# Creating the Claw *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 07 Jul 2008* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Dave Tallman *07 Jul 2008, 20:44* All the interesting discussion on how to forge Terminus Est leads me to think of another question. Sev dropped off his plain rose thorn in the past. Centuries later, it shows up in the center of a sapphire. I know there are techniques for creating synthetic corundum crystals, like the Vereuil process and hydrothermal synthesis, but they seem to involve high heats and pressures. How could the gem be created without burning up the thorn? Also, how could it be centered? --- ### Lane Haygood *07 Jul 2008, 20:51 · in reply to Dave Tallman* I'm no geologist, but I did have an interest in the subject in my younger days, so I'll take a stab at this one. I'd say that as long as the thorn was coated in some sort of heat-resistant material, like an advanced type of plastic, it could survive the processes used to create such a gem. Then again, in a society that can build solar sails... Lane > On Jul 7, 2008, at 3:44 PM, Dave Tallman wrote: > All the interesting discussion on how to forge Terminus Est leads me > to think of another question. Sev dropped off his plain rose thorn > in the past. Centuries later, it shows up in the center of a > sapphire. I know there are techniques for creating synthetic > corundum crystals, like the Vereuil process and hydrothermal > synthesis, but they seem to involve high heats and pressures. How > could the gem be created without burning up the thorn? Also, how > could it be centered? > > _______________________________________________ ---