have been more important than optical clarity.

Getting a good convex lens shaped correctly feels like it will be hard, and it will be a bit of trial and error, and I ask him to try. A total of 20 lenses in 2 different sizes and one convex and a concave of each. Two somewhat matching lenses with a fairly short focus in a smaller size and two with a longer one that has larger 30mm diameter. Sure, I can calculate lens specifications in the future to get it better with diameter and focus, but it's enough for now to get something that works and get experience and knowledge how hard this will be. I also convince him to try to make six 90 degree prisms. He showed that he basically cast simple shapes and use forms to get uniform sizes for some glass mugs and vessels that he blows, so I want him to try making prisms. Stuff in low quality is better than no stuff at all, and I need to find out his skill and if he's willing to try my ideas.

The idea is a microscope and one to two binoculars, and the lenses can be grinded against each other in sets of five and five. I reckon there will be fails on some, hence making extra and different designs so I can use the best.

I've always had that principle when I built things. If I need one in the end, and some steps are automated - say sheet metal scissors, laser cut, rolled, welded, press brake machine etc - I start to manufacture several and expect faults, mistakes etc and because I started with many, I will then get a useful one at the end, and if I have several, I can chose the best one. They're simply reserves, and setting up the machine is usually most of the time and work, and it might just take a few minutes to do a couple of extras. Starting over at the end is significantly more work, time and frustration. Not the same when it is all handcraft, but it helps to have more, if it's not that much more work or waste.

The glass maker have different types of polishes and abrasives, which is like 'liquid sandpaper', but then again; sandpaper doesn't exist. But how do you get the lens shape right? I know how to hand grind a lens by starting with two flat glass pieces, but I can't get any of it here. In addition to grinding and constantly rotating the lens and the template in different directions and tempo, another way to get the correct shape, is to use several lenses and let the errors take each other out, but the end results is less predictable. That is why there is five of each lens and both concave and convex, so he will switch around so every lens affects every other lens. A classic example is how to make a flat hard surface. You use three pieces and touch two against each other with a thin layer of paint on one to see where they touch each other, but you change which two it is. Two may have the same error that cancels each other, but a third that is combined against both? Then the error is noticed. I have my small lens in the Swiss Card, so I show him how a convex lens are supposed to give a sharp focus without distortion on a piece of paper with text and straight lines. Concave is harder to test, but I have to accept that.

It will be fun to see how good the lenses will be. It will take a few days, and I guess his apprentices will hate me. Also I buy some flat glass scraps, ie leftover discarded glass plates, and they also have quite a lot of stained glass. The usual clear glass has a faint green tone, so I presume it is contaminants or chemistry that do that. He also have green, blue, turquoise, ruby red, yellow, orange, milky white and finally very dark red and black opaque glass. I don't think I want to know what they use to color the glass, since it is probably lead and other unpleasant things, but is as it is, and as long as I don't eat it or inhale fine abrasive particles or fumes, it's no big problem what is in the glass. I think.

Since Alith was sick, I've thought about medicines and first aid, and we want to buy a few things that can be practical for the stomach, head ache, wound healing, etc. I will probably cut myself or similar when I start really building things, and I want to avoid using my hiking first aid kit.

As it turns out, Alith has a pretty good knowledge, but both Iselin and Bodil know some cures and remedies. I should have realised that warriors generally suffer more injuries during training and activities, and if you move in the wilderness or hunt, you might as well try to collect herbs to sell if you find them.

The place we find has so much more, and unlike Liv's store, this feels more like alchemy is the primary focus instead of healing herbs, and perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that those two areas are mixed together in Alfhemr. I asks the seller to describe her many different goods. Apart from something that seems to be pure drugs, I skip love potions and also virility and fertility potions. The first I don't believe in; the second I already have something that I hope to avoid using, but that obviously worked; and the third just sounds like more nonsense. But she has bottles of liquids and small crystals that seem interesting, although I doubt the medical usage she says some have. I don't think diarrhea, vomiting or stomach pain will be helped by swallowing some rock and looking through the poop to set it on fire. As she describes some liquids and their use, I think some are acids, but the concentration, purity and exact formula, etc will be fuzzy.

I still buy five bottles, expecting that I need to do tests to see if it is something I can use, and hopefully 'Bettrell' is hydrochloric acid because along with some zinc it will provide 'killed spirits' which is something I can use to clean metal from oxides prior to soldering. It's an old trick but is suppose to work well, and I wouldn't be surprised if it do. The dangerous and unhealthy chemicals usually is good for its purpose. Of course there is another uses as well depending on purity and amount.

Then there are several liquids she calls colors of 'Vitriol', so I guess they have something in common. Blue vitriol seem to contain copper, and it might be copper sulphate or something. Looks a bit like what is left after etching circuit boards, and according to the seller, it's used for glass staining, preventing insects from eating glue in books and fighting fungal build up on things. So it sounds like copper something. Green vitriol is used in textile dyeing, on food against diarrhea and in ink production, so it might be iron sulphate? Oil of vitriol might then be sulphuric acid, which would be the most practical and useful. White vitriol is used in textile pickling, dyeing, preserving skin and leather, and I don't really have any idea what it might be. She had more things and variations, but it is unnecessary to buy too much of things I may not have any use for, although I buy some pitch and what seem to be a red rosin. I really should try to make soldering equipment since I'm likely to use it sooner or later.

What I really wish is that I had a book with the history of Chemistry and how things were made, but I need to read Perry's. Not looking forward to it, as I have been avoiding chemistry since school, well, besides specific chemistry I have needed to use. Also except reading about 'interesting' stuff like Chlorine trifluoride, and stupid things I only remember because of its joke like name like azidoazide azide, or things I need to learn about due to work, like Hydrogen Fluoride, which is very nasty shit.

If there are Gods here, can you please make so that a chemistry professor, fascinated by its history with mineral exploration as a hobby, and who have taken music lessons since childhood will show up at the Academy, and with whom I can talk? English as a common language is okay. Doesn't have to be a sexy woman. K? Tkx! Bai!

There are bricks here, but they're not used for whole houses, even though it is said to becoming more common across the sea to the south. I guess wood is simply too easy to get, cheap and practical here, and considering the huge river and vast forests covered hills and mountains upstream, that should be damn obvious. But bricks in combination with clay and good vessels make me want to try making crucible steel. There is a small, simple smithy at the farm to do the simpler work a farm needs, and I can hire someone to help me, but I will need to make a couple of bellows. Unless I can buy some. Or borrow. There is that smithy on the farm.

We find a potter who can sell me some really thick clay vessels, about 30cm high and a couple of clay plates of the equivalent size as tops. I buy a couple of buckets of finished clay, 'just add water' and some fine sand of two different varieties. At this point, the women in my company seem to be very curious at what the hell I'm up to, but they do expect me to come up with something magical or practical. Being a Sejdmann means I am pretty much expected to do weird shit or sejd.

With a little asking around where both Kari and Iselin again helps a lot, I find a craftsman who make things in brass, copper, bronze etc. Silver is really good for its persuasive ability, and I get him to make brass plates that are hammered through disc forming tools to gradually form small cups. Really long and narrow is a problem, but since he just happens to have done it a couple of times before to make candle holders, I just accept and live with the dimensions of about 14mm wide and about 40mm long. As far as I know, many muskets were somewhere about there in diameter, and even if I had preferred a smaller diameter, it should work well with a heavier lead projectile at a slower speed, than a normal modern bullet. A long narrower pipe for the barrel will certainly be more difficult to manufacture here than a wider, so 14mm is probably a good choice.

It appeals to me that the cups where for candles, and that it may make people confused about my usage. He has several different alloys of brass and bronze, and he recommends one that works well for this particular drawing process. So I ask him to make 20 'cups' for me. Hardly optimal, but useful and it will be the prototype. He also has a form of tall copper vessel with a lid even though he doesn't manufacture household utensils. I still have copper wire in two different thicknesses, but I buy a little more. Copper wire is useful.

I also take the opportunity to buy a copper rod and two oblong copper blocks and 4 ounces of tin from him. I think it is tin. Hope it is, because then I can do something close to 63/37 tin-lead solder. No need to worry about RoHS here, but I have to be careful in the long run with the lead fumes. I wonder how pure that tin or lead is, and I just need to accept that there will be small contaminants in all materials here. Soldering stuff would be practical, and with these buys, I should I have something I can melt together to make solder, and something that can be improvised into a soldering iron or add heat.

It is possible to get something cast in brass, copper or bronze, both larger and smaller things. So I quickly sketch out gimbal slash gyro rings where the outer one has an arm to attach it to something or make a shock absorbing suspension, and a puck shaped jar for the middle with a small pillar in the center, and an edge to put a glass plate on top.

I am impressed with his tools, and when it turns out that he will sell me tools, I get so enormously happy that it's hard to describe. He have properly manufactured case-hardened iron files, and some even for fine work in different shapes and sizes. There are also chisels, scribers, punches, awl, a pump drill with 4 different diameter drills and interchangeable tips, grindstones, two different hammers, a couple of pliers, small saw blades in two sizes, a small anvil, a form of simple vice with wedges and clamps, blueing agent etc. A complete small workshop for working in brass, copper and the like. I almost starting to cry as I can just buy it. I was prepared to start making everything myself the hard way, and have seen enough of, for example, 'clickspring' videos about his watch making and his construction of an antikythera device to have a decent chance to do it myself, but I'm used to using ready-made tools and machines for my construction projects. I have not looked forward to the extra work and time to make the tools.

What I buy is expensive, but I'm so damn happy with these tools that I don't care about the silver. I don't have to make the tools, and I would probably not be able to make something this good. Just the files have to have been a hell of a lot of work. Craftsman Digraldi see that I'm moved and happy, and as I praise the tools and craftsmanship he seems to sell me more than he probably would to most, and he include a couple of leather tool rolls, and I also buy some brass plate in three thicknesses, rods in a few different diameters, etc. No larger diameters or dimensions but better than starting with blocks.

We're on a first name basis when I leave, and I promise Digraldi that he will get many interesting future jobs from me if I stay in Borgarsandr, which he seem to be looking forward to, and he really like my praise that I'm motivated to stay close by just to give him work. Most of the jobs he gets are probably quite boring and repetitive, and many seems to be artwork or castings. I don't doubt that Digraldi will be the most important craftsman in the town for me, until I can get my own craftsmen who work for me.

When we walk over to the jeweller a couple of buildings away, it's the women who becomes interested and eager, and me who become quite indifferent. My mind is mostly on my tools and projects. Kari looks quite neutral and calm in here, but I guess she has seen a lot of jewellery and is difficult to entice, or just better at being calm, but the others have decision angst. Kari's presence makes a difference in how we are treated, and that she defers to me affects more. It is practical to have her company here in Borgarsandr, at least among some craftsmen. Iselin and Alith are quite entertaining to watch, but it's probably the first time anyone of them spend so much silver on jewellery, and they doesn't even have to have a bad conscience for it. I am 'forcing' them to spend it.

Does Alith even have any proper jewellery besides piercings? I can't remember seeing anything, and Bodil only has a small pendant in silver beside her ear piercings, probably to a God, much like Thor's hammer. Maybe something for Freya? I probably should get a piece of jewellery for myself, but I'm not interested in wearing jewellery just because. Although a ring in gold, where I can fit a 20x10x3mm neodymium magnet on the inside - ie the magnet is against the skin and can't fall out when the ring is in place - might be useful. So I quickly sketch and ask the jeweller to make me a wide gold ring with engravings around the band for me, and make room for a 'stone that gives me luck' on the inside. I use his own measuring tool and translate by using the scale on the side of the Swiss card.

One advantage of having bought a large amount of something and used the same in several constructions and project, is that I sometimes remember such measurements when they are commonly used or have annoyed me enough, such as the measurements of common battery types and a high variety of switches, electrical components and more. I have a fairly large file with just measurements on the phone, according to the principle that if I have needed it once, I may need it again. There are good reasons that the file is quite large.

On the outside of the ring he can mount 3 precious stones. He has some blue stones I think is sapphires, and a larger star sapphire that hasn't been put in anything yet, but that is huge and necklace size, so it will be three of the small sapphires. Even after a little bargaining, the ring feels a bit pricey, but gold weighs and is literally worth its weight eight times in silver, and the sapphires may have come from a long way. Most likely, the gemstones were in some silver or gold that was brought here as loot, where the silver became payment and the gemstones were sold. Unfortunately, I need bling to show I'm rich, and should get a sword or wizards cane as well. Show, don't tell. The ring should take a week to manufacture since he do have other work to do.

We continue to ask around and easily gets hold of some nice dry birch in a round shape, ie young and a couple of centimeters thick. I need it for charcoal.

When we buy food, I realise I forgotten a couple of things, so I buy a mortar in stone, and a couple of strainers. A slightly coarser with about 1.5 mm holes and one really fine for flour that is maybe 1/4 of the first. The merchant seems to want to sell more and introduces me to a type of small hand-driven grinder that has two stone surfaces and the grounded seeps out along the edge. A new thing from the south for fine pastries or something. Not sure how good it is for my intended use of black powder manufacturing, but if I don't have to crush it by hand in a mortar it will be nice. Maybe it gets better too or at least more consistent. So I buy the grinder and a small precision scale with small weights, where I estimate the smallest is 0.12 grams and the largest is 56 grams in the usual steps up and down. Got them in a nice little box too.

A blacksmith turns out to be able to produce a miniature cannon in iron fairly quickly. About 30cm pipe with a tiny hole in the back top, and the back plugged, but a nice even barrel is important and I try to get it in about the same size as the 14mm 'candle cups'. The barrel is attached to a plate that acts as a stand and to stop it sliding back, with three options for angle setting. It can be finished tomorrow, but it probably won't be picked up until the next day. I need to make the powder first. I also buy some iron scraps for the crucible. I don't need fine finished iron and the fragmented small parts will melt faster and the goal is of course that the iron should melt and become homogeneous. I buy about 5kg, and two bellows. Silver is cash, and cash is king.

We will buy a horse and a wagon another day, as we will be back in the town in a couple of days. On the way home, I mostly sit and think as we roll through the landscape. Things take time to get made, so I need to start several projects at once, and the black powder one I started a couple of weeks ago. I have saltpeter and sulphur. Now I will make the charcoal, grind everything separately, weight, mix and then corn it.

It's early evening when we get back to the farm. A lot to unload and carry into my bedroom, which is now more of a workshop than a bedroom or study. Food has been waiting for us, and is warmed up by Ciara. We need to buy more spices, but a lot is as expected quite expensive here. Salt is one of them. I have visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland, and know how important salt has been... is, so maybe I can establish my own salt production at the Academy from seawater? Boil it away with sunlight, or fire. Should be well worth it considering the insane prize of salt. I can probably forget about pepper, since that is from India.

Maybe it's possible to build a greenhouse for spices or medicinal plants? Expensive with glass in that amount, but may be worth it. A spice garden at the Academy is definitely a good idea if I can find someone who wants and can take care of it, because I will be too busy with other things a lot of the time. I won't be able to do all the work on all the projects myself, so I have to prioritise, and I'm selfish enough to take the interesting, fun and easier work, and I also have to focus on doing the most important or secret things myself. I have to train others, and trust the skills of others and delegate work.

Bodil is working on the last pieces for the chess board and she rightly looks satisfied and pleased. She has painted the dark pieces, and is rubbing in some oil on the light ones. We can test it tomorrow when it's dry.

There's a shorter vocabulary test and lesson with Kari, only about two hours, but I'm eager to start my experiments and excuse myself and stay in my room to sketch and think, I also need to write those letters. I definitely can't let Kari see the process for making black powder, but I'll try tomorrow when the light is better. I would never do something like that indoors using light from a candle with a flame, and I don't want to use my LED flash lights either.

My thoughts are interrupted when Iselin comes in, close the door and casually take off her dress and shows her green Valhalla with matching panties, and her eyes just twinkle as she crawl in to my bed and lay there looking at me and say a playful 'Ich Will' ...

Sketches and plans can wait until tomorrow.

Ciara sits and look out over the sea at dusk. Robert has given her more work to do, and she like that it is important and precise detail work that Robert otherwise would do himself. An important job that only she does. A niche just for her. She doesn't learn the words, spelling or reading as fast as Robert seems to do, but she is learning. She is getting better even if it's slowly, and Robert has given her praise. He doesn't care if she learn fast or work fast, as long as there is progresses and it's correct.

She just wishes she could feel something from the wooden plug. She has used the wooden thing in the butt a couple of times, she has tried another in her vagina at the same time. She's tried everything Alith said she could do. But she doesn't even get excited when she tries to help with her hand - just sore and reddened. She will talk to Alith when Alith is going to help her get piercings in her breasts. For Ciara is afraid that she can never have those feelings again, and to be resurrected sacrificed her ability to feel pleasure. Or that it is a punishment, since she stopped believing in God. Everything has a price, and she is afraid that she is never going to be able to enjoy Robert as Iselin or Alith do. That he won't be able to feel joy in giving her pleasure.

But the biggest dread that she tries to suppress her thoughts about, and the reason she looks out over the sea instead of sleeping, is that she won't be able to give Robert sexual pleasure when he finally take her to bed. So she will be cast aside - forever locked outside in the dark and cold.