On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 04:19:25PM +0000, Anthony Jackson wrote:
> Of course, vibroblades exist in reality (though not by that name),
> though they're pretty uninteresting as weapons, they're basically a
> specialized form of saw and/or drill.

It may also be worth noting that unless you have some way of getting
the material being cut out of the way, no simple blade is going to
just "fall through" something as hard as metal no matter how well it
vibrates or how sharp it is.  A blade has a finite thickness, and most
metals are highly resistant to the compression required for it to
interpose itself within the material regardless of how sharp the edge
might be.

Saws work by large-scale motion physically dragging material out of
the cut.  Knives generally don't, which is why they take a lot more
force to cut through even moderately hard materials.  Microscopic
vibrations themselves aren't going to do the job, but some sort of
micromechanical channels might be able to propel the matter out along
the cut -- essentially turning the knife into a tiny saw.

Naturally this means that sharpness is not much of an issue, since
macroscopic amounts of material have to be unbound from the bulk and
removed.

Or you could just go with "it's magic", I suppose.

- Tim