{"id":"01KF7FPTF19WTSQM730KYK6ABR","cid":"bafkreif2xp6txzkan3uigtkysjores3dyvdgrb2jwhqpcj6imizmhh2pqq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":18787,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:21.449Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":18712,"text":"yet hate thee, that thou can’st not go mad?—What wert thou making\r\nthere?”\r\n\r\n“Welding an old pike-head, sir; there were seams and dents in it.”\r\n\r\n“And can’st thou make it all smooth again, blacksmith, after such hard\r\nusage as it had?”\r\n\r\n“I think so, sir.”\r\n\r\n“And I suppose thou can’st smoothe almost any seams and dents; never\r\nmind how hard the metal, blacksmith?”\r\n\r\n“Aye, sir, I think I can; all seams and dents but one.”\r\n\r\n“Look ye here, then,” cried Ahab, passionately advancing, and leaning\r\nwith both hands on Perth’s shoulders; “look ye here—_here_—can ye\r\nsmoothe out a seam like this, blacksmith,” sweeping one hand across his\r\nribbed brow; “if thou could’st, blacksmith, glad enough would I lay my\r\nhead upon thy anvil, and feel thy heaviest hammer between my eyes.\r\nAnswer! Can’st thou smoothe this seam?”\r\n\r\n“Oh! that is the one, sir! Said I not all seams and dents but one?”\r\n\r\n“Aye, blacksmith, it is the one; aye, man, it is unsmoothable; for\r\nthough thou only see’st it here in my flesh, it has worked down into\r\nthe bone of my skull—_that_ is all wrinkles! But, away with child’s\r\nplay; no more gaffs and pikes to-day. Look ye here!” jingling the\r\nleathern bag, as if it were full of gold coins. “I, too, want a harpoon\r\nmade; one that a thousand yoke of fiends could not part, Perth;\r\nsomething that will stick in a whale like his own fin-bone. There’s the\r\nstuff,” flinging the pouch upon the anvil. “Look ye, blacksmith, these\r\nare the gathered nail-stubbs of the steel shoes of racing horses.”\r\n\r\n“Horse-shoe stubbs, sir? Why, Captain Ahab, thou hast here, then, the\r\nbest and stubbornest stuff we blacksmiths ever work.”\r\n\r\n“I know it, old man; these stubbs will weld together like glue from the\r\nmelted bones of murderers. Quick! forge me the harpoon. And forge me\r\nfirst, twelve rods for its shank; then wind, and twist, and hammer\r\nthese twelve together like the yarns and strands of a tow-line. Quick!\r\nI’ll blow the fire.”\r\n\r\nWhen at last the twelve rods were made, Ahab tried them, one by one, by\r\nspiralling them, with his own hand, round a long, heavy iron bolt. “A\r\nflaw!” rejecting the last one. “Work that over again, Perth.”\r\n\r\nThis done, Perth was about to begin welding the twelve into one, when\r\nAhab stayed his hand, and said he would weld his own iron. As, then,\r\nwith regular, gasping hems, he hammered on the anvil, Perth passing to\r\nhim the glowing rods, one after the other, and the hard pressed forge\r\nshooting up its intense straight flame, the Parsee passed silently, and\r\nbowing over his head towards the fire, seemed invoking some curse or\r\nsome blessing on the toil. But, as Ahab looked up, he slid aside.\r\n\r\n“What’s that bunch of lucifers dodging about there for?” muttered\r\nStubb, looking on from the forecastle. “That Parsee smells fire like a\r\nfusee; and smells of it himself, like a hot musket’s powder-pan.”\r\n\r\nAt last the shank, in one complete rod, received its final heat; and as\r\nPerth, to temper it, plunged it all hissing into the cask of water near\r\nby, the scalding steam shot up into Ahab’s bent face.\r\n\r\n“Would’st thou brand me, Perth?” wincing for a moment with the pain;\r\n“have I been but forging my own branding-iron, then?”\r\n\r\n“Pray God, not that; yet I fear something, Captain Ahab. Is not this\r\nharpoon for the White Whale?”\r\n\r\n“For the white fiend! But now for the barbs; thou must make them\r\nthyself, man. Here are my razors—the best of steel; here, and make the\r\nbarbs sharp as the needle-sleet of the Icy Sea.”\r\n\r\nFor a moment, the old blacksmith eyed the razors as though he would\r\nfain not use them.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPP20229JJHH4PXDZ18ZK","peer_label":"Chapter 112","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPP20229JJHH4PXDZ18ZK","peer_label":"Chapter 112","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KF7FPTFG6DFYABZ0C6C2J72R","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:21.931Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:31.154Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}