>>65127581
I could see that.

>>65127581
How do you seal the mercury? No its a retarded idea only a retarded nerd would think up.

>>65127581
yes, to scare off werewolves that mistake it for silver

>>65127594
The blunt tip of the Executioners Sword would be sealed?

>>65127594
>How do you seal the mercury?
There's tons of possibilities. Plug the hole with weld. Use an expansion plug, a threaded plug, or press-fit something slightly oversize in the hole.
You're right the idea is retarded, but it's not because plugging it is some kind of big problem.

>>65127581
no. that's retarded on many levels

>>65127625
>>65127716
Why?

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>>65127754
Its not. They have no concept of conceptualizeation. While sword-tip-up, the mercury settles to the hilt, and while swinging the mercury flows like dragon blood to the tip, incresing tip wieght, changing balance point forward, increasing blade tip mass and inertia, increasing chopping force by the Power of Greyskull! Op, this is SUCH A GREAT IDEA IT'S SCARY!
>I AM THE POWER!

Why the fuck were boomers obsessed with mercury?

>>65127754
Ntas but no real benefit for a lot of extra complexity. You could just make the sword a bit longer or have the tip filled with a normal fuller. The weight would not noticeably make it harder to loft, since you can do so at leisure given that it's not a combat sword, and wouldn't require the complexity of having to smith a hollow tube within the sword. The weight of the quicksilver would also be negligible compared to, again, just ending the fuller earlier.
I won't speak on if a hollow would compromise the integrity of the blade as i don't know for sure if it would, but if i had to guess I'd say that's also a problem.
Just drink the mercury for eternal life instead.

>>65127594
>How do you seal the mercury?
A socket head set screw with Rocksett
>No its a retarded idea only a retarded nerd would think up.
No, u. You have no concept of conceptualization.

>>65127772
>obsessed with mercury
It's like Windex, it cures anything.

>>65127581
It sounds cool to the average reader (who can't spot the technobabble about its supposed advantages for the nonsense it is), that's it.

>>65127774
>I won't speak on if a hollow would compromise the integrity of the blade as i don't know for sure if it would, but if i had to guess I'd say that's also a problem.
It's mostly just an internal fuller. Just don't make it too small so the curve radius gives you a major stress raiser and it should actually hurt less than a fuller on the surface since it's now in the middle of things (where the removed material matters the least) no matter how the blade bends.

>>65127792
>. Just don't make it too small so the curve radius gives you a major stress raiser and it should actually hurt less than a fuller on the surface since it's now in the middle of things
And fill it with mercury.

>>65127581
It's nonsense. It doesn't feel good and it's a weaker swing. You have to try to "whip" it and it's still a weaker swing. You can try it yourself if you have access to a linear bearing. Or you know, a bottle of water vs a bottle of ice. It's a weaker swing.

>>65127581
Sure, if that channel were glass, and marked with gradients.
Then you could have a barometer on the other side, and predict the weather.

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>>65127581
I think my friend's mom used to use a bat like that in women's softball back in the 80s. Idea is to keep inertia at the point of contact where it'll also hit resistance from swinging through something.
Why mercury though?

>>65127581
the mercury would ruin the steel over timeotherwise the idea is fine, similar idea was done with heavy metal beads that would move down a rod as a swing gained momentum, you see it in oddball Indian weapons. Is it better than just having a stronger blade? No. Mercury will slowly react with the trace elements in steel making it brittle. It brots lead even faster, also terrible for brass. Where is was used was for fixing gilt and also by highly skilled sword makers in Birmingham used it for for tempering on stuff like premium 1796 sabres.

>>65127818
>swing
>discounts the thrust
>When thrusting, the sword is driven into the enemy like a pile driver, upon meeting resistance, the inertia of the mercury will move forward iving the thrust an almost majical life of it's own, with the resulting force of a thousand suns. Carrying the thrust through the target until fully piercing the subject clean through with effortless death resulting.
Do you even Newton's First Law, bro?
>an object in motion stays in motion
In case you just don't know.

>>65127835
>my friend's mom used to use a bat like that in women's softball back in the 80s.
Was she a lesbian? I hear lesbians played a lot of ball in the '80s.

>>65127838
>Executioner's sword
>thrust
Pick one

>>65127837
samefag
here's english gollum metal polish man describing one such India thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIKLVnOpMas&feature=youtu.be

>>65127842
She was a barfly. A lot of bars around here had beer leagues. They're co-ed, and usually figure the number of women into it like a handicap.

>>65127838
That's a nice piece of prose but in real life you can't cheat the laws of physics. What you get out is what you put in, and you're not storing energy, merely delaying it. What actually happens is that you'll be making one weak thrust followed by another weak delayed thrust instead of one strong thrust.

>>65127842
are you a jeet ffs?

>>65127838
Holy shit retard.

>>65127845
samefag, so you could do it will ball bearing but if any of them get stuck it is knackered, mercury would react with the trace elements it it and it would get brittle. Is it worth doing? No, The weight is going to wind up either being better spent on the blade itself and not a channel that will ultimately just weaken the entire sword. Note that that indian thing is very short and stout.

The most interesting thing I have ever found to do with swors and mercury is it's completely toxix use in addixing gilt on blue and gilt sabres and sword and this one maker that used it to temper with. If you put a hollow tube in a sword a lot of characteristics of a good sword blade you want like it's harmonics go out the window. I have held swords, finely made smallsword that had hilts composed of wires with beads strung on them so they could rotate on the wire, not just carved and mounted. The effect of the hilt and on the handle was hard to describe but it felt exremely 'quick' in the hand. I think it was more than a decorative feature and so do other fensers who have handled similar ones. There is one like it in the metropolitan museum.


Here is the chap who used quench using mercury, Gill

"Thomas Gill and Specialized Quenching: In the late 18th century, Birmingham sword cutler Thomas Gill was known for producing extremely high-quality, durable blades, outperforming competitors. While he focused on advanced heat treatments, some speculate he used specialized baths, such as lead or other metals, to improve toughness, but this is often described as a form of "hot quenching" rather than specifically using mercury for tempering."

Blades made by him in this way were marked warraented and marketed as warranted never to fail. They are at least all the ones I have seen 1796 sabres.There are a set of very interesting sword makers in Birmingham in that era

>>65127581
Short Sun > Long Sun > New Sun. Horn is a far more interesting protagonist than Severian.

>>65127771
>>65127792
>>65127818
>>65127837
>>65127838
>>65127871
The reasoning given in the book is that by moving the center of mass closer to the hilt when held vertically, it makes it easier for the executioner to hold over the head of the condemned for the duration of a ceremony, and by moving the center of gravity out during the swing it's less compromised than a sword built with the balance fixed near the hilt. It's never presented as a way to make the sword killier, just a way to try to compromise between two opposing requirements for a ceremonial weapon.

>>65127843
As if you can't kill with a thrust. What the hell, dude?

>>65127871
>mercury would react with the trace elements
Just use better steel. Damn dude, this isn't the 13th century Toledo, Spain.

>>65127882
>moving the center of mass closer to the hilt when held vertically, it makes it easier for the executioner to hold over the head of the condemned for the duration of a ceremony, and by moving the center of gravity out during the swing
Exactly. This is common physics that are beyond most gamers and noguns /k/ types.

>>65127889
all steel has trace elements and mercury will reach slowly an made them brittle. It's a nastry chemical, you should see what it will do to lead or brass if left. There is as I say also no good reason to do this really. Sorry to pop your bubble. You are cutting a slot down the sword and weakening it, ruining it's harmonics and really making something far worse that if you had used the weight for the middle of the sword you removed. It's only revevent to cutting swords too and you are better off making such a sword slighly or quite curved to increase the length of the cutting edge. Obvioly it's completely pointless on a thrusting sword,such as a small sword they run through because they are needle pointed, very little force is needed to put one through a man between bone or his neck, arm etc .

>>65127882
>>65127891
Okay but how much actual mass could you shift with the tiny amount of mercury you could actually fit into the sword? I doubt it'd be enough to actually make anything more than a few grams difference but the book describes it like there's a straight up lead piston in the sword.

>>65127920
So you're saying a mercury filled Gladius would be awesome. I can dig that.

>>65127925
Maybe just add an external tube filled with mercury on a sliding trolly on rails and a carriage. That sounds good too!

>>65127920
>all steel has trace elements and mercury will reach slowly an made them brittle.
This is super cool space steel, it's probably fine.
>You are cutting a slot down the sword and weakening it, ruining it's harmonics
It's not like that matters. It is designed to do one thing.
>It's only revevent to cutting swords too
Do you know what an executioner's sword is?

>>65127882
>>>65127871 (You)
>The reasoning given in the book is that by moving the center of mass closer to the hilt when held vertically, it makes it easier for the executioner to hold over the head of the condemned for the duration of a ceremony, and by moving the center of gravity out during the swing it's less compromised than a sword built with the balance fixed near the hilt. It's never presented as a way to make the sword killier, just a way to try to compromise between two opposing requirements for a ceremonial weapon.
it's silly
>>65127882
>duration of a ceremony
whatever.a little dance or what? There is no holding a sword up in historical eceutions, use of the sword for beheading as opposed to an axe was a privilage of royalty. The final act was the sword being raised thand the nexk bstruck. It was not held up for half an hour while everyone played a round of ritual scrabble. See the execution of Anne Boleyn which was meticuously documented

>>65127930
I'm sorry, I knew this thread was gay it's my fault for trying to give real answers in a gay thread.

Poor swords, all /k/ threads on them are invariably gay.

>>65127936
>whatever.a little dance or what?
retard
>There is no holding a sword up in historical eceutions
Good thing it's not historical.
>use of the sword for beheading as opposed to an axe was a privilage of royalty
Why do you type like a retard, and why do you think this is relevant?

>>65127940
>I'm sorry, I knew this thread was gay it's my fault for trying to give real answers in a gay thread.

>>65127942
But your answers aren't real.
>uhm it'd be bad for stabbing
Ok, it literally doesn't have a point. It's an executioner's sword.
>uhm executions were for nobility
What does that have to do with anything?
>I had to look up the word ceremony and think it involves dancing
ESL retard.

>>65127925
>the book describes it like there's a straight up lead piston in the sword.
No it doesn't. Read the fucking book. A couple of people comment with surprise that it moves differently than they expected with they picked it up, that's it.

>>65127936
>There is no holding a sword up in historical eceutions, use of the sword for beheading as opposed to an axe was a privilage of royalty.
The book is set in the distant future when the sun is burning out. The main character lives in a megacity where ritual executions are prime entertainment for much of the populace.

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First in the wasp spray thread and now here? Are we haunted by ancient chinese ghosts today?

Well, as good a time as any to ask if these quicksilver xiandan for shotguns actually do anything or is it just boomer sì jiù?

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>>65127581
try this instead its got
perverted ghosts who live in bottles
flying cities powered by demons with streets paved with skulls of their dead rulers
blondes that get fucked by evil lizards with two dicks
evil sorceresses
execution by statue rape
war hawks
fire magic
it's great.
enjoy

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>>65127971
>it's great
Well, if it's good enough for Roger, it's good enough for me. But, I've got Keith Laumer's 'Bolo' series coming by mail, so it will have to wait.

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>>65127835
>Why mercury though?
Very dense and flows at room temperature.
Pic related is five pounds in that little bottle.
It's basically the only reason just plain liquid mercury shows up in everyday life today.
That and things like mercury switches.
Do we still use mercury switches?

>>65128234
>Do we still use mercury switches?
Yes, they are regularly used in any pump system that uses float switches.

>>65127581
After a while the madness sets in and the killings don’t hurt no more.

>This thread again
No again.

>>65127772
You ever play with some?
I've got about a nickels worth (in volume, not value) in a sealed test tube.
It's fucking cool to flop around in your hand, very fun.
If you pour it out on a surface it's amazing, like it shouldn't exist.
I can understand the obsession. You should really fool around with it if you ever get the chance.

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>>65127887
Do you know what an Executioner's sword is?

>>65127964
>The book is set in the distant future when the sun is burning out.
Not quite, the sun has a black hole sapping its power and dimming it.

>>65127882
>Someone wrote some bullshit in a fantasy so it's true.
Retard.

This is a problem that is solved by the executioner practicing with a regular steel executioner's sword. Liquid is also not entirely reliable and turbulence can occur which could make the center of gravity shift unexpectedly.

>>65128576
I won't say this is wrong, but it's at best a fringe opinion presented as fact.

>>65128633
I've implied nothing of the sort. All I've said is that the book presents the mercury core as a way to make it easier to hold aloft, not a way to make it more deadly.

>>65129769
it said in the book
if it was so far in the future the sun had run out of fuel then it would have first had to have become a red giant which would have incinerated the earth

>>65129984
>if it was so far in the future the sun had run out of fuel then it would have first had to have become a red giant which would have incinerated the earth
I guess you missed the part where that's exactly what was in the process of occurring?

>>65129987
>that's exactly what was in the process of occurring?
The sun was dim, it could not heat the earth, you could see the stars during the day.

That is a red dwarf.

If this was the natural process it would have to first become a red giant, incinerating. Nowhere is that occuring.

It is an artificial process initiated by one of Typhons children. Severian brings a 'white fountain' to restore the sun.

>>65130008
>Severian brings a 'white fountain' to restore the sun.
So this retarded thread exceeds it's own retardation as the posts go on? Interesting.

>>65127873
A man of taste, nonetheless Sword of the Lictor might be may favorite sci-fi book of all time.

>>65130008
In fairness, Sev is a notoriously unreliable narrator and we're also unsure whether the new sun is moving through time or space. At least that was my read.

But I agree, it's not a fully natural process, and given the level of tech we've seen humanity has either advanced to or been subsumed by a type 2.5+ civilization

>>65130021
It's actually a really good book, and one of the few fantasy/scifi books that actually doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out from the terrible prose.

Also the author invented the Pringle machine.

>>65127581
>a hollow channel down its fuller
Helps reduce weight without reducing structural strength
>that is filled with liquid mercury?
Wait what? Who the fuck is sealing mercury in their swords?

>>65127581
Technically we don't know that it's mercury. It's called "hydrargum," literally "silver water."

>>65130101
Silver laced water? Colloidal Silver? That'll turn your skin blue but other than that it's mostly harmless. Are you fighting werewolves? Might make a good poison that doesn't harm the wielder.

>>65130141
Presumably it's a silvery liquid metal, like mercury. It's a science fiction book, maybe there's something else invented in the next many thousands of years that fits the description.

>>65130149
The way the tech operates suggests something akin to molecular- or even atomic-level manipulation for hyper-tailored materials. Additionally, he applies arcane vocabulary to creatures and objects that are so advanced they appear as magic to the quasi-narrator translating the story.

>>65127772
Erik Von Dieken

>>65130338
>Dieken
Däniken, I knew who you meant.

>>65130202
Severian speaks English or something derived from it. There's a part near the beginning of the first book where he misunderstands the meaning of the word "husbandry" and thinks it means the people who raise the animals marry animals instead of women.

>>65130343
Ty, but the old story is that’s how the ultra ancient civs got their shit to fly.

>>65127964
>The book is set in the distant future when the sun is burning out.
I think you have to add more detail than this when describing how far into the future BOTNS takes place in, because the average sci-fi/fantasy fan isn't used to such an unfathomably large time. Mankind spread out to the stars, stagnated, collapsed, scattered amongst the universe, was destroyed by the Big Crunch of the universe, reformed again billions of years after another Big Bang, spread out to the stars again, stagnated and collapsed and scattered again, and now enters Severian in a world where enough time has passed that the Sun is a red giant.

>>65130346
>the meaning of the word "husbandry" and thinks it means the people who raise the animals marry animals instead of women.
Yes. We call it Islam.

>>65130021
The science is written from the perspective of someone who doesn't understand it is science.
>>65130045
He worked on the design process for the manufacturing.
>>65130141
The book doesn't make up words. It uses archaic words, often to denote something is like but unlike.
For example what seem to just be horses are called 'destriers', a ye olde word for horse. But as the story goes and you pay attention there are references to these 'destriers' having claws, fangs, and eating meat along with grain.
>>65130036
If it was a natural red dwarf it would have first become a red giant and that would have rendered earth uninhabitable.

*inhales*
I LOVE GENE WOLFE

>>65130614
Wizard Knight is kino.

>>65130598
>If it was a natural red dwarf it would have first become a red giant
Not in my Main Sequence.

>>65130634
you only like it because it's isekai, weeb

>>65130598
>If it was a natural red dwarf it would have first become a red giant and that would have rendered earth uninhabitable
Even assuming that there is a black hole in the center of the Sun, which makes no sense, who put it there? The Heirodules? Why? When?

>>65130737
It's a long explanation, in short it's a Christian metaphor

>>65130737
Cause and effect is fucked with
The Hierodules put it there
No exact date
They put it there to test humanity
Severian is forged in this cool furnace to becomea Christlike figure demonstrating humanity's worth

Hierodules are not simply “humans from the future” in a straightforward science-fiction sense. They have become something almost angelic or extradimensional. Their relationship to time is non-linear, and they operate under higher powers and constraints. It is unclear whether they are purely benevolent saviours or self-preserving meddlers.

>>65130813
>Hierodules are not simply “humans from the future” in a straightforward science-fiction sense. They have become something almost angelic or extradimensional
Was it the Heirodules or something else that "slipped out" of the universe to escape the Big Crunch and then re-entered after the Big Bang? It's been a while since I read Urth.

>>65130827
Yes it's them
The made make the makers

I like how so many people here know what OP is refering to without even asking

>>65130737
>which makes no sense
Something is sapping the sun prematurely.
>which makes no sense
Unlike everything else in the book?
>who put it there
It is supposed to be either punishment for mans crimes when man had a steller empire or one of Typhons kids.
>>65130774
>>65130813
Wolfe said Severian is an Apollo figure, not Christ figure.
>Their relationship to time is non-linear
They're moving backwards. Severians first meeting with them is their last meeting with him, his last meeting with them is their first.

>>65130856
Book of the New Sun chads recognize each other by sight alone

>>65130861
>Unlike everything else in the book?
Everything else in the book has an answer that's alluded to. Not a black hole in the sun. Can you cite text that supports the sun aging prematurely? I've never seen anyone talk about that and that information doesn't seem to change the narrative of Severian's journey to bring the white fountain.

>>65130864
>Can you cite text that supports the sun aging prematurely?
It is small and red and the planet is cold and the oceans have receded and ice caps are larger and you can see the stars even during the day time
The sun is sickly. It has become a red dwarf long before it should.
Aging, sapped of power, call it whatever you want.

>>65130861
>Wolfe said Severian is an Apollo figure, not Christ figure
He literally suffers to bring about redemption for mankind
Every single one of Wolfe's books is inundated with Catholicism

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>>65130874
>Wolfe said

>>65130881
Can you provide the source for context? It's likely he was stating Severian was Apollonian in temperament

>>65130891
he said figure, specifically said not Christ figure too

>>65130894
>“I don't think of Severian as being a Christ figure; I think of Severian as being a Christian figure.”
Close enough

So perhaps the idea here is that a bead of mercury would ensure the blade didn't have a point of resonance so wouldn't shatter.

That was the theory behind putting metal rings on swords and that was a feature of executioners swords in China.

>>65131126
Solved with better metallurgy.

>>65130861
>Severians first meeting with them is their last meeting with him, his last meeting with them is their first.
He meets them again and everyone is surprised by it, as I recall. It's been a while since I've read Urth.

>>65131126
No, the idea was to give the sword more mass that rested close to the hilt when held, but moved out towards the tip when swung.
It sounds like a good and clever idea, but it's really not very effective. Similar things were tried with ball bearings in a hollow fuller.

Just not worth the price and hassle.

The salvage the idea, make it a dead blow axe. Axe head is less metal so its now lighter and you get a better strike that should distribute more force into your target.

>>65127828
fuckin lmao, red green over here with the real big brain post

>>65127835
i was thinking about dead-blow hammers and the weight transfer in their heads, but never heard of a bat like that

>>65127581
Why though? It's not meant for fighting so you can make it as tip heavy as you want.

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>>65127882
>The reasoning given in the book is that by moving the center of mass closer to the hilt when held vertically, it makes it easier for the executioner to hold over the head of the condemned for the duration of a ceremony
I have never read the book. How does this ceremony play out that one needs a very specialised tool for it?
>>65131225
Why? You want the blade to go through the target you want to cut.

Anyways, historic executioner's swords didn't have issues with having too little mass near the tip of their blades or too little mass near their hilts. They were slightly overbuilt swords whoose point of balance was usually a bit further away from the crossguard.