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[stillrabbit730]

just as the title said, what would be the effectiveness of a gem sword?
would it cut or just bash?

does anyone have any insight into this matter?

any information would be appreciated, thank you

[darkflagrance]

Gems use the stone template, meaning they have the properties of stone except where they specifically do not, usually for things like color or density.

Stone has a max edge of 1000. That means it barely holds an edge.

Gems have densities ranging in the mid 2000s. Most of them have worse density than aluminum, the least dense metal at ~2700. That makes them worse at bashing than something you make foil out of. The best gems don't break 5000, which means they still have densities worse than iron.

In other words, gems suck.

[stillrabbit730]

what if you change the max edge of gems (hell, all stone for that matter), like obsidian does?

[STATE_NAME_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:obsidian][DISPLAY_COLOR:0:7:1][TILE:177][LAVA]
[MAX_EDGE:20000]

or can this only be done for obsidian?

[smakemupagus]

Then they'll be about as good as obsidian swords.

[stillrabbit730]

considering iron has a max edge of 10,000 while obsidian has a max edge of 20,000.

while more !!Science!! needs to be done, it seems these swords will be sharper than iron, but less sharp than adamantine.
based only on their [MAX_EDGE]

[smakemupagus]

MAX EDGE just has to be above a threshhold (probably 10000) -- other than that the particular value isn't nearly as important as the various materials modulus and failure parameters.  Hence iron and steel, and probably copper, outperforming obsidian. 

But by all means, do more science and report if you are inspired.  I suspect that obsidian (and perhaps even lower max edge stones like gem) will give decent results against unarmored animals, and fail against any metal armor.  But would be interested to learn what you find e.g. against clothing or leather. 

see e.g.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Material_definition_token
everything with _YIELD, _FRACTURE, or _STRAIN_AT_YIELD in the name.  For slashing combat (where MAX EDGE would be relevant) you're looking for the SHEAR_ type.

I guess that you'll find the shear yield and fracture point for stone is worse than even copper by a factor of 5 or 10.