Feruchemical Metal Alloys

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

I have a confusing question. What would happen if you feruchemicaly stored things in copper and tin, and then alloyed them to create pewter? Would that change the allomantic/feruchemical result in the metal? What if you then burned the pewter? What if you feruchemically stored things in gold and tin, and then alloyed them together? That would make a allomantically inert metal, right? But the original metals had charges? What happens if you store stuff in pewter and then split it? I am so confused.

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

I have a confusing question. What would happen if you feruchemicaly stored things in copper and tin, and then alloyed them to create pewter?

You lose your Feruchemical Storages. The storage is not just bound by the Feruchemist's Identity, but by the spiritual nature of the metal. Change the metal and now the storage will not match the metal , so it can no longer be accessed. WoB:

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Mason Wheeler

It seems that taking something metal that is Invested and melting it down, and reforging it, does not destroy the Investiture in it. For example the spike that got turned into a bullet.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, and the-- yeah. There are other examples as well.

Mason Wheeler

If that doesn't ruin its Invested nature, what would happen if Wax were to take one of his ironminds, have that melted and alloyed into steel, and then tried to burn it?

Brandon Sanderson

So you are saying mixing in-- right. Um, this would probably not work. But I'd have to go to the document on this one, because I've theorized in it. So I'm going to say probably won't work, but I have to go to my document, so Notes And Find Out. As soon as we get into the really detailed-- One of the things I want, even when I was building the Mistborn magics, is I wanted it to get really complicated. Because, my philosophy was making a wheel is easy to understand what's going on. Making a car uses all the same physics and simple tools, but is infinitely--well, you know, not infinitely--hugely more complex. Making a spaceship goes beyond that. And I wanted when we dug into all the actual mechanics it all works, but it's like the difference between making an abacus and making a computer. And we're starting to stray-- not into computer-making realms, but starting to stray into combustion-making realms, and so these are the sort of things that I just can't talk about off the cuff as easily. Because I have this document and I'm like "this, this, this, this." Does that makes sense?

So I'm going to say that probably wouldn't work. I believe what is going to happen there is you're probably going to end up with one of these things where you see a reservoir there but you can't access it that happens quite a bit when things get muddled once you mix in other metals and things like that. But I can't give you 100% on that without the notes to double check myself.

Footnote: This question was previously answered here.
Orem signing (March 10, 2018)

 

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Rogaen

What would happen if a Feruchemist fills, for example, a tin metalmind then mixes it to make a pewter metalmind? Does the stored attribute change? Is the Investiture gone when you melt the metal? What if he just makes it into a tin metalmind again?

Brandon Sanderson

If you make it impure, you'll keep the investiture, but won't be able to get it out. If you make it back into the same thing, you'll be fine, and can access it normally. If you try to fill it, after changing the composition to make another viable metal, it will act a little like a computer hard drive with corrupted sectors. Some of it will work for the new investiture, but you won't be able to fill it nearly as full. (Depending on how full it was before you melted down.)

This holds for basic uses of the metallurgic arts. Once you start playing with some of the more advanced parts of the magic, you can achieve different results, which are currently RAFO.

<Edited for length and relevance> General Reddit 2016 (Nov. 11, 2016)

Hope that helps

Edited January 28, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[ChickenBonanza]

We have a word of god on this exact topic! Behold!

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Questioner

If you take a coppermind that has stores and you take a zincmind that has stores and you melt them together to form brass, what happens?

Brandon Sanderson

It's mostly going to destroy your ability to recover any of it, unfortunately. 

Questioner

Are you going to be able to store any more?

Brandon Sanderson

You're probably going to end up, if it was already full, with it being full but you not being able to access it. So it would not be very handy to do. Not be very useful for you.

(https://wob.coppermind.net/events/402/#e13470)

Needs to be the metal aligned with the Feruchemical charge it holds in order to draw it out, it seems.

Splitting a metalmind divides its charges amongst its fragments, as seen in these words.

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Maru Nui

What happens when you break a Hemalurgic spike or metalmind? What happens to that power?

Brandon Sanderson

Hemalurgic power can be split among multiple spikes and reforged, but remember that the longer a spike is outside of a person, the more the power is going to decay. Things like splitting it will decay it even further. Metalminds can also be broken and still be accessed

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/210/#e4618

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Paleo

We tried to develop a theory of what a metalmind actually is, and we know that splitting a metalmind can halve the charge effectively or divide the charge.

Brandon Sanderson

It can divide the charge although it makes it much harder to, yeah.

Paleo

But is it actually physical... is the charge concentrated physically at one point or is it more like a gas so it diffuses?

Brandon Sanderson

It diffuses.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/398/#e13238

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Hope that helps

The ignominy of being beaten in such a manner, by such a margin. Never shall I stop to help another again. Good day sir.

Edited January 28, 2025 by ChickenBonanza