[Zim Rage]

After working outside practicing with the warhammer, Zim came back into the forge. He sat on a stool in the back room takeing a quick break. Soon he looked over at weapons on the walls and all around him. He realized that he was no doubt gifted in the art of war. Not in combat, but of makeing beautiful weapons. Nothing more so then swords. He seemed to have a nack for that, just as well seems like everyone wants on. But still the words of the master and the B&D anvil rang through Zims head, "It's good but your still not a master, your edges need work."

Zim went to the wall and took down a short sword, he studied the edge, it's shape. He even pulled up a clamp to hold it stedy so that his hands would shake it and prevent his eyes from catching any details. Then Zim noticed that his blades were very strait, and that yes they were infact sharp, they werent as sharp as they could be. The work he did was to hammer in a bevel and then sharpen it. But that created a sharp edge, didn't it? Yes, but not sharp enough. This blade could cut, yes, but it could not slice. It lacked grace.

Zim thought back to knives that he had handled that belonged to his father, a meger fisherman. They were long and slender, flexable. In his mind he could not recall the exact details of them, but he knew they were felet knives. Ment to be flexable and sharp as to make cutting the fish felet away from it's bones as quickly and easily as possible. The cutting edge was designed in such a way that the bevel it used was much longer.

Zim stood from his stool and grabed another shortsword with the same design useing the same bevel. Zim took the first and cut a piece of leather with it. It cut, fairly easily, but it still held some resistance. Next Zim brought the second short sword over to he grind stone. He set up the guide bar to lead him at a 35 degree angle as opposed to 45. This would make for a longer, which in theory would make it sharper, but also would make the edge weaker. This was something Zim had to take a risk at to see if it were any sharper. Zim started the grinding process and soon had a new angle developed. Haveing raised a "burr" from the metal shaveing process Zim ground them down until it was smooth and stoped whare he was at. Polishing the edge to remove any abnormalities, Zim then got another piece of leather. After sliceing the leather he tried the other again. It seemed like the second blade, the one with the new bevel was a better cut. Less resistance. After the cuts Zim looked them both over, seeing they both still held thier edge Zim had to try a little more agressive approach. Zim took both swords and started chopping away at a piece of wood that he used as a balance when working with larger pieces. After multiple strikes Zim then examined the blades again. As he suspected the 35 degree bevel wasnt as sharp and had chipped in a few places.

Zim sat down and contomplated. He could go for an inbetween degree for the bevel, he thought, and he discarded that, the sharpness was that much better at 35 degrees. There had to be a way to make this work. Then it occured to him. Axes. The shape of an axe isnt a perfectly strait wedge. The sides have a curved bevel to them, while it isnt a very aggresive one, it makes for a strong axe head, as well as a sharp chopping edge.

Of cource when Zim made axes he made his curved bevel primarily from the mold. But there had to be a more exact and replicatable way to do this, especialy for such a small size, with as long of a plain to do this on. Suddenly Zim had an Idea. He had to bevel the Sword multiple times, each one a little further out then the last. This would of cource create several burrs, but Zim would have to work past those in order to make the next bevel.

Setting down to work Zim set the first bevel to 30 degrees, he did a complete bevel on this until it was sharp. Zim then adjusted the bevel to 35 degrees, again sharpening until the bevel matched up with the previous bevel. Cleaning away the burrs, The dracon smith moved on to the next degree marking, 45 and then the last at 60 degrees. Zim looked at the blade. It was a lot of work to create this sword, Zim just hoped that it was worth the effort. Takeing four times as long to sharpen the sword. Zim sliced a third piece of leather, it passed through it with little resistance, flawlessly. Zim then brought it over to the wood to have a few chops with it. One swing on the already chopped would brought it through, so Zim set up a fresh piece and proceded to hack way at it for as long as he did the other blades. Once finished Zim set all three blades up on a rack, edges out, so he could inspect them all next to each other. The first blade, with the standard bevel was still in good shape, but had infact lost some sharpness. The second blade with the 35 degree bevel was worse for ware and in need of serious repair. Finaly, the thid blade, the multi-beveled blade, it was still sharp and it was still strait. Zim felt that he had found a winner in this blade. This would become the new standard, Just as soon as Zim figured out a way to do this faster. "Maybe if I modify a grind wheel..." Zim thought as he marked down his findings in his book.