The Chipping cycle

While the process slows as a demon ages, Iron Demons, Cold Iron Demons and even Sulphide Demons are always absorbing minerals into themselves. While the iron is extruded in randomised shards that grow from the skin of these demons at random, personal grooming is required for convenience, practicality and to weed out shards laden with structural impurities.
  (Insert metal tin-snips type image here) The most important tool in the chipping cycle is the clippers. The second most important is a friend. Using a friend and the clippers, the demon trims the most pressing shards, usually closer to the skin so that mobility and functionality is kept. A mirrored surface is used to inspect for fractures or flaking - those shards taken all the way down so healthy growth is encouraged. This is usually the most labour intensive process, and the iron collected here is often the easiest to reuse in forges and the like.
  Next comes the grinding. While roughage can be used, a rapidly rotating disc tool is the most common application, powered by a self contained churning explosion, even as the heat of the process slight melts the edges and rounds the edges. Oils and ointments follow, reapplying protections against oxidization at least for the moment.
 

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Not all chippings are so excessive. Like a human will not always need to cut back their hair like they would after the wet season, some demons only file and ointment their shards, though even these might need assistance, especially around the back of the thighs, or over the backs of ribs. While many demons construct their own tools for themselves, this is mostly an intimate display of trust between like minds - not always romantic but always a sign of "you got me".
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