What the fire asks
Not a catalog of finished work — one piece on the horn, color in smith words, hearth pulled from below.
Smith words for heat
Welding spark, straw yellow, cherry, blood, then black heat — color in the smith’s tongue, not a thermometer.
Hearth from below
Pull Ember, Blow, and Scale up from the bottom: coal bed, hammer passes, then the fold that closes the fire.
Close and keep the tale
Quench, tap the ring, set temper hue. The recap writes a short tale and closed fires sit in the book.
Stay with the piece
Between heats: slack dip, brush scale, warm the face, flux a joint, drift an eye. Smith kit remembers fuel and how you like the bed.
On the horn
From the empty horn to the closed-fire recap.
