A diamond-edged high-quality steel katana would be a very interesting weapon. You wouldn’t be able to sharpen it normally - need to put it back in the nanotech oven to resurface it.
I think the question there is how the edge would break. If it’s a millimeter-thick coating applied to a hand-sharpened blade, then the diamond has to be bonded strongly to the edge of the steel. BUT STEEL IS NOT A CONTINUOUS MATERIAL!
Oh wait a second. Cool! You could take a master’s sword, deconstruct it noting the positions of every molecule, and make a new sword with regular patterns to it. Regular on a micron level, that is. Crystals of iron-carbon aligned just so, multiple directions of course as in a sword so as to bend in many directions, and then you can attach the diamond to it reliably.
What was I talking about? Right - if you hit the diamond edge against something at the proper (improper ) angle with the right force, it breaks. Cracks, anyway. But if it’s bonded securely to the sword, all you get is a surface ding at that point - you don’t gtet the whole thing peeling off like ice from a windshield.
As I said - you can’t sharpen it normally - you need to put it back in the “oven” and have the diamond reconstructed at all the places where it’s been broken - it will crack right through to the steel and you can’t grind t away like you grind away steel in sharpening.
You know the anime cliche of a mighty sword that cleaves brick and stone columns and stuff? A hit from a diamond-edged blade, at precisely perpendicular to the surface of the column, would go right through. yay/
:smack: right, allotrope.
Ok I agree that its fairly new tech and we don’t really know how they work on a large scale yet but the properties they display and the hype around them point to them being some type of super strong molecule. Good point about the bonding though. While they may be strong on their own in high quantities they could be extremely brittle. That coal analogy was told to me by a teacher by the way and I’ve just been using it because its easier to picture that way, even though its not scientifically correct.
Where can I find more information on the altering of diamonds microstructures that you spoke about?
Wearia
Where can I find more information on the altering of diamonds microstructures that you spoke about?
You can’t; it was imaginary. I was speculating by comparison with other materials where brittle stuff is toughened by having criss-crossing fibres inside. The fibres are strong in themselves, but they also stop cracks moving through the brittle material they’re in (it’s called a fibre-reinforced composite). Fibreglass is an example, and there are some natural composites, such as jade, that work the same way. Carbon filaments already exist, and carbon fibre reinforced plastic is very tough. (Sorry about the snarkiness, by the way; it’s 5am here and I’m taking a break from working late).
You’re entirely correct, but I think I can expand on the answer a bit. I’m sure you all know how knives are dulled and honed as it is, but it’ll help illustrate the point if I go through it.
When you use a knife and it begins to dull, initially, the dulling is due to the very thin edge of metal (or your material of choice) curling over. No material is removed at this point, it’s just being bent to one side.
Titanium, as has been pointed out, is actually a very soft metal. If, for example, you were to strike a thin bar of it on something, it would bend where a steel would be more likely to crack. Titanium, as far as I’m aware (and I could be wrong here) is softer than most, if not all, grades of steel.
So, on the edge where the material is very thin, the softer materials are more bend more quickly, which is why titanium won’t hold an edge well. It curls over very rapidly and needs to be honed.
I have heard of new titanium alloys being used in blades, but havn’t had a chance to play with any yet. So, my information may be a bit out of date.
) angle with the right force, it breaks. Cracks, anyway. But if it’s bonded securely to the sword, all you get is a surface ding at that point - you don’t gtet the whole thing peeling off like ice from a windshield.