In my campaign I am playing a Savant Psyker, that my GM has permitted me to take the Templar Calix alternate career rank, and he is handling the acquisition of a Force Sword in what I might construe to be a particularly unusual way (which I think is awesome, but anyways).

My character was not given the Force sword persay, so much as he was given the weapons hilts and the barebones basics of allowing the weapon to work. The blade, power source, etc. the character must procure and use himself in the crafting of his blade.

I've recently attained one of the parts needed for the weapon, the main things that remain is a psychic conduit within the weapon (which I presume my GM will present to me when he feels it's a good time for me to have it), and the blade.

Now I figured, since I have a "rare" opportunity to make this weapon from scratch, and this will be a particularly special weapon for my Psyker, I might try and go with a bit of a more interesting material than regular steel for the sword blade, and thought I might draw on your collective knowledge for either ideas for the blade material, or indeed, if there are canon materials besides Adamantine that might make for some really cool sword blades. The "crysteel" material mentioned in word only, in the Inquisitor's handbook is one that caught my eye, but I have no idea what that actually is.

For "canon" materials, I can only think of [Acreage] metal (also from Inquisitor's). That's the kinetic energy-storing alloy that imbues the Shocking quality on the Chain and Gauntlet that employ it. Well, Daemon Hunter's [ulumeathi Plasma Siphon] could make for a fun sword, but that might be pushing it. Other than these two materials that have explicit effects, I'm pretty much at a loss.

ADDENDUM: I always figured Inquisitor's [Volgite Gloom Eyes] would be fancy weapon decorations. Probably not useful mechanically, but using them might be up your alley aesthetically.

take a look at page 15 of my psyker project, chapter 2

I made some house rules on designing a mercy blade. You may find some inspiration there.

For "canon" materials, I can only think of [Acreage] metal (also from Inquisitor's). That's the kinetic energy-storing alloy that imbues the Shocking quality on the Chain and Gauntlet that employ it. Well, Daemon Hunter's [ulumeathi Plasma Siphon] could make for a fun sword, but that might be pushing it. Other than these two materials that have explicit effects, I'm pretty much at a loss.

ADDENDUM: I always figured Inquisitor's [Volgite Gloom Eyes] would be fancy weapon decorations. Probably not useful mechanically, but using them might be up your alley aesthetically.

Yeah, it doesn't necessarily need to do anything. If the difference is only aesthetic that's fine, but it's one of these things that I figured, if I have a chance to build a very special weapon like a Force sword from scratch I ought to at least make it LOOK special (to be perfectly honest, Force Swords don't NEED any bonus rules or advantages).

Yeah, it doesn't necessarily need to do anything. If the difference is only aesthetic that's fine, but it's one of these things that I figured, if I have a chance to build a very special weapon like a Force sword from scratch I ought to at least make it LOOK special (to be perfectly honest, Force Swords don't NEED any bonus rules or advantages).

Selecting thematically appropriate ingredients is another angle to take. Weapons are just as much fashion statements and reflections of their wielders' souls as they are instruments of war. What kind of character is your psyker, and what kind of story would their force sword tell? For example, a nomadic man whose family hails from dozens of planets might incorporate each world's native metal to make a sort of church-window blade to honor his predecessors. Maybe a retired/broken piece of equipment could be melted down and given new life as a weapon (not sure if this treads towards tech-heresy or not). The special materials used do not have to be limited to what ends up in the final product, either. One character may work over the fires of his companion's cremation or cool the tempered metal with his own blood. Personal investment into the force sword might be something to consider, if not just superficial materials. This comment is partially inspired by [Exalted].

Materials in 40k are generally made-up by authors as they go, with about half of them only appearing in books written by their original inventor. But a common method seems to be to take a contemporary material and add a property to make it sound suitable for the setting, basically a fancier, less tongue-in-cheek version of "Space Glass" or "Space Steel".

Let me whip up a small table ...

Property:

cera- (heat-resistant)

crys- (glassy, reflective)

flex- (pliable)

ferro- (tough)

flimsi- (thin and pliable)

transpari- (see-through)

Application:

-crete (walls and roads)

-flak (clothing, isolation and light walls)

-glass (windows and visors)

-plast (light arms and armour)

-steel (heavy arms and armour)

et cetera!

Also, feel free to "alienate" certain materials by embellishing them with fancy prefixes, such as "crystal" -> "crystalline", or "silver" -> "silverite".

Clearly It needs to be made out of the body of your fiancee. After making a pack with a daemon and challenging 100 people to duels. (Is le for-mentioned GM).

Materials in 40k are generally made-up by authors as they go, with about half of them only appearing in books written by their original inventor. But a common method seems to be to take a contemporary material and add a property to make it sound suitable for the setting, basically a fancier, less tongue-in-cheek version of "Space Glass" or "Space Steel".

Let me whip up a small table ...

Property:

cera- (heat-resistant)

crys- (glassy, reflective)

flex- (pliable)

ferro- (tough)

flimsi- (thin and pliable)

transpari- (see-through)

Application:

-crete (walls and roads)

-flak (clothing, isolation and light walls)

-glass (windows and visors)

-plast (light arms and armour)

-steel (heavy arms and armour)

et cetera!

Also, feel free to "alienate" certain materials by embellishing them with fancy prefixes, such as "crystal" -> "crystalline", or "silver" -> "silverite".

I really want a suit of Ferro-flak with a flex-steel shield. Just based on the names obviously.

Coincidentally, James Swallow uses flexsteel as a material in power armour construction, so there's precedent at least for that!

I believe that ... Radical's Handbook has a flexsteel armor. Or is it flowsteel?

Slight hijack of the topic but how do you handle crafting in general in your campaigns? Reading through all of this seems like tech heresy as it doesn't follow the already known STC designs, instead substituting it with all wanton kind of materials (I thing it's cool though ). Is this something that's fine in general, or just fine until someone from the admech finds out?

I'm kinda wondering since I'm playing an admech character and I'd like to do a bit more with crafting than I am doing atm, but my GM can be a bit harsh with the tech heresy: I see eldar tech, pick it up to verify if it works (otherwise i'm not wasting effort destroying it) *GM cackles madly* you take 2d10 insanity points for meddling with xenos tech. < my face

Same when I was cutting power cables in a space hulk, till we all convinced him that was taking it a bit too far...

Lynata answered the question better than I could. I would just say that I always figured that force weapons were made out of special psyk reactive materials that maybe had some cool ass runes on them. That the hilt wasn't important or as important. If it was me I'd just come up with something that had a cool color, shape, and look. And give it some random made up name, just like the BL writers do!

"Okay so it's like totally egger steel blue right?--- That's like blue steel but darker okay. And it totally has these white runes that seem like squibbly lines til you look closely at it then you realize there are thousands of distinctly shaped runes in a pattern you can almost but not quite make out right. And then the hilt is a black Aquila, and the handle has charcoal grey leather, and it's totally shaped like a Norse sword! What is it made out of? Uhhhhhhhh-Witchwerk iron!"

That's what I'd do, but maybe that's not the coolest thing to do.

Slight hijack of the topic but how do you handle crafting in general in your campaigns? Reading through all of this seems like tech heresy as it doesn't follow the already known STC designs, instead substituting it with all wanton kind of materials (I thing it's cool though ). Is this something that's fine in general, or just fine until someone from the admech finds out?

I'm kinda wondering since I'm playing an admech character and I'd like to do a bit more with crafting than I am doing atm, but my GM can be a bit harsh with the tech heresy: I see eldar tech, pick it up to verify if it works (otherwise i'm not wasting effort destroying it) *GM cackles madly* you take 2d10 insanity points for meddling with xenos tech. < my face

Same when I was cutting power cables in a space hulk, till we all convinced him that was taking it a bit too far...

Lol that sounds remarkably like my GM for a current Haarlock's Legacy campaign.