Apart from using high-grade modern steel, is there any way to

Vibro blades?

Nano-machine edge that displaces matter that touches it to the sides?

>>51926005
Not really, unless you go the route of >>51926026
and start making stuff up.

>>51926026
I'd rather have nano-machines colonize the grain of the steel to constantly clean and sharpen the blade

>>51926005
Lemme tell you something about glorious Nippon and the majestic katana blade

>>51926005

Heated edges.

Nanoscopically-sharpened edges.

Forcefields used as a shearing edge.

>>51926005

Modern understanding of metallurgy and 100% precise machine tools can improve a lot of things about a sword's manufacture.

We don't know what advances will be made in those fields.

>>51926026
Nanomachine swords are straying into science fantasy territory.

Vibrational blades sound a bit more down-to-earth. Industrial supersonic cutters already exist.

I'm just not sure how a vibroblade wouldn't make your entire arm go numb in a matter of seconds.

>>51926005
Ceramics just as good as steel is one route

The dream would be a 1 for 1 comparison between steel and ceramic, then ceramic would be by default better because it's easier and faster to shape and mass produce.

>>51926070
I don't know how effective a vibroblade would actually be at cutting through body armor in a timely fashion.

>>51926059
In the end, this still comes down to a really sharp beatstick made of really high-grade steel.

>>51926005
Mono-molecular blade edges being easy to make.

Would close combat weapons like swords and low-energy ranged weapons like crossbows be fitting for a sci-fi game centering on space ships and stations?

I'm trying to avoid pew pew laser and plasma weapons.

I figure space travelers would look for weapons that can incapacitate an enemy without taking out vital ship components on a missed shot.

>>51926078
Ceramics rarely have the required ductility combined with a sufficient hardness.

>>51926005
if we extracted or compiled a long obsidian blade and embedded it into a steel blade or haft then it would be able to cut through just about anything.

>>51926005
Assuming we one day leave Earth, Tungsten Carbide blades because we won't have to just mine the very limited amount of tungsten we have natively.

>>51926147
It'd be able to cut through anything less hard than itself.

>>51926005
A 1060 san mai pattern 1803 British Infantry sabre is the best sword that can be constructed today for dueling or skirmishing purposes.

Anything else is sci-fi.

>>51926147
>Ceramics rarely have the required ductility combined with a sufficient hardness.
That would be why an advancement in ceramics making a 1 for 1 comparison possible, would need to be a thing.

>>51926139
Generally speaking you'd still be using guns, as that's what intruders are likely to be using.

>>51926148
Wouldn't these be over twice as heavy as a steel blade?

>>51926005
You can utilize anri armor explosives for melle:
HEAT shanks
Power fists/axes
Displacent/reactive shields.

Not sure about swords though coz that would depend heavily on their indended use. Idk why would you use anything longer than sax in close combat agains unarmored riflemen.

>>51926186
Not in space.

>>51926195
Really anon.

>>51926169
I'm talking about the approach to weaponry among the general spacefaring community.

You'll always have 'gutsy' outliers, but wouldn't it make sense for people to try and avoid weapons that cause too much damage to components?

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>>51926005
>Let's also assume that bonding a titanium cutting edge to a steel or other core doesn't improve effectiveness enough to warrant the convoluted construction.
Why?
Crafting a sword with a blade hard enough to hold an edge while the core remains flexible to absorb blows is the hallmark of a master swordsmith. You're disqualifying a very real and important aspect of what makes a sword a good sword.

Ofcourse you did ask about modern or near future. Pic related, it's the Sword of Goujian, a 2500 year old sword that has chemical differentiation between the composition of the core and edge of the blade.

>>51926200
You want to win more than you want to avoid minor damage to interior's.

>>51926195
That doesn't magically make them practical. Inertia still exists, even in zero-G environments.

>>51926139
Glaser rounds are a type of ammunition which (tends toward) tungsten or lead pellets suspended in a frangible resin bullet. The idea is that they still impart lethal force to a human, but disintegrate on contact with steel or anything substantially harder than a human.

>>51926201
Despite the 'chemical differentiation' between the edge and the core, that sword is solid bronze.

Bonding titanium and steel into a functional sword is vastly more complicated and error-prone than this.

>>51926103
monomolecular edges is another of those science fantasy things.
A metal sword blade isn't even made of molecules for a start and really if you actually had an edge that fine it would be immediately dulled significantly when put into its scabard after sharpening. Even razor sharp is pointless on a metal sword for the same reasons, the egde won't remain that sharp for a useful amount of time in a fight.

http://ucresearch.tumblr.com/post/150126220932/why-scientists-are-rooting-for-mushrooms-mushrooms

MUSHROOM

SWORDS

>>51926205
I'm saying guns and other high-velocity weapons won't cause minor damage. They'll completely destroy vital components or vent the ship.

This is based on the assumption that it isn't economically viable to manufacture a space ship that can handle a shootout on the inside.

>>51926251
If your ship can't handle things like shotguns and handguns, it also won't handle micro meteors and other space hazards.

Don't worry about realism OP. No matter what you came up with for swords, it could likely be applied to guns more efficiently.

Not to mention that the knife is the superior melee weapon aesthetically.

>>51926223
Why would you even want titanium on your blade?
It's not some real-life adamantium, it has the properties of high grade steel, just at a lighter weight.

>>51926139
Swords would be impractical in the tight confines of a spaceship.

>>51926186
If your arms or skeletal structure are augmented would that matter?

Also, for industrial purposes, the ability to mass produce tungsten carbide due to it no longer being a scarce or easier to make, would be a boon.

>>51926186
yes, and very brittle as well.
though votg issues couls be solved by bonding a tungsten carbide edge to a steel or titanium blade.
Same basic idea the vikings used with steel edges on wrought iron axes.

>>51926269
>it also won't handle micro meteors and other space hazards.
Not necessarily. A ship can have external shielding, but not internal one. It may be protected from micro-meteorites, but causing damage to internal systems could still be devastating. Like firing guns in a fucking submarine. It IS a bit of stretch though.

>>51926310
They do actually have small arms on submarines.

>>51926269
It probably won't, no. That's why you would scan for and evade these.

I'm just not terribly impressed with fictional space ships that apparently have armor all over the shop, as if weight and economy aren't a factor.

Besides, why would the same sci-fi materials that make ships able to withstand a full-on gunfight not be used in personal protective equipment?

>>51926314
As an absolute desperation measure. And there are (for good reasons) strict laws against their use outside of situation where the existence of the submarine itself isn't already threatened.
But yeah, they don't use swords either. I suppose also because the limited space would not make them particularly useful.

>>51926314
I think he is taking about having a shoot out on the bridge, that would be bad since you'd probably destroy something important.

>>51926314
retard blown the fuck out again lol

>>51926300
It wouldn't matter if you could guide the blade using the Force either, but I'm trying to make the sword make sense for a run-of-the-mill spacer.

>>51926005
Nanobonding.

Nanites in the core of the weapon bleed out of it if the weapon cracks, dulls or chips while being programmed to colonize the damaged areas and quickly patch them until the owner of the weapon can take it to a specialist to fully repair or replace it.

>>51926164
you can't advance a material like ceramics, it has chemical adherences because it is still micro-silicon layers and silicon is a giant ionic lattice with planes. It won't ever be ductile like steel is.

>>51926269
i dunno. the ISS handles micro meteorites just fine but i wouldn't trust it with a gun.

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>>51926244
>mycellium can be made into solid material with different properties as needed
So, Terraria was right in this regard.

>>51926332
If you end up with a shoot out on the bridge you've probably already lost by that point.

>>51926323
You can't reliably scan everything and if boarding is a legitimate threat you'd want to armor the important bits. Hull venting isn't a big issue as the pressure isn't high enough to actually be a serious short term threat.

>>51926292
depends on the sword. thrusting or short swords would be fine.

>>51926352
Depends on the gun, a shotgun firing pellets probably wouldn't do much to whipple plating.

>>51926323
>why would the same sci-fi materials that make ships able to withstand a full-on gunfight not be used in personal protective equipment?
for the same reasons that a humvee can be more heabily armoured than the soldiers driving it. Human body can only carry so much armour.

Oh and I will add that a space boarding is an incredibly unlikely scenario. It's more akin to a fighter jet trying to board another fighter jet and that if they do manage to dock, having access to the outside of you spacecraft is basically gives them complete control over it.

>>51926351
Make it a glass-ceramic for chemical malleability.

We now IRL have glass-based ceramics that bounce like rubber and bend at 90 degree angles without being damaged.

>>51926304
For what purpose?
A tungsten-edged blade is not gonna cut full plate, much less any more modern armor.
A shaving edge of 1060 carbon steel is all you need to keep a couple dozen vertebrates in close succesion.

>>51926360
Are you suggesting sir, that there would be some sort of space-cutless in question?

>>51926389
You don't even need a shaving edge, as that's a pain to maintain.

>>51926389
>to KILL a couple dozen vertebrates
Autocorrect, you fucking hippie.

>>51926005

Well, CAD could assist in custom tailoring a sword to a specific purpose. Input a person's biometrics, then putz around on the computer to get the exact right dimensions, balance, weight, etc for a sword for that exact person.

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The future shall belong to the barmace.

>>51926358
>You can't reliably scan everything
You don't need to scan everything. You just need to find a balance between safety and efficiency. A 'bubble' of a certain range around your ship.

You're taking a chance on foreign objects being slow and/or small enough to evade in time, but let's face it: you're a human being in space. You're taking chances in literally everything you do.

>>51926070
I'm by no means an expert but you could wield it with some kind of vibration nullifying glove/gauntlet perhaps?

>>51926005
Close quarters weapons with thumbprint encoding so they explode if a filthy xeno picks them up.

>>51926420
Or you could slap a few ablative panels on your most important bits. Also if your spaceships are made of paper you aren't going to be doing any offensive docking actions in the first place.

>>51926419
This would be nice if it were sharpened. And I suppose it could stand to lose one 'axis'.

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>>51926423
A gauntlet that vibrates on the opposite frequency!

The blade could have a microscopic shape that's complicated. Like, geckos stick to walls by the microscopic shapes of their footpads, and modern car tires can avoid hydroplaning by being shaped to let water pass through them. Your sword's edge could have a billion microscopic cheese graters, or microscopic flexible interlocking serrated disks.

>>51926443
Ablative crew that patch hull breaches with their bodies.

Whole edge is made of segments of programmable explosively forged projectile modules.
Blade itself is made up of layers of these modules so every time the edge explodes it exposes the next layer of charges.
Maybe the opposite edge is synced with the striking edge to explode in a dispersed manner to balance the reaction force and not break the users hand while he tries to cleave a tank.

>>51926396
yeah. that or a space gladius.

>>51926466
If something punches right through your life support or fuel that's exactly what they'll be doing.

>>51926056
1000 degree swords, mah dude!

>>51926443
As far as survival in the cold vacuum of space is concerned, the entire ship is important.

Again, this comes down to economy. The way I see it, ship manufacturers are going to use space as efficiently as they can. There aren't going to be many walls, floors or ceilings that don't have critical lines or leads running through them.

Sure, there's going to be some redundancy in the interest of safety, but I still can't imagine anyone whose only lifeline is the ship to be keen on using firearms instead of low-velocity alternatives.

>>51926423
presumably you could just have the blade isolated from the hilt.

>>51926360
I'd rather have a cattle prod or stun baton.

>>51926499
How would that work? The hilt is literally the only thing the blade is connected to.

>>51926482
They wouldn't have time to valiantly patch holes with their gibs if they're incinerated first.

Unless of course part of being in the space military means ingesting timed on death nanomachines that turn those gibs into a boding globual mass that can rove the ship looking for breaches.

>>51926501
you could electrify a sword, just saying

>>51926498
There are bits that are more vital than others. A lot of things can be fixed when they take damage, others not so much. This whole argument is pretty moot anyway as boarding would be a once in a million occurrence.

>>51926519
Yes, that would be acceptable too.

>>51926525
Boarding isn't the only source of conflict.

>>51926519
Are you sure? Cattle prods work because they have a cathode and anode.

A single blade can't be both.

>>51926540
And I'd still rather have a gun than risk a sword fight.

>>51926227
>isn't even made of molecules

wut?

>>51926005
If you didn't know some examples of renaissance and late medieval swordsmithing are superior to modern day recreations.

Modern steel recreations are 99% of the time made from a single type of steel that is differentially tempered/heat treated, the vast majority of period weapons were made with multiple types of iron and steel laminated together strategically to enhance durability, strength, and hardness, and also differentially heat treated. The men who put these weapons together invariably had spent their entire lives becoming experts at this art. That level of expertise is simply not matched today anywhere, even by people who copy the manufacturing techniques of laminating different grades of steel/iron together.

Also these weapons were informed by practical application of the users, and therefor I'm sure many small details are overlooked/understood by contemporary crafters.

>>51926005
Yes.

Advanced alloys. Look up aluminium-lithium alloys at some point. Lighter and stronger than pure aluminium, volume for volume.

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>>51926510
>Unless of course part of being in the space military means ingesting timed on death nanomachines that turn those gibs into a boding globual mass that can rove the ship looking for breaches.

>>51926540
>Boarding isn't the only source of conflict.

I'm now picturing nervous aliens thinking humans are horrifying blob monsters because they've never actually seen a living one.

>>51926547
it could if you embedded cathodes and anodes into a non-conductive material along the blade

>>51926509
just a flexible but short range of movemenr connection.
basically the same principle that lets speaker play music without bouncing around on the table. Though a higher energy version.

depending on how energetic things are you could likely get away with just having a layer of rubber between that will drop user vibrations down too a negligible level.

vibration dampening as already something were used to doing.

>>51926551
You missed. Now hydrogen is leaking into the crew compartment.

Literally everyone hates you for smuggling that gun on board. Are you going to shoot everyone?

>>51926554
I don't think he's wrong. I'm a physicist (bachelors degree) and not a chemist but I think a crystalline atomic lattice is not technically a molecule.

>>51926576
Then use a knife instead, much easier to smuggle than a sword.

>>51926574
You're going to be hitting people with this thing.

What kind of connection dampens the blade's vibrations while preserving the force you impart on the sword? And is simultaneously strong enough to endure impacts?

A sword the 'sweats' mercury from micro-poors.

>>51926005
How about a self-balancing sword? The hilt contains a gyroscope or similar that, combined with sensors or some kind of link to a HUD, adjusts the center of gravity of the blade to better hit whatever you're trying to hit?

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>>51926593
Let's assume you wouldn't need to smuggle a knife on board, since the ship's owner isn't as antsy about you puncturing something vital with a close combat weapon.

If your opponent has a somewhat longer knife he could thrust (or swing, if the situation permits it) at you, that's a definite advantage.

If he has a sword, you're shit outta luck range-wise.

>>51926554
molecules are atoms held together by covalent or ionic bonds specifically.

a lump of metal is a bunch of atoms joined with metallic bonding.
if you expand to the layman idea that a molecule is just atoms bonded together than any continious peice of metal is a single molecule, your kitchen draw is full of monomolecular spoons.

>>51926624
Unless I'm entering some sort of formal duel, it'd be far easier to try and shank someone in the confined space of a ship.

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>>51926572
Don't you mean separating the blade?

>Diode swords
>Swiords
>Diords

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>>51926576
>You missed. Now hydrogen is leaking into the crew compartment.

Astronauts and cosmonauts already figured out a countermeasure for this situation. They employ the hardest working member of the crew, duct tape.

>>51926005
Sapient metal, just promise it hookers and blow and it will repair itself, keep its edge, offer pleasant conversation, and even shape into whatever kind of sword you want.

Nanite-housing sheath.

When sword is inserted into sheath, the sheath deploys nanites to clean and sharpen the blade, honing it a near-monomolecular edge.

It's more near-future than modern but it's actually feasible. Plus, it would encourage some sort of funky Iaijutsu to take the most advantage of the near-monomolecular edge before it deteriorates.

>>51926640
I'm not sure what 'shanking' implies to you, but I always figured it's a surprise attack. Come up behind someone and puncture a kidney or whatever.

If I were the spacer in question, I would not want to assume I'll always have the element of surprise. Nor would I want to limit myself to what basically amounts to grappling with added stabbing.

If I'm aware of someone coming at me, I'd rather put a saber between us than a combat knife. I'll leave the knife for when the distance has already been closed for whatever reason.

>>51926663
You just discharged a firearm. I'm going to go ahead and assume you're not really in a situation where you can break out the duct tape and get to work.

>>51926699
You forgot your rocket propelled sword draw.

>>51926624
Just shoot the intruder a taser. You don't need to risk getting close or shooting something important.

>>51926717
>You just discharged a firearm. I'm going to go ahead and assume you're not really in a situation where you can break out the duct tape and get to work.

Everyone gets a freebee, submarine rules. Shooting a gun in a sub is how sailors get that anchor tattoo these days.

>>51926729
*with

>>51926663
What about duct tape made out of dragonforce?

>>51926720
Likely to damage the blade in the process, rendering the sharpening process of the nanites pointless. It would have to be one or the other - a sharper blade or a more swiftly drawn blade.

>>51926744
What sort of pussy nanites get hurt from rocket propulsion? Motherfuckers need to just drink some whisky and get back to work fixing my sword in mid rocket flight. I'm not going to put some goldbricking nanites in my goddamn sword you goober.

>>51926729
That's a decent enough option A, but I'm going to want to have an option B and C too.

>>51926078
Daily reminder that ceramics are more fragile than steel, even the hardened kind.
A heated ceramic edge, on the other hand...

>>51926783
>A heated ceramic edge, on the other hand.

Would likely explode into deadly deadly shrapnel, unless grenade swords were your intent. Then bravo.

>>51926630
...strictly, if it's an ionic bond, it's not a molecule.
You can't get a single molecule of sodium chloride. It just doesn't work. Yes, you can, in theory, get a single sodium ion and a single chloride ion as a crystal, but those don't constitute a molecule. A molecule requires covalent bonding.

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A helium carbon sword

>>51926768
Having nanites as a part of the actual sword is just asking for troubles and makes the blade itself way too high-tech for something that will likely get damaged. Hence the suggestion of a nanite-housing sheath.

Electrifying the blade, adding a flamethrower in the handle, make it spary an organic dissolving acid from the pommel, put a gun in it, uhhhhhhhhhhhh....

swords sorta hit the pinnacle when we figured out high quality steel, you'd have to go scifi to improve them further. then nano bots and plasma blades and shit would pretty much do the job.

>>51926822
...what is it going to do, shear off as soon as it hits anything? Even if you go "diamond abloobloobloo", it's pretty useless, because diamonds can get smashed into dust by hitting them with a hammer. Not even hitting them all that hard. The kinds of speeds you want to be using in combat will break your diamond sword on the first hit, thus rendering your weapon a useless chunk of hilt in your hand and your opponent almost certainly not dead, or even incapacitated.

>>51926829
If nanties being able to repair a sword is a thing then it becoming damaged is irrelevant.

Just put them in a small aerosol style can on a belt or in a pocket and spray that shit on a stabber when you need to.

>>51926858
That was a joke about the Triple-alpha process in nuclear fusion smartypants.

>>51926251
People don't do this for oil rigs, I don't see why they would for spacecraft.

Heated blade or use of expansion gas could improve a sword or any cold weapon dramatically. It's still not making them an equally useful tool to basic firearms though.

>>51926892
Because oil rigs are usually not fought on? You don't have an infantry battles taking place on oil rigs very often. Presumably, with the assumption of boarding actions being somewhat common, infantry battles on board of a spaceship could be a fairly common place thing.

Also, oil rigs have a very strict policies about handguns on board. Fuck: they don't allow you to fucking SMOKE most of the time. Much less carry around a fucking shotgun.

>>51926849
How about adding a laser optic sight to the crossgaurd? For precise slashing.

>>51926870
Unless the nanite-producing part of the sword is destroyed, which is why I'm for not having nanites be a part of the sword.

Which is why the original suggestion was a scabbard that produces nanites that maintain and sharpen the blade while the blade is sheathed in the scabbard.

The issue with adding on a sort of rocket-propulsion draw system is that it would probably damage the blade itself, to the point where any sharpening done would be useless beyond a certain point.

Unless, you make it so that the rocket propulsion occurs somewhere around the cross-guard of the sword or the locket of the scabbard and doesn't touch the blade of the sword at all. Then you might have the ultimate sword for Iaijutsu, complete with rocket-propelled speed and an edge just a couple of molecules wide.

>>51926920
>Unless, you make it so that the rocket propulsion occurs somewhere around the cross-guard of the sword or the locket of the scabbard and doesn't touch the blade of the sword at all. Then you might have the ultimate sword for Iaijutsu, complete with rocket-propelled speed and an edge just a couple of molecules wide.

I think rocket propelled is stupid, because rockets need time to accelerate, but using blanks like Sam from MGR does could work; Sam's sword it uses a blank to shoots out a rod that pushes the sword at the hilt.

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>>51926920
If I had a rocket propelled draw on my sword why would I bother with sharpness when I could just shoot the sword at my enemies? No one is going to be able to dodge something rocket propelled in melee range.

>>51926969
>No one is going to be able to dodge something rocket propelled in melee range.
Actually, if there is any point at which you'll more likely to dodge something rocket propelled, it's melee range. As somebody already pointed out, rockets need time to accelerate, making them inefficient at close range.

>>51926951
Blanks work. All that matters is that you've got a very, very sharp sword propelled with an explosive amount of energy. Provided it's made of a tough enough material, it should be able to slice through scaffolding tubes like bamboo.

>>51926985
Not if they're proximity detonated.

Also in a world where rocket propelled swords was a thing, melee range would be much farther back then you'd think.

>>51926988
>>51927017
This is called "missile dueling" for the uninitiated.

The British of the future call it "Darty Explody".

>>51927017
>Not if they're proximity detonated.
Uh... I don't think you want to have proximity detonated explosive weapon as your MELEE FUCKING OPTION. I see a lot of ways that could actually backfire...
Also, weren't we talking about rocket propelled SWORD? where the fuck does proximity detonation figure into SLASHING weapon? I though the idea was to add rocket propulsion to the weapon to enhance it's momentum in melee brawl, not to just pick an RPG and call it a "sword".

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>>51926911
>very strict policies
Absolutely, but that all goes out the window when the other guys start shooting at you. Pic related, its the Norwegian military training for how to remove bad guys from an oil rig.

>>51927038
>gets challenged to a sword duel
>appears with an RPG that has a handle sticking out of it.
>the rocket has a broken off knife blade taped on

>>51926005
Taser strips on the back edge and sides, and insulated handgrip, so if you can't get in close to cut you can twist the blade to stun them if you can touch their arm, hopefully throwing him off long enough to get in a good thrust?

>>51927038
>I though the idea was to add rocket propulsion to the weapon to enhance it's momentum in melee brawl, not to just pick an RPG and call it a "sword".

Jokes on you then

>>51927057
>It's just an RPG that says sword on the side

>>51926783
Well, I now know what I want to try and stat out for shadowrun.
Exploding ceramic throwing blades.

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>>51926005

When in doubt, add guns.

>>51926554
He's not wrong anon. In super basic terms:
An atom is made up of the nucleus and some electrons. In most cases, things on a scale you can see are made up of untold trillions of molecules, bonded together by various electrostatic forces. The molecules are made in turn of atoms which bond by sharing electrons with each other.

Metals are different. Rather than a sheet of metal being made of many individual molecules, every single atom will "release" its electrons and bond together with every adjacent atom, with the electrons forming a "sea of delocalised electrons" (which is why metal conducts so well, electricity is moving electrons, and it's very easy for electrons to move about in this "sea"). So, essentially, you could almost consider any solid piece of metal as one gigantic "molecule," but for practical purposes metal objects are not made up of molecules, but directly from atoms.

Does that help?

So, chuck out the rocket-propelled idea. What we have is:
>Fancy sheath that houses nanomachines that maintain the sword and sharpen the blade to a monomolecular edge.
>A number of the blanks in the locket of the sheath that push rods into the cross-guard of the sword upon ignition, propelling it from the sheath with a huge amount of momentum.

How else do you make the ultimate quick-draw sword of the near-future?

>>51926912
Have you ever swung a sword? i mean like, if it's angled right it might blind... someone in the melee. Definitely not your target, and almost certainly one of your friends.

what about instead of looking at how one can change a sword to make it better, how about we make it so that we can use a sword better?

An assister-frame that is connected to a combat calculation computer that can near instantly correct for more efficient slashing, parrying or target acquisition. Even modest changes to the blade angle or position is likely to have large changes to the resulting hit. In competitive fencing the tips of the weapons actually don't move around that much (except for those Épée motherfuckers those niggas crazy), yet there are endless actions and counter actions available. If we were able to make humans faster and more accurate it could make our swordfighting better.
Of course with an assister-frame or other exoskeleton, you can not only move with tool-assisted accuracy, but you can probably be faster and stronger, both things that seem like they would positively affect swordfighting.

I also like the idea of the blade impregnated with nanites, and I don't think that's too far fetched. What's far fetched is the nanites being a noticeable or dramatic effect to the blade. I think they could act as tiny repair drones, healing nano-scale cracks or weaknesses in the sword, ensuring that dings in the blade get evened out without honing and maintaining the edge of the blade. We already have self-repairing plastics and metal composites, so this is only a little more elaborate than current technology.

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>>51926201
>>51926223
Just cut out the middle man and make your sword out of titanium.

>>51926005
How about...
The internal structure of the blade being some sort of complex 3D printed micro-honeycomb structure to reduce weight and increase strength.

Perhaps you could pair it with some sort of hud overlay and camera. Internal gyroscopes and motors give the wielder haptic and visual feedback relating to an opponents projected blade positions helping the user avoid or counter blows.

Some sort of internal adaptive inertial dampening system, that adaptively moves the blades centre of weight, to increase tip speed or sticking force.

>>51927271
>Perhaps you could pair it with some sort of hud overlay and camera. Internal gyroscopes and motors give the wielder haptic and visual feedback relating to an opponents projected blade positions helping the user avoid or counter blows.

I can just see this turning out with two guys waving their swords around seemingly randomly like in Revenge of the Sith.

>>51926892
>>51926911
>>51927052

The comparison between space ships and oil rigs works up to a point, but an important distinction is that planetside oil rigs aren't in the vacuum of space.

The machinery may be sensitive and the substances you're processing may be volatile, but at least the oil rig isn't your only source of breathable air within several light days in every direction.

>>51926330
They don't use swords because ball peen hammers, sledgehammers, and fire axes all work just as well when you get down to it.
They stopped doing "intruder accessing weapons locker" drills on the sub my buddy was on because someone seriously dented a wall when they turned the corner into the area and just barely missed popping the skull of the officer running the drill.

>>51927929
>"intruder accessing weapons locker" drills
What would these entail?

>>51927940
The intercom saying that there's an intruder at the weapons locker in the same way that they would if there really was one and then everyone in the area rushing to kill or incapacitate whoever is at the weapons locker before they actually get a firearm out of it and stopping when they see it's just a drill.

>>51927958
In that case, I'm a bit unclear on
>because someone seriously dented a wall when they turned the corner into the area and just barely missed popping the skull of the officer running the drill
What the fuck did they do? What dented the wall?

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>mfw discussion on sword metallurgy
>mfw it's already well beyond discussing swords
>mfw I have to get going on a 12 hour car drive anyway
>mfw I studied this shit front and back, but can't use any of the knowledge

>>51927976
They dashed around the corner and swung a hammer at the guy before seeing who it was. The hammer just barely missed his head, but didn't miss the wall. The momentum of the swing meant it would have cracked his skull at the very least if it had connected.
Most of the time, the first responder turns the corner and sees that the locker is closed and the only person present is an officer in a non-threatening pose, so they stop. But nobody wants to chance being shot, so the guy swung first and looked after.

>>51926139
Blades vs guns? If you are fighting in the tight confines of a spaceship or space station a blade is less likely to puncture a hole in the hull. You know, killing everyone.

>>51926078
>then ceramic would be by default better because it's easier and faster to shape and mass produce.
Nigga what ? Steel is about the easiest and fastest material to produce and shape.

>>51926783
>Daily reminder that ceramics are more fragile than steel
So what's stopping you from using thr same techniques smith used back when they dodn't have modern still and had to do with superherd-superfragile high carbon and plastic and soft low-carbon? Laminate them. In this case ceramics with a teflon, siloxane ot some other durable heat-resistand plastic.

>>51926244
>The Telvani future we chose.
humanity has made the right choice.

>>51926969
>No one is going to be able to dodge something rocket propelled in melee range.
There's a Ukrainian-made combat knife with a one-shot suppressed subsonic pistol in the handle on the shelves right fucking now just for that exact reason - one shot at point-blank noone expects.

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Why not turn the blade of your entire sword into a thermic lance?

>>51927929
>They don't use swords because ball peen hammers, sledgehammers, and fire axes all work just as well when you get down to it.
They don't work just as well. They work today because no one carries sidearms anymore.

Someone with a sword or a waraxe or warhammer will win against someone with a tool hammer, sledge hammer or fire axe any time because tools have SHIT balance and are waaay too heavy to be comfortably used in a melee fight.

>>51926350
>malware gives your sword cancer

>>51928067
>laminating with an anti-adhesive material
>laminating without strong chemicals bonds at all
What could go wrong

>>51927882
>but at least the oil rig isn't your only source of breathable air within several light days in every direction.

The only instance where this is true is if you have a sleeper cell or mutiny. Any other sort of infantry combat on board a ship will require a separate air supply to transport the attackers to the ship, like an assault shuttle, spacesuit, PFC bubble or magic sugar bowl. Venting the ship might even be a desirable outcome for attacking marines in spacesuits, since it wont bother them any and it may kill, disable or restrict the mobility of some of the defenders.

>>51928273
>venting the single most important resource a spaceship contains
Yeah, that's a fucking smart move.

>>51928109
Unwieldy, requires bringing pressurised oxygen containers into combat, requires protective gear to use, rapidly consumes itself, major fire hazard, will require prolonged contact with the target to cause more than superficial damage.

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>>51926059
>We don't know what advances will be made in those fields.

Pretty much none.
Swords and to some extent most edged weapons tend to fall off the back of the industrial sector where blade manufacturers pick up tool steels and fiddle with them using what knowledge there is of conventional and ancient metalworking, edge geometry to suit a purpose and modern technology. As a weapon, the sword doesn't really have much use in the modern battlefield and as much as I like making the odd knife as a hobbyist, the 'romance' of the Medieval/Renaissance's and early modern warfare where men chopped the shit out of each other to ribbons with steel- guns are just too fucking good.
Even that 19th century era into WW1, the sword (or any kind of melee weapon) was there to make-do when your primary battle weapon was out of ammo, needed to be reloaded or suffered some kind of malfunction. Even in close confines like trench warfare or house clearances where you're kicking in doors, if your rifle/smg is too unwieldy/not working for whatever reason- then you're hauling out a pistol and when that's done, maybe a knife or beating someone to death.

Its not like modern, well trained soldiers really mind stabbing people to death or are ineffective at doing it, its just not an efficient way of neutralising an enemy compared to shooting them.
So for the sword to justify any further R&D, it has to have a purpose in an environment where artillery, gunships, planes, nukes, missiles, bombs, personal firearms and all that can just fuck so much shit up. Thus receiving the vast majority of what monies and engineering talent is available. I think for that to happen maybe if ballistic armour development vastly outpaced firearms ability to consistently penetrate it then the blade might make a serious reappearance to counter that- but even then you'd have to consider what the fuck would make it susceptible to a blade compared to the vast amount of energy delivered by a rifle round.

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>>51926078
>Ceramics just as good as steel is one route
While there's plenty of research being done on ceramics, there's also a lot of research going into making better steels.

>then ceramic would be by default better because it's easier and faster to shape and mass produce.
Sword blades are not geometries suitable for press&sinter manufacturing, and if we deal with that by thickening the edges and tip then the hardness that the ceramic is likely to possess will be a major headache when it's time to grind the blank to final shape.

Meanwhile, if you do beat the press&sinter process into shape for this task, you should be entirely capable of using steel powder there as a ceramic one. Cheaper even, as the sintering will probably be at a much lower temperature.

And if you don't, well, we humans have a lot of experience making things out of steel by now.

>>51926153
Even if the material in your weapon is capable of penetrating this and that, melee weapons are limited by the human strength wielding them. An APFSDS round might be able to slam through half a meter of steel without issues when spat out by a 120mm smoothbore cannon, but grabbing it in your hands and trying to do the same won't get you very far.

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>>51926351
A ceramic doesn't need to include any silicon. Alumina, aluminium oxide, is a common one, sold as "sapphire glass" or Pyrex. The golden surface on many tools (drill bits etc) is usually Titanium nitride. "Tungsten" tools are usually a composite of ceramic tungsten carbide and metallic nickel or cobolt. Diamond's an old favourite. And so on.

So you have a nearly infinite number of chemical compositions to work with, many which will have various phases, and then there's the structural factors (grain size, grain shape, more or less intentional stacking faults), etc. Then start combining things.

>>51928067
Old laminating was probably mostly to cut cost. The low carbon material apparently wasn't all that much tougher than the high carbon metal, which in turn wasn't all that brittle. If we look to Europe for exmaple a proper quench hardening would be rare before the end of the middle ages, beforre that we're looking at lack quenching or unhardened blades.

>>51928303
The spaceship itself is probably worth far more than a few gas bottles. And since you're probably not just stumbling upon it and accidentally boarding it, bring some extra air to fill it up again afterwards.

>>51928329
...Advances in metallurgy and blade design you knob-gobbling shitlord. Yes, we know gun>knife, thtas nice, now run along back to /k/ and jerking it to the color gunmetal grey.

>>51926005
Use something other then steel, one example would be Tungsten carbide, not sure how practical it would be to use as a sword as it will have significantly more weight more then a comparable steel blade. Which if you could swing it would make it swing harder, and it is significantly stronger then steel.

>>51928628
Your sandy mangina needs cleaning out you autistic cunt

>>51928303
Well, when you're trying to kill the crew of said spaceship, yes, it is a fucking smart move. A squad of marines in combat spacesuits with personal life support would have no issues fighting in an air-free ship. A crew member not in a space suit would have serious issues with this though. It can only be to the advantage of the attacking force to vent the atmosphere when the objective is to kill the crew or cripple the ship.

Anyway, autism aside, on board a spaceship your best weapon is definitely not gonna be a sword. Probably gonna be some kind of horrific chemical spray. Chlorine tetrafluoride maybe? But that would probably do too much damage to the rest of the ship. Fast acting anti-organic toxins would be good. As a boarding weapon, conventional flamethrowers would be a win-win too: extremely damaging to anyone not in the proper gear, relatively harmless to someone properly suited, and depletes the atmosphere rapidly. Either that or a gun that fires something like a super low velocity ~20mm round which is basically just one big capacitor with an anode and a cathode at the front. Also, fucktons of flashbangs. And chemical grenades. Hell, even just little drones with maneuvering thrusters and a ton of counter-rotating buzzsaws. There's no gravity, so they're free to just zip around and fuck shit up. Seriously imagine breaching a room by tossing in a flashbang followed by a chemical grenade followed by one of those. I somehow doubt your sword would help, no matter how fancy it is, when you're blinded, choking on your own blood while it pours from your eyes, and being hacked apart by a flying buzzsaw. That's how I picture a lethal breach and clear operation on a hostile spaceship would go down. 10 marines, 10 buzzbots, 60 each of chem and flash (and maybe fireball) grenades, 20-40 breaching charges, and a whole lot of dead crew members.

As a just-in-case melee weapon they can have gauntlets that can be superheated.

>>51926387
It's also now possible to vitrify certain metals. As in, get the conditions exactly right to turn them into glass.

>>51928915
Using incendiary weapons in a microgravity environment is a BAD idea unless you want to burn out the interior of the spacecraft, including the vital stuff like fuel lines and oxygen pipes.

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>>51928646
>and it is significantly stronger then steel.

Like many ceramics the compressive strength is very impressive, but even combined with cobalt to toughen it up it still remains so brittle that you basically can't even run it through the standard tensile strength test.

Now with a sword, it probably won't be compressive strain that destroys it. Compression will keep any cracks that appear pressed shut, making it the safer loading. Pulling stress on the other hand will tear cracks open, making it the bane of any brittle material. This means we're not really interested in the compressive strength, it's the (effective) tensile strength we want.

So tungsten carbide and its peers work very well for machine tools, where you can make sure it will only really face compressive loads, where density isn't a problem, and where you need somethign that remains hard and chemically inert at very high temperatures.

For a sword on the other hand excess density is a problem, performance at a few hundred degrees Celsius is likely irrelevant, the extreme abrasion resistance isn't needed, and any force upon it will give you both pulling and compressive strain.

>>51928915
Flame-throwers and things like chlorine tetrafluoride both seem like they'd be very dangerous to use, and likely to cause horrendous damage to the ship. Fire in 0G is a voodoo of its own. At that point, why not just put some C4 on the outside and blow it all to hell? Or having docked, rip off any thrusters and do a retrograde burn.

Any crew inside that hasn't suited up is gone when you de-pressurise. Any crew that is suited up will be rather difficult to impress with poison. The trick there is probably to pop the suits without destroying whatever you're there for. How hard that is depends on the suits used, and how they compare to the surroundings.

>>51926139
The more high-tech the weaponry is, the more the enemy adapts. Plasma weaponry would unexpectedly jam, laser weapons would lose focus and accuracy, but nothing can be done to primative projectiles.

You know those industrial water jet cutters that pierce through metal?
The "blade" is hyper pressurized fluid. Perhaps it's more like a short range gun really, it might wind up like a flat lightsaber that just sort of extends onwards.

>>51929933
How large of a water tank do you intend to carry around?

>>51929308
Thanks for the write up, I basically came in here to post the same thing. People that don't work with machining really have no idea about materials science.

A lot of people don't know that titanium and aluminum do not have a low limit of stress that causes them to develop micro cracks like steel does. This means that every stress you put on the material will bring it further towards failure. With steel you have a lower limit that will not cause any appreciable wear on the material.

>>51927269
Aren't titanium swords impractically light to serve as battlefield weapons?

>>51931124
http://quantumchymist.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-arent-more-blades-made-of-titanium.html

Apparently while it has a stronger strength/weight ratio, it's got a lower strength/volume ratio, so you'd have a light sword that breaks easy and won't hold an edge as well.

>>51926005
Replace the blade with a titanium alloy chainsaw blade and stick a battery powered engine in the haft. Assuming it's near future there'd probably be a battery that's small and light enough to fit into the pommel.

You're in space, just use a CO2 diver knife and stab them once.

Do people still consider L6 bainite to be the 'best' steel for swords? Or has it been debunked as mall ninja memesteel by now?

I've stopped keeping up with esoteric shit like this.

>>51931364
Most of the single-steel, larger blades tend to favour a 0.60-0.70% carbon steel as an optimal mix of toughness, tensile strength and hardening.
There's quite a few varieties of alloy out there which roughly fit that description. Additional additives of vanadium, silicon, tungsten, manganese and the like also alter its properties and ability to withstand the impact stresses, be machined, edge holding etc.

Real question comes down to the heat-treatment, can have the best steel in the world but if its had a shit heat treatment it's not worth anything if its too brittle, too soft

>>51926005
>titanium edge

Titanijm is soft. And anyway, you gdnerally don't harden swords above 50 hrc to take the shock.

Forget "silver bullet" metal. If there's a way to improve swords it's mostly the manufacturd process. Pure steel, without slag inclusions, fine grain and spring steel. Also diferential heat treat.

>>51926005

Lightsabers would consume all the oxygen in your compartment.

>>51926056
>super sharp vorpal sword of ultimate sharpness +5.

Enjoy youf halfswording.

Here's thd thing - armour is really effective at stopping blades. Cleaving through plate, or even stabbing through mail (heck, even a gambeson is good protection) is pure fantasy.

>>51926213

Wouldn't it be stopped by armoured suits, hell any type of cosmonaut suit?

>>51926005

Electromagnetic material swords.

This isn't as flashy as it sounds, but it is pretty cool.

Basically, everything in the world has an electromagnetic field that makes it solid. If you set a glass on a table, its the electromagnetic repulsion way down at the molecular level that keeps that glass from falling through the table and into the center of the earth.

Electromagnetic materials let you manipulate that electromagnetic effect, essentially letting you make your sword incredibly strong for as long as the battery lasts. You always want to go stronger, not weaker. Having a sword that passes through walls sounds cool, but everything between here and there means that your sword hits a soap bubble and melts.

An electromagnetically strengthened sword would be able to maintain an edge otherwise impossible because it will dull much, much more slowly, and will have enhanced cutting ability because its almost always stronger than whatever it is cutting.

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Instead of focusing on tech to enhance the blade, just make an exo-skeleton to greatly enhance your strength. You could then use swords like pic related without any trouble.

>>51926005
Genetically enhance the swordsman and build the blade out of tungsten.

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>>51931810
>If you set a glass on a table, its the electromagnetic repulsion way down at the molecular level that keeps that glass from falling through the table and into the center of the earth.

>>51926139
In legend of the galactic heroes, boarding actions were done with crossbows, power armour and battle axes.
It was cool as fuck

>>51926292
they did well enough at sea

>>51931810
>If you set a glass on a table, its the electromagnetic repulsion way down at the molecular level that keeps that glass from falling through the table and into the center of the earth.

I thought that's what the point of the coaster was?

>>51932314
>tfw make myself hot chocolate with marshmallows but forget to use a coaster
>favourite mug + hot chocolate is now spinning perpetually in the Earth's core

fml

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>>51926005
Electric current, sword that stuns on touch. Should be simple enough

>>51932666
Shame it could be defeated by a polyester cardigan.

>>51932767
Well if it was stabby at the same time it wouldn't.

>>51932556

That'll teach you to not use coasters.

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>>51927082
related

>>51926005
get rid of handguns somehow.

a good example is Eclipse Phase, where many habs ban balistic weapons due to not wanting holes in the hab bulkhead.

You use a ceramic blade with a plutonium 238 core.

The blade would be at a constant 3000C and would cut through almost anything not ceramic with ease.

>>51926070
>I'm just not sure how a vibroblade wouldn't make your entire arm go numb in a matter of seconds.

Vibrate on button press, only before striking?

See: Metal Gear Solid, Revengeance

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>Medieval blacksmiths can make weapons with bullshit cutting power because magic
>Modern smiths aren't allowed to create weapons with bullshit cutting ability because magic

Hurr Durr

M-MUH realism

>>51926005
Wearable mechanized rigs that allow for the equipping of ultra-heavy bulletproof armor, facilitating the actual use of swords in the first place and creating a heavy assault role for urban scenarios and shock tactics.

In legitimate military settings, the sword would likely have to pass some sort of NATO standard in order to be considered humane enough for use in combat, so monofilament blades or something comparably sharp (serration on a nanometer level?) would probably be common. Black market swords, though, could be outfitted with more brutal features like heated/electrified blades or oscillation, like a big turkey carver.

It's also pretty likely that swords wouldn't be used at all, with military-grade stunning weapons taking their place; it's hard to look like the good guy when you're limited to carving people into bloody chunks. If we're going for rule of cool, though, maybe large seismic sledgehammers that incapacitate anyone in a few meter radius?

>>51933713
>blacksmiths can make weapons

What's a blacksmith doing making weaponry? Swordsmith's guild gonna kick the shit out of them for that.

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>>51934435

That guy doesn't know what he's talking about, we're just making knifes here.

>>51934506
The cutler's guild gonna be after you for that one too.

>>51926005
some sort of tungsten alloy blade, forged with a million flecks of diamond? or one of those new steel/glass metals

maybe the blade could be coated/forged with some sort of engineerined poison/radioactive material or something along those lines, to fuck up whoever it draws blood from

cant think of any real way to use heat/lasers/sound/electromagnetism to make it deadlier, but you could definitely use electricity; some sort of generator in the hilt that charges the blade. actually with heat, you could do like the last witch-hunter and have some flammable substance go down the blade and light up

>>51931783
Armor isn't very good at stopping modern bullets though, so it becomes a trade off. For a long time we had people running around in no armor but still with both guns and swords.

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>>51926227
>A metal sword blade isn't even made of molecules for a start

wat

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>>51926005
Everyone who answered steel. Good job, without a doubt, hands down best material to use for practical sword on sword battle, but a steel sword can either be alloyed with or plated to alter any number of its characteristics in any location on any sword, or even any weapon.
I, personally as an interested future blacksmith, am extremely interested in plating and alloys with exotic elements like the one pictured here.
>but anon nobody knows whats in the pic.
Guess.

>>51935146
jizm?

>>51928273
>Venting the ship might even be a desirable outcome for attacking marines in spacesuits, since it wont bother them any and it may kill, disable or restrict the mobility of some of the defenders.

I agree. Puncture the hull to depressurize, wait, then board.

>>51929933
>The "blade" is hyper pressurized fluid.

If you're in Zero-G that's just a bad idea. Even if you have artificial gravity, that is still a bad idea.

>>51933394

Yeah, that's not how Pu238 decay works.

>>51935146
yeah, jizm

Why not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_NC-_fvKs

A sharp thin blade, either knife or spear shaped, with a nozzle attached to high pressure gas canister. Once you penetrate whatever space suit/armor attacker wears and stick the end in their flesh, just press the button and they go boom.

A trident might be more useful than a sword on a spaceship.

>>51935146
>Guess

bismuth

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>>51935416
Imagine the possibilities of bismuth alloys with say gold or silver.

>>51932666
TRIGGERED

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>>51935387
At that point, why not just go pic related? Supersonic shockwaves beat temporary cavity.

>>51936744
Because it looks retarded.

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How about a sheath like jet stream Sam that "fires" the sword out allowing you to draw it with incredible speed and force.

>>51936846
I don't think your arm would be able to handle that.

>>51934775
Nah, not if he's making tool knives.

Like the ones you use for gathering willow sticks.

>>51936846
Wow, this is almost as bad as a dire flail.

>>51926005
> Let's also assume that bonding a titanium cutting edge to a steel or other core doesn't improve effectiveness enough to warrant the convoluted construction.

that would impair performance, not improve it. Ti is pretty shitty as a blade material except for divers in saltwater.

the big difficulty is that steel works exactly the way you want for a blade - its got enough mass (Al is too light), its got enough spring and flex, its got the right hardness (Ti and Al are too soft). Swap materials, and you have to redesign the entire thing, you cant just change the metal used. that's a huge problem in innovation - swords are the product of milennia of optimisation and design evolutions.

so really, the optimisations now are the steel, and most importantly, the heat-treat to tweak its performance. huge gains to be made there vs historical ones.

>>51926005
Chainsword?
Vibration blade?
Electric sword?

>>51926423
>>51926458

Yeah, like the type of forks/spoons they give to Parkinson's patients

>>51926070
Obviously the hilt would be designed to cancel the vibrations.

>>51926005
Unless you apply outright futuristic science fiction bullshit, there is nothing you can do since fucking 1960s.

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>>51935527

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>>51936846
it isn't really used to draw with more force, but to overcome the inertia and allow him to make one arking swing instead of a pulling movement.

sure it's a gimmick but it has it's uses.

>>51931124
>>51931161
These only take into account normal titanium.

There's a fuckton of titanium alloys that all behave differently, so trying to cover them all in a blanket statement isn't exactly accurate.

>>51934146
It would be easier to make man portable anti-armor weapons that to give people swords. If soldiers wore power armor, people would start using .50 ARs and the benefit would be lost. It would just make soldiers bigger targets with more expensive gear that can break down in the middle of a firefight.

>>51926157
>not the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre

Please step up your game.

>>51926005
Replace with a Chainsword

>>51926740

It would be pretty metal

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>>51938500
The two are virtually identical. The 1796 Light Cavalry is a little more curved and front heavy than the 1803. The hilts are also a little different in that the 1796 has a lighter guard, but you can actually punch a motherfucker with the 1803. Oh and the grip shapes are a little different to account for the different blade curvatures. On the whole the Light Cavalry is better when mounted, and the Infantry Sabre better on foot, but the difference is really very slight on the whole.

>>51933130
>Dune

muh brutha. Rereading the series right now

But seriously, Dune has a good thing going. It's not that swords have surpassed ranged weapons. Far from it. The Dune laser weapons are basically insta-gib weapons. The gun from District 9 turned up to 11. But the defenses against those ranged weapons have also evolved to ridiculous levels, to the point of personal shields.

The downside is that personal shields interact with the lasers to produce an atomic effect, killing the shooting and target. Good for suicide mission assassinations. Bad for everything else, especially stocking an army.

The political landscape of Dune is worth noting as well, for how it contributes to the swords vs guns. The Families all have storehouses of atomic weapons, but no one uses them for fear of backlash from all the other factions. Space warfare is almost nonexistent because of the Guild's stranglehold on space travel. You have to buy your way into moving troops.

The result is small-scale, infantry focused combat. Can't bomb the enemy, because shields, unless you go atomic, but we already know that's a bad idea. Could use guns but then you're trading one-for-one with the enemy, and the costs of moving soldiers is high, so you want the fewest bodies with the highest training - and you definitely don't want them dead, because time and money. Also helps to have an occupying force after the fight. Swords (and other melee/small arms, such as dart guns) don't trip the shields' triggers.

>>51926556

In the Western world, not really. Even those Ulfberht repro guys are constantly rediscovering things as they go. There are, however, one or two Japanese sword-smithing firms with unbroken lineage; they've forgotten more than the rest of us could possibly know, and they DO produce near-enough to those antiques to be masterpieces in their own right.

>can't be INB4 katana copypasta
>thread has katana copypasta in its soul

>>51941464
>(you)

Yeah. This is why I love Dune as a setting (and no I haven't read any books except for The Dune)

It gives an amazing reason to having melee in a highly futuristic sci-fi setting, and it's colorful in general. I feel like Star Wars is a very bad rip-off in a lot of ways. They reduced the pretty complicated philosophy/religious concepts behind Dune to Good vs Bad, and the weaponry, while iconic, is very forced (why have a lightsaber and not a light-shield that just blocks everything and reflects what seems to be the most common weapon straight back at the shooter?).

There are plenty of things that could be done to make a sword more effective at a specific task, but there's not some new thing that can be done to make them a better weapon. Ignoring the fact that there are hundreds of different designs of sword, each adapted to the specific circumstances of its specific battlefield, and each being made to focus on a different trait, the fact remains that swords just aren't going to be practical for most things. Yes, you might find a situation like Dune, or maybe you'll find something like a human-scale NGE AT-field scenario, where ranged combat stops working and you need to use melee troops to do anything, but that itself has the issue that, in general, we have better armor than we have swords. Even if you used a combination of vacuum cold-welding and sintering to produce a sword with a perfectly made diamond cutting edge, able to absorb enough shock to withstand the strength of your power armor, it'll still have to deal with the fact that, in general, armor is rather effective, and we've known how to (mostly) protect against swords since before guns were a thing. Add on layers of futuristic additions like a high-yield molecularly-shaped steel with diamond-like carbon coating, and it becomes obvious why we switched to guns.

>>51926005

Swords really shouldn't see a comeback in a near-future setting.

In a space setting mid-sized axes would likely be the best possible weapon when integrated into your thruster system. Boarding tool and CQC weapon in one, designed to catch on struts/into hull, crack visors, cut hoses, smash electronics and rend suits.

A long blade or spear may be appropriate to defend a ship however, since you want to avoid damaging the hull and want to keep the boarding axes away from your critical shell. These could be electrically charged, heated or designed to be braced and actuated explosively or hydraulically. This kind of weapon may be more effective than frangible solid projectiles.

On earth, knives and bayonets will still be the only CQC existent until some defensive development nullifies solid projectiles, which will likely lead into energy weapons rather than a return into the good old days.

Monocrystal weapons would have some impressive properties, but there's no advantage to making them larger than a spear-tip or knife.

A "cord-sword" with an extremely fast running abrasive cord would be quite useful in ablating the brittle, easily cut modern personnel armor. Basically a practical version of a chainsword.

You're basically SOL beyond that: Defenses need to be created to make firearms less effective to make CQC weapons viable.

>>51933410
So its a dildo

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>>51942589
Duel at dawn!

>>51937247
>Swap materials, and you have to redesign the entire thing, you cant just change the metal used
That's exactly what happened, more or less, at the beginning of the iron age: bronze was swapped out for iron/steel. I'm not saying you're wrong, and if you were I probably couldn't tell, since about 99% of what I know on this general topic comes from reading these threads on /tg/. What I am saying is that I'd be very interested to know more about the details of the differences between bronze and iron/steel weapons and armor.

>>51932314
kek

>>51935038
I think what that anon means is that the molecules in a sword are arranged into crystals. Thus the edge of a sword is not made of individual molecules, but formations of many molecules. This makes a single molecule blade impossible.

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You guys lack imagination.

The edge is a finely serrated arrangement of individual wurtzite boron nitrite crystals that have been made using molecular vapor deposition.

The edge is impregnated into a body of chemically passivized titanium alloy. (yes, titanium is still the optimal material). If you want to improve surface hardness to reduce scratching, and make it look baller as hell, you could also anodize it.

The center of the titanium blade is supported by a latticed truss of carbon nano tubes. Lead weights may be added to compensate for lightness.

The cross tree incorporates a small hydraulic jaw, which can be used to snag an opponents weapon, and shear it in half.

Additionally the hilt contains a replaceable cartridge of compressed air, which can be used to inject gas into soft targets. If you want to be a real crazy asshole, replace the compressed air with chlorine triflouride.

All of these are real technologies. Just no one has bothered to make a really fancy sword with them.

>Also, fuck the OPs suggestion that you can't use a composite of materials. Advanced construction techniques and composite materials are the literally the primary difference between all modern and ancient construction. It's like asking, "How do you make a musket ball better, without turning it into a cartridge?" You don't.

>>51929295
>>51929308
I was under the impression that fires in microgravity simply rapidly consumed all available oxygen and then put themselves out. I was also operating under the assumption that fireproofing would be mandatory in all serious spacecraft, meaning at most you'd damage some consoles and the life support system. Of course ClF(4) is a bit overkill in a spaceship but I was just throwing stuff out there. Poison weapons was a suggestion for a lethal breach and clear in an environment where damage both to the ship and the life support is undesirable, and you're expecting your opponents not to be suited. But imo the mix of all elements, flash, chem, and buzzdrone, would without a doubt be the most efficient way to manually have a boarding team clear out a ship without causing excessive damage. Also I reckon stun rifles or some sort of repeating bolt thrower would be your best bet as ranged weapons with bayonets and some sort of grappling weapon for melee. Swords no.

>>51927999
Whoever made the call to suspend those drills was absolutely making the right decision.

>>51938500
>Cavalry Sabre

Are you on a horse?

Thought not nigger. You can have your infantry sword and like it.

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Radioactive sword.
Uranium, plutonium, titanium alloy.
Always warm.
Become known as fire sword hero.
Die of cancer.

>>51943335

>Titanium
>Useful for a cutting edge

Nigga what, Titanium might have exceptional hardness-to-weight ratio, but it's still objectively inferior as a killing implement compared to 1060 Steel.

It's literally that easy! The magic behind the ultimate material is not finding the right recipe (people have known it for decades, it's 1060 Steel or ideally Nickel-Steel) but rather the right way to consistently produce it. With the advent of oxygen furnaces and EAF, we can control the variables like never before.

That's why modern shit is so good, not because we've got better elements but because we have better control. Wootz? Damascus? Katana folding? That was all damage control, folding is used to stamp out impurities more than improve hardness.

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>>51933410

>>51946067
Why would I not be on a horse?

>>51942622
Bronze swords were casted. Iron ones were forged.
Let's just say it makes a fuck-huge difference, since to properly describe it would take more than 2k signs and I don't know half of the therminology in English anyway.

>>51926070
>I'm just not sure how a vibroblade wouldn't make your entire arm go numb in a matter of seconds.

Shock-absorber in the hilt.

>>51946723

The ideal way to use titanium in a sword would be to have the titanium or carbotanium even as the back of the blade, then use electron microscope etched obsidian for the choppy bit of the blade.

>>51928329
>it has to have a purpose in an environment where artillery, gunships, planes, nukes, missiles, bombs, personal firearms and all that can just fuck so much shit up
Space pirates. The answer is space pirates. Because firing rifles, and even pistols would put a lot of tiny holes in you hull and suck arrything into space.

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>>51946723

>>51947752
>Actually boarding ship
>Not just giving the crew a choice between being blasted into pieces from inside of your own ship or surrender without use of needless violence
You are doing piracy wrong.
Regardless if in space or on high sea

>>51947781
>Blast a Spanish galleon full of pieces of eight with your cannons
>It sinks to the bottom of the ocean and your crew makes you walk the plank for being a fucking retard
>Blast a Ancap Martian Federation Spaceship full of Andromeda Galaxy Space-Credits with your Proton Modulation Torpedoes.
>It de-materializes into dark energy and your crew makes you voluntarily jump the airlock for breaking the NAP

>>51927929
So what, everyone on a sub should just know martial arts or something?

>>51947752
>Because firing rifles, and even pistols would put a lot of tiny holes in you hull and suck arrything into space
Way to not read the thread.

>>51941464
I'm reading God-Emperor of Dune for the first time, and I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as the original. Dune without actual dunes and Fremen being badass just doesn't feel like Dune to me.

>>51946723
>>51947754
The dude explicitly says in his post that titanium is only the body, not the cutting edge. The cutting edge is made of boron nitrite crystals.

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>>51931783
why hello there

>>51947781
>You are doing piracy wrong.

I think you fail to understand the actual point of piracy was to make money, which you don't do by blowing people up. Your ploy could work if you where one of those pirates who was so well known his name struck fear into the hearts of seamen across the civilized world, but you and I both know that's too self masturbatory.

>>51926005
Modern high-grade tool steels.
Industrial diamond cutting edges.
Chainsaw swords.
Short-barreled shotgun in the handgrip, firing along the blade.
Nanoscale injectors to dump molecular acid into cuts.

>>51926070
>I'm just not sure how a vibroblade wouldn't make your entire arm go numb in a matter of seconds.
The same way you can ride motorbikes for hours without your arms going numb. Padding and balanced grips.