Would adding the cremated remains of a humanoid make a forged weapon stronger?

[thedarknessrising]

Title really says it all. But in my world, I thought it would be a cool idea that when a dwarf dies, they sometimes cremate the bodies and mix the ashes into a sword, axe or hammer. Would the carbon from the body help strengthen the metal to make the weapon more durable? Or would it have no real effect?

 

[Devor]

IRL, it wouldn't have a discernible effect over regular carbon. If there was a difference, it would be negative, since you would normally use materials that are optimized for making steel, instead of whatever impurities might be included with a person's remains. They do it all the time with jewelry and such.

Worth noting, you would only include a portion of the ash in making an item. You'd still have plenty of remains to dispose of separately.

 

[pmmg]

Yeah, You might give it additional magic or spiritual properties, but its would just be carbon, and probably impure carbon at that. You could say there was something additional to dwarf blood. Maybe they have mithril instead of iron floating around in it.

Though, I have seen some youtube video where people use cigarette ash to repair cracked plastic.

 

[BearBear]

I saw once there was a company that would put a tiny fraction of the remains of a loved one into an industrially made diamond and it made it turn purple.

The major constituents of the cremated body is calcium phosphate and sodium.

Calcium phosphate is used as a coating in bio-implants and it can cause case crystalization during certain heat treatments, so that's done to make the outer shell basically ceramic. That would then keep it sharper longer but once you actually do sharpen it, this coating would be removed. It could be super sharp and durable for a while with a ceramic coating though.

The process could be repeated after sharpening.

Sodium added to the metalworking process could produce hallides which would give the blade the capacity for brilliant light (if it was a bulb filiment anyway).

Adding it to the metal during casting would probably just be an impurity and be rejected as slag eventually but I'm not an expert. In aluminum it can be added (bone ash) and it may act as a casting quality enhancer.

"Bone ash has a direct influence in improving the casting quality, because of the following intrinsical benefits: Has excellent non-wetting properties. Is chemically inert and free of organic matters. Has very high heat transfer resistance."

 

[LieutenantWolf34]

To strengthen their blades smiths would use the bones of ancestors and animals hoping to transfer the spirit into their blades. It turns out they made a form of steel.

Vikings unwittingly made their swords stronger by trying to imbue them with spirits
So depending on what kind of metal the axe or swords you mentioned are made out of the answer would theoretically be yes. Of course, you could go the nonscientific route and have actual spirits go into the weapon

 

[pmmg]

To strengthen their blades smiths would use the bones of ancestors and animals hoping to transfer the spirit into their blades. It turns out they made a form of steel.

Vikings unwittingly made their swords stronger by trying to imbue them with spirits
So depending on what kind of metal the axe or swords you mentioned are made out of the answer would theoretically be yes. Of course, you could go the nonscientific route and have actual spirits go into the weapon

And as an added benefit, if the sword broke, you could blame it on your brother.

 

[Finchbearer]

With my severely limited knowledge of forging, I would say, no.

After humans are cremated in a modern context, most of the ash is made up of the wood from the coffin. And I would have thought that adding in random materials would create a weaker bond not a stronger one.

Unless the ashes created a magical bonding agent or something. I mean magical swords in fiction and legend are nothing new though.

 

[BearBear]

With my severely limited knowledge of forging, I would say, no.

After humans are cremated in a modern context, most of the ash is made up of the wood from the coffin. And I would have thought that adding in random materials would create a weaker bond not a stronger one.

Unless the ashes created a magical bonding agent or something. I mean magical swords in fiction and legend are nothing new though.

True, but the bones are usually still intact, so really you just need the bones to make bone ash then you're good to go to make your metal better.

 

[Finchbearer]

I think adding anything other than (steel??) would create impurities and therefore would make a weaker bond.

But with magic the possibilities are rather limitless.

 

[BearBear]

I think adding anything other than (steel??) would create impurities and therefore would make a weaker bond.

But with magic the possibilities are rather limitless.

No way man, steel has all kinds of elements in it to make it stronger or to favor different crystal structures or micro-structures.

 

[Finchbearer]

I think this calls for going down to the local forge and testing this theory out…

 

[BearBear]

I think this calls for going down to the local forge and testing this theory out…

Bring some bone ash.

 

[Devor]

Bring some bone ash.

You bring the bone, I'll make the ash?