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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Valeu John EMFA)
Subject: Ares Monosword: Unreal? Of course. Not scientifically plausi
Date: Tue Aug 28 16:50:02 2001
>Ok guys, I got into a fight with a guy the other day who was a
>self-proclaimed Physics know-it-all, and who said that the Ares Monosword
>was a really impractical idea, and that theoretically placing the monowire
>along its edges would in fact REDUCE the sharpness due to a shift from an
>extremely small cleaving surface to a very LARGE cleaving surface ( from
>mono-wire to blade, of course ).

I thought the way it was designed was that it was a sharpened sword with a
monowire embedded into the cutting edge. Now if the sword were of Spanish
or Japanese design (folded) this would help as the folding processes aligns
the molecular bonds, allowing it to get and keep a sharper edge to begin
with (This is how proper Japanese katanas could cut through the armor
samurai wore).

Let's assume that Ares knows this. They'll probably fold the metal in the
sword a few times, then once the blade has been sharpened, they then set the
monowire into the edge. I forgot what SSC says, but CC states that with the
monowire, the sword doesn't need as much sharpening.
If the monowire cuts first, that is "dulled" before the edge and this would
be true.

Ok, I can't think anymore. Someone else want to correct me and take over?


EMFA John Valeu
-AKA- TimeKeeper
Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Martin Little)
Subject: Ares Monosword: Unreal? Of course. Not scientifically plausi
Date: Tue Aug 28 17:10:01 2001
>
> I thought the way it was designed was that it was a sharpened sword with a
> monowire embedded into the cutting edge. Now if the sword were of Spanish
> or Japanese design (folded) this would help as the folding processes aligns
> the molecular bonds, allowing it to get and keep a sharper edge to begin
> with (This is how proper Japanese katanas could cut through the armor
> samurai wore).
>
> Let's assume that Ares knows this. They'll probably fold the metal in the
> sword a few times, then once the blade has been sharpened, they then set the
> monowire into the edge. I forgot what SSC says, but CC states that with the
> monowire, the sword doesn't need as much sharpening.
> If the monowire cuts first, that is "dulled" before the edge and this would
> be true.
>
> Ok, I can't think anymore. Someone else want to correct me and take over?
>
My take on this was that it was a solution to the problem that you can
either have a strong edge or a sharp edge in a fighting knife.

When you're carving a piece of meat you want a sharp edge, but when you're
hacking at someone wearing pieces of steel/impact plastics etc your
carefully honed edge will soon be gone so most 'combat' knives tend to
sacrifice sharpness to preserve the edge.

The idea is (I think) that because the monowire won't chip you get the
best of both worlds, a strong edge that is incredibly sharp.

As to the debate on if it's plausible? Who cares, it's a game :)

Further Reading

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!