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Post by Ona on Sept 10, 2014 9:34:47 GMT
So, we all by now know that there are, occasionally, swords made from titanium. These are fairly rare compared to steel swords due to price and the difficulty of working titanium and probably a few other factors, but currently, I'm in the process of writing a fantasy novel.
In this novel, there are elves. Elves as in the old style elves. The ones that were burned by touching iron (and subsequently, had trouble with steel.)
I've been trying to think of an alternative material for them to use in a socity where other cultures openly use steel. I've been leaning towards bronze, but as materials go, bronze vs steel is pretty unmatched.
Titanium, on the other hand, compares a bit differently.
So, in a hypothetical situation where titanium was more abundant in the environment, but disregarded by most people due to its difficulty to work with... How would a titanium blade compare to a steel one?
I've never actually seen a good comparison between titanium and steel in terms of swords. So any advice people can provide would be useful!
Here's what I do know:
-Titanium is generally seen as being "tougher" than steel. -Titanium is lighter than steel. -Titanium has a much higher melting point than steel. -Titanium is not "springy" or "flexible" like steel is. (I think) -Titanium is much more resistant to corrosion than steel. -Titanium is less versatile than steel.
Now, I don't know if those facts are 100% accurate. So, again, any advice on steel vs titanium swords would be helpful, thanks!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2014 10:50:47 GMT
Titanium in its pure form is very hard but also VERY brittle; in sword form & length it would typically break!
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Post by Madmartigen on Sept 10, 2014 11:13:01 GMT
I am not a metallurgist so take this with a grain of salt, but I remember a detailed discussion about given topic on SFI several years ago.
General consensus was that while titanium is regarded as being tougher than steel, it is tougher per weight, not per se. Meaning that a sword made from titanium would supposedly be tougher than steel sword if it was of the same weight - which means it would be wider, thicker, basically much more bulky. And still, generally, not that good at the edge holding department.
Titanium sword of the same dimensions/geometry as steel sword would be much lighter, but also not as strong as steel sword.
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Scott
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Post by Scott on Sept 10, 2014 12:34:49 GMT
A bronze sword might not do too well against steel. A bronze mace would work much the same as a steel mace.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Sept 10, 2014 13:01:25 GMT
Mad Science Forge made a titanium alloy sword - Hand-forged, beta metastable titanium alloy custom swords and knives. Ancient techniques applied to a metal made for orbit. www.facebook.com/Madscienceswords
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Sept 10, 2014 13:16:58 GMT
In myth and legend Dwarves mined precious stones as well, so you could marry crystal with bronze to make a magical alloy "harder and more resilient than any human steel"
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Post by JGonzalez on Sept 10, 2014 15:44:19 GMT
It is your world, make something up. Even GRRM made up Valyrian steel. Don't get too technically detailed you'll bog down your story.
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Post by greypilgrim on Sept 10, 2014 16:21:09 GMT
Or use a magically hardened bronze.
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Post by Ona on Sept 10, 2014 16:34:33 GMT
Perhaps I should clarify something:
The world these people live in? It's our world, some several thousands of years prior to when our recorded history "starts".
Essentially, this story takes place in a time akin to our 16th or 17th century, only where things we now regard as myth and legend, like elves, magic, dragons and whathaveyou, were all just commonplace. This was only a few thousand years before a massive cataclysmic war wiped 99.9% of all sentient life from the face of the planet, along with almost all the buildings, technology and culture we had built up in those years, literally knocking the earth's thinking people back to the stone age.
Everything following this - up to and beyond our current, modern age - has been a patch job by mother nature, slowly fixing and filling in the absolute mess we left behind.
This is why I'm trying to resort to a "real" meterial, something we have today, rather than pulling something out of my ass.
Magic is an idea I considered, too, but if you don't put limits on magic in your story, you end up with a Harry Potter paradox where certain kinds of magic could essentially be used to just fix all the problems in the story very easily.
Magic isn't used because it's complex, dangerous and unpredictable. Anybody can do it, but very few know how to do it well enough to live more than 5 years in the trade. Trusting something as essential as weaponry to the skill of a few mages is a bad idea.
One idea I do have, though, is that the elves bartered with the dwarves for a secret technique (and supply) of a titanium alloy for their fancier blades, and used bronze for simpler, every-day tools and their cheaper weapons.
The farmers, hunters and the low-ranking soldiers would get bronze. But the officers and nobles could afford titanium alloy blades and armour.
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Post by MOK on Sept 10, 2014 16:57:48 GMT
No, titanium is not a good material for blades. Modern "titanium" blades are actually made of steel alloyed or coated with titanium in some way, not of titanium as such. Keep it simple. Just go for bronze. Or obsidian. Dragonbone. Special elven wood as dense as iron. Solidified magic. Whatever. Just avoid throwing in technical and/or scientific details you don't actually know well, and pretty much anything exotic enough can be feasible.
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Scott
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Post by Scott on Sept 11, 2014 2:20:23 GMT
Keep in mind iron/steel did not replace bronze overnight. Bronze makes good weapons, though not quite as good as steel. Also technological superiority doesn't guarantee victory. The British with steel and gunpowder couldn't defeat the Maoris who were using weapons of wood and stone.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Sept 11, 2014 9:59:21 GMT
Obsidian makes super swords all the way back to the period you mention -
"The maquahuitl was sharp enough to decapitate a man.[12] According to an account by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of Hernán Cortés’s conquistadors, it could even decapitate a horse:
Pedro de Morón was a very good horseman, and as he charged with three other horsemen into the ranks of the enemy the Indians seized hold of his lance and he was not able to drag it away, and others gave him cuts with their broadswords, and wounded him badly, and then they slashed at the mare, and cut her head off at the neck so that it hung by the skin, and she fell dead."
So a bronze sword with an obsidian edge is not only possible but fulfils the need for a super-sharp superior weapon.
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Post by MOK on Sept 11, 2014 18:37:22 GMT
Yeah, obsidian is some kinda crazy stuff. Of course you can't make large blades out of it, but essentially lining a cricket bat with pieces of it seems to have worked very well indeed, so...
Although, I must ask, if the weapons elves use in lieu of iron and steel are actually superior to mundane steel weapons, why don't everybody else use them, too? So I'd go for bronze. Bronze weapons are just as deadly to flesh and bones, the blades just can't be as long and will get chewed up in contact with steel; so I'd expect elves to make especially prominent use of shields, typically with spears and short swords. And archery, of course. Maybe lots of bronze-headed maces, too - softness isn't a big issue for impact weapons, and can actually help prevent your blows from just glancing off hard armor. This gives the elves a slight yet nontrivial, mostly logistical disadvantage, more stylish than decisive in the grand scale of things unless the acquisition of copper and/or tin is a big problem...
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Post by Timo Nieminen on Sept 11, 2014 20:19:41 GMT
Iron and bronze weapons co-existed for a long time. Mainly because iron isn't any better - work-hardened high-tin bronze is harder. Iron is cheaper. Hardened steel is a different story.
Re: Maori wars. One reason the Maoris did so well was because of their sensible and widespread use of muskets and trenches.
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Post by JohnE on Sept 11, 2014 21:01:02 GMT
The idea that iron is poisonous or otherwise harmful to fae goes back a long way in folklore, although I don't think it was part of the old Norse folklore that Tolkien based his work on. Or he might have just chosen not to use it. After all, his dwarves weren't turned to stone by sunlight.
P.S. Is it even possible to refine titanium with medieval technology?
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Post by Rabel Dusk on Sept 11, 2014 23:30:33 GMT
And remember, obsidian is the only thing that will kill GOT White Walkers.
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