Ranking the weapons of Condor Trilogy

[Temujin]

Ok, so the heavy iron sword is still #1 then.

[Homura]

Just some chemistry background to clear some fallacious/outrageous claims....

You cant just define how 'strong' a particular metal is, and use that to define the strength of a weapon.

Metals have the properties of tensile strength, compressive strength, ductility, malleability.

The properties have to be in the correct ratio for it to be any use....

A rigid but brittle material would snap when encountering strong resistance, while a more flexible material would absorb more impact, thus not break.

Iron can be hard, and can be soft.... It depends on how it is worked. It's all to do with the crystalline structure of the metal. A lump of iron, just melted and cooled is fairly soft. But iron becomes more and more rigid (and brittle) as it is 'worked' (hammered), due to a shifting in the crystalline structure.

Titanium is favoured nowadays not for its strength, but for its favourable 'strength to weight ratio'. It has fairly good tensile strength per unit weight. It is however quite brittle and snaps easily.

Iridium is one of the densest metals known. Alloying with platinum to form an alloy makes one of the most corrosion resistant alloys known. However, it is extremely dense and heavy.

Alloys are stronger / weaker depending on the percentages of metals used. Its not as simple as mixing 2 hard metals to make a super hard one. Its to do with how atoms of one metal displace the atoms of the other in the crystalline structure of the alloy... If a strong metallic bonds can be formed in the resulting crystalline lattice, the alloy will be strong.