Another use for silver

Most of my high-end running gear for winter running (sub -40) has silver woven into it for extra warmth insulation as well as providing some anti-bacterial protection. After 270 days of getting ready for Winter is coming I can imagine a skill level of 10 in tailoring and fabrication would be necessary.

1 Like

That sounds neat but I don’t think silver would help too much(silver is a high conductor) it might work if it used core body temp or to even temp around the body but I don’t think it would be efficient without a heavy insulator on the outside.

Silver’s real value in today’s world is it’s ability to conduct energy for high power circuits and it’s cheaper than gold(and more survivable).

Really I’d need to see such a clothing to make a honest decision about it either way although interesting.

Here’s a little article about it here and the scientific article that it references.

2 Likes

Oh, god, those modern technologies… Where are my valenki, shuba and ushanka…

1 Like

Here I was thinking Lycanthropy + a means to kill them via silver bullets lol

2 Likes

“You were a vampire killer before the Cataclysm, carrying silver weapons with you, maybe this has special effects on the zombies.”

Then you find out it doesn’t and get eaten.

While a Silver-sword or similar melee weapon might not be viable for very long, but bullets do work, which is shown in the game since you can use it to craft bullets with it.
Actually, now that I think about it…Melee weapons made from silver should work for a bit too, but you need to straighten them every once in a while I guess. If you make a silver hammer though, this might actually work nice, since silver is surprisingly heavy in larger quantities

The fact you can make bullets from silver and have them work normally is a bit odd. Silver is significantly lighter and harder than lead, so I’d imagine it would make for pretty bad bullets.

A silver melee weapon could probably work, just it wouldn’t be as hard or strong as a steel one. Wouldn’t last as long or do as much damage.

Silver is comparable to copper in hardness (mohs scale for copper is 3, silver ranks at 2.5-3) ; In the copper, and more importantly in the bronze age, copper and bronze weapons like swords had to be straightened regularly, in order to keep fighting ; it was either that or your weapon would eventuall look like an upside down L or simply break off. Considering that Silver is softer than Copper, this would be the same for Silver. So they would work, but would be damaged extremely quickly.

Now for the bullets:
It might be lighter, but the additional hardness would probably translate into a bullet with higher velocity, therefore giving the bullet a similar-ish power compared to a bullet made from lead. Of course, I’m not an expert, but that’s my idea here - harder material means that less energy is lost due to deformation of said material, therefore more power will be transferred to the target.

1 Like

Hardness isn’t strength though. Hardness is the ability for one material to scratch/cut through another. Strength is the ability to resist deformation or breaking. Silver isn’t as hard or strong as copper, so it would be even worse as a weapon. Not terrible, you could make a sword out of frozen butter if you really wanted to, but there’s absolutely no reason to use it when steel is available. Like you said, you would have to repair it after pretty much every fight.

Hardness of a projectile doesn’t really affect velocity, assuming you’re not firing gelatin or something like that, it’s only down to weight and the energy input. If we assume equal energy for a lead and silver bullet (apparently silver is only a little bit lighter than lead) then the silver bullet would be slightly faster than the lead one. However, silver is harder/stronger than lead, which means it isn’t going to expand in the wound like lead tends to, which actually means you’re going to do less practical damage, even if it might be slightly better at penetrating armor. It would work, sure, but I don’t think it would be as effective as a lead bullet.

EDIT: A quick google suggests silver bullets have been tried and they might penetrate further at short range, but are inaccurate and slower at long ranges.

If a creature could survive a ton of damage except for a silver weapon doing damage to it. I’d be more inclined to use silver for weapon purpose. That said. Assuming you wanted a silver bullet. Use lead center and cast silver around it. Best result would be a heavy bullet with properties of silver to kill said critter that would take max damage from silver substance.

Silver bullets of the past and in olden days so to speak, were big honkin balls. More than likely used with a flint lock or a blunderbuss or something similar. In short. People aren’t so nutty as to assume lycanthropes actually exist and a legit silver bullet would probably suck. Which is sad cause I still dig the idea xD