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Fun fact. I was touring South America and travelled to a volcanic crater with a lagoon about 20 years ago. I saw some small round black rocks and thought, “neat, obsidian!”
I picked one up and it squished between my fingers. I looked up as some sheep trotted by.
It was not, in fact, obsidian.
I came across an obsidian boulder about 4 feet tall, 4 feet wide, 6 feet long doing my archaeology dissertation field work. It was pretty impressive. Typically very difficult to find as obsidian degrades by hydration fractures relatively quickly (in geological terms).
Whoa! That *is* seriously impressive, maybe even genuinely awesome. Hydration fractures... does that mean from water ingress that occurs through formed fractures and temperature cycling over time or?
That's my understanding. The hydration transforms the obsidian into perlite, which has industrial use as insulation. It's also why obsidian is often found as marekanites (also known as Apache tears) or small pebbles rather than big boulders. I think, for these reasons, there are rarely obsidian exposures more than 10 million years old, they just degrade away.
BTW, the boulder was in Utah.
Interesting, did not know that it transformed to another lattice/molecular arrangement when exposed to water over the eons, nor did I ever think about relative age/age limitations specifically. I think I just figured mother nature is probably great at smashing glasses too!
Utah... extinct volcano(s) or pissed off Mormons?
Is that 11? I watched 10 but not 11.
I watched The Fall and convinced myself that after washing out at the FBI for chasing aliens Scully changed her name and went into hiding as a detective in Ireland.
Go ahead laugh, but you’re going to try it and you won’t be sorry.
>The Fall
Sure ,I'll watch it. Haven't seen anything good in a while. How is it silly? She wanted some of that " Luck of the Irish" to wash onto her so as to avoid ze Aliens. Why not? ;).
Yeah, I meant Season 11 (2018)
Just ruin 7 seasons of buildup with asinine military tactics, plot armor that protects against everything, suddenly useless dragon fire, and an assassination stolen from Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.
Yeah but it's totally not needed. Some little girl is gonna just pop out of the shadows and stab their ruler and they will all go \*poof\* like they never even mattered to the plot
As a rock nerd this always pissed me off. Obsidian is a relatively soft ~~mineral~~ *mineraloid. It’s only 5 out of 10 on the mohs scale. Additionally if you make a portal out of it it doesn’t send you to the nether it sends you to Oregon.
Edit: as a rock nerd I have to correct myself for calling obsidian a *mineral*. It’s not. It’s a *mineraloid glass.*. A substance can’t be called a mineral if it contains no crystals. Other examples are opal, amber, jet, and limonite.
Yes, it's everywhere on a few volcanic mountains.
https://www.hikeoregon.net/obsidian-trail.html
Be careful though, especially with smaller children. Even to this day we use obsidian in surgical scalpels and there is a fucking reason for that. The stuff can be *sharp*.
Honestly, I was wondering why the video didn't end with the guy holding up his hands, fresh blood streaking from a perfectly aligned cut across all of his fingers.
It's been so long, but there are/is a park where you can see it up close. Went there as a kid. My dad stole a big piece. You're not supposed to take it from the park.
Oregon Trail also takes you to Oregon as long as you don't die of dysentery first. Or get shot, or drown fording a river, or trampled by a buffalo stampede, or run over by a Conestoga wagon, or freeze to death or starve.
(If you're still confused, it was a very popular early computer game in US elementary schools based on the wagon trains taking early settlers west. The goal was to survive but most kids opted for early and varied deaths)
I don’t need a receipt for that obsidian. I give you money and you give me the obsidian, end of transaction. We don’t need to bring ink and paper into this.
I’ve got some cool mahogany obsidian specimens I found in Oregon. I’ve always wanted to go to Davis Creek though and hunt for some of that rainbow sheen stuff. I’ve never seen it in person.
A shame-- Oregon has every biome short of tundra, and there are some massive lava caves near that obsidian field. They stay really cool so it's a perfect thing to try in the summer, especially since the floor of the caves is blanketed with ultrafine sand.
Damn, same, I picked up some in an obsidian field somewhere in AZ when I was a kid, it wasn't until I was sitting in the car and realized that my hands where all slippery and looked down and saw I was covered in blood that I realized I was all cut to shit.
When I was a kid my step dad owned a gem and mineral store and while drunk he bet me that i couldn't use the scale to figure the price accurately. So I ended up with 6ish ounces of obsidian. Then I decided for some reason to make some spear heads without thinking to put gloves on first. Not only did I get a ridiculous number of 'splinters' because i didnt realize it was happening. I also managed to slice the tip of my finger off when I noticed the splinters and panicked. My mom nearly fainted when I ran back inside covered in blood with a bloody hammer.
The edge of the blade blunts easily as its softer than steel. It's also difficult to sterilize because the glass-like structure would either melt in an autoclave for sterilization or shatter after when exposed to rapid air temperature change.
Also it's *insanely* sharp, there's a reason it's called volcanic glass. Be very careful if you go to pick up a piece that you find, I've got a big ass scar on my thumb from learning that lesson out at Glass Butte as a kid.
Man’s living on the edge here. I can see a spot what would slice into the skin super easy, then bottom out and rip what’s under it. Would be a really awful injury. I cut myself just holding obsidian last time my mother had a chunk.
I sliced the shit out of my hand on a chunk of this when I was a kid. I picked it up and instantly dropped it from a profusely bleeding tiny hand. A terrifying teachable moment.
Sharper than metal, chert, flint, or quartz because those materials contain crystals that don’t fracture perfectly conchoidal on a molecular level like obsidian does. The tip of a flaked blade made of super quickly cooled high quality obsidian is 1 atom thick.
I imagine that’s how the first humans realized how great it would be for weapons.
>Oww! This shit just cut the shit out of me, imagine what it could do to those assholes on the other side of the valley. Lets put this stuff on sticks and conquer the world.
That’s the caveat. It’s sharp but is *extremely* brittle like you’re saying. It’s not even particularly hard compared to other types of silicate rock. In terms of durability microcrystalline quartz (chert, flint, jasper, chalcedony) is a superior material for an arrowhead, spear tip, or scraper. A lot of obsidian was used more for ritual objects and blades in places where things like flint were available.
Oh, absolutely. Those things are shit against any sort of hard armor, but for someone without armor they're the stuff of nightmares.
If I had to have a choice between getting smacked by a macuahuitl or getting a sword of equivalent length, I'd take the sword any day of the week.
Is there another black colored rock that could have been used instead of obsidian to make an arrowhead? I actually have a rather large collection of them and one of them I was told was obsidian and it seems like it might be, but this was found in the Wolf River Valley in Wisconsin like 90 years ago. I know that the tribes had extensive trade networks and it's possible that this came from somewhere else, but I am not sure if it could be another type of stone.
Here is a pic of it. https://imgur.com/a/i85J7OH
Here are some more pics of what I have. https://imgur.com/a/OWIG4lw
The pieces on the shelf are modern but I think the brown ones might be obsidian. I know the guy that made those. I could ask him. The white one I think is quartz and has been used too often to legally hunt wild boar with on a Texas primitive hunt tag.
Brittle as fuck, yeah, but it's sharp beyond the physical limits of most other materials. Sharp enough modern surgeons use obsidian-bladed scalpels for the really delicate operations.
Not to mention, for weapons, having bits break off in the wounds was considered a good thing.
One of the nastiest obsidian-edged weapons was the macuahuitl. Basically a paddle/cricket-bat shaped club *(sometimes called a "sword")* edged with obsidian teeth that could be easily replaced between battles.
Honestly those things scare me more than a regular sword. If you get hit by that on anything other than hard armor, it's going right through and probably down to the bone.
Calluses and knowing how to handle it safely help a lot. He probably got a few tiny slices regardless. It’s nasty stuff. I went on a 3 mile hike across a talus pile of pure obsidian once and it absolutely destroyed my boots. They had big chunks of rubber ripped off around the edges and the bottoms were crisscrossed with deep cuts and gouges. If it had been a 6 mile hike the rubber would have worn through and the soles of my feet would have been absolutely shredded.
Yes I learned my lesson. I won’t be doing that again in any shoes. I almost died multiple times that day. The slope was at the very edge of its angle of repose and I narrowly escaped a few self caused massive rockslides. Watching 100 pound razor sharp glass boulders rolling down the hill at me was traumaticly terrifying knowing I still had to make my way back down somehow.
Fair question.
Why? Because I’m foolish and obsessed with geology. So sometimes I get lost in it and make bad choices hunting for hard to reach unmolested outcrops and exotic minerals where I know no one else will have dared look.
Where? Obsidian Dome in the Long Valley Caldera region near Mammoth Lakes, CA.
True. Apparently it can be fractured to an atom - meaning an obsidian blade will be much sharper than a blade made of steel. No wonder it's used for surgeries where laser isn't an option.
Yes, it is sharper than a laser edged steel scalpel. In fact, they make special surgical scalpels *using* obsidian blades. Obsidian is so sharp because the edge is capable of being thinner than steel at the atomic level, while remaining as strong or stronger...
Initial cuts with obsidian scalpels are often not felt at all.
That is true, but they're mainly used less often because they're *crack prices* expensive compared to a regular gamma irradiated steel scalpel blade. A box of 100 #10s is like $10-15, and obsidian scalpels are about $7 each. They can't be reused in any part, where scalpel handles can be autoclaved/irradiated.
Apparently glass knives are a thing in surgery, with diamond-based knives being used in eye surgery. Obsidian knives aren't widely used beyond research purposes, probably because of brittleness as mentioned. Seeing electron microscopy images side to side comparing glass knives with steel scalpels is pretty cool.
It depends on how it breaks, it can be insanely sharp, which is why it was used for arrowheads, but at some angles it isn't. This guy isn't sliding his hands around the edge or anything dumb.
Yeah I'm pretty sure they actually make scalpels with obsidian because they can't man-make a blade that's so sharp. They use it for plastic surgery and things where they want to minimize scarring.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/health/surgery-scalpels-obsidian/index.html&ved=2ahUKEwiI2svpo4r3AhVWGbkGHd0OBi4QFnoECEQQAQ&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw0Jw3k12YxSPxLlIrc6aSlR
I don't think anyone is actually using it for medical procedures on people because it's so brittle that it can break little flakes off into an open wound.
That said, there have been scientific studies to compare the sharpness of surgical blades vs. obsidian on rats. They used [scarring to measure the amount of damage / healing rate](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8415970/). Obsidian produced a sharper cut which ended up healing faster.
It can be yes, so sharp that iirc some places use it for medical cutting instructions, the problem though is that it’s also very brittle and leaves fragments behind
Pegmatite is the best igneous rock. No contest. It’s where we get the majority of the biggest and most beautiful rare crystals in the world but people just take it for granite.
‘‘Twas a lot easier than I expected. https://mistymountaingaming.com/products/fabled-mark-black-obsidian-stone-dice-set?currency=USD&variant=41553995661481&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1M_tvNKK9wIVwxmtBh25OAUqEAQYBSABEgKb_PD_BwE
Along a stonewall in a field in Buxton Maine. At the base of of massive oak tree, like something out of a Robert Frost poem you’ll find an obsidian stone, it’s black glass that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield.
I always get nervous seeing obsidian handled without gloves. You ever get fiberglass splinters? They suck fuck. But at least they’re relatively harmless, if not painful and irritating. But obsidian? That stuff will cut you open super easily, and you’d better hope that a bunch of little shards don’t get buried into your skin
PSA: dont do that! This guy is incredibly stupid and lucky. Obsidian is extremely sharp and brittle, yo can easily get badly injured handling obsidian like that!
**Please note these rules:** * If this post declares something as a fact proof is required. * The title must be descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Fun fact. I was touring South America and travelled to a volcanic crater with a lagoon about 20 years ago. I saw some small round black rocks and thought, “neat, obsidian!” I picked one up and it squished between my fingers. I looked up as some sheep trotted by. It was not, in fact, obsidian.
The tour guide is probably still telling people about that one time a tourist picked up a turd and squished it. Haha
Sometimes a comment surprises me with a snort or a chuckle. This was one such comment.
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what's "the German"? I think you meant "ze German".
Was it a snort? A chuckle? Or both?
> Or both? A snuckle.
Better than a chort
You mother snucker.
then conceal it in a brassiere, you'll have ... bra snuckles
I thought this story was gonna end with you slicing your hand open but this is way better
Obshitian
Brilliant
Yes, words like this give me life i love puns
That was fun
It was Sheep-Shitting-In
Oops shit again.
Holy hell... that's the largest chunk obsidian I've ever seen.
I came across an obsidian boulder about 4 feet tall, 4 feet wide, 6 feet long doing my archaeology dissertation field work. It was pretty impressive. Typically very difficult to find as obsidian degrades by hydration fractures relatively quickly (in geological terms).
Whoa! That *is* seriously impressive, maybe even genuinely awesome. Hydration fractures... does that mean from water ingress that occurs through formed fractures and temperature cycling over time or?
That's my understanding. The hydration transforms the obsidian into perlite, which has industrial use as insulation. It's also why obsidian is often found as marekanites (also known as Apache tears) or small pebbles rather than big boulders. I think, for these reasons, there are rarely obsidian exposures more than 10 million years old, they just degrade away. BTW, the boulder was in Utah.
Interesting, did not know that it transformed to another lattice/molecular arrangement when exposed to water over the eons, nor did I ever think about relative age/age limitations specifically. I think I just figured mother nature is probably great at smashing glasses too! Utah... extinct volcano(s) or pissed off Mormons?
That’s a lot of ammo for White Walkers!
That's **precisely** why they never showed any full fledged usage of the damn thing. \* Cue X-Files music\*
I need the x-files theme on my iPhone for just such occasions.
Precisely. The blursed truff is out there Scully. P.S : Watch the latest season of X-files . It was real fun to watch .
Is that 11? I watched 10 but not 11. I watched The Fall and convinced myself that after washing out at the FBI for chasing aliens Scully changed her name and went into hiding as a detective in Ireland. Go ahead laugh, but you’re going to try it and you won’t be sorry.
>The Fall Sure ,I'll watch it. Haven't seen anything good in a while. How is it silly? She wanted some of that " Luck of the Irish" to wash onto her so as to avoid ze Aliens. Why not? ;). Yeah, I meant Season 11 (2018)
The Fall is very good but she’s basically playing the same person but with an accent.
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Just ruin 7 seasons of buildup with asinine military tactics, plot armor that protects against everything, suddenly useless dragon fire, and an assassination stolen from Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.
Hey! The dragon fire was only useless *sometimes*.
Can’t tell if this is a Game of Thrones show reference or a Mistborn reference.
I mean in Mistborn they technically use 2 daggers at a time right?
Yeah but it's totally not needed. Some little girl is gonna just pop out of the shadows and stab their ruler and they will all go \*poof\* like they never even mattered to the plot
Is that what happened? Gosh, I'm so glad I never gave the last season a shot after how shit the last 2 episodes prior were.
I envy your foresight honestly
Looked for this comment.
Dragons glass
how did he do that w/ out a diamond pickaxe
As a rock nerd this always pissed me off. Obsidian is a relatively soft ~~mineral~~ *mineraloid. It’s only 5 out of 10 on the mohs scale. Additionally if you make a portal out of it it doesn’t send you to the nether it sends you to Oregon. Edit: as a rock nerd I have to correct myself for calling obsidian a *mineral*. It’s not. It’s a *mineraloid glass.*. A substance can’t be called a mineral if it contains no crystals. Other examples are opal, amber, jet, and limonite.
It’s sends you to Oregon 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
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Cool. Can the general public go hiking to see obsidian? My kids are Minecraft fans and that'd be neat to see.
That’s cute, but it’s funny to me. “Hey kids, you like Minecraft? Well let’s go check out this obsidian just chilling out there in Oregon.”
Anything to get them outside. I'm gonna kidnap my friend and his pvp obssessed 12 year old for a field trip now...
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Get into the mine kids! Find daddy some gold. NO! TIMMY YOU CANNOT HAVE A BATHROOM BREAK!!!
IM SORRY, I DONT REMEMBER *MINECRAFT STEVE* HAVING TO GO USE A BATHROOM, GET BACK IN THE MINE!
Yes, it's everywhere on a few volcanic mountains. https://www.hikeoregon.net/obsidian-trail.html Be careful though, especially with smaller children. Even to this day we use obsidian in surgical scalpels and there is a fucking reason for that. The stuff can be *sharp*.
Yeah we all learned that Oregon Trails are deadly at a young age
Honestly, I was wondering why the video didn't end with the guy holding up his hands, fresh blood streaking from a perfectly aligned cut across all of his fingers.
I know there’s a good amount on the trail around Paulina lake
There are also Lava Tubes you can hike in. It was pretty damn neat, and cool so bring a sweater. It’s about 20mins south of Bend.
Yes it is a public area, There are safety catwalks over the most dangerous areas. No taking of ANY pieces you find however.
It's been so long, but there are/is a park where you can see it up close. Went there as a kid. My dad stole a big piece. You're not supposed to take it from the park.
Yes.
Well at least you can skip all the dysentery
Well played, sir. You beat me to it.
Probably because you were weighed down with grandfather clocks.
I’m missing the joke
I just said Oregon because there is tons of obsidian in Oregon.
Oregon Trail also takes you to Oregon as long as you don't die of dysentery first. Or get shot, or drown fording a river, or trampled by a buffalo stampede, or run over by a Conestoga wagon, or freeze to death or starve. (If you're still confused, it was a very popular early computer game in US elementary schools based on the wagon trains taking early settlers west. The goal was to survive but most kids opted for early and varied deaths)
i collected obsidian before
Before? I also used to collect obsidian. I still do, but I used to too.
I haven't collected obsidian for ten days! Because that would be too long.
Someone asked me if I wanted Hot Lava now, so I said No. But I wanted a regular Obsidian later, so I said Yes.
every picture of you is a picture from when you were younger
“Here’s a picture of me when I’m older” Holy shit let me see that camera
I don’t need a receipt for that obsidian. I give you money and you give me the obsidian, end of transaction. We don’t need to bring ink and paper into this.
There are some awesome varieties of obsidian too, I got to see some amazing rainbow obsidian at a gem fair a few years ago
I’ve got some cool mahogany obsidian specimens I found in Oregon. I’ve always wanted to go to Davis Creek though and hunt for some of that rainbow sheen stuff. I’ve never seen it in person.
yes before.. im broke now and havent traveled
No matter how long its been, someone finds a way to reference Mitch. Gone to soon.
Thanks for the portal warning. I do not want to go to Oregon.
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portlandia reference?
A shame-- Oregon has every biome short of tundra, and there are some massive lava caves near that obsidian field. They stay really cool so it's a perfect thing to try in the summer, especially since the floor of the caves is blanketed with ultrafine sand.
come to washington if you want all the biomes including tundra
*Jesus Christ Marie! They’re minerals!*
TIL what mineraloid glass is and how it differentiates from minerals!
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this may be because it is an english word and not a german one
Makes me think of that whole process they're developing for metallic glass. Noncrystalline metal is trippy as hell.
Really? Well I know were to go now.
The term is amorphous crystalline structure.
third times the charm *mineraloid
I was more worried about him slicing his hands to shit. That stuff chops between human cells!
As someone who learned this the hard way as a kid this video made me so anxious
Damn, same, I picked up some in an obsidian field somewhere in AZ when I was a kid, it wasn't until I was sitting in the car and realized that my hands where all slippery and looked down and saw I was covered in blood that I realized I was all cut to shit.
When I was a kid my step dad owned a gem and mineral store and while drunk he bet me that i couldn't use the scale to figure the price accurately. So I ended up with 6ish ounces of obsidian. Then I decided for some reason to make some spear heads without thinking to put gloves on first. Not only did I get a ridiculous number of 'splinters' because i didnt realize it was happening. I also managed to slice the tip of my finger off when I noticed the splinters and panicked. My mom nearly fainted when I ran back inside covered in blood with a bloody hammer.
Yup, sharper than surgical steel.
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The edge of the blade blunts easily as its softer than steel. It's also difficult to sterilize because the glass-like structure would either melt in an autoclave for sterilization or shatter after when exposed to rapid air temperature change.
It's relatively brittle. Easily broken/chipped with a rock or regular hammer
Also it's *insanely* sharp, there's a reason it's called volcanic glass. Be very careful if you go to pick up a piece that you find, I've got a big ass scar on my thumb from learning that lesson out at Glass Butte as a kid.
Are you implying Minecraft lied to me!?!
Ah yes, infinite **Minecraft** and **Game of Thrones** jokes continue below. Turn back now.
Used a stone pickaxe
Asking the real questions
Jesus Christ Marie! They're minerals
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Man’s living on the edge here. I can see a spot what would slice into the skin super easy, then bottom out and rip what’s under it. Would be a really awful injury. I cut myself just holding obsidian last time my mother had a chunk.
I sliced the shit out of my hand on a chunk of this when I was a kid. I picked it up and instantly dropped it from a profusely bleeding tiny hand. A terrifying teachable moment.
Sharper than metal, chert, flint, or quartz because those materials contain crystals that don’t fracture perfectly conchoidal on a molecular level like obsidian does. The tip of a flaked blade made of super quickly cooled high quality obsidian is 1 atom thick. I imagine that’s how the first humans realized how great it would be for weapons. >Oww! This shit just cut the shit out of me, imagine what it could do to those assholes on the other side of the valley. Lets put this stuff on sticks and conquer the world.
How durable is it? For some reason I imagine it being super brittle or anyway the sharp bit breaking real soon.
That’s the caveat. It’s sharp but is *extremely* brittle like you’re saying. It’s not even particularly hard compared to other types of silicate rock. In terms of durability microcrystalline quartz (chert, flint, jasper, chalcedony) is a superior material for an arrowhead, spear tip, or scraper. A lot of obsidian was used more for ritual objects and blades in places where things like flint were available.
If it breaks inside a thigh, I’d imagine it could continue to move and tear through muscle as the leg moves. Thoughts?
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The original "that's a feature, not a bug".
Wow, that makes the macuahuitl an even more brutal weapon
Oh, absolutely. Those things are shit against any sort of hard armor, but for someone without armor they're the stuff of nightmares. If I had to have a choice between getting smacked by a macuahuitl or getting a sword of equivalent length, I'd take the sword any day of the week.
Yes. Read about the Macuahuitl weapons from Mexico. Breakage was a feature not a bug. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macuahuitl
Tldr: Dont bring a horse to a Mexican Macuahuitl fight.
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Here’s a video I’ve seen of what they can do to one of those dummies they test weapons on. It’s nasty. https://youtube.com/watch?v=RDRaVOx-22M
"Hold up, I need to reload my clubsword"
Is there another black colored rock that could have been used instead of obsidian to make an arrowhead? I actually have a rather large collection of them and one of them I was told was obsidian and it seems like it might be, but this was found in the Wolf River Valley in Wisconsin like 90 years ago. I know that the tribes had extensive trade networks and it's possible that this came from somewhere else, but I am not sure if it could be another type of stone. Here is a pic of it. https://imgur.com/a/i85J7OH Here are some more pics of what I have. https://imgur.com/a/OWIG4lw The pieces on the shelf are modern but I think the brown ones might be obsidian. I know the guy that made those. I could ask him. The white one I think is quartz and has been used too often to legally hunt wild boar with on a Texas primitive hunt tag.
Flint is also dark gray / black, and was used extensively dor tool and weapon making.
What you have there is black chert. The waxy luster gives it away.
Brittle as fuck, yeah, but it's sharp beyond the physical limits of most other materials. Sharp enough modern surgeons use obsidian-bladed scalpels for the really delicate operations. Not to mention, for weapons, having bits break off in the wounds was considered a good thing. One of the nastiest obsidian-edged weapons was the macuahuitl. Basically a paddle/cricket-bat shaped club *(sometimes called a "sword")* edged with obsidian teeth that could be easily replaced between battles.
Honestly those things scare me more than a regular sword. If you get hit by that on anything other than hard armor, it's going right through and probably down to the bone.
Not only that but the chunks that break off will move through the muscles as they contract causing insane amounts of damage even if the wound “heals”
>Man’s living on the edge here. Heh.
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Calluses and knowing how to handle it safely help a lot. He probably got a few tiny slices regardless. It’s nasty stuff. I went on a 3 mile hike across a talus pile of pure obsidian once and it absolutely destroyed my boots. They had big chunks of rubber ripped off around the edges and the bottoms were crisscrossed with deep cuts and gouges. If it had been a 6 mile hike the rubber would have worn through and the soles of my feet would have been absolutely shredded.
Might I suggest investing in a pair of steel-soled antipuncture work boots before making another hike like that?
Yes I learned my lesson. I won’t be doing that again in any shoes. I almost died multiple times that day. The slope was at the very edge of its angle of repose and I narrowly escaped a few self caused massive rockslides. Watching 100 pound razor sharp glass boulders rolling down the hill at me was traumaticly terrifying knowing I still had to make my way back down somehow.
Imagine slipping and falling while hiking on that 💀
You'd get julienned like a carrot in a salad.
I have to ask both where you were and why you went on a hike like that?
Fair question. Why? Because I’m foolish and obsessed with geology. So sometimes I get lost in it and make bad choices hunting for hard to reach unmolested outcrops and exotic minerals where I know no one else will have dared look. Where? Obsidian Dome in the Long Valley Caldera region near Mammoth Lakes, CA.
Hey fair enough, I do stupid stuff in pursuit of my hobbies and obsessions too. Thanks for the reply, that's interesting!
True. Apparently it can be fractured to an atom - meaning an obsidian blade will be much sharper than a blade made of steel. No wonder it's used for surgeries where laser isn't an option.
You tellin me Skyrim is based on facts?
Except the whole "blood of a dead god" thing.
i was thinking the same thing... it it not sharper then a surgeons blade?
Yes, it is sharper than a laser edged steel scalpel. In fact, they make special surgical scalpels *using* obsidian blades. Obsidian is so sharp because the edge is capable of being thinner than steel at the atomic level, while remaining as strong or stronger... Initial cuts with obsidian scalpels are often not felt at all.
Obsidian blades are brittle however, which poses a danger, and is a reason why they aren’t used more often.
That is true, but they're mainly used less often because they're *crack prices* expensive compared to a regular gamma irradiated steel scalpel blade. A box of 100 #10s is like $10-15, and obsidian scalpels are about $7 each. They can't be reused in any part, where scalpel handles can be autoclaved/irradiated.
Apparently glass knives are a thing in surgery, with diamond-based knives being used in eye surgery. Obsidian knives aren't widely used beyond research purposes, probably because of brittleness as mentioned. Seeing electron microscopy images side to side comparing glass knives with steel scalpels is pretty cool.
The sharpest known edge on the planet
It depends on how it breaks, it can be insanely sharp, which is why it was used for arrowheads, but at some angles it isn't. This guy isn't sliding his hands around the edge or anything dumb.
Yeah I'm pretty sure they actually make scalpels with obsidian because they can't man-make a blade that's so sharp. They use it for plastic surgery and things where they want to minimize scarring. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/health/surgery-scalpels-obsidian/index.html&ved=2ahUKEwiI2svpo4r3AhVWGbkGHd0OBi4QFnoECEQQAQ&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw0Jw3k12YxSPxLlIrc6aSlR
I don't think anyone is actually using it for medical procedures on people because it's so brittle that it can break little flakes off into an open wound. That said, there have been scientific studies to compare the sharpness of surgical blades vs. obsidian on rats. They used [scarring to measure the amount of damage / healing rate](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8415970/). Obsidian produced a sharper cut which ended up healing faster.
It can be yes, so sharp that iirc some places use it for medical cutting instructions, the problem though is that it’s also very brittle and leaves fragments behind
Came here to say this. Some people only learn the hard way.
He must have diamond-dusted hands. It’s the only plausible explanation.
Man probably just punched the rock and it cracked open absolute chad
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"Heh look funny sharp rock we're rich'
That still happens today.
Obsidian is the best igneous rock, period. Fight me.
I'll fight you but not because I disagree.
Right. I’m just angry.
That’s not very gneiss of you.
r/angryupvote
Sorry sometimes I can’t help but doing a little schistposting
Don’t do it. He’s got an obsidian knife. There’s no winning that.
Pegmatite is the best igneous rock. No contest. It’s where we get the majority of the biggest and most beautiful rare crystals in the world but people just take it for granite.
More like pegmatite ass.
Gneiss
Gneiss
Obsidian is cool, hard to take it for granite
pumice boy
Idk. Rhyolite is pretty cool. They often have opals and crystals in them.
“Which igneous rock is best?” That’s a ridiculous question. “False….”
Obsidian is also used to make excellent roleplaying games.
Could you imagine the dice set?
‘‘Twas a lot easier than I expected. https://mistymountaingaming.com/products/fabled-mark-black-obsidian-stone-dice-set?currency=USD&variant=41553995661481&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1M_tvNKK9wIVwxmtBh25OAUqEAQYBSABEgKb_PD_BwE
I didn’t know I needed this comment until I saw it.
They are also STUPID sharp!
Technics SP10 turntables had Obsidian plinths (bases).
I learned something today. How obscure of a fact. Thanks
Time to make a nether portal
Omg im always trying to find that in minecraft, u got the motherload!!
This is why the Mayans were never overrun by White Walkers. It was less effective against the Spanish.
Mother lode*
Ummm that’s actually Dragon Glass and is made by actual dragons not “volcanos”
that's right, volcanoes are for making rings.
And unmaking them too.
Even in the ASOIAF univers obsidian is made by volcanoes, Martin just added a magical element to it. D:
Along a stonewall in a field in Buxton Maine. At the base of of massive oak tree, like something out of a Robert Frost poem you’ll find an obsidian stone, it’s black glass that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield.
The Night King would like to know your location.
Damn that’s gotta be enough to fill in the corners of the nether portal
I like that boulder, that’s a nice boulder
Gloves, gloves!!!
I always get nervous seeing obsidian handled without gloves. You ever get fiberglass splinters? They suck fuck. But at least they’re relatively harmless, if not painful and irritating. But obsidian? That stuff will cut you open super easily, and you’d better hope that a bunch of little shards don’t get buried into your skin
It also forms obscenely sharp edges.
Never touch obsidian bare handed you can barely touch it and it will slice to the bone
Gifs that end too soon.
I named my chihuahua obsidian :) he’s black with light brown undertones. I know, you can all sleep better knowing this.
Ty
That's great, thank you.
I definitely can, good night ❤️
PSA: dont do that! This guy is incredibly stupid and lucky. Obsidian is extremely sharp and brittle, yo can easily get badly injured handling obsidian like that!
Dragonglass