Baron Opal II
Legend
Does anyone know of construction projects that utilized bronze for the structure? Not for the skin, but as the skeleton.
-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Bronze Construction
- Thread starter Baron Opal II
- Start date
Baron Opal II
Legend
Now that I'm not on my phone-
One of the aspects of my campaign is that iron inhibits magic. This is why spellcasters are usually only in leather armor, if any at all. Varieties of bronze, however, do not inhibit magic. It is theoretically possible that someone could wear bronze armor and cast just fine.
Thinking of that, a wizard might want to build a tower; not of mere stone but rather of strong bronze! When I looked into the construction of large bronze works, they were often statues with a bronze skin and timber frames. I was wondering if there was any evidence as to using bronze beams, but there may not have been enough tin, or even copper, to cast such large pieces. Iron is pretty easy to find once you have the means to smelt it. Or, was there even the demand for beams of metal? Stone, brick, and timber may have been more than sufficient.
So, there's a little more info from the stream of consciousness.
One of the aspects of my campaign is that iron inhibits magic. This is why spellcasters are usually only in leather armor, if any at all. Varieties of bronze, however, do not inhibit magic. It is theoretically possible that someone could wear bronze armor and cast just fine.
Thinking of that, a wizard might want to build a tower; not of mere stone but rather of strong bronze! When I looked into the construction of large bronze works, they were often statues with a bronze skin and timber frames. I was wondering if there was any evidence as to using bronze beams, but there may not have been enough tin, or even copper, to cast such large pieces. Iron is pretty easy to find once you have the means to smelt it. Or, was there even the demand for beams of metal? Stone, brick, and timber may have been more than sufficient.
So, there's a little more info from the stream of consciousness.
Yora
Legend
Bronze is a pretty fantastic material and quite easy to make. To make steel that has superior properties to good bronze, you need pretty advanced processes and complex equipment, which only showed up at the end of the middle ages. And bronze was still used for various special uses that require exceptional strength long after that, like cannons and bells.
The reason we don't see bronze as the main material for metal objects after the bronze age is that that stuff is expensive! When a low to medium quality steel will do the job, you're really going to use that. Bronze was used when you absolutely had to.
Where bronze isn't doing so well is in long and thin pieces. Which is why you don't see much bronze greatswords plate armor, and chainmail. (Southeast Asia had brass mail because the humidity was awful for iron mail. A case of "absolutely had to".)
From a material sciences perspective, there's nothing speaking against a tower made from bronze. But it would be amazingly expensive. For a wizard's tower, it would be a really cool idea. Pretty insane fo normal people, but great for a strange wizard.
The reason we don't see bronze as the main material for metal objects after the bronze age is that that stuff is expensive! When a low to medium quality steel will do the job, you're really going to use that. Bronze was used when you absolutely had to.
Where bronze isn't doing so well is in long and thin pieces. Which is why you don't see much bronze greatswords plate armor, and chainmail. (Southeast Asia had brass mail because the humidity was awful for iron mail. A case of "absolutely had to".)
From a material sciences perspective, there's nothing speaking against a tower made from bronze. But it would be amazingly expensive. For a wizard's tower, it would be a really cool idea. Pretty insane fo normal people, but great for a strange wizard.
The biggest statue in the world is made of bronze,,,AND steel. I suspect the steel was used for its cost to strength ratio,
news.artnet.com
India Just Unveiled the World's Tallest Statue, and It's Twice as Big as the Statue of Liberty | Artnet News
India's 597-foot-tall bronze Statue of Unity, the world's tallest statue, depicts its first deputy prime minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
news.artnet.com
Yora
Legend
One of the qualities in which bronze really has steel beaten is water resistance. When copper alloys react with oxygen when wet, they form a thin surface layer that seals the rest of the material against contact with the air and water. If the layer gets scratched, it just automatically seals itself again.
Iron alloys usually don't. When they react with oxygen, they expand in size and become flaky and crumbly, which exposes the interior of the object to more moisture and the whole thing eventually turns into dust. Maintenance for steel blades and armor primarily consists of making sure it does not start to rust. Covering steel in paint can help quite a lot, but it needs to be regularly repainted to maintain the surface sealing, which is expensive and takes a lot of work. Stainless steel exists, but the fact that it doesn't rust is really about the only positive trait it has. Great for cooking pots, cutlery, and sinks that are wet all the time and don't need to support much weight, but not much good for anything that requires strength.
That's what makes bronze the typical metal of choice for the outer shell of statues. There are some really ancient pieces of iron that have been exposed to the weather for many centuries without turning into red dust, but they have a very high amount of impurities that probably makes the iron not much of a good building material.
Iron alloys usually don't. When they react with oxygen, they expand in size and become flaky and crumbly, which exposes the interior of the object to more moisture and the whole thing eventually turns into dust. Maintenance for steel blades and armor primarily consists of making sure it does not start to rust. Covering steel in paint can help quite a lot, but it needs to be regularly repainted to maintain the surface sealing, which is expensive and takes a lot of work. Stainless steel exists, but the fact that it doesn't rust is really about the only positive trait it has. Great for cooking pots, cutlery, and sinks that are wet all the time and don't need to support much weight, but not much good for anything that requires strength.
That's what makes bronze the typical metal of choice for the outer shell of statues. There are some really ancient pieces of iron that have been exposed to the weather for many centuries without turning into red dust, but they have a very high amount of impurities that probably makes the iron not much of a good building material.
Baron Opal II
Legend
Ego, for the particular wizard I have in mind. "Firedancer the Metal Mage" - he wears a thin bronze mask and red robes. He's going to have enough stone floors and bronze plate on the outside I figure that some sort of metal beam support would be needed. But steel or iron beams would disrupt his magic.
Similar Threads
