The Factory Floor

Shalvenay

12:38 AM

hey there @Green

Green

1:33 AM

@Shalvenay hey! How goes it?

Shalvenay

@Green alright here, as for you?

Green

@Shalvenay had a good dinner. I'm in good shape.

Shalvenay

@Green cool. pondering what an ideal bladesteel would be, thanks to the meteoric iron question

my thinking is something like an AISI S-series shock-resisting tool steel -- combining the best properties of a hard tool steel and a spring steel, basically

Green

2:06 AM

@Shalvenay wouldn't you use two steels instead? A harder steel for the cutting edge and a springier steel for the trailing edge?

Shalvenay

@Green I've actually considered the concept of using a spring-like steel for the base blade and then case alloying (vanadizing) the blade using either a pack diffusion or an ion implantation process

(running a sword through an ion implantation machine would be hilarious just for the mix of technologies being implied)

which would get you results similar to the two-steel idea, but without any need for forge or pattern welding

Green

@Shalvenay I see the words you're using and individually, I know what they mean but no clue when placed together. You're way ahead of me.

Shalvenay

Ion implantation

Ion implantation is low-temperature process by which ions of one element are accelerated into a solid target, thereby changing the physical, chemical, or electrical properties of the target. Ion implantation is used in semiconductor device fabrication and in metal finishing, as well as in materials science research. The ions can alter the elemental composition of the target (if the ions differ in composition from the target) if they stop and remain in the target. Ion implantation cause also chemical and physical changes when the ions impinge on the target at high energy. The crystal structure of...

Green

@Shalvenay so you'd do that to sections of the blade and not others? Bump up the carbon content by basically shooting carbon at the surface? That's ridiculously cool.

Additive only though? You can't use that to remove impurities?

Shalvenay

@Green what I propose is more extreme actually: shooting ions of an alloying metal such as vanadium into the target

@Green yeah, additive only basically

Green

2:18 AM

@Shalvenay how deep do they penetrate?

Shalvenay

@Green depends on particle energies used

Green

@Shalvenay could you saturate a sword's depth with that technique? (now I've got questions.)

Shalvenay

@Green probably not saturate it, but I don't think you'd want to

Green

How do you handle saturation gradients as a function of depth?

Shalvenay

@Green not 100% sure really

Green

2:21 AM

@Shalvenay well, no, not saturate. You'd only want a few percent, if that much, to be added in the process.

Shalvenay

@Green yeah

you'd be adding like a few percent

and this would be before the heat treatment since the vanadium needs a chance to react with the carbon and form the carbide nanoparticles that make things work

Green

@Shalvenay more alchemy. :)

Do you do this kind of work for a living?

Shalvenay

@Green no, I'm mildly familiar with it because of its use in semiconductor fab, which I know from more of a "someone who's familiar with basic chip design concepts" level

Green

@Shalvenay sounds like magic to me.

How much would it cost to make a sword with that technique?

Shalvenay

@Green not sure. it does appear to be used for metal finishing IRL, so it's not out of reach of a well equipped industrial metal fabricator/forge

Shalvenay

2:55 AM

hey there @TheTimeVoyager

Feeds

9:59 AM

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Questions

How can I figure out the territorial needs for my Werewolves? biology creature-design environment fauna There are lots of different creatures that are loosely based on wolves. The most prominent one is probably the Werewolf, a mix of a human and a wolf. But there are also others, such as Dire W...

Future Historian

3:15 PM

Hmmmmmmm.

I wonder if four jaws is bad news for omnivores.

@Gryphon? Biologically, is four jaws bad for omnivores?

Secespitus

12

Q: Why would a body plan with multiple eating mouths evolve?

Aside from very simple or colonial organisms, all animals on Earth have only one mouth for eating. Many organisms have multiple spiracles or even multiple anuses, but not mouths.

Future Historian

So...........is that a "no" for my four jaws thing?

:(

Secespitus

To cite the highest voted and accepted answer "Altogether, this is a very, very unlikely body plan, even for an alien."

But the second one gives some interesting ideas for "Why not?"

Except for when you want four jaws, but still only one mouth. Then that question link is not really useful for your question.

In that case there are earth examples

3

Q: Could a creature have multiple jaws?

Recently I have been browsing theoretical alien designs and a feature I have become interested in are multiple jaws. What I mean by this is an inner jaw located inside of the outer jaw. An example of this can be seen below (by artist abiogenisis) Is it possible for an animal to have a mouth i...

reality-check creature-design aliens

Future Historian

:/

Future Historian

3:59 PM

Hmmmmmmmm.

@Secespitus. Well, fine. It is one mouth, technically.

It is just four jaws for one mouth.

Oh and I have two eyes for two different spectrums.

Two for visible light and two for infrared.

Is that good?

Oh and the head looks like that of a hammerhead shark.

The infrared eyes are in the ends of the hammerhead....head and the front has the normal, visible light eyes.

Which means they can see colourblind at day.

Secespitus

@FutureHistorian Depends on what the environment of the creature is living in is like - what kind of prey? What predators? Etc.

Future Historian

4:26 PM

@Secespitus. To be clear, they are in the real life world of Kepler 442b.....and you probably know where this is going, hmmmmm?

So..........hmmmmmm.

If they are omnivorous, would four jaws be really necessary?

@Shalvenay? How helpful are four jaws to an omnivore?

Secespitus

@FutureHistorian No

Future Historian

In that case........hmmmmm.

What are some types of mouths that help an omnivore, then?

I do not want to follow a human-like mouth, but......I do want them to be omnivorous.

Secespitus

I think you didn't click on my arrow and misinterpreted the "no" to be an answer to your question about four jaws being necessary (that depends on your world and only you can decide it)

Bellerophon

8:20 PM

Would there be any kind of real life combat advantage to doing all the spins and flips that are shown in a lot of media? I'm thinking combat styles like the Witcher or some of the Jedi in the prequels.

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