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I can not understand the meaning of this part of sentence. Below is original. enter image description here

Nathan Tuggy
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박용현
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  • What context did this image appear in? I am not 100% sure what "scales" refers to, but it is probably obvious in context. – Jasper Dec 14 '15 at 04:52
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    Is this a picture of a furnace or kiln or something like that? I think the caption is anthropomorphizing the "scales" a little bit, and talking about them as if they were animals who love oxygen. A less metaphorical way of saying it would be "oxygen-rich environment that causes the formation of scale." (Usually it is "scale", an uncountable noun, referring to the substance, not "scales", which would refer to pieces of scale.) – Wim Lewis Dec 14 '15 at 05:14
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    Look up Mill scale at Wikipedia. This oxide forms in the presence of oxygen, so depriving an environment of oxygen will decrease the likelihood of its formation. – CowperKettle Dec 14 '15 at 06:23

1 Answers1

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This scales refers to oxidation scale: thin flakes of oxidized metal, caused by heat.

According to Collins English Dictionary (via The Free Dictionary), scale is:

​7. (Metallurgy) a flaky black oxide of iron formed on the surface of iron or steel at high temperatures
8. (Metallurgy) any oxide formed on a metal during heat treatment

Because the forming of such an oxide requires lots of oxygen, the blacksmith does their work in "the oxygen rich environment" which "scales love so much". Typically, scale would be used uncountably. I guess that they said scales because the speaker is a blacksmith so they may have their own way of talking, or maybe it's anthropomorphizing like Wim Lewis said in his comment above.

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Damkerng T.
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