1
DF Suggestions / Re: Plausible candidates for new metals
« on: September 14, 2011, 03:13:05 pm »Roraborialisforealis:
Agreed. One down side is that too many materials clutter up the ui, but that's really more of a failing of the ui.
Uristocrat:
Yeah that sort of slipped, I managed to get it right in the end though. I seem to subconsciously resist typing words of Swedish origin (like any decent Finn). The allous would probably go better with dwarven tech than the metal itself, as tungsten is really hard to work unless it's very pure. The being sorf when pure sort of the same thing as with iron and
nickel ect. It's probably mostly due to the carbide impurities. On the other hand, tungsten alloy steel can be worked much like common steel.
Interesting threads. I'll try read them more closely when I can find the time and energy, and reply if I have something to add. I'm hardly qualified to talk about anisotropic materials like wood though.
Erkki:
Armor piercing capped fin stabilized bolt? Perhaps we should get uranium too! Pity that its pyrophoric effect probably won't work at typical crossbow bolt velocities.
The major issue with tungsten metallurgy is that it cannot be reasonably smelted, given the melting point of about 3400 C. It basically requires your choice of methane or hydrogen reduction, followed by powder forming and sintering. What it's hard to project back to that kind of time line is the furnaces required to do something like that. In theory you can get the rest of the process, from dissolving the ore in lye and back adding water until the oxide falls out, then you need the furnace, and you can grind iron/nickel down to powder and mix it with tungsten and beeswax to make forms, but then you need a furnace to sinter.
