There's no reason to make swords out of diamonds. Diamonds are far too expensive and too brittle. There's also no reason to make part of a sword out of diamond.
Even if it did work, there is nothing that would be able to sharpen it to the stage where it would be worth using it
lets look at what has a diamond edged blade. things like...errr...things used like a scapel, maybe not a scalpel but used in the same way(for highly accurate controlled cutting). would you choose to use a scalpel or a knife in a fight?
As well as industrial metal cutting tools, which as I have stated already, have very small cutting surfaces and are rotated at extremely high speeds. Knives and swords are NOT rotated are extremly high speeds and are NOT used to cut metal.
Yes. It is a fevered dream to add diamonds to a sword blade. Steel as a whole is the most reasonable make for a sword. Put this in context: strike a diamond with a hammer and it will shatter much like glass. Now, inverse the situation, a tiny fragment of diamond striking against a surface much denser than it's size allows. Result? Even tinier diamond. Now there's a gap in the blade where it was and you just lost a huge chunk of money and time from all that concentration setting the tiniest bit of futile augmentation. How do you put up with these guys? Really, kudos on the idea, but I don't think it's fully calculated through.
A common misconception is that because diamond is the hardest substance we know of, carved shapes (swords, shelters) made from diamond would work. If you had a rod of diamond it would shatter if you smacked it against something.
Why not use paper, paper cuts flesh really easily. I would imagine that a sword made of paper would be very useful. 1) Very painful cuts. 2) Low cost. 3) Light weight. 4) Can hold your shopping list. Must be kept dry though.
Just to reply to the original poster... It's not recommended to saw steel with diamond tipped saws - the carbon diffuses from the diamond into the steel at high temperatures. Cubic boron nitride is more suitable. Diamond coatings are regularly applied to blades to improve the durability of their sharpness. Odds are the blades for your shaver at home have a thin layer of diamond (or diamond-like-carbon) on the cutting edge. It's quite possible that a diamond coating could be applied to a sword's blade to maintain the edge sharpness, however I don't think there's a market for it at the moment.
I have had like a gajillion Diablo 2 characters taht use crystal swords. Dont mean that they would really work @ Youkai :love:
Has anyone actually shattered a diamond? I have a hard time believing that diamonds would shatter or break at all. Has anyone here taken a diamond and hit it with a hammer until it breaks? Unless you have I don't believe you.
Rochambo, I don't mean to sound insulting so please don't be offended but how old are you and what level of science education have you had? Diamond is a crystal lattice, as has been discussed in this thread before and as such is very hard and rigid but also brittle. You can scratch glass with it but that's because it's a low impact application. If you apply a heavier, more sudden shock, to a diamond then you will break it. To put it another way, ask any jeweller how they cut diamond and the care they have to take not to fracture them.
Try it yourself then. Go out and buy an unmounted diamond and hit it with a hammer. If you're right, you have nothing to lose. However, science says otherwise.
I admit I have little to no knowledge of crystalline structure as I am an anthropology major and most of my scientifical knowledge is biological. I am 21. I was just being skeptical and a little sarcastic. How do jewelers cut diamonds by the way? Is it with other diamonds or lazers or supersonic jets of water?
That's spelt 'laser' by the way. They fracture them along naturally occuring cleavage planes - there's quite an art to it apparently.
Sorry, Roch, I missed the tonal intent of your (yesterday) post entirely and it read as wilful stupidity rather than humerously meant :blush:. To both prove the point about how diamonds have to be treated with care and help your quest for "How Do They Do That" knowledge, try a browse of this site: http://edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/chap11.htm
Hehehe.. Cleavage... Couldn't help it. ANYways, I thought about this subject about five years ago when I was into the whole medieval fantasy thing. Turns out when I did some research, I discovered everything you folks just mentioned. It almost seems like people post here just to get attention or show off, as it were... I think a simple google search would of sufficed versus a full blown-out thread.
