Silk Stats?

[CombatWombat51]

Anyone wanna share a guestimate on the stats of silk? Hardness, HP, Break DC? Mista Collins thought up a PrC that uses the silk sash as a weapon at http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?t=69136, and that made me wonder.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Bludgeoning resistance?

A silk rope has 4HP and a Burst DC of 24.

Still, come on, its silk! How hard can it be to tear up cloth?

I'm guessing the PrC knows how to use silk sash in combat is a way that prevents it to get harmed.

(this also reminds me of something in the 2nd ed Ninja handbook, wherein you could take a Combat technique that let you attack (and deal damage) with a piece of cloth.

AR

 

[Christian]

Still, come on, its silk! How hard can it be to tear up cloth?

You said "wet shirt not break", not "pee on shirt bend iron bars"!

(Owen Wilson as Roy O'Bannon, Shanghai Noon)

Silk is quite amazingly tough ... easy to ruin aesthetically, real tough to tear or break.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

combatwombat, I bet you have issues with the board every once in a while.

click here


Use the above link and remove any of your old links. That enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?t=69136

Cyberstreet is very very bad.


As for silk, hmm maybe somewhere in-between cloth and leather.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Silk is almost insanely strong, with spider silks being at the top.
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cach...pdf+mechanical+properties+silk&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Silk is both strong and tough, showing amazing resilience even when compared to artificial polymers. The 'it is just cloth' argument forgets just how thin the fibers are. As has been pointed out a thickness of wet silk can easily deform twice it's thickness of steel. (I.e. the Shanghai Noon reference.) A stand of silk is in almost all ways stronger than a similar strand of steel. Silk is also the only naturally occuring filament.

However a strand of silk has a fixed thickness while steel may be formed in much larger quantities. Silk armors created using silk, glue, and backing materials can and have been made. Because of the fiberous nature of silk I will not even pretend to come up with a hardness. (By it's nature silk is incredibly strong in some ways, very vulnerable in others.) Nylon and Kevlar are both stronger than silkworm silk but weaker than spider silk. (However the ecenomic feasability of harvesting enough spider dragline to make even a single vest is, ummm, problematic to say the least...)

It is subject to chemical attack (acid) and cutting attacks which apply force to a single strand at a time. I wish I still had my old material science book, silk is absolutely amazing stuff.

The Auld Grump

 

[Steverooo]

Another thing to remember is that Hardness is based upon an INCH of material! Tearing and inch-thick bolt of cloth is pert near impossible, and cutting one with a sword may well take more than one hack!

So, for Hardness, I'd say at least a five (as 4.5 is average sword damage). Probably more like 7, to make up for the typical PC +2 STR Bonus... That fits pretty well with the rope's 4 HP and less-than-an-inch diameter.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

So, what you're saying is that a normal low-level fighter should do 0 damage on a normal swing against a bolt of silk? Seems a bit...excessive. I think you should stick with hardness 5 instead of 7.

This has no bearing, but combatwombat, are you Mortuus Solidus from SDH? Just wondering, cause you have the same avatar.

 

[Pax]

Bludgeoning resistance?

A silk rope has 4HP and a Burst DC of 24.

Still, come on, its silk! How hard can it be to tear up cloth?

Some kinds of silk (spider silk, specifically) has a significantly higher tensile strength, pound for pound, than high-grade steel. Try "tearing up" a steel cable that weighs the same as that silk rope. You'll find it's not too easy. ^_^ However, tensile strength is not resistance to cutting. I wouldn't give a silk rope a hardness of 5. Maybe 2, at most.

And structurally, rope != cloth. Rope is twisted/counter-twisted, even braided; it's a very different thing than a paper-thin sheet woven of similar material.

Picture a sheet of cloth ONE INCH THICK. Now picture trying to tear it, or cut it, easily!

Just like Paper. Hardness 0, hp supposedly 1 per inch.

Take that two-inch-thick, Hardness 0 / HP 2 phonebook. Tear it in two with your bare hands. Can't do it, can you? ^_^

 

[Black Omega]

Well, also keep in mind the Mongols wore silk as armor. It didn't stop the arrow totally, but the arrow would not pass through it so it was easy to remove and there was less chance of infection.

 

[Xeriar]

Well, also keep in mind the Mongols wore silk as armor. It didn't stop the arrow totally, but the arrow would not pass through it so it was easy to remove and there was less chance of infection.

20 layers of linen did well enough too - the arrow might penetrate it, but it allowed a lot of people to get back up.

Did the mongols ever face anything like the Welsh longbow though? Even silk has limits...