Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony
55 (or Doug's 51) is for 'good' iron. Cheap iron could be arbitrarily worse.
Hard steel isn't very good armor in general; it's too brittle. If they meant face-hardened steel, maybe.
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Yes I think the assumption in the article is iron and steel that's intended for armour, I'm absolutely sure that was plenty of iron about that wasn't used for armour that was lower than 52.
So similarly those descriptors ("Good", "Cheap", "Hard", "Strong", etc) are given with that assumption in place, and in any case are really only generic and relative terms for the article.
So yeah I agree it's likely hardened steel that's suitable for use as armour, and not the hardest steel it's possible to make ignoring other relevant properties
TBH I've always assumed that DR per inch as a game stat for describing the effectiveness of armour isn't just a measure of hardness but of overall ability to resist penetration. So a really hard but brittle steel wouldn't necessarily have high a DR per inch value in GURPS anyway.
However if your saying that even with the above assumption in place the best Iron for armour at those TL's should top out at 55, then I guess you and David Pulver have drawn different conclusions.