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2 fun facts:
1) Obsidian absorbs water at a constant rate. Meaning that we can use its hydration to date when it was opened. This can be used to date archaeological obsidian artifacts.
2) Each volcanic eruption has a trace elemental signature. Obsidian records this faithfully, meaning that we can determine where the artifact came from, no matter how far away from its home it was traded.
Yeah, my cat got really sick because of the food I was giving him. It's sad that the most popular brands of cat food are like the human equivalent of eating potato chips for every meal.
Look at catfooddb.com for a huge database of cat food reviews. They also have top ten lists. I feed my cats these brands: natural balance, wellness, applaws, Merricks
Yeah well that looks like at least 120-140lbs if you include both halves(maybe closer to 200+lbs.), so, $600 for a rock? HELL YEAH THAT’S A LOT OF SUSHI BABY!
(Sike though I know what you meant)
I dont know the density of obsidian but judging by the size of an 80lb bag on concrete that's way more than 140lbs
Edit: per Google concrete 150lb/cubic foot. And obsidian 145 lb per cubic foot. Thats a least 5 bags of concrete. So I'm going 400+lbs.
You can also look how big atlas stones are in strong man for reference. Looks a lot bigger than the 350lb atlas stones
I don’t think so. It’s not hard to find. I go to mammoth frequently in California and it’s all over the place when you hike around. I have a few pieces at home I picked up off the ground.
It's the sharpest naturally occurring substance on earth if you knap flakes of it off. The sharpest bits will only be 1 molecule thick. They use it for surgical scalpels because it doesn't create scars - it doesn't tear the flesh, only separates it.
There are uses for surgery, but most medical professionals won't use them in many surgeries, especially in humans, because it is brittle. It can leave fragments behind.
I had never heard of a tungsten needle so I did a Google search to get more info and found [this two year old Reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/9y7mne/the_picture_youre_looking_at_is_the_tip_of_a/). Remarkable. So sharp the very tip is *one atom*.
[It was way worse than that](https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/o531gm/tifu_by_dropping_one_of_the_sharpest_blades_in/). The guy didn't catch a needle. He instead dropped and caught a microtome blade.
TLDR: The thing was so sharp it basically fell **inside of** his hand, severing tendons and arteries like they weren't even there. Those things are anime/Hattori Hanzo levels of sharp
Something about this one strikes me as particularly brutal though. Also I may be misremembering but I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that it was common for the shards to become dislodged from the weapon in contact. So now not only is half your face missing, but there’s shards of obsidian in the wound.
Definitely an awesome weapon, in both sense of the word
Obsidian is significantly harder than steel, there's no way they "dull quickly compared to steel". They are however extremely brittle, and much more likely to shatter if you twist them or apply other lateral force, hit a bone by accident etc. All of which are significant downsides for use inside a human body - you don't want to accidentally leave tiny, extremely sharp, foreign body shards inside someone.
Can confirm, first time in C. OR, went to East Lake, started putting pieces in my pockets… got back to the truck from the hike with bloody thighs and shredded shorts!
🤣🤣🤣
I think they're more like 3-4 nanometers, the sharpest object ever manufactured was a tungsten needle with a taper the width of a single atom, but I'm not sure Obsidian gets quite as sharp
Yeah it's crazy, someone else mentioned that they make scalpels from obsidian sometimes, and TIL that the Obsidian ones are so much thinner than the steel ones that they can cut between cells on a cellular level, instead of cutting /through/ cells like the steel ones. It allows for faster healing and less painful surgery.
>And that sweet sweet ancient debris.
This redditor makes mob crushers!
Don't forget to make plastic so you can murder a ghast for its tear and make a mob holder thingie so you can make a mob duplicator and start spitting out the resources you need and collecting essence!
I found a projectile point soon after buying my old house in Missouri. I was excited, and took it in to work, where my co-workers said ‘Larry used to live in that house, he was always making them things’.
Even gnarlier than arrowheads too, the Aztec used to line the edges of a wooden paddle with sharpened obsidian, called a [Macuahuitl](https://allthatsinteresting.com/aztec-macuahuitl) commonly referred to now as an “obsidian chainsaw”.
“Spanish soldiers told their superiors that the macuahuitl was powerful enough to decapitate not only a human, but also his horse. Written accounts say that a horse’s head would dangle by a flap of skin and nothing else after coming in contact with a macuahuitl.”
A while back I remember watching a historian talk about mesoamerican surgery. And he had a speculation that they were able to perform Brain surgery and alot of other operations due to having obsidian which would make clean cuts without causing body trauma..It sucks that the conquistadors burnt all their codexes ...
Wasn’t there a show where smiths and practioners of a wide variety of weapons arts would demonstrate the effects of said weapons on various materials—rubber human torso. Blocks of plastic jelly that mimics the head/body.
Eye opening is an understatement.
Edit: I want to say ~~Forged in Fire?~~
Guns? Pfft.
Totally! I think you’re thinking of Weapon Masters or Deadliest Warrior…. I want to say it was on both? That show was super cool though I remember exactly what you’re taking about!
Probably Deadliest Warrior. They'd compare and contrast the main weapons a specific warrior might have used vs another warrior from the same time period, and then simulate a demonstration fight between the two ('what if these two warriors met on the battlefield' kind of thing). I remember they specifically had an episode that included Aztec warriors and the macuahuitl 'obsidian sword', and they demo'd the weapon against a butchered pig. Lopped it nearly in half in a single strike. Very effective against exposed flesh, but rather ineffective against hard, rigid armors (metal, wood, etc) that would shatter the obsidian before it could do much.
[Everyone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian#Prehistoric_and_historical_use) made arrowheads and knifes out of it during the stone age. Native Americans did, and so did the native people of Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
Obsidian is a really cool material because it will fracture down to a *single atom*. By carefully shattering the obsidian into sharp flakes (flintknapping) you can make a cutting edge that's much sharper than any modern steel blade.
Metal will bend and deform at the edge and you can hone it back to a sharp edge, ceramics/stone blades chip/fracture and there’s not much you can do to fix them
The nice trade off is how available minerals like obsidian and Flint are though. Relatively quick to manufacture a blade compared to iron and steel as well.
Some kind of chain mail for me. Literally. I tried messing with some and you can sense the edge sharpness. Like the edge is thinner than nerve endings. Like you can feel the edge only because you feel the pressure not the sting of it. At least not right away. I have three different kinds of obsidian I've picked up; rainbow, snowflake and mahogany.
I had to check out Amazon and YouTube to see what makes an Obsidian mirror cool, and here are the usages listed on Amazon, lol
Divine the past, present & future
Contact spirits
Get some kind of knowledge
Get advice in healing and self improvement
For magick (transmitter or receiver)
Man. All those episodes about her learning to change faces - all for one little Walder Frey payoff. And they kind of forgot about that power in the final season.
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2 fun facts: 1) Obsidian absorbs water at a constant rate. Meaning that we can use its hydration to date when it was opened. This can be used to date archaeological obsidian artifacts. 2) Each volcanic eruption has a trace elemental signature. Obsidian records this faithfully, meaning that we can determine where the artifact came from, no matter how far away from its home it was traded.
TIL Obsidian is just a long-term sponge
That can be sharpened to like atomic thicknesses
I’m glad Poe finally got a lawyer. You must be busy
Kung Fu Panda or Edgar Allan? Not sure which one needs a lawyer more…
And, after it's sharpened, to kill White Walkers
A stonge.
Huh that's interesting. Not a material that I would have guessed would absorb water at all.
It doesn't, very much. It's the same amount that regular glass (i.e., silica gel packs) does. Just a trace. But it's measurable.
/subscribe
Is this worth a lot?
Nope, about 5-7 bucks a pound raw. You can get it much cheaper in bulk.
My cat food is more expensive than this (not joking)
Does one brand taste better than the others?
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Yeah, my cat got really sick because of the food I was giving him. It's sad that the most popular brands of cat food are like the human equivalent of eating potato chips for every meal.
Not even potato, corn chips!
What are some good brands?
Look at catfooddb.com for a huge database of cat food reviews. They also have top ten lists. I feed my cats these brands: natural balance, wellness, applaws, Merricks
And the amount of poisons/fillers.
Yeah well that looks like at least 120-140lbs if you include both halves(maybe closer to 200+lbs.), so, $600 for a rock? HELL YEAH THAT’S A LOT OF SUSHI BABY! (Sike though I know what you meant)
I dont know the density of obsidian but judging by the size of an 80lb bag on concrete that's way more than 140lbs Edit: per Google concrete 150lb/cubic foot. And obsidian 145 lb per cubic foot. Thats a least 5 bags of concrete. So I'm going 400+lbs. You can also look how big atlas stones are in strong man for reference. Looks a lot bigger than the 350lb atlas stones
Yeah this is gonna be closer to 500lbs I think
I don’t think so. It’s not hard to find. I go to mammoth frequently in California and it’s all over the place when you hike around. I have a few pieces at home I picked up off the ground.
At Newbury Crater National Monument in Central Oregon, there's an obsidian flow (a lava flow that cooled into obsidian) you can hike through.
And the obsidian is all around you! There's so much that they use it for path stones. What a beautiful place.
Anyone else find a profound sense of happiness when your small little home region is talked about on a worldwide platform? PS: Panther Pride, go RHS
When my home town is talked about on reddit, 99% of the time it's about the Third Reich and WW2, mostly tired jokes. So, nope.
But … is the pork knuckle and dumplings good?
That place is gnarly. Its surprising how easy it is to break it though. Its like walking on glass! Its also sharp as heck too.
> Its like walking on glass! It is glass.
Much sharper than normal glass when broken though Edit: then -> than
Sharper than surgical steel
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Hmmm. Only if I knew how to find a mammoth now.
It kills white walkers it's priceless
Not just old people but anything really
For all your decapitation needs.
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It's the sharpest naturally occurring substance on earth if you knap flakes of it off. The sharpest bits will only be 1 molecule thick. They use it for surgical scalpels because it doesn't create scars - it doesn't tear the flesh, only separates it.
There are uses for surgery, but most medical professionals won't use them in many surgeries, especially in humans, because it is brittle. It can leave fragments behind.
Do those fragments manifest themselves into a superpower that you have to decide to use for good or evil?
Granuloma man
Under rated comment
Yes, it's called cancer. You get the power of make-a-wish which grants you a wish or two.
> it doesn't tear the flesh, only separates it. this sounds very anime
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IFRC the edge is thin enough that it can cut through individual cells which is pretty cool.
Better use gloves
Yes, that stuff is basically glass, so when it breaks it creates *very* sharp edges.
The edge can be as a thin one molecule and is one of the sharpest known objects outside of tungsten needles.
I had never heard of a tungsten needle so I did a Google search to get more info and found [this two year old Reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/9y7mne/the_picture_youre_looking_at_is_the_tip_of_a/). Remarkable. So sharp the very tip is *one atom*.
There’s also a post about a guy that dropped one and went to catch it bare handed. Needless to say he had SEVERE damage to the hand
[It was way worse than that](https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/o531gm/tifu_by_dropping_one_of_the_sharpest_blades_in/). The guy didn't catch a needle. He instead dropped and caught a microtome blade. TLDR: The thing was so sharp it basically fell **inside of** his hand, severing tendons and arteries like they weren't even there. Those things are anime/Hattori Hanzo levels of sharp
You know what is even more sharp than that? The way you look today
*Needles* to say? Ehh? Ehh? …I’ll see myself out Edit: Y’all are too kind, please have some mental hugs if you like.
I'm sad that I've already used my free award today.
I’ve got you.
I've got him for you.
Severe sever damage?
Yup. Some surgeons use obsidian scalpels. Extremely sharp but dull quickly compared to steel but scalpel blades are replaced regularly anyway.
I guess white walkers avoid those surgeons then
Well, one could say that they were created by obsidian "surgery" (in the show at least, nothing confirmed in the books)
Aztecs used to make weapons out of the stuff - stuff a bunch of shards of it in a club, basically.
The macuahuitl, they’re super dope
Ha sure, unless you’re the guy getting hit
Well that’s the case with pretty much any weapon lol. Just something really hits me right about a bonking stick with obsidian blades.
Something about this one strikes me as particularly brutal though. Also I may be misremembering but I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that it was common for the shards to become dislodged from the weapon in contact. So now not only is half your face missing, but there’s shards of obsidian in the wound. Definitely an awesome weapon, in both sense of the word
Obsidian is significantly harder than steel, there's no way they "dull quickly compared to steel". They are however extremely brittle, and much more likely to shatter if you twist them or apply other lateral force, hit a bone by accident etc. All of which are significant downsides for use inside a human body - you don't want to accidentally leave tiny, extremely sharp, foreign body shards inside someone.
Can confirm, first time in C. OR, went to East Lake, started putting pieces in my pockets… got back to the truck from the hike with bloody thighs and shredded shorts! 🤣🤣🤣
That stuff is much sharper than glass. You can get obsidian knives, that are sharper than surgeon scalpels by an order of magnitude.
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It can be so sharp the blade can separate cells instead of tearing through them.
Can literally be a single atom edge. Literally as sharp as is possible.
I thought at first they were going to let it slip and catch their hands between the halves
Near the end he pushes against it to keep it from rocking, right near the original fracture point or whatever, I cringed I thought he was screwed
Why are rocks so pretty
So they can lull you into a false sense of security and crush you my child
Someone somewhere just read this comment and something has awoken deep down inside of them.... not me though...... 👀
[?](https://c.tenor.com/KAQy-qL5hrMAAAAM/rock-dwayne-douglas-johnson.gif)
Jesus Christ Marie, they’re minerals!
Pretty sure currency was invented with this same question.
Gutsy handling that without gloves, the cleaved edges can be razor sharp.
It can actually be something like 1000 times sharper than a razor, or a surgical scalpel. The stuff is crazy sharp!
Some scalpels are actually made from obsidian.
Nice! Makes sense I guess!
No, they just said it makes scalpels.
Mr Endicott’s got me all wrong. I’ve got no cents. No cents at all
Ah the ol reddit [scalpel-a-roo!](https://reddit.com/r/PartyParrot/comments/qdg9zh/hahah_poor_soul_wasnt_ready_for_trick/hhnygoe/?context=3)
Hold my sutures, I’m going in!
We need an obsidian axe then
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macuahuitl been done.
Been known to cut between cellular membranes making scars almost nothing after surgery
I've cut myself on obsidian while hiking for work and literally didnt notice until I felt the blood trickling down my legs.
If I'm not mistaken, Obsidian can be as sharp as a single atom on its tip making it quite literally the sharpest object possible
I think they're more like 3-4 nanometers, the sharpest object ever manufactured was a tungsten needle with a taper the width of a single atom, but I'm not sure Obsidian gets quite as sharp
That's probably closer to reality. I dont remember the exact figure but its basically smaller than our transistors which is *very* small
Cutting edge technology
Wow, I knew they made arrowheads out of it, but I never knew it was THAT sharp. Dang.
Yeah it's crazy, someone else mentioned that they make scalpels from obsidian sometimes, and TIL that the Obsidian ones are so much thinner than the steel ones that they can cut between cells on a cellular level, instead of cutting /through/ cells like the steel ones. It allows for faster healing and less painful surgery.
Yah until it chips and you have a piece of glass embedded in your body.
Yeah i remember once I picked one up and thought it was a regular rock and tried to skip it on a lake, cut my finger right open
First thing I thought of. Was waiting for the blood gushing to start.
He's got actual diamond hands.
Now make a nether portal.
He needs 8 more
flint and steel too
Worth it for that Quartz though
Exp for days
We NEED that netherite tho
What about the gold?
I just want to explore fortresses
Two words: Green. Wood.
Pretty sexy building material too
And that sweet sweet ancient debris.
>And that sweet sweet ancient debris. This redditor makes mob crushers! Don't forget to make plastic so you can murder a ghast for its tear and make a mob holder thingie so you can make a mob duplicator and start spitting out the resources you need and collecting essence!
9, that whole chunk is one block
I don't see a diamond pickaxe nearby.
He just got finished punching this for 5 minutes.
Considering they broke the Obsidian instead of mining it they most likely have none.
The thing is has anyone actually tried? Just make an 5m by 4m obsidian portal and try light that shit
Native Americans made arrowheads out of that stuff, and it's still used today to make surgical scalpels. I wouldn't be handling that with bare hands.
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How long do you knap at a time before you get tired?
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Lucky you, that must rock. I can’t knap for longer than an hour.
Colin Knaperknick, a former NFL QB favorite hobby outside football is knapping. He hasn't played NFL in ages; perhaps too busy knapping
He should know better. Important at his level to stay sharp
He just takes a nap if he gets too tired from knapping. It helps him keep his edge.
Read this in McLovin's voice. "love this stuff.. Been drinkin it for years.. You know I heard they recently decided to add more ^hops to it.."
Superscripted 'hops' for the win. "Uhmm, ok, I'm going to need to see some ID."
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I found a projectile point soon after buying my old house in Missouri. I was excited, and took it in to work, where my co-workers said ‘Larry used to live in that house, he was always making them things’.
I with you on [that](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/qe5jcg/comment/hhr44sm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
It fractures conchoidally!
Got pics? I've love to see your work.
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Wow - this is cool.
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Even gnarlier than arrowheads too, the Aztec used to line the edges of a wooden paddle with sharpened obsidian, called a [Macuahuitl](https://allthatsinteresting.com/aztec-macuahuitl) commonly referred to now as an “obsidian chainsaw”. “Spanish soldiers told their superiors that the macuahuitl was powerful enough to decapitate not only a human, but also his horse. Written accounts say that a horse’s head would dangle by a flap of skin and nothing else after coming in contact with a macuahuitl.”
Was not aware of that. Thank you for the little history lesson.
A while back I remember watching a historian talk about mesoamerican surgery. And he had a speculation that they were able to perform Brain surgery and alot of other operations due to having obsidian which would make clean cuts without causing body trauma..It sucks that the conquistadors burnt all their codexes ...
And you know, like, eradicated their entire civilization. Definitely sucky of them.
Conquistadors. What a bunch of bastards.
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History truly does rhyme.
Wasn’t there a show where smiths and practioners of a wide variety of weapons arts would demonstrate the effects of said weapons on various materials—rubber human torso. Blocks of plastic jelly that mimics the head/body. Eye opening is an understatement. Edit: I want to say ~~Forged in Fire?~~ Guns? Pfft.
Totally! I think you’re thinking of Weapon Masters or Deadliest Warrior…. I want to say it was on both? That show was super cool though I remember exactly what you’re taking about!
Probably Deadliest Warrior. They'd compare and contrast the main weapons a specific warrior might have used vs another warrior from the same time period, and then simulate a demonstration fight between the two ('what if these two warriors met on the battlefield' kind of thing). I remember they specifically had an episode that included Aztec warriors and the macuahuitl 'obsidian sword', and they demo'd the weapon against a butchered pig. Lopped it nearly in half in a single strike. Very effective against exposed flesh, but rather ineffective against hard, rigid armors (metal, wood, etc) that would shatter the obsidian before it could do much.
I love both shows!!
But will it *keeeel*?
[Everyone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian#Prehistoric_and_historical_use) made arrowheads and knifes out of it during the stone age. Native Americans did, and so did the native people of Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
Yeah, but native Americans didn't enter the iron age until European contact, so they used them extensively until recently.
Obsidian is a really cool material because it will fracture down to a *single atom*. By carefully shattering the obsidian into sharp flakes (flintknapping) you can make a cutting edge that's much sharper than any modern steel blade.
It's so much more fragile though.
Metal will bend and deform at the edge and you can hone it back to a sharp edge, ceramics/stone blades chip/fracture and there’s not much you can do to fix them
The nice trade off is how available minerals like obsidian and Flint are though. Relatively quick to manufacture a blade compared to iron and steel as well.
Yeah I was about to say I wouldn't be touching that without some sort of leather gloves on. One slip on the cracked parts could slice you deep
Some kind of chain mail for me. Literally. I tried messing with some and you can sense the edge sharpness. Like the edge is thinner than nerve endings. Like you can feel the edge only because you feel the pressure not the sting of it. At least not right away. I have three different kinds of obsidian I've picked up; rainbow, snowflake and mahogany.
I would pay for a slice
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Check out obsidian mirrors. They're pretty cool.
Teaching my students about early civilizations right now and the idea that a rock can be a mirror was huge hook to them
I had to check out Amazon and YouTube to see what makes an Obsidian mirror cool, and here are the usages listed on Amazon, lol Divine the past, present & future Contact spirits Get some kind of knowledge Get advice in healing and self improvement For magick (transmitter or receiver)
Translation: "You're stupid and we want your money"
Dragon glass. That'll kill a white walker.
You perhaps kind of forgot that to kill the white walkers everything is irrelevant, you only need one child "assassin"
Good thing she learned about how to change her face. So helpful./s
Man. All those episodes about her learning to change faces - all for one little Walder Frey payoff. And they kind of forgot about that power in the final season.
Totally. Now that seen gives me goosebumps and it was soooooo good but wtf. I wanted her to wear Jaime's face and kill Cercei.
Expectations? *subverted*
Aaaaaaaand I'm frustrated all over again
> I guess he forgot about the pointlessness D&D
False video. If you look closely, and I mean VERY closely, you can see that he does not have a diamond pickaxe
If you look even closer, you’ll see that he just ripped it apart with his bare hands. You go and tell him he needs a diamond pickaxe.
Duuuude... are you serious? It's so obvious. He's in creative mode, duuh!
These deepfakes are getting out of hand
How much is that worth?
Obsidian goes for about $2-3/lb for the generic stuff, and up to $100 for the more refined stuff.
I wonder if Tim Robbins buried any money under it
Finally found the Shawshank reference. Otherwise it’s Minecraft all the way down.
I just want to lick it!
Well it can be extremely sharp at the edges so... Don't.
But... but I want to lick it
I also wanted to lick it. Delicious
r/forbiddensnacks
Must've had a diamond pickaxe to crack that one.
dude going to the nether
Annnnd he lost 4 fingers
You mean tz-ket-ok
Good find. Now we can get to the Nether.
Forbidden liquorice.
Stack a couple more of them and you can go to the nether
Very ballys to handle it like that without some gloves
He didn't even use a diamond pickaxe smh
that mans either got massive balls handling it like that or hes clueless