Hardness of Minerals/Dwarven Stones [Geologists?]

[Harlock]

I am becoming interested in Dwarven Stones somewhat. I am tired of my plastic, vinyl or whatever-the-heck-they-are dice becoming "weighted" after sitting in one position too long. I was checking out the Crystal Caste website and saw a few options. I know Quartz has a hardness on Moh's simplified scale of 7. It can actually scratch glass, though not as easily as a diamond of course. I also noticed on the Crystal Caste site that they had "Honor Dice" that they say were commisioned by KenzerCo. These are "jewelry-grade" leaded glass dice. Does anynoe have an idea of where leaded glass falls on Moh's scale? I've tried the internet without much success, so I turn humbly to you with my weak Google-Fu and ask for your assistance.

Also, anyone who uses Dwarven Stones or Honor Dice, please, feel free to comment on the quality or lack thereof or offer alternative sources for dice that won't tend to roll the same numbers too often. If you're asking yourself why hardness matters to me, well, I can be quite gentle with dice, I even have a Battlemat on which to roll them, but I also have a (nearly) four-year-old who enjoys playing with my dice as well. He's not as particular as I am about proper dice care. And yes, he does know better than to eat them... now anyway.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot I changed the original thread title before posting so the disclaimer was no longer appropriate. Carry on!

 

[Harlock]

It sat here all weekend, so I'll give it a Monday bump to see if the weekday crowd has any ideas. Thanks in advance.

 

[alsih2o]

I am becoming interested in Dwarven Stones somewhat. I am tired of my plastic, vinyl or whatever-the-heck-they-are dice becoming "weighted" after sitting in one position too long.

can someone who knows more about plastics than an undereducated potter confirm or refute this?

edit: geowife says window glass is 5 1/2 and she thinks leaded makes no doifference on that scale, somehting about sheer strength being sifferent

 

[diaglo]

window glass is constantly moving. and after about 8 years will have a "weighted" appearance.

as for weighting your plastics...a microwave oven will do it much faster. 30" on high is enough...if not too much in higher powered ones.

there are many ways to "rig" dice.

 

[isoChron]

Dwarven stones are nice and heavy and all that, but don't let them fall on some hard surface like a stone floor . As most minerals used for the dice are brittle, hard but brittle. I have a hematite dice set wich is very nice, and heavy and shiny but statistic ... hmmm.
I've seen an obsidian dice falling from a table on a stone floor and this little thing now has a nice little dent on one edge.
Ah, and don't take the small ones. It's sometimes a pain to get a grip on the d4 . Buy the normal sized.

After all the hardness after Mohs doesn't matter (if it's over 4). It's more important how shock resistant the dice are. I think quartz is a nice sturdy mineral.
BYE

 

[hong]

window glass is constantly moving. and after about 8 years will have a "weighted" appearance.

It's an urban legend:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~bderksen/windowpane.html
http://www.ualberta.ca/~bderksen/florin.html
http://www.asitis.org/archives/000006.html
http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/glass.flow/origins_of_claim.html

 

[reiella]

window glass is constantly moving. and after about 8 years will have a "weighted" appearance.

as for weighting your plastics...a microwave oven will do it much faster. 30" on high is enough...if not too much in higher powered ones.

there are many ways to "rig" dice.

In regards to the microwave comment, I believe Harlock's intent was to get dice that are more difficult to unintentionally weight than the plastics he has been using for a long time now.

 

[Harlock]

Yes, Reiella is correct. My dice remain in an unvented interior room which has the trap door to the attic, so it has some wild temperature variation at times in that closet, especially living in a succulent dessert. Reiella has seen my dice in action as well, and there are some interesting trends with particular dice. Now having said that, maybe I'm just paranoid here, I've never rolled the thousands of times it would take to prove that. However I have sat and rolled hundreds of times and gotten some not so random distribution. Is it due to "weighting" or just the dice being improperly balanced to begin with... I am not knowing.

Also, Hong is correct. The myth that glass "flows" comes from how they used to roll out glass and then cut the panes. Rolled glass is thicker toward the edges and windows were always installed with the heavier side down. Hundreds of years later as people forgot about how glass was manufactured they started to notice all these old buildings with window panes that were noticibly thicker toward the bottom. A legend was born.

 

[diaglo]

i agree with hong thus the wink in my earlier post.

i think you do have some issues with your poly dice.

 

[Harlock]

I do. They are odd. I have an old set of Game Science that are so light they stop rolling once they hit a mat, so I am switching to those soon. Still, was wondering if anyone else had experiences with Dwarven Stones or Honor Dice and worry about the chipping issues, etc.