Li Younan quickly made a decision, with a peculiar smile playing on the corners of his mouth.
The knife he was about to forge might not be recognized by foreigners, but once it was crafted, Chinese people from the ’80s and ’90s generation, or even people from the Southeast Asian community, would almost instantly recognize it.
After deciding on the knife he wanted to create, Li Younan glanced with interest at the state of the others.
The immediate priority at this moment was naturally obtaining steel material, as for these veteran sword forging experts, the initial stage of obtaining materials was already an extremely difficult challenge, where ordinary people without any skill would be stuck at this step of acquiring steel.
Brother Liu was the first to take action.
Brother Liu took off his outerwear, revealing the black vest underneath.
Though not tall, he had extremely robust arms, and at this moment, his gaze was fixed on the car’s tires.
The show’s toolbox had every kind of tool, including ones for disassembling cars.
Brother Liu spent quite some time wandering around the four tires with a wrench in hand, seemingly pondering something.
Next to him, Dali Ben said, "Mate, where do you plan to start?"
Brother Liu gently tapped the hubcap with the wrench, remaining silent.
Dali Ben, assuming Brother Liu planned to work on the hubcaps, had a somewhat odd expression and said, "Are you sure you want to use steel from this area? I don’t think it’s a good idea."
Observing this scene, Li Younan silently sentenced Brother Liu to failure in his heart.
It’s fair to say that among everyone present, no one understood sword forging better than he did, and at the same time, no one understood cars better than he did.
As a top-tier car repair expert, regardless of whether it was a BMW or any other car, he knew best where on the entire car structure had the best steel.
Regrettably, if Brother Liu chose the hubcap, his knife was almost doomed from the start.
Whether it was the BMW’s hubcaps or brake discs, neither was suitable for forging.
This was an old 5-series BMW, but the brake disc was made of cast iron, which is very brittle, and although the hubcap was not made of premium aluminum alloy, it was a steel hubcap made of low-carbon steel with poor performance.
However, after Dali Ben and Brother Liu used a hydraulic jack to lift the car up, Brother Liu’s next move surprised Li Younan a bit.
Brother Liu violently removed all four wheels, but instead of focusing on the hubcaps or brakes, he took off the bolts used for assembling the tires.
Seeing Brother Liu’s actions, it seemed he had sensed what Li Younan was thinking, as he casually smiled at Li Younan after completing his task.
Li Younan blinked and chuckled, understanding the revelation.
If it were the bolts, they would certainly be much better than the hubcaps or brakes structurally.
However, even though they were bolts, the material of different bolts on the BMW varied.
The bolts taken from the tires were clearly 10.9-grade steel, with a slightly lower carbon content but balanced alloy ratios and good hardenability. This created knives with balanced toughness and strength, making them quite suitable for forging medium-sized knives.
However, after removing the bolts from the four tires, Brother Liu didn’t stop. He opened the engine hood and, after some disassembly, retrieved a few slightly larger bolts and nuts from inside.
Seeing those bolts, Li Younan pondered briefly; the bolts Brother Liu took this time were 12.9-grade high-strength bolts made of chrome-molybdenum alloy steel, containing molybdenum that could forge an outdoor knife with excellent impact resistance.
Choosing these two different steel materials allowed for the use of the Damascus forging method.
However, the nuts chosen by Brother Liu made forging difficult because combining these fragmented steel pieces into one complete steel material was a highly challenging task.
Brother Liu didn’t mind the difficulty at all and was the first to prepare his materials.
Although he was the fastest at acquiring materials, processing them was quite time-consuming as well. He needed to use an angle grinder to remove the galvanized layer on the steel’s surface, then clean it thoroughly; the steel had to be pure, without oil stains, dirt, or galvanization to not affect fusion.
Brother Liu’s hallmark was entirely handmade craftsmanship. He had a strong homebody attribute, being a highly individualistic man who unfortunately couldn’t smoke in the studio due to the lack of a breathing apparatus, reducing his strength by half.
Next, Li Younan turned his gaze towards Dali Ben.
Dali Ben was also busy; he chose the car’s suspension system and was currently using a cutting machine to disassemble the shock springs on one of the tires.
One could not deny that spring steel was the second-best quality material in the car.
This high-strength spring steel contained not only high carbon and chromium but also manganese and silicon to enhance toughness. After heat treatment, the hardness and toughness balanced perfectly, making the blade sharp and less likely to chip.
More importantly, the steel had undergone professional heat treatment before leaving the factory, ensuring its structure was uniform and maintaining stable performance after forging.
However, obtaining this spring steel was rather tricky. Dali Ben had to work hard to cut down almost a whole piece of spring steel, although to Li Younan, this appeared somewhat clumsy.
If he were to obtain spring steel, with his knowledge of vehicles, he would only need to remove a few key bolts to remove a complete spring.

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