[quote=akje]
Back from vacation, as soon as wizardguy posts I'm back in.Meanwhile I just read what I missed. Cool!Just wondering one thing. Why the focus on platinum and tungsten steel blades? Those are terrible! That shit would snap on an old school long sword from the 14th century.The ceramic broadsword was a questionable idea (there was a good reason Martin took the blade from that tree carefully, didn't want to shatter the pretty thing.), but Tungsten steel?@Wraithblade6, you described the blade vibrating and singing as it was hit with a bullet? That's realistic for high-carbon industrial grade steel sure. but a tungsten steel blade would shatter in a loud bang, sending shrapnel in all directions spectacularly. A pure titanium weapon would snap off I think. Titanium would work, but you'll have a weapon of less quality than a regular 14th century long-sword. It's about the same use as an aluminum blade, only it weighs more than a steel one. I'd suggest quallity steel still. Maybe laminated? If you insist on using titanium I could imagine maybe a tepostopili-like serrated blade? The idea of having a Metallic glass (a type of steel, not made of glass) core with a long row of titanium or ceramic triangular tips attached with some wiggle room speaks to me. You'd get one hell of a sawblade that would be extremely difficult to sunder and cut run trough pretty much any armor on the market today. Especially since most modern armor is specialized at stopping ballistics, not cutting blades. They might as well wear cloth. The big downside is that you'd have to replace the tips pretty often, it'd be expensive, and heavy like hell, but that doesn't matter much to a vampire. Note: I just made this design up on the fly, there is currently no research on tepostopili-like blades since it's silly as all hell.looks like i went on a rant again. oh well. tl;dr:Why search for unicorns to eat, when the field is full of Angus beef?
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Ah, you seem to be confusing Excalibur with a pure ceramic weapon. An understandable mistake.
Making a weapon from a ceramic material such as glass or clay is stupid, due to the fact that the material is very hard, but doesn't bend. It would take the full force of any impact, and shatter. However, with modern techniques, we can create nanotube materials. This means that within the material tiny tubes of air, smaller than the eye can see, are made. The round shape allows it to bend slightly, and acts as a shock absorber, while also making the material lighter and retaining the hardness. As such you get a weapon that's at least as durable as steel, light as cardboard, and sharper than a doctor's scalpel. It's ridiculously expensive, though.
I put real thought into my weapons and their practical application, but if you see any errors in them, such as the stupidity of making a sword from non-nanotube ceramics, please point them out. I pride myself on realism and retention of the laws of physics.