Double Flee A

The hardening process for winding stems is very inexact. It is also prehistoric. If you want a piece of steel to be really hard, you have to heat it and cool it quickly. The little steel molecules come crashing back together very tightly and the thing's as hard as glass. We take the stems, heat them up till they're glowing red, and then dunk them in water. We do this as quickly and as straight as we can, so that the piece doesn't warp. But it doesn't matter because the piece just fucking warps anyway.

Yesterday I came in and had a stem ready to harden. I then ruined it in the hardening process. Then I made another one, which I then ruined in the hardening process. Today I started from scratch, made another stem, and ruined it in the hardening process. My patience wears thin. I have spent the last three full days of school cutting beautiful stems, only to ruin them in less than one second in the hardening process. Fuck the hardening process.

posted by dale @ 3:19 PM