Glass Metals

[Muad'dib]

Hmm, I think that sentence is a bit ambiguous, but I'm tired, and don't really care. I just thought a glass sword with the strength of metal would be cool.

[JonathanArthur]

Ed,
I learnt the first two sections of qixinggun(七星棍). From what I understand the third was a later creation, no? I have the names of the movements hand-copied from my teacher's book; I was hoping to find an online version as there are many characters I don't recognize. Did Zhangquanliang publish this? If you have an electronic copy you could send to me I'd be very grateful.

I don't believe there is any effective substitute for liquid mercury. The stick flexes as the weight travels towards the tip causing the hollowed space inside to be distorted. So we are looking for materials that are both dense and have a low viscosity with as little traction as possible.

I may just weight the last six inches with wrought iron, I think this will suffice.

yzp

[edededed]

Hi,

Yes, Zhang Quanliang published his quanpu of the qixinggan (七星竿) (often people write it as 七星杆). The third line of qixinggan is not said to be a later creation; Zhang also notes that Li Ziming mentioned a 4th line but did not talk about what happened to it (matches with what is written here: http://www.smilingtiger.net/7star.htm). Zhang said he regretted not asking, or something like that... (In any case, noone knows the 4th line, if there was one.)

As for mercury, well - I was hoping that there was some other heavy liquid (that is not toxic) that we might be able to use as a substitute...

I will PM you the quanpu soon...

Ed

[Muad'dib]

Ed,

According to the smithsonian, mercury is the densest liquid on the planet (at 20 degrees celsius) at 13.6 g/cm cubed. The next highest is Bromine, at 3.2 g/cm cubed. Bromine is also poisonous. There are a variety of specialized mining "heavy liquids" used for mineral separation, but they max out at around 2.8 g/cm cubed, and some are not poisonous. By way of comparison, water has a density of .9982 g/cm cubed at the same temperature.

[edededed]

Damn - 13.6 and 3.6 is a huge difference! I don't suppose molasses has a high density? Or some other mixed fluid? (Guess I may be stuck with 2.8 or so, then...)

[Muad'dib]

you still might be able to use mercury. If its containable within plastics, you should be able to essentially create an object similar in flexibility and hardness of the bamboo, and basically form it whole around the mercury, just as they used to do with Glass thermometers. Except without the breaky breaky problem. (Cold Steel's faux bokken's material comes to mind, though I found it not a good substitute for the wood. It was too flexy.)

Molasses' viscosity is all wrong. It won't flow properly. Salt water, I don't know about. Might bear looking into.

BTW, this whole convo now has me thinking of Terminus Est, if anyone is a Gene Wolfe fan. If not, it was an executioner's sword with mercury inside it, much like the chixinggan, but to impart extra off to the decapitation blow.

[edededed]

Well... maybe... I do wish I had the knowhow in doing this kind of thing (interesting that noone seems to have gone and made a good seven star staff yet in modern times)...

But can plastic be flexible and yet not break, similar to good bamboo?

(Also, yzp: check your PMs.)