Tim wrote [elided]:

Thanks much for your other explanations.

>     Naturally the thinner the blade, the less energy required. However
>     there are limits to how thin it can be due to buckling even with
>     various forms of unobtainium. So at some scale or other, you have a
>     wedge pushing apart the material being cut to allow the blade to pass
>     through. Vibration might reduce net friction across the wedge faces,
>     so it could still cut through a lot of softer materials almost
>     effortlessly. Rocks or metals though would still pose problems.

With a little hand-wavium applied, I think this is the effect I was after.

I suggest that the main effect of the vibrational energy would be to widen any
micro-cracks already present in the material (certainly any natural material,
probably not crystaliron/etc), and so allow the blade to penetrate these micro-cracks,
repeat every millisecond on an atomic crystal lattice level as needed.

Richard Aiken wrote:

>     Maybe (a la Star Trek) make it give a warning tone, as overload approaches?
>     Plus a "safety" feature that focuses the blast (once this is unavoidable) into a rough cone . . .
>     Which would - of course - mean that enterprising PCs would rig them as one-shot blasters . . .
>     Which is okay. I've got no objection to PCs [literally] blowing credits on expensive disposable weapons.

All excellent suggestions. Thanks!

Greg Chalik wrote:

>     Full marks for the imaginative tech though.

Thank you. It may not work for everyone (or indeed anyone), but I had fun writing it,
and I hope that someone out there finds it useful.

Jonathan