Timeline for Effectiveness of a glowing hot tungsten sword against medieval era knights?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 16, 2020 at 16:27 | comment | added | Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 | You'll have contact surface once until it deforms out of shape. Then, as it deforms around the object, it'll get stuck. 3000 °C is ~300 °C above what would be considered forging temperature. Forging temperature is where it would make the metal easier to move and shape. Anything above that only makes it easier to move and softer still. This makes it an infeasible prospect. I didn't even go into the amount of energy it would take to heat and hold the blade to the temps you are describing. In a normal forge you cannot even get it to this temperature. You'd need an arc furnace for it to happen | |
| Feb 16, 2020 at 15:20 | comment | added | leftaroundabout | ...and, if it were wet-noodle-soft, then this would actually probably make it more effective, not less. Soft means more contact surface means quicker heat transfer. | |
| Feb 16, 2020 at 15:13 | comment | added | leftaroundabout | This answer assumes exactly the opposite of the “tungsten is too brittle” ones. I'm pretty sure tungsten at 3000°C is not “wet noodle” soft, nor as brittle as at room temperature, but I don't know. If you do know, add a reference to the answer. Else this answer is just speculation. | |
| Feb 15, 2020 at 17:11 | history | answered | Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |