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[Neonivek]

if you had this mythical inelastic hammer that only had as much force as you could swing it with. Plus making a sword/hammer brittle isn't a favourable attribute

Two things

A) Yes Adamantine is pointless for blunt weapons. Its main purpose is for armor and blades.

and

B) Yes for its strength it is brittle... However it is soo strong that like heck your going to break it. It would be a weakness if there were weapons powerful enough to snap it.

[LegoLord]

I just had an idea.  What if you could make a hammer out of adamantine filled with something heavy like lead?  Sounds too me like it'd make a better hammer than a solid steel one.

[Neonivek]

I just had an idea.  What if you could make a hammer out of adamantine filled with something heavy like lead?  Sounds too me like it'd make a better hammer than a solid steel one.

Yeah that would work very well. You better go suggest that to Toady.

Especially since... a few blunt weapons are dense materials surrounded by strong ones.

[Footkerchief]

While that IS an intriguing idea, don't get your hopes up for it being in the next version -- it was already mentioned that multi-component/multi-material weapons or other items aren't going in yet.

[Hawkfrost]

In case you guys are wondering, adamantium is made out of diamonds and such. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamantium

I find it interesting that DF is listed there.

[Makrond]

I think of adamantine as a sort of magically(?) reinforced copper. It comes out soft, but when you hammer it, the molecules realign and it becomes much harder.

So, a bow is just adamantine that's been hammered into shape, which is quite hard, but thin, and bends well. Ergo, adamantine bow.

[Duke 2.0]

 I imagine the bow to consist of a string that is a  razor-thin strand with one bit that is thicker as to allow you to hold it, and the actual bow that is basically just a ribbon of Adamantine in the general shape of a bow. At such thin shapes, even Adamantine can bend.

[Cheshire Cat]

I just had an idea.  What if you could make a hammer out of adamantine filled with something heavy like lead?  Sounds too me like it'd make a better hammer than a solid steel one.

ive had that idea in my head ever since toady mentioned stuff about the new materials properties going in, and how light blunt weapons will not be as good as heavy one. it surprises me somewhat that it would not be going in pretty quickly, as i would think it would be pretty straightforwards to add. it could be a decoration, ""weight blunt weapon with [material]", or you could choose two materials to craft the item in the first place. then again, toady may be saving that sort of thing for a rework of weapons and other such items, where perhaps we will get other historically accurate stuff like composite wood/bone/sinew bows.

[Flaede]

you'd have to add Sand as a decoration possibility before that weighting thing would reach full awesome potenial.

Imagine the carnage from sand filled bats! muahaa

[doctorspoof]

I hate to re-kindle the argument, but..

Just 'cos something is 'malleable' doesn't necessarily mean it streches. 'Ductile' materials, on the other hand..

(And i'm not objecting that something can't be both. I'm objected to the usage of malleable to mean 'streches')

[Volfram]

I would propose a solution for the whole "Strands of Adamantine, which has 0 elasticity" thing.

Adamatnine atoms naturally align into strand-like molecules when allowed to coalesce over long periods of time, which produces natural Adamantine strands.  These strands are like silk: extremely soft, stretchy, strong to the point of unbreakability.

When dwarves create Adamantine wafers/bars/blocks, the thermal treatment causes the atoms to become misaligned and of a more crystaline nature, which has absolutely no yield, and would thus be very brittle, except that it maintains its unbreakable nature.  Because certain criteria are required to form Adamantine strands, the transition is effectively one-way.


If you think about the whole "Adamantium=diamond" thing, this actually makes sense, as carbon fiber is very soft, flexible, and strong, though with very little shear-strength, while diamond is extremely hard, but brittle.

So an Adamantine sock would be woven adamantine fibers, an Adamantine breastplate would be forged crystaline Adamantine, and an Adamantine bow would be like a compound bow, with the solid parts made from crystaline Adamantine, the string made from Adamantine fiber, and the elasticity granted by using Adamantine fibers as tendons to the crystalline Adamantine frame.

[LegoLord]

That's a little backwards.  A crystal structure would be very much in order, while a stretchy fiber would have a less orderly molecular structure.

However, adamantine is a metal, which are pure elements.  So whether or not it would work like that is entirely up to how far Toady can bend physics around fantasy.

[Footkerchief]

However, adamantine is a metal, which are pure elements.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, but crystalline structure is the rule for metals, and amorphous structure is the exception.

[Volfram]

I based the theory behind strands vs. wafers on how Magnetite occurs naturally in the real world.  Before electricity was available for electromagnetism, the only way to make a magnet was to either find a lodestone naturally or use a lodestone to transform an ordinary piece of ferromagnetic material into a lodestone.  If you were to strike or heat a lodestone, you'd get an ordinary piece of iron.

I know the Earth's magnetic field plays a part in the formation of Lodestones(And is the one other way of creating a magnet without the aid of another magnet or electricity: use the Earth's magnetic field as your original lodestone), so perhaps Adamantine strands form aligned to the local magnetic pole.

[Neonivek]

Actually Adamantine has great Shear and Yield. it just has absolutely no elasticity. So anything that goes through its strength will immediately shatter it rather then bend.

Here are its stats

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[INORGANIC:ADAMANTINE]
   [USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:METAL_TEMPLATE]
   [STATE_NAME_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:adamantine]
   [STATE_NAME_ADJ:LIQUID:molten adamantine]
   [STATE_NAME_ADJ:GAS:boiling adamantine]
   [DISPLAY_COLOR:3:3:1]
   [VALUE:300]
   [SPEC_HEAT:7500]
   [MELTING_POINT:25000]
   [BOILING_POINT:50000]
   [WEAPON][WEAPON_RANGED][AMMO][DIGGER][ARMOR][ANVIL][ANY_USE]
   [WAFERS]
   [SOLID_DENSITY:200]
   [liQUID_DENSITY:2600]
   [MOLAR_MASS:55845]
   [IMPACT_YIELD:5000000]
   [IMPACT_FRACTURE:5000000]
   [IMPACT_ELASTICITY:0]
   [COMPRESSIVE_YIELD:5000000]
   [COMPRESSIVE_FRACTURE:5000000]
   [COMPRESSIVE_ELASTICITY:0]
   [TENSILE_YIELD:5000000]
   [TENSILE_FRACTURE:5000000]
   [TENSILE_ELASTICITY:0]
   [TORSION_YIELD:5000000]
   [TORSION_FRACTURE:5000000]
   [TORSION_ELASTICITY:0]
   [SHEAR_YIELD:5000000]
   [SHEAR_FRACTURE:5000000]
   [SHEAR_ELASTICITY:0]
   [BENDING_YIELD:5000000]
   [BENDING_FRACTURE:5000000]
   [BENDING_ELASTICITY:0]
   [MAX_EDGE:100000]
   [DEEP]

To sum it up. Adamantine doesn't bend (appropriate for "Indestructable" material) it just shatters is I am interpreting the information correctly.

Theory: Wafers are created by connecting strings together in a painstaking effort. It is kinda like putting a jigsaw together.