Fang Chang walked to the side, put down his backpack, and stopped to watch.

Clusters of bright green stones are chaotic on the ground. They are high-grade malachite. Occasionally, dark blue stones can be seen dotted with them, with a small number.

Bluestone is bluecopper ore, and the color is also very beautiful.

As far as Fang Zheng knows, malachite and silky bluestone are two common pigments at this time, and they are often ground into fine powder for sale.

When painting, these two natural, soft, noble, gorgeous, beautiful and unparalleled colors can render a magnificent and distinctive work with unlimited tension.

The most important thing is that the price is quite moderate and is very popular among literati and poets.

Holding a stone axe, Fangchang knocked around and checked, picking a piece of ore from time to time, throwing it into the basket behind him.

Both malachite and stone bluestone were easy to smel. Fang Chang looked for the pure ore in his color, smashed it down and put it in the basket. He took a light step and returned to Xianqi Cliff.

After repeated this, a small ore mountain was piled up on the open space.

The copper ore here is of good quality and is easy to collect on shallow surfaces. What is even more rare is that this is a copper-tin-companied ore.

Not only are there copper ore such as malachite and bluestone, but also brown translucent castone. They are all square and long. They are hand-selected and high-quality parts are transported to Xianqi Cliff and piled up.

During this rough excavation process, natural copper and natural silver were also occasionally discovered. These were taken to the cliff and collected together in the straw shed.

Tin is very important for copper smelting, but fortunately, tin-copper companion ore is very common, so here.

The alloy is made of bronze, which has high strength, low melting point, good casting performance, very wear-resistant and very stable, and is a material with excellent performance.

For humans, it once opened a new chapter in civilization.

Another common copper alloy, brass, is copper-zinc alloy. This is not possible this time, unless one day Fangchang can find a zinc mine in Yunzhongshan.

Similarly, if you want to use metals without finding iron ore, copper alloy is the best choice, and copper smelting is much simpler than iron smelting.

Fang Chang was very strong and had to pick a lot of ore before stopping.

…………

...

Dinner is bamboo rat.

This delicious little animal caught in the bamboo forest is washed and peeled, cut into pieces, blanched and changed to water, and add wild onions and wild ginger to simmer over low heat.

Add salt, add small pieces of bamboo shoots and peeled chestnuts, and simmer for a while, the aroma will fill the entire thatched hut and even echo in the clearings above the cliff.

Fang Chang uncovered the lid of the bamboo pot and sniffed it.

It smells so good.

A few round and rolling plant roots were roasted on the fire until charred, and then soft and delicious after being broken. This is the staple food tonight.

The meat of the stewed bamboo rat is tender, soft and fresh, the chestnut is delicate and sweet, and the bamboo shoots are crispy.

It's a great enjoyment.

Fang Chang swept away these and then washed the dishes, chopsticks and pottery jars.

This clay pot is actually not very suitable for making a pot. It is too crisp and not strong enough, and due to firing problems, there may be hidden injuries inside.

A few days ago, a jar cracked, which not only extinguished the fire pit, but also dropped a pot of meat into the ash pit, which was very unpleasant.

Perhaps, compared to making a sword, you should make a cauldron first.

After all, both sword casting and cauldron casting require the copper to be melted into alloy after smelting copper and tin, which requires a large furnace to bring higher temperatures.

Even sword casting is more difficult, because sword casting requires careful adjustment and finding the most suitable alloy ratio.

There is no difficulty in large furnaces. In addition to the furnace shape requiring more experiments, casting cauldrons requires more fuel and raw materials.

But do you still lack strength and time?

As a practitioner, I have strength and never lack time. To improve cooking conditions, it greatly improves the quality of life, which is far beyond a hard sword that cannot be eaten.

At present, there are no conditions to make pots, and bronze is not suitable for making pots. In this case, the tripod is a very suitable cooking utensil. It is not only strong and thick, but also provides natural support.

In addition, it is not picky about material properties and is a good choice for practicing.

Thinking of this, Fang Chang decided to cast a tripod first, not a sword.

The cauldron he was preparing to cast didn't need to be too big, enough to cook one or two people. Fang Chang laughed secretly and said, maybe it won't take long to "food the cauldron".

...

Fang Chang accumulated a lot of ore, and he couldn't use up the fuel he had saved before, so the next day, he started to build a furnace.

The stove needs to be large first, and it is too much trouble to make it with soil.

After thinking about it, Fang Chang used the bricks he had burned before and built a stove without adhesive. It was more than one person tall and had a small mouth and a big belly.

Paint thick mud inside, leaving a drain outlet at the bottom, and then put the copper ore and charcoal in together and ignite. As the furnace temperature continues to rise, the copper ore decomposes heat and together with charcoal, it undergoes complex reactions in a closed environment, leaving copper.

The charcoal temperature is higher, and the copper is eventually melted and turned into red copper juice. It goes out along the outlet and is prepared with grooved drainage rods. It is introduced into a row of small pits on the ground and cools into copper ingots.

Continuously investing in charcoal and ore.

Fangchang not until he consumed most of the charcoal in the brick pond in the straw shed, and exhausted all the ores he had carried yesterday. He put away the batches of still hot copper blocks on the ground with bare hands, and then turned off the fire and fire.

The furnace temperature is sufficient, the charcoal quality is good, and the ore grade is also high. This smelting is very successful.

After cooling down, the copper blocks shone with dark light, like slag, because they were mixed with charcoal, ash, and even soil, and were not the purple-red luster of pure copper.

The tin used as ingredients is convenient for smelting. Fangchang used the small stove that used to burn lime and bricks before, and quickly refined a batch of tin ingots, and then placed it on the stove and melted in a pot of pot to purify.

It is the most troublesome to make copper and tin alloys.

This still requires high temperatures that can melt pure copper. Fortunately, a large furnace for smelting copper juice can meet this condition.

But first, he used his own cooking pots, filled these slag-like copper ingots, put them deep in the large stove, and heated them at high temperatures.

During this process, Fang Chang kept putting his hand into the fire and swaying the pot until the pure copper is refined and poured into the preset pit to become a pure copper ingot.

Without rushing to melt the alloy, Fang Changxian thought about it and began to dig a hole not far from the side of the furnace to make the casting shape with mud and sand slabs.

The tripod ears and tripod feet are all light boards, no patterns or carvings.

In theory, it is also possible to use pottery, but Fangchang just uses clay mixed with sand to make a pouring model and bury it into the soil.

Then the big stove was lit up, and pure copper ingots and tin blocks with purple-red light were placed in the pot together. The burning furnace melted the copper and gradually mixed it with the tin blocks put in together.

Fang Chang deliberately left some more time to wait for the copper and tin to be fully mixed.

Then he was not afraid of fire, so he reached into the stove, took out the pottery jar, and placed it on the ground. The bronze did not deform any time during the cooling process.

After the pottery jar cooled, Fang Chang pinched the bronze in it with great force, and felt that the proportion was slightly crisp.

I tried it several times in a row, adding more water and more noodles, and then I made a satisfactory bronze alloy, put it in several jars, and burned it into copper juice.
Chapter completed!