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[Sean Mirrsen]

Nice project. Still doesn't quite beat my Mineral mod though.

There's quite a number of chromium alloys Dwarves could theoretically use, plus aluminium derivatives. I think I even had Osmiridium/Iridiosmium in there. And rubber.

[G-Flex]

Titanium can be produced in a thermite reaction also. Gives pure metallic titanium too! And if you've seen a thermite reaction, you know it's quite dwarfy.

Requires- Titanium oxide=Rutile
Plaster of Paris= Gypsum
Aluminum powder= Processed native aluminum
Fluorite= Fluorspar (a type of crystal that can be found in granite, dolomite and limestone)
Source of ignition = Magnesium

I found a source, and that is quite interesting, but it mentioned potassium chlorate, not plaster of paris.

Also, it seems like these reactions are really tricky to do, requiring very pure materials in strict ratios.

There's quite a number of chromium alloys Dwarves could theoretically use, plus aluminium derivatives. I think I even had Osmiridium/Iridiosmium in there.

I doubt this.

[quinntan]

Got my source from here: http://www.popsci.com/node/30347
He used CaSO4 for it so gypsum should work.

Also read that this reaction only gives small pieces of titanium so maybe each reaction would give a "wafer" sized piece of titanium.

[G-Flex]

Interesting, but I'm still not convinced that they could purify the materials enough for it to be usable.

There's also the issue that they wouldn't know how to do it. I mean, I've mentioned before that something being theoretically possible isn't enough. It's theoretically possible for them to invent all the technology up to and including our own, if they had the raw materials, but there's a reason technological progress isn't instantaneous, and dwarves discovering some extremely obscure, impractical-to-the-point-of-probable-impossibility, tricky reaction involving a metal that they can hardly ever find in the first place (aluminum, which they wouldn't want to waste) doesn't seem plausible to me.

[quinntan]

I'm pretty sure the lumps are plenty pure but you are right about the dwarves not knowing about it. Wasn't discovered until the 1893 when aluminum ceased to be valuable. So yeah, probably out of the time frame of the game even if dwarves know a lot about metals and rocks.

Though it is theoretically possible...

[G-Flex]

When I referred to purity, I meant that of the ingredients used. Very few naturally-occuring minerals are terribly pure, and it can be hard to purify them, depending on the methods available.

Judging from the stuff I've found on the internet regarding thermite-reduction of titanium, it's a pretty exacting process.

[quinntan]

That's true but the thermite reaction is more likely to occur then shade-o's hunter process seeing as he's using chloride and sodium ions rather than chlorine gas and metallic sodium. Plus the reaction between the titanium tetrachloride and metallic sodium needs to occur in a vacuum.

Perhaps titanium is out of the reach of the dwarves.

[immolo]

...else you'd have to say that diamonds are a good fuel source too, which they're not (extremely difficult to burn).

Currently Diamonds burn up when getting into contact with magma. Yes, they ignite in fact. "Unlike other gems, diamonds can ignite if they come into contact with magma."

Your response means almost nothing. Yes diamonds can ignite when exposed to something extremely hot like magma which just proves as the original commenter said that they are an extremely bad source of energy. It takes so much energy to light a diamond that burning one would give you very little net gain. He noted that they are extremely difficult to burn all you did was prove him right since magma levels of heat equals difficult to burn.

EDIT: To the OP: Your new super metal's weight is insane. No dwarf could possibly wear full platemail of it without becoming incredibly slow. As it is adamantine which is required to create it has almost the same power but is 150 time lighter and thus far more usable.

[Sean Mirrsen]

There's always liquid oxygen... I wonder, how many tons of rock would be needed to provide the necessary pressure to make it?

[jaked122]

There's always liquid oxygen... I wonder, how many tons of rock would be needed to provide the necessary pressure to make it?

apparently this isn't possible, unless of course the dwarves have figured out how to make and use refrigerants.

[G-Flex]

...else you'd have to say that diamonds are a good fuel source too, which they're not (extremely difficult to burn).

Currently Diamonds burn up when getting into contact with magma. Yes, they ignite in fact. "Unlike other gems, diamonds can ignite if they come into contact with magma."

Your response means almost nothing. Yes diamonds can ignite when exposed to something extremely hot like magma which just proves as the original commenter said that they are an extremely bad source of energy. It takes so much energy to light a diamond that burning one would give you very little net gain. He noted that they are extremely difficult to burn all you did was prove him right since magma levels of heat equals difficult to burn.

To be fair, the actual net gain of energy is better than graphite; a given quantity of diamond gives off more energy when combusting than graphite does, although probably less than coal. The issue is just the insane conditions required for it to burn.

In practice, though, you WOULD have a net loss in the sense that you'd be putting so much energy into doing it that you probably wouldn't be able to reclaim.

There's always liquid oxygen... I wonder, how many tons of rock would be needed to provide the necessary pressure to make it?

apparently this isn't possible, unless of course the dwarves have figured out how to make and use refrigerants.

Theoretically, you could have a pocket of gaseous oxygen and just put enough rock on top of it to pressurize the hell out of it and turn it into a liquid or solid. Of course, at reasonable temperatures it's likely you'll either need way too much pressure, or that amount of pressure will wind up putting it beyond its critical point and giving you something weird.

[Lancensis]

EDIT: To the OP: Your new super metal's weight is insane. No dwarf could possibly wear full platemail of it without becoming incredibly slow.

Unless they were a decent armour user of course. Super-light metals bore me anyway. If you want perfect protection, you should be prepared to wear half a mountain. Mythrill is for hobbits.

[Stargrasper]

Toady has mentioned that his arbitrary cutoff date for technology in DF is c.1400AD.  This means you aren't getting a blast furnace or anything that requires remotely advanced technology to make.  This is the reason a lot of things just aren't included in vanilla DF.

[Grax]

And although using bones/skulls in reactions creates an errorlog entry, so far they seem to work fine in-game.

SKULLs works fine (except for errorlog), but reveal.exe will irreversibly corrupt smelter reactions.

[slink]

Boo Titanium! Yay Wolfram!

Wolfram is Tungsten, not Titanium.