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[Riemann]

I think it would be very useful if bags filled with sand suitable for glassworking could be obtained via trade. This would of course include the ability to request said items from the dwarven / human trade reps.

[Speeeedy]

It would be nice to see sand expanded into a "real" object with more uses.  Like making a sand pit for kids to play in.  Or laying out sandbags for a temporary wall.  Or using sand+clay at a kiln to make bricks.  

Or having legendary stonecrafters create a stone cast, into which sand is poured to make a sand cast, then molten metal is poured into it to make a metal object to quickly fabricate metal objects all with the same level of craftdwarfship.  I saw this on discovery channel, does anyone know if that type of casting process would have been possible in the "dwarf age"?

[Draco18s]

Casting has been around for a decent length of time.  Not sure how long though.
Keep in mind that sand casting molds are waste molds meaning that in the process of casting the metal you ruin the mold.

[Silveron]

Most sand casting is done as a split mold. You start with an original metal shape press/pack the sand around this. Then the sand is split on the parting line, the metal orinal removed, and the sand halves recombined. Then you add the molten metal, cool, and destroy the sand mold. You still have the original metal blank to make more sand molds from.

[Draco18s]

quote:Originally posted by Silveron:
<STRONG>You still have the original metal blank to make more sand molds from.</STRONG>

Yes, but each casting is different.  And with sand it's real easy to screw up the mold and the final product.  Also, sand has a texture to it that shows up on the final product, if very subtle.  And it's possible that fine details on an object wouldn't reproduce.

[Puzzlemaker]

quote:Originally posted by Draco18s:
<STRONG>

Yes, but each casting is different.  And with sand it's real easy to screw up the mold and the final product.  Also, sand has a texture to it that shows up on the final product, if very subtle.  And it's possible that fine details on an object wouldn't reproduce.</STRONG>

That's fine though if you want to mass produce low-quality stuff, like you need a lot of grates or maybe chests.

[DJ]

It seems to me like something humans would do. Dwarves take too much pride in their craftsdwarfship to engage in mass-production. Of course, human town arc is still far in the future, so it could be temporarily given to dwarves.

[Riemann]

Yes, other uses for sand would be cool sometime in the future. But just adding it to the list of tradable / requestable items is a very small change that would have a large benefit to gameplay. Think of what a benefit it was once we were able to import Flux stone.

[Footkerchief]

This is the most recent thread I could find about glass/sand trading, so I'm bumping it to notify the Suggestions crowd that you can trade for sand and glass in the next version:

3.  Will we have access to items that used to be inaccessible via trading like glass and sand?

That's one of those requests on the table.  Off the top of my head, flasks, waterskins, quivers and backpacks are now available.  I'd say sand and glass are very likely.  And sand and glass too, yeah, since I went ahead and put them in just now.  I'm not sure about other omissions.  I told somebody I'd do soap earlier on, so I'd like to do that as well.

[Cheddarius]

Suppose you make a sculpture out of a stone with a high boiling point and submerge it in a stone with a lower boiling point (made through a magma bath)?

[Pilsu]

How would you pack those sand molds with 1400s tech?

[Aquillion]

This has come up many times before, but I'd like to point out that historically, it was normal for glass-making to be centered in a few key locations (where the raw materials were.)  These locations would produce huge chunks and blocks of raw glass that were then shipped all over the world, where local locations would melt them down and make them into whatever was needed.

In fact, part of the advantage of glass was that you could do this with it -- it was easy to produce raw glass, trade it to someone else, and they could then quickly remake it on-site into whatever they needed.

See the history of glass in the Roman Empire, say.  Glass-making was centered in a few small areas, which produced huge blocks of glass that they shipped to the rest of the Empire for local glass-crafting.  The recycling of glass was also a major factor.

So I feel that there should be an option to make glass objects out of glass blocks and raw glass, as well as an option to recycle existing glass objects back into glass blocks or raw glass.

[Darkond2100]

*embarrassed*

[Aquillion]

Where's Footkerchief? There is a perfectly good thread that needs to be put down RIGHT HERE

Uh, scroll up.   

[nenjin]

Dwarves take too much pride in their craftsdwarfship to engage in mass-production.

Oh come now. You KNOW this isn't true. Even if everyone accepts it as a valid cultural trait....players pretty much blow that out of the window in Year 1 of their fortress, mass-producing mugs out of radioactive material if they need to, to make money.