this post was submitted on 14 May 2024

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678

Iron (mander.xyz)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[+] [email protected] 53 points 7 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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!

[–] prettybunnys 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Orrrrrr capture the entire family of your foe and then you can name the sword something super cool about ending family lines

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 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?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Slaanesh approves

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Or just mix in a few enemies with some normal iron.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago (7 children)

These are the required elements for making steel:

Iron
Carbon
Manganese
Chromium
Phosphorus
Sulphur
Nickel
Molybdenum
Titanium
Copper
Boron

Source: https://www.cliftonsteel.com/education/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.

Source: https://sciencenotes.org/elements-in-the-human-body-and-what-they-do/

Source: https://sciencenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/PeriodicTableHumanBody.png

[–] [email protected] 48 points 7 months ago (2 children)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

Yes

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Someone else did the math, accounting for waste made during forging. https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-gaming/blood-iron-sword-myth-explored/

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

This is extremely helpful, and fits perfectly into my secret plan

Secret plan

I will use this info as background for a BBEG in my TTRPG game

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

This is the MVP-comment! Thank you for that source!

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Your link says these are elements commonly found in steel, not that they are all required. In fact it says of phosphorus and sulphur that they are generally undesirable.
We don't need to make a steel sword, an iron sword could do.

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.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Somebody call NileRed asap

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is more of a NileBlue job though

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

I want The Red Cross to hire you for marketing asap so this can actually happen.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

imagine, over the centuries of blood donation, the sword slowly grows from a knife, into an absolutely huge dragonslayer behemoth

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

the living sword

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'd suggest a warhammer mold, just for stability.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Mythbusters did this on their first episode: ice bullet. I think a sword might also be too brittle unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Hold up... Wouldn't a diamond sword be better than a steel one?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Too brittle, I think.

For ceremony, though, perfect!

[–] merc 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Way too brittle if it was the weight of a typical sword, and way too heavy otherwise.

On the other hand, the cutting edge of that sword would be pretty amazing while it lasted.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

well what about just having the blade being diamond, like those diamond saws used for cutting rock.

[–] merc 3 points 7 months ago

Do you mean just the edge? Because with a sword basically the whole thing other than the handle is the blade.

But yeah, with a tiny diamond edge you'd probably have the best of both worlds, a light, flexible sword with an ultra-sharp cutting edge.

Still, the edge probably wouldn't last for long. If the diamond was attached to a steel blade and the blade flexed, the diamond couldn't flex and would probably snap.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

So about 3150 pints of blood (10.5 being average for an adult).

Sounds doable XD

Edit: New ethical dilemma just dropped - kill 300 to forge the sword, or deny 3150 people blood in an emergency to forge the sword...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

New ethical dilemma just dropped - kill 300 to forge the sword, or deny 3150 people blood in an emergency to forge the sword…

porque no los dos

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

New ethical dilemma just dropped - kill 300 to forge the sword, or deny 3150 people blood in an emergency to forge the sword...

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

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?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Glory.

[–] JohnDClay 3 points 7 months ago

You could even use the carbon from their flesh to make the steel!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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!

After further research it looks like the more appropriate number of humans needed to make an average longsword would be closer to 25.000

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