A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

MrUniqueRoleplay · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **MrUniqueRoleplay** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:36 pm

I was thinking that people should discuss whether a 100% diamond sword in real life would be the ultimate sword or a useless sword. For example do you think it would slice through any armour or weapon not made of diamond or would it break upon a hard impact? If such a sword was to be made, it would be extremely expensive and thus I could definitely see people using it as a see how much money I have item as it would show that you have a lot of money.

But what do you think? Please discuss and debate.

Surgical Steel · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Surgical Steel** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:29 pm

It would be completely and totally useless. As an object gets harder, it gets more brittle. You can shatter diamonds with a hammer. One good block, or one good impact, and you'd be picking diamond bits out of your face. Yes, it could concievably be the sharpest weapon, but that's countered by it's total lack of being able to block, or even bloody STRIKE.

My suggestion: Use flint. It's very, very hard, and when chipped away in the proper method, it can get down to one molecule thick on the blade, much sharper than modern ceramics. AND it's cheaper.

Of course, you still have the problem of cracking and breaking, so I'd suggest a dagger or simple arrowheads of flint, instead of a bloody sword.

Kronos · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Kronos** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:31 pm

It would shatter. Although diamond is hard, it isn't that tough. You can break diamond with a hammer.

A sword with an edge of serrated, sharpened diamond would be an entirely different story.

EDIT: If you have capacity to make a diamond sword, why not just use that formidable materials science to make some fancy iridium-tungsten-sheathed diamond-edged steel sword?

Surgical Steel · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Surgical Steel** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:34 pm

Well, kinda. You still have the risk of chipping and cracking even with minimal diamond coating. Eye-surgery scalpels are covered thinly in diamond, and if you drop one, it's useless. Seriously, Eye Surgeons throw away more scalpels that way than any other tool. Hell, if you managed to get a block in with a serrated-diamond blade, the resulting vibration would be likely to seperate the diamond from whatever holds it, OR shatter it completely.

Иanophяeak · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Иanophяeak** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:38 pm

Diamonds have a molecular structure that allows them to cleave in four directions. This is why diamonds can be cut, to make them more useful for jewelry and the like. If you had a sword made of pure diamond, it would break in one of those four directions once it took too much strain. Actually, with a sword completely made of diamond, you could probably shatter it by bending it between your hands. This will hold true for any rock or mineral constructed sword. If it cannot bend, it will shatter. This is why metals are used, for their pliability and strength.

Uncut diamond wouldn't be useful at all unless used in some sort of chainsaw type way. Blades with diamond edges spinning along the body of the weapon would be able to cut through anything that wasn't sticky.

Kronos · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Kronos** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:38 pm

Touche.

So remember kids, if you want to make a super-engineered sword, use metal instead of gemstones!

KilroyWasHere · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **KilroyWasHere** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:40 pm

And please, for the love of the Gods, make sure to RESEARCH the metal before you go ahead making your sword out of extremely soft gold.

Surgical Steel · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Surgical Steel** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:41 pm

Or Mercury and end up with a puddle at your feet, and poisoned.

Hughes · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Hughes** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:41 pm

I don't care what you say, I want a blade made of solidified mercury!!! :P

If you look on coldsteel.com (Not an advertisement >_>) You'll see that they make a lot of their weapons out of carbon that's been hardened somehow, I don't really know the science behind it. But my friend has a knife that's pure carbon like that, and he can break skin with it, and put it in a clamp and whack it with a sledge hammer without it breaking. It's pretty amazing! I'm thinking a sword made out of carbon might be somewhere along the lines.

Kronos · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Kronos** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:07 pm

It's probably just a very strong grade of steel.

Shard · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Shard** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:26 pm

Carbon steel is just steel with a higher amount of carbon in it. It's sharper and generally better for blades than stainless steel of any grade, but of course it also rusts, so it has to be cleaned regularly.

And yeah, a sword made out of any sort of stone is not really that good an idea. A sword needs flexibility as much as hardness, otherwise, it won't have any absorbing power. Granted, the dramatic movie-blocks where someone clashes blades with his opponent like they're swinging two baseball bats into each other is a good way to destroy any sword you're using (misdirection is the key), but a brittle blade is too much of a liability.

Still and all, though, I'll admit I did use a sword made of diamond in one fantasy story, mainly for the coolness factor (which is the only real reason to use a sword like that). Fortunately, fantasies have one very good way to get around all the deficiencies of such a blade: magic. Say it's carved from the sacred heartstone of the Bla'jere mountains or something, lol.

Village Alchemist · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Village Alchemist** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:17 pm

I don't care whether it makes a good weapon or not--if I have that huge a cut diamond, there's no way I'm bringing it into a fight where it could get broken or lost. I'd lock it up in a vault and maybe maybe bring it out to pay for my retirement or my childrens' inheritence.

Oran Tarlin · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Oran Tarlin** on Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:33 pm

This topic eerily reminds me of a roleplay from my earliest years, where it was all over chat in a much more laid back setting.

My friend was hardly as creative as to say magic kept his solid diamond sword together, no, his excuse was simple. I remember this vividly now, and believe me, I'm not even beginning to capture the hilarity of his excuses...

"No, you see, it's a KATANA. Katanas can't break, like, seriously, they're made so well it's physically impossible."
"So a katana made of toffee could never break..."
"That's stupid, you can't make a katana out of toffee"
"And you can make one out of diamond?"
"Well, yea, why would you make one out of candy anyway?"
"Because it would be easier than making it out of diamond."
"Okay, seriously, but you have to actually make the katana, like, smelt it in that special Japanese way. The toffee would burn, the diamond would melt."
"I really don't think you can melt diamond."
"Then how do they make jewelry?"
"Your logic is baffling."

Ah, that was back when everyone I knew online and in the real world was 100% obsessed with Japan, Anime, and Manga. The "Because it's a katana!" excuse was not the most far-fetched of their justifications for outlandish things that sparkled.

Incognito · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Incognito** on Sun Jan 10, 2010 1:06 am

Master Haroshi say... Sword made twice strong, good for breaking face in two! I totally back your friends reasoning! I mean der, everyone knows you can melt diamonds into super amazing diamond metal alloy stuff that so amazingly cool! rofl. JK.

So far I agree with everything said except for one thing. Strength isn't exactly the correct word to describe a metal. Since strength is determined by how much force something can exert upon another object (and a metal cant get up and push things) I believe the correct would would be hardness. Carbon steel is a very hard and densely packed metal with limited flexibility, that is why it is not brittle and does not fracture or shatter under pressure.

Incognito · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Incognito** on Sun Jan 10, 2010 1:10 am

OH! I just thought of something... What about diamond bullets? Bullet tips made of sharped diamonds. When they impact metal they should have enough force and kinetic energy to cut right through... Or they might just shatter... What do you think?

Zazriel · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Zazriel** on Sun Jan 10, 2010 2:06 am

No idea. I guess it might work.

Kronos · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Kronos** on Sun Jan 10, 2010 2:31 am

Bullets like that would be ludicrously expensive! They would probably shatter on impact, leaving dozens of diamond fragments spiraling through the body of the person being shot. It would be painful as hell.

pioneercadet · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **pioneercadet** on Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:58 am

I have two things to say: Was the knife that Hughes talking about possibly made out of carbon fiber, or was it really carbon steel? I know carbon fiber makes good blunt objects, but could it be used to make a sharp edge?

Also, when it comes to your diamond bullets, that is exactly what hollow points are for XD. The lack of jacket at the tip causes the copper casing AND the lead inside to be torn to ribbons at the force of striking something, causing the bullet to shred into tiny pieces, that do a lot more damage. As a matter of fact, the exit wound from one of those suckers is about 6 times larger (or more) coming out of a body than it is going in XD. I know from having a redneck family XD.

Azure Limit · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Azure Limit** on Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:09 am

Hmm...I think anything made completely out of diamond would fall under the "Awesome but Impracticable" catagory, alone with every other cool sword idea, like gunblades, BFS, chainsaw swords, ect...

thepsycoman · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **thepsycoman** on Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:06 am

Firstly no matter how strong diamonds are there is a low chance of a diamond big enough to cut a solid diamond sword so that would mean smaller diamonds put together and you need something to stick them together with which gives it both weak points and makes it not 100% diamond because of whatever you are using to stick it together, Also if you did find a diamond that big then it would likely that the diamond would have impurities eg: other stones, Air and other gasses, Ect, And that would also make the sword not 100% diamond.

I confess i am a rare metal and mineral sword lover in my roleplays if you are in a roleplay with me you will find my character will normally have a sword made out of diamond and silver, It is really silver studded with diamonds all though and over and these diamonds are tiny although i know this is also unlikely to stand a proper hit but i come back to that little thing called magic.

As for the bullets they would shatter on impact and depending on the diamond they could get so small they they could be carried by the blood stream to the heart or brain causing internal bleeding as they go, So they would be effective IF they worked the sudden speed of the bullet racing out of the gun could shatter the diamond tip because how fast does a bullet go 0 to 300km per hour in 0. something seconds (this is a complete guess but you should get the point I'm raising

Edit: And you know what else even if one was made to show off with some idiot would wave it around which would likely crack it in places until one day it shatters or cracks meet and break it in half, For those who don't realize what I'm on about you have to remember air does give trace amounts of friction these and the vibrations from wavy the sword around while stomping around and all that showing off stuff would be transmitted into the extremely hard and brittle diamond and that of course equals a very expensive lawn, Eye socket and anything else the diamond pieces got into.

A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

a topic in Discussion & Debate, a part of the RPG forum.

Is a 100% diamond sword the ultimate sword or a useless sword, given fighting is its main purpose?

A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Re: A real life 100% diamond, ultimate sword or useless sword?

Post a reply

Make a Donation

Who is online