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[UristMcHuman]

So I'm attempting this "Cave Challenge" as I have seen in another thread. He's had obsidian as a short sword material, and I'm gonna try and use copper instead. Which one is better for weapons, copper or obsidian?

[Flaming Toadstool]

As far as I know, you can only make obsidian short swords. So if you want more variety in your weapons, copper might be the way to go, even if it is not the best material to use for weapons. I don't know how effective obsidian short swords are, but being made out of obsidian, I would suspect they are pretty good.

[CptFastbreak]

In the olden days, obsidian swords used to have the same properties as steel, so they were a lot better than copper. I always thought this remained the same today, but now I looked it up and the wiki seems to think it's worse than any metal:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Obsidian

[UristMcHuman]

As far as I know, you can only make obsidian short swords.

I managed to mod my game so that I could make obsidian spears as well.

[Flaming Toadstool]

Well, in any case, after reading that bit in the wiki about obsidian making sub par weapons compared to metal, I would go with copper weapons instead. Unless of course you want to be cool an use obsidian anyways. It may not be as effective, but it would sure look cool.

[RAKninja]

yes, copper is overall better, but obsidian isnt TOO bad..... against unarmored opponents.

[Deus Machina]

Yeah, obsidian's pretty good against squishy things.

Running into anything with armor or a shell or something, copper will be better.

I really do wish we could make stone knives and spears along with the swords, just to get some stuff cranked out in the first month...

[Sonlirain]

Obsidian is sorta like glass serrated disks.
Good at hacking unarmored body due to extreme (adamantineesque) sharpness but won't do anything against any metal armor because it's not hard enough.

[UristMcHuman]

I'm 'Attempting the Cave Challenge' as described a few threads above, and my main threats are Animal-Men and Giant Cave Spiders. I've turned off invaders, so no Forgotten Beasts until I get a strong army of Camp Guardsdwarves, Cavern Rangers and Cavern Explorers. I didn't bring any Obsidian, but I wanted to know how well it would work against the cave-dwelling creatures.

[franti]

In the old version I have, Obsidian is as sharp, if not sharper, than Steel in theory. In the game, it causes bruising and breaking as often as slashing, which I'm fine with. In the hands of a skilled dwarf, either will be good. You wont be fighting armoured creatures, so go with whatever's sharper unless you want to use blunt for some reason. I'd say that Obsidian Sword > Copper Sword, in either mode. Copper Spears/Maces may be better, though, and if you're lucky enough to find hematite/cassitrite and enough wood (or a magma vein) to make large amounts of weapon-quality metals, iron and bronze, go with them. Obsidian is a fall-back.
And it was weakened, so you may want to mod it a bit.

In real life, Obsidian can easily be made sharper than surgical-quality steel. Not to mention that a 3-ft hunk of wood studded with sharp-ass rocks should be heavier than steel, and Obsidian should be great against unarmoured enemies.

[Agent_Irons]

The only reason obsidian isn't used for actual knives IRL is because it tends to break. You only really get the preposterously sharp molecules-thick edge once.

But in dwarf fortress things don't break(yet), so it's nerfed in other ways.

[CriticallyAshamed]

AFAIK Obsidian IRL tends to be very flakey IRL - thus the low hardness and lack of armor penetration.

[Shook]

Well, obsidian is, according to wikipedia, harder than some types of steel, but not hardened steel. As any kind of stone though, it's much more brittle, which probably hurts its performance. If you were to bang a lump of steel and one of obsidian together, the obsidian would likely lose out every time, since it chips easily.

Also, i am definitely going to make a stone tools/weapons mod now. I don't know if dorfs would be above it, but stone tools were used quite liberally in the stone age.

[Alastar]

There's also a matter of maintenance.

You can use a good steel blade daily for your entire life while keeping it sharp.
Sharpening an obsidian blade that has lost its edge would typically involve pressure flaking rather than grinding, which sacrifices a lot more material.

[Gyvon]

The only reason obsidian isn't used for actual knives IRL is because it tends to break. You only really get the preposterously sharp molecules-thick edge once.

The problem with that theory is that obsidian IS used for actual knives IRL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian_scalpel#Current_use