Submitted 11 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/a93f5cf6-fa08-4425-ac7c-b7a78ee00801.jpeg
These are the required elements for making steel:
Source: www.cliftonsteel.com/…/11elementsfoundinsteel
So, iron is only step 1. Humans are carbon based lifeforms, so I’m guessing that carbon is also sorted, that’s step 2.
There’s plenty of other elements in the human body, like phosphorus and sulphur, but I’m guessing that it’s going to take more than 300 adults.
Yes
Someone else did the math, accounting for waste made during forging. wearethemighty.com/…/blood-iron-sword-myth-explor…
This is extremely helpful, and fits perfectly into my secret plan
I will use this info as background for a BBEG in my TTRPG game
This is the MVP-comment! Thank you for that source!
Fucking awesome, exactly the comment I was looking for in this thread
Steel requires only iron and up to about 2% carbon
Rest are minor alloying elements used mainly in modern steel alloys to improve the steel beyond what just carbon steel could do like for example stainless steels
Either way you would definitely need carbon, but as you say that’s pretty easy. I don’t think any of the other elements are absolutely required.
Those are all of them, but that’s for a lot of different types of steels. You don’t have to have all of those metals to make steel. You really just need iron and a tiny bit of carbon. A few of your ingredients help with purity, and the rest are additives for different steel properties you may want. Like a touch of nickel for stainless steel.
I searched for ingredients for making steel. I’m obviously not a metallurgist, nor do I pretend to be one on the internet :)
The meme triggered my interest into discovering just what might be involved.
Clearly I’ve just scratched the surface …
You only need iron and carbon the rest is already alloyed steel. You can definitely make a good blade out of only iron and carbon, it won’t be stainless, it might be difficult to harden just right, but it will be flexible and hold a keen edge if forged right. The smiths of ole dealt with nastier steels containing all kinds of things making it worse, not better (such as excessive amounts of sulphur and phosphorus) so I’d say they’d manage.
Well, the non-metals and Manganese are way more available than iron anyway (probably molybdenum too). But it will be really difficult to create high-quality steel.
Id love to see the math on the amount of iron in a person’s blood, because I find it HIGHLY questionable that there’s enough iron in only 300 people to make a full iron sword. I’m too lazy to do it myself though.
The numbers roughly check out. Not sure how much one can extract by just draining the blood though.
You’re both in luck! Someone else linked to an article that breaks down how it could work in reality: startrek.website/comment/9430643
Listen. If they used surplus blood to do this (blood that was expired) and then held a raffle at the end of each year where all blood donors were entered to win a knife or sword made from the expired human blood iron, I bet they’d see blood donations skyrocket.
Somebody call NileRed asap
After completing all these steps, the result was a little anticlimactic and disappointing. But still, I realized there was one thing left to do: taste it.
I want The Red Cross to hire you for marketing asap so this can actually happen.
ok, but humans also regenerate blood, very slowly but it does happen. So theoretically, you could contract your family members to draw blood to be used to make a longsword out of your family’s bloodline. And have it become an heirloom.
imagine, over the centuries of blood donation, the sword slowly grows from a knife, into an absolutely huge dragonslayer behemoth
Is it slowly? I thought you replaced all the blood from a blood donation within a day or two
You could also get a big sword-shaped ice cube mold, a chest freezer and probably not even a whole enemy.
You would have to do battle in freezing climates too though in order for it to remain physically effective
Though I imagine the psychological effectiveness might persist a bit longer
I’d suggest a warhammer mold, just for stability.
But then you’d have to paint it
Mythbusters did this on their first episode: ice bullet. I think a sword might also be too brittle unfortunately.
Listen there’s definitely enough carbon in the body to boost that into a steel sword.
If we can make diamonds out of corpses, we can make steel.
Hold up… Wouldn’t a diamond sword be better than a steel one?
Too brittle, I think.
For ceremony, though, perfect!
In Minecraft, sure.
Just toss your enemies into the recycler that extracts material for the replicator and replicate yourself a sword.
I was curious how long it would take to make a sword out of your own blood. If my math was correct(it probably isn’t lol) the human body contains around 4.7 to 5.5 liters. And then you can apparently donate like 470 millileters every 8 weeks.
So take 4.7(assuming the smallest people) X 300 = 1410 L total blood
1410(total needed) / 0.47(donation amount) = 3000 donations X 8 weeks = 24,000 / 52 = 461.54 years
New mythology curse just dropped.
And then you can apparently donate like 470 millileters every 8 weeks.
Safely, you could probably speed it up a bit if you have a higher risk tolerance.
True! I would assume a larger person would be able to give up more at once, too.
Or if your enemy has been thoroughly dispatched
So about 3150 pints of blood (10.5 being average for an adult).
Sounds doable XD
New ethical dilemma just dropped - kill 300 to forge the sword, or deny 3150 people blood in an emergency to forge the sword…
Here’s the plan: we kill 330 people, save 330 people, the rest is free sword!
You know there’s a writer reading this meme somewhere: here; where ever it came from; where ever it will be reposted; and adding it to the story they are working on. Wonder where we’ll come across it first?
Glory.
My very rough calculations using 85kg as an average adult weight, results in 153gr of iron
My problem is, that i dont have any expectations as to how heavy a longsword is but i’d assume it to be a lot heavier!
Males of average height have about 4 grams of iron in their body, females about 3.5 grams; children will usually have 3 grams or less
300 * 3g = 900g.
300 * 4,5g = 1350g
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longsword
and weighing approximately 1 to 1.5 kg
It’s close enough, I’d say. OP’s maths that is.
You could even use the carbon from their flesh to make the steel!
Chingis Khan approves.
Genghis Khan*
Correcting just so that others would understand
Akshually Chingis is much closer to the mongolian pronunciation. 😁
Mikufan@ani.social 11 months ago
Or you can use one person and drain their blood over long time.
sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
Let’s do the math…
You can donate three times a year to the red cross (once every 112 days). According to some page, you donate around 10% of your blood volume each time.
That means, for a volume equivalent of 300 people, you’d need to donate 3000 times, which would take around 1000 years.
The vampire is going to need more people, or to keep a person alive 1000 years with vampire magic.
kernelle@lemmy.world 11 months ago
When you’re harvesting the blood iron of your enemies you don’t have time for ethics. A controlled study managed 4 weeks within ethical boundaries, maybe we can cut that in half unethically. So 14 days, 3000 . 14 = 115 years. So when you torture two people, you could manage to do 58 years. Better start early!
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
You’re off on blood production. “Safe” would be once every six to eight weeks for a pint. Plasma can be taken a lot more often. The red blood cells take a while to replenish.
But let’s get real. You’re not concerned about your enemy feeling well. Force them to take iron supplements and take a pint every other week. They’ll likely stay alive that way. Fuck em, right?
Mikufan@ani.social 11 months ago
3 times a year? Where i live you cab give 1/2l every two weeks at a bloodbank.
And i can take more and by that activate a immune response to produce way more.
variants@possumpat.io 11 months ago
But remember they are your enemy so you could drain a bit more blood more often to shave a few years off maybe
Steve@startrek.website 11 months ago
Or just mix in a few enemies with some normal iron.
Mikufan@ani.social 11 months ago
No that would be impossible.
Rusty@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Slaanesh approves
knorke3@lemm.ee 11 months ago
But then you need to feed them iron-rich foods which could be used to make a vegan alternative instead, expanding your potential market.