Stormlight retention as a function of gem size

[Kurkistan]

What Shardlet said, I would think. Faceting is about more than just removing flaws.

[Gloom]

The purpose of faceting is to bring out the brilliance of a gem. That is where the light entering the stone is reflected off the bottom facets and returned to the viewer. Brilliance should not be confused with dispersion or fire, which is the multicolored flashes you see coming out of diamonds and some other gems. (http://www.gemsociety.org/info/igem3.htm)

[Shardlet]

That is the purpose of faceting gemstones for jewelry.  Brandon's quote suggests that faceting plays an additional role in stormlight retention.

[Miyabi]

But you also have to remember that within Roshar the cut of the Gem is also related to the type of Spren they want to attract with it when making it into a Fabrial, so just simple clarity might not be the exact reason behind the holding of the Stormlight. Perhaps a cut which wouldn't look that nice is the one which holds Stormlight best, due to the functionality of cutting the Gems in certain ways.

We will have to learn more about it I feel before we can say for sure on this matter.

[Gloom]

Very well, I will agree that follow up questions should have been asked by Miyabi. j/k

 

I'll concede the point for now due to a lack of additional evidence.

[Baine]

I'm just joining in here; I think that the quote means that the cut of the gemstone determines how well the gemstone holds the stormlight, but the size of the gem determines how much stormlight it can hold.

[Swimmingly]

I'm just joining in here; I think that the quote means that the cut of the gemstone determines how well the gemstone holds the stormlight, but the size of the gem determines how much stormlight it can hold.

Then the brightest gems would actually be ones poorly cut. You could make Stormlight floodlights using badly cut gems, or even stormlight lasers with gem-cutter rejects as power sources

[Bramble Thorn]

Hello. People in this thread have been assuming that the mass of a unit of currency is proportional to its worth in chips. This is for example a mark is approximately 5 times the size as a chip, and a broam about 20 times the size/mass as a chip. I do not think that is the case. I think as in real life larger sizes are rarer, and the value goes up faster than the size does.

 

Part of this is how gemstones are used up in fabrials, where over using a gemstone can crack it. I assume the cracked gemstone can we refaceted into two or more (smaller) gemstones, with assorted leftover chips, marks, and possibly broams. If currency value was strictly mass based, very little value would be actually lost, just coin changing to smaller denominations.

 

I think a chip is any piece of gemstone that will still hold stormlight, as small as a chip can get, up to about a twice that size, when the gem cutter would try and divide it into two chips. Unless twice the size of a chip is the size of a mark, of course. Probably not able to be worked into facets due to small size, but likely to have "facets" anyway due to place shearing when struck. (I am imagining how trash pieces struck off of obsidian have at least one smooth surface.Also; I know nothing about gem cutting.)

 

 

A mark would be less than 5 times the size of a chip, probably just over twice the size of a chip (enough that it could be worked into two or more chips that each hold stormlight.) Anything large enough to cut into two marks would be a broam. Broams are more workable both because of their size, and because they are the largest standard denomination. So if you are using it as currency, unless it was large enough to become two broams, any mass above accepted broam size is "wasted," and would used train apprentice and journeyman gem smiths in faceting before potentially damaging a actual gemstone, where a bad cut could destroy its usefulness in a fabrial.

 

Aside from larger gems being rarer as a reason for worth not being 1:1 proportional to size, another reason is surgebinders like Kaladin, who can power his superpowers quite well from pocket change. I think one reason is because (for example) in changing a diamond broam for 50 diamond chips, even though the broam is larger than any larger chip, there is more gemstone materiel in all the chips added together. Also if Kaladin got a hold of a diamond gemstone (which is worth dozens of diamond broams/ a couple thousand or so diamond chips) as efficient as he is in stormlight usage, if it actually held 2000 or so diamond chips worth of stormlight, that would be a LOT of energy, more than I think he would ever use between highstorms.

 

And such gems ARE used in shardplate, and do not last long at all. I do not think they are that inefficient. I think gems are used in shardplate instead of broams because they give more energy. Just not that much more. Warfare is a matter of inches after all, and every bit matters.

[Awesomeness Summoned]

Anyone else wonder if brandon ever scans through the forum and thinks to himself things like "man, never thought my book would inspire three pages of gem cutting and mining techniques"? Sorry, kurk and gloom's conversation was both enlightening and entertaining

[Satsuoni]

Anyone else wonder if brandon ever scans through the forum and thinks to himself things like "man, never thought my book would inspire three pages of gem cutting and mining techniques"? Sorry, kurk and gloom's conversation was both enlightening and entertaining

No, Brandon doesn't He has crafty Peter do it for him   I don't feel like searching, but it was mentioned by trusted sources that Brandon doesn't want to get distracted by our awesome debates

[Kurkistan]

UPDATE:

So I was right after all...

Source: (paraphrase)

Gagylpus: Does REDACTED need to take any special precautions (compared to the rest of the year on Roshar) to ensure that he survives the Weeping?

Sanderson: Yes, but it is not too difficult. Larger gemstones last longer in the time between highstorms.

Note: Essentially confirms that REDACTED survives on Stormlight. Brandon did not directly say that hanging on to some large gemstones is how REDACTED survives the Weeping, however.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Kurkistan

[Argent]

You should probably REDACT all mentions of his name though.

 

Also, that's hardly news - somebody in Words of Radiance told us larger gemstones last longer into the Weepings.

[Kurkistan]

Yes, but that could conceivably have been a function of their faceting or the like; also bigger gemstones, more detail, more of a chance they're gemhearts (and so better than the average bear in terms of quality).

Edited August 14, 2014 by Kurkistan