05-25-2020, 09:53 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: cold iron
Nope. You can't cold work iron into a weapon. 'Cold iron' is semantically equivalent to 'hot lead' and refers generally to any tool or weapon made of iron or steel. This is the only meaning the term has ever had prior to D&D introducing a separate kind that affected certain monsters. Iron in general has been sovereign against all manner of supernatural threats in European lore at least since Pliny, who suggests that iron nails placed about the doorway will keep out malign spirits.
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05-25-2020, 10:08 AM | #12 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: cold iron
Does anyone know of myths about magical beings avoiding natural deposits of iron? That could make an interesting setting or excuse for pockets of humans in an otherwise uninhabitable to humans world.
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05-25-2020, 11:00 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: cold iron
Not true: the Inuit, for example, cold-worked iron from the Cape York meteorite into lance heads and knives. Cold-working preserves the crystalline structure of meteoritic iron (Widmannstätten pattern), which cannot be duplicated on Earth, so the identification is sound.
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05-25-2020, 11:39 AM | #14 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: cold iron
This thread made me realize that I don't actually know what cold working means.
A quick Google search says it's working a metal below its recrystalization temperature. For iron, that is around 450 C depending on numerous variables. So cold is a very relative term.
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05-25-2020, 11:51 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: cold iron
You don't get natural deposits of metallic iron except as meteorites, and iron compounds are everywhere.
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05-25-2020, 01:34 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: cold iron
Quote:
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05-25-2020, 01:54 PM | #17 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: cold iron
But iron ore must be able to get pretty concentrated. At least enough to affect compasses. With how long compasses of some sort have been around, I'd think there could be a myth or two related to that.
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05-25-2020, 03:05 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: cold iron
That's an issue of ore type. Magnetite (commonly found as black sand) reacts to magnetic fields.
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05-25-2020, 05:38 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: cold iron
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05-26-2020, 10:31 AM | #20 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: cold iron
As an aside, if you insisted on having metal that have never been heated, you could presumably electro-precipitate iron … not sure it would be much use, but it would fit the bill if required for some mystical reason... folklore always did adore a loophole.
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