Hey, here's a question maybe Bev or Susan can answer:
Which would make better plate armor: brass, bronze or copper?
Steel is not an option.
Hey, don't worry about it. Nest full of vampires, you come get me, okay. Box full of puppies, that's more of a judgement call.
Jonathan ,'Lies My Parents Told Me'
Natter 57 Varieties
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Miracleman - Mar 12, 2008 8:40:43 am PDT #4524 of 10001
No, I don't think I will - me, quoting Captain Steve Rogers, to all of 2020
Susan W. - Mar 12, 2008 8:43:32 am PDT #4525 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
That one's Not My Era, MM, but I'm guessing you need to balance the strength and weight of the armor. Also, what kind of projectiles and blades it needs to stop, because you're going to want the lightest armor that's still protective. Which you probably already know...
amych - Mar 12, 2008 8:44:06 am PDT #4526 of 10001
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
Bronze. Brass is much softer and copper is, like, tinfoil soft.
Beverly - Mar 12, 2008 8:44:47 am PDT #4527 of 10001
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
Brass, MM. It's an alloy, and harder than even bronze, which is also an alloy. Each have copper in them, but copper alone is much too soft to work either as armour or a functional blade.
hippocampus - Mar 12, 2008 8:45:21 am PDT #4528 of 10001
not your mom's socks.
bronze.
Copper, on its own, is too soft, I think.
brass is a name for Zinc-alloy type of bronze.
Miracleman - Mar 12, 2008 8:45:56 am PDT #4529 of 10001
No, I don't think I will - me, quoting Captain Steve Rogers, to all of 2020
Bronze. Brass is much softer and copper is, like, tinfoil soft.
Brass, MM. It's an alloy, and harder than even bronze, which is also an alloy. Each have copper in them, but copper alone is much too soft to work either as armour or a functional blade.
BWAH!!
amych - Mar 12, 2008 8:50:41 am PDT #4530 of 10001
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
BWAH!!
Nonetheless, much as I lurve Bev, she is wrong wrong wrongitywrongity wrong on the hardness of brass -- the reason it's used for instruments and plumbing and the like is that it's so malleable.
Miracleman - Mar 12, 2008 8:51:30 am PDT #4531 of 10001
No, I don't think I will - me, quoting Captain Steve Rogers, to all of 2020
Okay, so I've got two bronze, one brass.
Beverly - Mar 12, 2008 8:51:46 am PDT #4532 of 10001
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
Or, what amych said.
Who I was going to rec as a sabre consultant, since I am not. StY is a long-time martial arts student, knows Japanese swordwork, and we have had extensive conversations about it, and he's available for consult when I need it. H was a college fencer and has been my consultant in random knowledge. But my sabre is merely decorative in function at the moment, and has an intentionally blunted edge, and I am clueless as to how one would wield it.
The blades I lust after are 12th century European two and three-handed broadswords and Scots claymores--relatively blunt iron blades of very little finesse. I imagine a sort of edged bludgeon.
Polter-Cow - Mar 12, 2008 8:52:33 am PDT #4533 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Wikipedia supports bronze.