If there were no shortage of resources, how good could blade steel get?

Kaizen1

Kaizen1

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Kind of a broad question and maybe the answer is currently unknowable, but I thought it would be an interesting scenario. There are a lot of things out there today that would be interesting to say the least if we could make them happen on a practical level, but for various reasons they just don't make sense currently to put out in the market.

One example is cars that run on hydrogen. My (minimal) understanding is that if we were able to do this, the result would be that cars would create nearly no pollution. The problem is that it's just not economically feasible. Another example is solar energy. It's a nice concept but it just doesn't produce enough energy to keep up with the demands of todays society.

What if there was no shortage of resources to create the ultimate blade steel? How good could it get? This question can be toward swords, choppers, gents folders, etc- you pick. How good could we get the steel to perform on all aspects that one considers when choosing a steel for a particular type of blade (ie ease of sharpening, edge retention, corrosion resistance, toughness, etc)?
 
I could imagine a Mercury / Titanium / INFI hybrid, that, with the flick of a switch in a handle, goes liquid, and remolds itself after heavy use, and chipped edges.

(I have no idea what the Titanium / Infi would do, but Mercury aint much chop on its own :D)
 
Kaizen1 said:
...What if there was no shortage of resources to create the ultimate blade steel? How good could it get? This question can be toward swords, choppers, gents folders, etc- you pick. How good could we get the steel to perform on all aspects that one considers when choosing a steel for a particular type of blade (ie ease of sharpening, edge retention, corrosion resistance, toughness, etc)?
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If money, time, and materials were near-limitless, I believe we would see advanced ceramics engineered and manufactured on the molecular level. Ceramics have extreme wear resistance, but imperfections in the lattice structure act as stress concentrators. Because of this, ceramics always test at a much lower strength than their theoretical maximums (good compressive strength, but poor tensile strength and poor impact resistance). Overcome that obstacle and you would have a cutting tool with extreme wear resistance and impressive toughness. How you would sharpen it? I don't know :confused:.
 
Also the particle size in the cermic would need do be tiny in order to allow a very sharp blade.

Otherwise a lightsaber or something similar would cut pretty well ;).
 
Razorsharp244 said:
Also the particle size in the cermic would need do be tiny in order to allow a very sharp blade.

Otherwise a lightsaber or something similar would cut pretty well ;).
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Actually, I'm a bit surprised that we don't have something like a lightsaber already.High energy cutting lasers exist. Perhaps some kind of molecular disrupter could help break part atom bonds using directed and focussed high energy waves. That also exists!

Knives date back to the stone age. We are still stuck with metal ones and not necessarily 'better' performance either (ancient and LOST knowledge of super Japanese and Middle east knife making).

We already have the tech to make interesting alternatives today.
 
Whatever the knife ended up being it should come with unlimited Cheetos
 
topspeclt said:
Actually, I'm a bit surprised that we don't have something like a lightsaber already.High energy cutting lasers exist. Perhaps some kind of molecular disrupter could help break part atom bonds using directed and focussed high energy waves. That also exists!

Knives date back to the stone age. We are still stuck with metal ones and not necessarily 'better' performance either (ancient and LOST knowledge of super Japanese and Middle east knife making).

We already have the tech to make interesting alternatives today.
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Lost? Hardly. Not to call you out on this but where is there evidence that they knew something that we don't? Even wootz (true damascus) is still alive and well, with Hanwei currently working on prototypes for full-blown production. I talked to James Williams at SHOT and he said that the prototype wootz shamshir he tested for them cut beautifully.

Knife technology is already quite advanced. I can't even guess what the future may bring--but amorphous metal (sometimes called "metallic glass") is some really cool stuff. If they can work the stress-fracture problem out of it (and they're getting closer every day) than it'll be real-life mythril.:eek:
 
Knife technology is already quite advanced. I can't even guess what the future may bring--but amorphous metal (sometimes called "metallic glass") is some really cool stuff.
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Agreed, I think that we have already Juiced traditionally manufactured crystalline steels for most of their possible performance. Any large developments are likely to come from novel processing techniques, e.g. powdered metallurgy, or more interestingly, the aforementioned production of amorphous steel. Also ceramic composites could provide some of the strength and toughness ceramics blades are lacking.
 
Some people would argue that the Japanese mastered steel-making for blades about a thousand years ago.
 
Samael said:
Some people would argue that the Japanese mastered steel-making for blades about a thousand years ago.
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I'm certainly no expert on this but from my research on sword forums, today's mono steels perform just as good or better than traditional layered steels and it decreases the chances of mistakes made in the steel.
 
Whoever (whomever?) discovers Adamantium is gonna make a few bucks. :D

I would guess most advances in the future will be in the ceramic or maybe even plastic type materials. But then again I'm not very bright.
 
Samael said:
Some people would argue that the Japanese mastered steel-making for blades about a thousand years ago.
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Those people would, of course, be full of it. :D:p:D (just kiddin'!)

While they certainly had excellent metallurgical skills, so too did China, Thailand, India, the Middle East, and Europe had fantastic metalworking skills as well. With regards to folded steel, many seem to forget that it was practiced in Europe during the Migration Era but it was abandoned in favor of monosteel once more "modern" metallurgical techniques had been developed.

Given the modern advancements in steel technology I'd say that steel is still far from "mastered" let alone a thousand years ago. :)
 
the solar energy striking the surface of the earth in one hour could power the earth for a year, we just can't harness it effectively yet.
 
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