How to Shrink a Quarter WITH SCIENCE!

[hooplala]

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I like turtles!

[fomenter]

 When I grow up I'm going to Bovine University.

[Cait M. R.]

You completely derailed our Arafelis bashing, Hoopla.

This is the worst forum ever.

[hooplala]

This is what I do.

Also, Nigel, I LOVE that video!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Turtle Kid is awesome!

[Requia ☣]

And I don't happen to know of any metals having alternate possible crystal structures like that.

Some alloys do.  Traditional solder (tin+lead) will do this if you mishandle it (which fucks up electronics to no end if you do).   Wootz Damascus steel (steel carbon, + trace amounts of some other stuff) also changes its structure if you beat it with a hammer for about a week.

[Cain]

Damascus steel is a huge let down.  It doesn't even cut through rocks, like they said it did. 

Still better than the Wapanese katana obsession though, by far.

[Requia ☣]

Damascus was never sharper than a good quality kitchen knife.  Just durable as hell.

[Arafelis]

Damascus steel is a huge let down.  It doesn't even cut through rocks, like they said it did. 

Still better than the Wapanese katana obsession though, by far.

Wootz steel: For when you need your sword to say "woot."

[Kai]

Damascus was never sharper than a good quality kitchen knife.  Just durable as hell.

Yeah. What would you rather have, a blade that is sharp enough to cut anything, or a sharp blade that never dulls?

Seems like the latter would last longer and be more effective.

[Requia ☣]

The sharper a material is capable of being the better it keeps is edge actually.  Both are a function of the hardness of a material.

Strength refers to a metal's ability to withstand a blow.  Strength is important since it doesn't matter if your blade is as sharp as glass if it breaks when you block a swing.  At that point your opponent can beat you to death with the flat of his blade if he feels like it.

Normally with steel the harder you make the metal the more brittle it becomes, Damascus is unique in that its both one of the strongest and hardest steels we know of.

[Richter]

Damascus can refer to both the technique and the historical example of steel.  I've never gotten to handle or test a period example of a sword made with this method from Damascus, so I can't comment there.   

Damascus (technique) doesn't neceessaily mean steel is GOOD, it just means it's layered.  If you have some semi crappy, and some good steel, folding and welding them together enough will give you a cutting edge covered by striations of good/  bad steel.  In theory, the bad flakes off with use, exposing more good, giving good, lasting cutting performance.  The alternating layers and "grains" to the steel also (in theory) give it stength like metalic plywood.

If you buy a cheap, Mall Sword Shop "Damascus" sword, it will likely be made of shit layered with more shit.  Manufacturing can only make things less shitty to an extent. 

Modern industry and metalurgy has access to both better materials and techniques.  There are well made monosteel swords out there that likely perform as well as most historical examples.  Just remember that historical examples were very rarely King Bonehard's miraculous helmet splitter.  They were just a often as today's military weapons, the mass produced of debatable quality.  You can shell out for the good stuff made with the Damascus method too, if you must.  Myself I can't justify the expense.  I rarely practice cutting and don't need to take my fellow immortal's heads on a daily basis.

[Richter]

AND SOMEBODY GET ME THAT MACHINE!  I HAVE TO SHRINK MY NEIGHBOR'S CAR.

10 miles of power lines and the BIGGEST damn capacitors you can find.  The hugeass electric company ones.  Get lots.  This is SCIENCE there's no half assing.

[Requia ☣]

Damascus (technique) doesn't neceessaily mean steel is GOOD, it just means it's layered.  If you have some semi crappy, and some good steel, folding and welding them together enough will give you a cutting edge covered by striations of good/  bad steel.  In theory, the bad flakes off with use, exposing more good, giving good, lasting cutting performance.  The alternating layers and "grains" to the steel also (in theory) give it stength like metalic plywood.

What you're describing isn't true (often called wootz) damascus, it just looks like damascus and is used to fool the gullible.  Usually referred to as welded damascus.  It looks awesome, and can be a perfectly good blade (it produces a mid carbon steel which is what you usually want),

Its not made from layers of good and bad steel either, its made from layers of high carbon and low carbon steel.  Which are both good, but for different reasons (low carbon is stronger, high carbon is harder).

Those alternating layers do not actually give any bonus of strength either, the layers melt together in the forging process to form a normal (if cool looking) steel.  Though the folding process will improve on poor quality steel by forcing out impurities (which is why the Katana uses a folding method to forge, Japanese iron is really shitty).

Modern mall sword fake damascus is usually not welded damascus either, they just take stainless steel and laser etch it to make it look like damascus.