07-23-2018, 01:13 PM | #31 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
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07-23-2018, 01:34 PM | #32 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
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I know a guy who makes knives and swords (and other blacksmithery stuff) and I've helped out occasionally (trying to pick up some knife making) and he likes to do it both the new way and the old way. Just to "keep his hand in it" as he says. It's almost ten to twenty times faster banging out blanks with the trip hammer (accounting for the increased workload capacity due to not tiring out as quickly) than doing them by hand. One Dwemer* apprentice smith using a triphammer could keep 10 or more weapon smiths fed with blanks for crafting, thus easily doubling their output capacity. * I'm making a setting assumption... ;) |
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07-23-2018, 03:07 PM | #33 |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
Powered hammers existed with TL4. Trip hammers go back to 40BC or 12th century AD depending on whether you’re talking about China or Europe. But they would have been reserved for bigger things like anchors and anchor chains.
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07-23-2018, 05:02 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
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The quality of the ore is what makes these swords so good. La Tene steel came from the same mines as Roman Noricum steel, which came from the same mines as medieval Carinthian steel, which came from the same mines as modern Ravne steel. The main site is still called Erzberg ("ore mountain") today. Low phosphorus and high manganese - ideal for swords.
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Compact Castles gives the gamer an instant portfolio of genuine, real-world castle floorplans to use in any historical, low-tech, or fantasy game setting. Last edited by DanHoward; 07-23-2018 at 05:35 PM. |
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07-23-2018, 05:11 PM | #35 | |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR3cRfz9EZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSCvCfLiWs The second one is edifying. From start to finish in less than 2 minutes. Most smiths had apprentices to help hammer the metal. In Roman times 2-3 were common. The smith would tap where he needed it hit and the apprentices would hammer away. This would reduce production time by perhaps half to a third compared to doing it alone. Ancient power hammers would reduce production times to perhaps a fifth - more for very large items. Keep in mind that these machines are the size of a large building. Modern power hammers would reduce production times to a tenth or even a twentieth and can easily fit in a regular workshop.
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Compact Castles gives the gamer an instant portfolio of genuine, real-world castle floorplans to use in any historical, low-tech, or fantasy game setting. Last edited by DanHoward; 07-23-2018 at 05:41 PM. |
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07-23-2018, 06:05 PM | #36 |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
Strikers are useful for larger items where a lot of metal needs to be moved, like seriously upsetting some stock, but anything fiddly like a sword blade may not be the best use of the extra muscle. I could see strikers being useful for larger bearded axes or maces.
For completion, here’s a striker video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mwy2_09M3Bw |
07-23-2018, 06:12 PM | #37 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
Though presumably this is TL 8 and not 7, there is a TV show called "Forged In Fire" where four smiths compete to make a useable knife of considerable size in three hours. It looks like they mostly can do this with propane burners and hammering machines.
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07-23-2018, 06:34 PM | #38 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
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(And seriously, I could go looking for those old Japanese swordsmiths I love watching with their team of strikers...) |
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07-23-2018, 11:09 PM | #39 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
It's not necessarily superior to really good modern steels, but that's neither here nor there compared to the improvement compound bow technology makes to both bows and crossbows, not to mention TL7 optics, aluminium and glass fibre arrow/bolt shafts (I think carbon fibre is probably TL8), etc. Arguably these are why TL7+ arrows, bolts, and conventional bows and crossbows are fine for the cost of cheap, of course.
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
07-23-2018, 11:23 PM | #40 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: TL4 vs. TL7 melee weapons
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I expect that you could drop-forge swords and they'd be fine as long as they were heat-treated properly, which is something TL7 factories will have no problem with, given heat-treating machine tools is standard. It wouldn't surprise me if the choke-point in mass-producing 'good' and 'fine' swords at TL7 is making and mounting the grips, though I'm sure if there was continuing demand for thousands of swords a month that would be automated effectively.
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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