Shardblade density

[Aluminum he/him]

So for Halloween, I decided to make a full-scale replica of a shardblade and it made me realize just how crazy shardblades' lightness is. My replica is pretty much just a 6ft wooden dowel and some cardboard and it's way too heavy to wield with just one hand. I think this means shardblade metal is lighter than cardboard. I realize it's a magical godmetal but that's just weird to think about

[Returned he/him]

Hm... we do have a comment from Moash (I think it was him... he was in the scene, at least) saying that the Shardblade he and Kaladin's group practice with is heavier than he expected. Cardboard is still heavier than weightless, but that seems like an odd observation for a practiced spearman soldier to make if that's as heavy as it got. I think a big factor would be that anyone using a Shardblade would be a trained swordsman, which involves working lots of muscles most people don't use much in modern life. The dowel probably weighs something like two pounds or so (I'm estimating), a longsword might weigh between three and four pounds, and a shortsword around two pounds. The leverage of a six foot implement would definitely make a difference, though! I don't recall offhand, do we ever see anyone in the books using a Shardblade one-handed, without wearing Plate?

Also, the sword looks good! How long did it take you to make?

[Aluminum he/him]

Took about 3 weeks, I think one of the stances, was it flamestance? wields the blade one-handed although that might only be with plate

[Kandrafish]

Is it ever mentioned how thin a shardblade is? 

If it is super unnaturally thin, which could work for an impossibly strong metal, then it could be a little more dense. 

Although, maybe it has a low specific gravity (density) due to investiture weirdness.

[Frustration]

On 10/30/2022 at 8:12 PM, Aluminum said:

So for Halloween, I decided to make a full-scale replica of a shardblade and it made me realize just how crazy shardblades' lightness is. My replica is pretty much just a 6ft wooden dowel and some cardboard and it's way too heavy to wield with just one hand. I think this means shardblade metal is lighter than cardboard. I realize it's a magical godmetal but that's just weird to think about

So, shardblades are closer to 7 feet, and probably go a little over.

[SteelBagel]

Well Roshar has 70% gravity, and we don't know ashyn's gravity, so it's possible all humans on roshar have a sort of superman deal going on where they come from a planet with stronger gravity and therefore have evolved to have stronger muscles, and can therefore lift heavier objects.

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by SteelBagel

[HSuperLee]

22 hours ago, SteelBagel said:

Well Roshar has 70% gravity, and we don't know ashyn's gravity, so it's possible all humans on roshar have a sort of superman deal going on where they come from a planet with stronger gravity and therefore have evolved to have stronger muscles, and can therefore lift heavier objects.

 

There's also the fact that being in an environment so investiture saturated makes them really healthy, which might be preventing the degradation due to lack of gravity that we'd expect. In addition, it probably just means its easier for people on Roshar to get stronger and build muscle.

[cometaryorbit]

Yeah, Shardblades are lighter than a real sword their size would be, but still heavier than Bridge Four expected.

Shardblades also vary a lot in width. Sunraiser is very narrow, whereas Firestorm might be more like yours (yours still looks wider to me but that might be foreshortening in the photo).

Oathbringer is six feet long and "a handspan" wide, which seems fairly narrow for its length.

[voidlight]

It mentions somewhere in the books (i cant remember where) that shardblades are difficult to wield with one hand without plate.

[Beodrakis he/him]

your shardblade

might just be poorly balanced, if you add some weights to the bottom of the hilt where the gemstone usually sits, it might be easier to wield.

[voidlight]

Gemstones are a weight on the end.