Whoever said that when all you have is a hammer, the world starts to look like a nail was a handless idiot. They’d obviously never stood in front of a forge, never beaten on a piece of red- hot metal, because the fact is that you start with a hammer; it’s the first and most fundamental tool, the one you use to give shape and structure, to bring all the others out of the raw material and make them things in themselves. There is tremendous subtlety possible, the foundations of the future can be, were and are laid with a well shaped lump of heavy metal. – RecklessPrudence
(#00357)
Glod hadn’t been really listening to the humans he was sharing the cabbage cart with. Not until one of them said it.
“When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”
Glod had to speak up. “All I have is a hammer. If I find a piece of flint, I can light a fire with it. Once I have a fire, I can turn any old bit of metal into something else. Two hours and I can have a shovel and a pick. And once a Dwarf has a shovel and a pick, they have the rest of the world.”
The humans stared at him.
“Well… ye-es, I guess that’s true. But supposing you’re stuck in a cabbage field like this. There’s no flint for miles.”
“Nothing to burn, either,” said another human.
“Dirt’s easy to dig through,” said Glod. “Dig long enough and you’re bound to find something.” He caught one of them coming up with a clever argument and added, “And in the meantime, I can dry cabbage leaves for fuel.”
“Plenty of dung on the road, too,” added one of the quiet ones. “Plenty of people use dung in their fires.”
“But if you use it in your forge,” said another in the tones of an approaching bad pune, “would you wind up making shit metal?”
Nobody laughed. Nobody expected to.
“Hammers also make pretty good weapons, mind,” added Glod.
“I was just trying to be funny,” grumbled the punster.
“Well, you wound up just being trying,” said the quiet one.
They rode in silence for a while.
“It’s an interesting-looking hammer,” noted one of the humans who had started the argument. “What’s the spike on the end for?”
“In case I can’t make a pick with the metal I’ve found, yet. I can knock ore loose with it.”
“Bloody practical people, you Dwarves.”
“Thank you,” said Glod.
“So… what are you planning to do? With that hammer?” Obviously, the comment about weaponry had lead to some disturbing thoughts. At least the questioner was polite about it.
“Sculpture,” answered Glod.
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