Ok, next question:
We know that Adamantine's hard enough to potentially hold a monomolecular edge, but I was wondering if the Dwarves don't quite have the means to give it one to begin with. I mean, it's a wonder how they sharpen it to begin with, since even diamond whetstones probably wouldn't be enough.
So, I figure that the typical forging process for your average axehead goes like this: (assuming the game abstracts the process as much as I believe)
First the wafers are made by interlacing fibers then firing them under intense heat, not enough to fully melt them of course but enough to make them stick together, becoming like a stiff, fine wire mesh.
At the forge, this wafer is heated again until it becomes malleable. The smith then begins hammering the wafer into a solid sheet; however, at certain points he widens some of the holes in the mesh instead in order to make room for rivets later.
By this point the metal's cooled off a bit, so it gets a brief stint back in the furnace. When it comes out the smith must work quick to fashion the eye, folding the metal in half and merging it back together at the other end. (I'm assuming a single-bladed axe.)
Then comes the long and tedious process of pounding out the bit. Given the material, I'd estimate several days of non-stop labor with multiple people; working in shifts, trying to draw out the metal as thin as it can get. That's where I think the edge comes from.
The only other option I can think of would be flaking, but this seems so... messy that I can't imagine it being part of the routine. The only thing I can think of is that it would mean a well-built Adamantine axe would still be sharp after hitting, say, an Adamantine shield.
Author
Topic: Adamantine and Slade Science together with physics quirks (Read 208064 times)