Fuligin invented

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 17 Jan 2008, 18:37 · from 2008-January.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:37:41 -0800
Subject: (urth) Fuligin invented
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	<44fb53d10801171001o31d37e88k47b2a5c6fa017ea2 at mail.gmail.com>
	<99774192-7E52-47FF-B11B-3F552653CBAB at gmail.com>
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All true ... But ... Do we know of what metal "Terminus Est" is actually
made? Even if Severian calls it steel (which I don't recall offhand), that
could be a "translation factor," after all. Who's to say that TE isn't a
"galaxy level" piece of technology, some bit of metallurgical alchemy
far beyond what we can produce right now?

On Jan 17, 2008 10:20 AM, Lane Haygood <lhaygood at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've never heard of an actual mercury channel in a sword. I can ask on
> a swordsmanship forum I frequent (where several smiths post) to see if
> it's feasible. From what I understand of sword structure, it's not.
> You need the center part of the sword to be the strongest part, and
> that usually means it needs to be softer and more ductile than the
> surrounding steel. Cutting a big channel out of the middle of it might
> weaken its structural integrity to the point where it would be useless
> for cutting.
>
> The idea is that the edges, the parts that need to be sharp, should be
> harder. When steel hardens, it becomes more brittle. Brittle steel
> will sharpen and hold an edge. But it's also weak. If you made the
> whole sword out of really hard steel it would chip and shatter
> whenever it made contact with something. So you make the non-edge part
> of the sword out of softer, more flexible metal so that it will
> actually absorb shock. But cutting a big channel out of the middle
> would remove a lot of the shock-absorbing material.
>
> Lane
>
>
> On Jan 17, 2008, at 12:01 PM, Matthew Keeley wrote:
>
> > On Jan 17, 2008 4:58 PM,  <brunians at brunians.org> wrote:
> >> That sucker in the wiki article was as long as TE. Couldn't tell if
> >> it had
> >> a mercury channel, but that kind of thing would be obvious. I have
> >> heard
> >> of swords with sliding weights also.
> >>
> >> So Severian wasn't joking when he said the horizontal stroke was
> >> harder
> >> than the vertical one....
> >
> > According to the Wikipedia article, "The Sword of Justice at the
> > Higgins Armory Museum is a fine example of such ceremonial weapons
> > used to designate status and authority." If that's the sword in the
> > picture, that's really neat, as the Higgins is only about fifteen
> > minutes' walk from my house. I'll check it out next time I'm at home
> > (i.e. in six months) and ask about weights and mercury in blades of
> > that type. If anyone would know about that sort of thing, it's the
> > folks at the Higgins. I'll see if I can get some relevant pictures as
> > well.
> >
> > I recall that Wolfe mentioned basing TE off real swords, so I wouldn't
> > be surprised if the Higgins had something similar.
> >
> > So... report forthcoming I guess.
> >
> > -Matt
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
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I saw a dirty overcoat at the foot of the pillar of the road/and
propped inside was an old man whom time could not erode

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