From Robinson Crusoe

The greatest wealth that modern life brings to people is not the various kinds of knowledge, but the way of thinking that the education system establishes for people.

Scientific, rigorous, focusing on experience, exploring causes, improving methods...

As long as you have this kind of thinking, combined with a certain amount of knowledge and excellent hands-on ability, and a little bit of talent, it is not difficult to simply master the principles of a handicraft that is not complicated.

Of course, all of this must be based on hands-on practice. If you can only talk about it on paper, then no matter how good your brain is, you will not make any progress.

After all, many problems must be answered through practice and solutions must be found through trial and error.

……

For Chen Zhou, forging is a matter of gradual improvement through practice and experience.

Throughout the rainy season, he hardly left the cave, squatting in the forging room all day, swinging a hammer and hitting metal.

On March 3, he successfully forged the first hammer head.

The shape of the hammer head is simple and classic, with one end square and the other end round. A square hole in the middle is knocked out with a chisel for installing the wooden handle. It weighs about three pounds.

……

After his first success, Chen Zhou seemed to have opened his eyes and became more and more adept at forging metal tools.

Saturday, who was responsible for adding charcoal to him, and Sunday, who was responsible for blowing the wind, gradually got used to the job, especially Sunday.

Now he has become a professional "blacksmith apprentice". He can deliberately control the size and speed of the wind when pressing the bellows, thereby indirectly controlling the temperature of the fire.

This is very helpful for Chen Zhou's forging work.

Seeing that Zhou Ri was very interested in blacksmithing, Chen Zhou no longer held back and taught him bit by bit the experience he had gained from the forging process.

For example, how to judge the temperature by the color of the flame, how to judge whether the metal is cooked enough, how to better control the shape of the metal by knocking...

The new knowledge further improved Zhou Ri’s blowing skills, and the two of them, master and apprentice, also worked together more and more in harmony.

……

As for Saturday, he had no interest in blacksmithing from the beginning, but he was very fond of Chen Zhou's paintings.

The painting of "Eating Chili Peppers with a Painful Face" painted by Chen Zhou was hung right above his head when he went to bed on Saturday. He would take down the painting every day, carefully wipe the border with a rag, and then hang the painting back.

Sometimes, when he had nothing to do, he would secretly bring a plate of sand into the house, then stare at the painting, imitating the lines bit by bit.

But Chen Zhou has a certain foundation in painting and is talented.

As a native, Zhou Liu had never practiced sketching or studied human anatomy, and he couldn't even draw a straight line. Even if he spent a lot of time imitating, he could not learn even one-tenth of Chen Zhou's skills.

What's more, he can't spare much time to study.

……

After finishing blacksmithing every day, the happiest thing for Saturday is to go to Chen Zhou’s bedroom for dinner.

The deliciousness of the food was not important. He just wanted to look at the decorative paintings hanging in the bedroom, and he especially liked Chen Zhou's sketches of the island scenery.

After dinner, he would always find various reasons to stay, such as helping Chen Zhou wash the dishes, mopping the floor, or wiping the ceiling, just to look at the paintings a few more times.

……

The little thoughts of the indigenous boys could never be concealed.

After realizing that the child liked painting, Chen Zhou gave him a few white clay boards and charcoal pencils, and asked him to practice from the most basic part - lines.

Lines are the basis of a painting. Chen Zhou demonstrated to him how to arrange lines and how to draw neat lines.

I also taught him what the center edge, side edge, and flat edge are, how to draw thick lines, how to draw thin lines, and how to control the density and length of lines.

And more advanced content - arranging lines and then rubbing to control the relationship between black, white and gray, and master the light and dark tones of the picture.

The lines of the sketch need to be clean and neat, without any smudges or smudges. Even if the lines overlap to form a whole block of color, they must show texture.

If the lines are intertwined, they must be clearer to make the picture harmonious.

A tall building starts from the ground. If you want to learn sketching, you must have solid basic skills.

……

Chen Zhou believes that although he has some talent in painting, he missed the opportunity to become a painter due to family reasons when he was studying.

If he had not drawn a large number of structural drawings in college, which indirectly honed his ability to control lines and proportions, his painting talent might have been wasted long ago.

However, even if Chen Zhou picked up painting again later, his basic skills were not as good as those of the children who had been practicing painting since childhood. His sketches were only barely passable, and there was a certain gap between him and the professional students in the Academy of Fine Arts, let alone those painters who had been famous for a long time.

Teaching on Saturday was also a way to make up for Chen Zhou's regret, so he was both unreserved and stricter than ever before.

If anything went wrong on Saturday, he would criticize us.

……

It is said that interest is the best teacher.

In Zhou Liu's heart, Chen Zhou was already in a higher position than his father, the leader and the priest.

He always obeys the orders of this seemingly omnipotent "God".

Now that Chen Zhou was willing to teach him the precious painting skills, he behaved more humble and even modest than any other student.

Being scolded and criticized was a common occurrence, but no matter how much criticism he received, it could not discourage Zhou Liu from wanting to learn painting.

As the saying goes, diligence can make up for lack of talent, and hard work will bring talent.

While Chen Zhou was using his sweat and wisdom to improve his forging skills, Saturday, a young boy with no basic skills, was also improving himself bit by bit.

Whenever he could squeeze out some time, he could always be seen sitting in front of a white clay board, drawing lines with his hands that were stained black by charcoal.

In order to practice painting better, he would get up early every Saturday, light a fire and prepare meals, and then use the Sunday meal time to draw his lines on the white clay board.

Chen Zhou was moved by this extraordinary hard work.

……

After realizing Saturday's love for painting, he simply stopped forging for a day and wrote an introductory textbook specifically for sketching.

In addition to basic lines and line arrangement, the textbook also explains the importance of perspective and light and shadow.

It contains almost all of Chen Zhou’s knowledge about sketching, and even teaches Saturday how to do still life exercises.

Chen Zhou believed that as long as Zhou could keep practicing on Saturday and make gradual progress, one day he would be far ahead of him in sketching.

……

Both natives are living beings and are in the most active age of their lives.

Sometimes when he saw them, Chen Zhou felt like he was seeing his younger self. He was about ten years older than these two natives, and when interacting with them, he always put himself in the position of an elder.

The two natives were also willing to listen to him.

At first, they might have been forced to obey orders because of fear, the unpredictable power of the musket, Chen Zhou's tall stature and other differences.

But after more than a hundred days, with more and more contacts, the two of them had already come to respect Chen Zhou.

They respected Chen Zhou's strength, and even more so his wisdom and vision. Chen Zhou, who had inherited the long history of Chinese civilization over hundreds of years, always had his own unique insights on some things, and pointed out the root causes of the conflicts in their tribe, as well as the weak nature of the leaders and priests.

This kind of "philosophical" thinking often enlightened the two and further increased their admiration for him.

……

Of course, freezing three feet doesn't happen in a day.

Chen Zhou saw all the changes in the natives, and he was very glad that he did not achieve all this through pure violence.

If one were to give a definition to domestication, he felt that this was the true domestication, or enlightenment.

……

Time flies, and it is already mid-April.

The two-month rainy season was coming to an end, and the charcoal stored in the forge had been used up.

But their consumption is worthwhile.

Relying on his increasingly sophisticated forging techniques, Chen Zhou explored little by little and forged many of the tools he needed.

Among them are more than 20 hammers of different sizes and shapes. The largest hammer weighs more than ten pounds, and the smallest hammer weighs more than one pound. Different hammers are used to make different objects, and they can all come in handy.

In addition, there are tools such as iron clamps, shovels, presses and chisels, which not only provide convenience for forging, but also increase Chen Zhou's safety during the forging process.

In early April, Chen Zhou tried to forge a small anvil for himself.

The shape of this anvil is very simple. After forging, the surface is finely polished with a grindstone.

Although it is not as comfortable to use as a professional anvil, it is sufficient to meet Chen Zhou's current needs.

……

During the long practice, as he came into contact with metal, Chen Zhou miraculously recalled some of the knowledge he had learned.

For example, the main characteristics of hematite (red ore), magnetite (black iron ore), limonite and siderite, as well as the difference between wrought iron and pig iron.

As well as the characteristics and uses of several types of pig iron: white iron, gray iron, and ductile iron.

The difference between low carbon steel, medium carbon steel and high carbon steel, and the properties of alloy steels such as chromium steel, manganese steel, chrome-manganese steel, chrome-nickel steel, etc. which are made by adding alloy elements.

Having not come into contact with these materials for several years, he thought that these materials would be buried forever in the depths of his memory. He never expected that there would be a day when they would see the light of day again.

He thought that he could recall this valuable knowledge, on the one hand, because he had read the relevant materials dozens of times when he was in school, which had already left a deep impression in his memory.

On the other hand, perhaps it is because the experience summarized from practice corresponds to the knowledge, which pulls out the familiar things again.

……

In any case, it is worth celebrating to be able to remember this knowledge.

Chen Zhou recalled slowly, worried that he would forget it again, so he carefully wrote down the knowledge on paper, just as a precaution, maybe this knowledge would come in handy someday.

……

In addition to past knowledge, the forging experience gained through practice is also extremely valuable.

After thousands of forgings, Chen Zhou has developed a detailed process in his mind.

The first detail of forging is to deal with the fuel. Be sure to select high-quality charcoal with a shiny black color, and then break it up so that it can burn fully.

After ignition, the metal block is burned red. During the repeated forging process, if you want higher metal strength, you can stretch the rough blank a little bit, then fold and forge it to remove impurities inside the metal.

Once the rough blank is forged into a suitable shape, it can be slowly tapped with a small hammer to refine the shape.

If you are forging a sword, you have to re-ignite it before quenching, burn the sword blank or knife blank red and then quench it. This step is related to heat treatment.

Ordinary daily utensils such as sickles, hammers, pickaxes, shovels, chisels, crowbars, pots and pans, etc. do not require much attention in forging. There is no need to use high-quality metals. As long as the shape does not deviate too much, they can always be used.

The art of forging weapons is quite profound.

To make a good weapon, one must not only consider whether it is strong and sharp, but also the balance, center of gravity, weight, and strength of the blade. If forging a sword, one must also deal with the sword tendons.

Finally, selecting materials to make the hilt and guard is not an easy task.

Chen Zhou is now confident that he can forge hammers and pickaxe heads of various shapes, but he does not dare to say that he can forge a qualified kitchen knife.

The more you learn, the more you realize your own ignorance, especially when it comes to such a profound skill.

……

After entering the dry season, Chen Zhou wanted to start working directly to manufacture more advanced firearms.

He was even ready to melt the lead plates and make Minié bullets using the lost wax process, but he gave up the idea when he saw the anthracite piled in the corner of the forge.

He believed that his forging skills were not enough to support him in completing the manufacture of all the components of the gun, and that any rash action would only waste the precious fuel.

"To be on the safe side, let's burn two more kilns of charcoal and continue training for a while!"

He thought so.

In addition to forging, there are many other things that need to be solved after being able to go out to work during the dry season.

……

For example, the watchtower and beacon tower on the hillside.

It is now the dry season and the wind and waves at sea have greatly decreased. As stated on Sunday, this is the best time for the big tribe to send people to the island to investigate the situation.

In order to avoid accidents, Chen Zhou had to temporarily put the forging on hold and first build a building responsible for reconnaissance to ensure that there were no worries.

There are also supplies stored in the camp at the foot of the mountain.

This rainy season, the shacks underwent another round of repairs.

More than two years of wind, sun and rain have almost completely destroyed the fragile wooden structure and canvas.

Fortunately, the storage room was expanded by three people, and the internal space is now large enough to accommodate those supplies.

Chen Zhou planned to pick a good day when the sun was not too strong, and lead Saturday and Sunday to push two carts to transfer the last batch of supplies to the mountain. This would also put his mind at ease.

……

Finally, he had to go to the Fruit Tree Valley to get more sugarcane seedlings and cocoa beans.

Because he was busy with forging, he was unable to go out to collect cocoa beans as planned at the end of the last dry season, resulting in the chocolate supply at home never being replenished.

Not to mention that the two natives did not get any reward, even he himself hadn't eaten it for a long time and was craving for that mellow and sweet taste.

As for the sugarcane seedlings, it is because the sugarcane fields planted on both sides of the mountain stream are not expanding fast enough.

The sugar reserves in the cave are sufficient.

But in order to prepare for a rainy day and not worry about sugar in the future, Chen Zhou is still ready to make arrangements in advance.

This time he not only had to plant a few more acres of sugarcane, but also had to make a machine to squeeze sugarcane juice and boil some sugarcane in advance to test its taste. (End of this chapter)