Please HELP me with my Fantasy Book weapons

A

AuthorTamie

Joined
Jul 8, 2015
Messages
3
I'm an author with a YA Fantasy series in which a person can "transport" from one realm to another. One of the rules of the transport is that iron can't be transported. Therefore, stainless steel can't be transported. Currently my characters have been carrying ceramic knives for protection. These knives have a lot of drawbacks and don't work well as throwing knives, of course. I am wondering if there is a titanium (or other metal) throwing knife that has 0% iron in the alloy. I've seen a number of alloys in my research that have low percentages of iron (enough to be non-magnetic), but the rules of my fantasy don't allow any iron to transport. If the answer is no, that's perfectly fine. I just don't want any blade experts to call me an idiot because my characters should be using titanium knives instead of ceramic.
Thanks so much,
Tamie Dearen
(PS, You can check me out on Amazon. I really am an author.)
 
I am old Science Fiction. What is YA Fantasy?

SF

What happened to the old SF,
replaced by elves & trolls,
replaced by horror movies --
no more galactic goals?

The arching sky is calling
spacemen back to their trade,
but we watch in the growing darkness
as Bob Heinlein starts to fade ...

So it's either silly season
or commercial hardware flying.
The Sense of Wonder's gone away,
Suspension of Disbelief is dying.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I am old Science Fiction. What is YA Fantasy?

SF

What happened to the old SF,
replaced by elves & trolls,
replaced by horror movies --
no more galactic goals?

The arching sky is calling
spacemen back to their trade,
but we watch in the growing darkness
as Bob Heinlein starts to fade ...

So it's either silly season
or commercial hardware flying.
The Sense of Wonder's gone away,
Suspension of Disbelief is dying.
Click to expand...

YA means young adult. That's because the main characters are 15 to 19 years old. But there are no elves in my books. LOL It's sort of a mixture of SF and Fantasy. There are portals and multiple realms. But the other realm (a medieval world) uses magic and people are "gifted" with special abilities. The characters in the book travel between our modern-day world and the other realm via a gifted girl (Alora) who can transport them. However, she can't transport iron... thus the knife question. :thumbup:
 
Not a bad background idea. Bob Heinlein did juveniles himself, with serious storylines. Fantasy can be a way of saying that the future holds ways of life very different than the world we live in. Arthur C. Clarke's famous saying was "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Good luck with your work!
 
The Aztecs and Mayans used obsidian blades.

Early humans (e.g., the Pleistocene era) used sharpened antlers as knives and spear/arrow points.

The Clovis "native American" peoples of the SW US (and other areas) knapped out arrowheads, spear points, knives and other tools using chert (white, milky quartz) or flint (black quartz).

Early period Aleutians, Eskimos and others from Alaska, Canada, Ice Land and Siberia used chert, flint, whale bone, walrus tusks, narwhal horns and mammoth tusks as sources of material for sharp, pointy tools. See "The Archaeology of Cape Nome, Alaska" by John Bockstoce for a cataloging of their tools and the materials used.

I can't think of a specific example right off the top of my head, but I believe there are documented instances of hardwood being used to make knives for real". I know I used to whittle "knives" out of pecan, oak and hickory. Why? Someone told me I couldn't. :D

Sabre tooth tiger fangs could make a really nice karambit-like dagger. :D
 
This is a fantasy novel... so make up a metal.
Tolkien did it... Terry Brooks did it, why not you?
No "mundane" metal will transport, but the native metal of the fantasy land, which bears a striking resemblance to steel, and yet is not.... ect. ect...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top