Talk:Orikalkum Metal/@comment-109.163.234.3-20140130214753/@comment-25345260-20140821182521

I think I read this and typed a reply that got lost back in January, so I'll write it now to clarify.

A brittle sword isn't an inferior sword.

Bronze weaponry was phased out not because it was more brittle than steel, but more malleable, and more expensive. As in, it bent too easily. When steel rends through bronze, it isn't that the bronze is breaking. The bronze is bending away from the steel edge.

Iron was cheaper to find, but more brittle and heavier. In the real world, it's pretty hard to find any form of large plates made from solid iron, due to how prone they were to breaking. Because of this, people switched from easy to make Bronze Plates to more labour intensive chainmail.

Ultimately, the steel best used for a weapon depends on the weapon itself. A lot of people talk about Damascus steel as being the penultimate steel in medieval time, but really, it was incredibly hard and brittle by modern standards. Harder weapons are better for slashing, where you want to have a sturdier tool to cut. A more flexible blade, however, is better suited to stabbing, where it will straighten itself and push a bit further post-penetration. Pure steel was rarely used for crushing weapons, where it was too expensive. Instead, iron and steel tended to be combined. In modern days, 1040 Spring Steel and other Carbon Steels are favoured for blade craft.

Mithril, Adamant, Runite, and Dragon metal are different compared to real world metals. However, you can look at them and say Mithril is super-bronze. It's lighter and sharper, but much rarer. Adamant is super-iron. It's heavy, hard, and likely just as brittle. Runite is super-steel. It's flexible where it needs to be, and hard enough to not bend too much in it's craft. Dragon is a step up above Runite, to a point where it doesn't rust.

Granted, anything above Mithril is purely my own speculatory theory, but the Bronze-Iron-Steel is historically confirmed fact.

Obsidian is extremely brittle, but also very sharp. In fact, Obsidian has been seen to take a much more perfect edge than steel. This doesn't mean it was bad for weapons, but certainly not prefferable. (Just adding this for reference.)