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I'm creating dragons for my fantasy/sci fi story. They are able to eat metals and gems in order to incorporate them into their bones and scales to strengthen their scales. As a result of this many dragons have distinct deposits on their scales of various different kinds of minerals.

One of the main characters has golden deposits on her scales and I was wondering if there was a way to make the gold be more functional, because even though it looks cool, it would be a shame if her scale strength was compromised because of the softness of gold.

I've thought about maybe finding a way the gold could be alloyed with some other metals but I'm not sure how that would work, any suggestions?

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    $\begingroup$ The answer to "Is X possible in a fantasy setting?" will always be "It can be if the author wants." Unless you've specifically decreed that there can't be hard gold in your world, you can always decide that special hard gold exists, or that there exists a magic that can make gold stronger. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ Maybe the gold is used in certain spots precisely because it is soft? Where splinters or cracks would be worse than dents. For example the scale tips. Hard ones would chip at almost any occasion but gold edges would be easily fixable $\endgroup$ Commented 23 hours ago
  • $\begingroup$ keep in mind gold is still fairly tough as biological material goes, gold is about as tough as your teeth after all. $\endgroup$ Commented 10 hours ago

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You are probably looking for titanium-gold:

In metallurgy, titanium gold (Ti-Au or Au-Ti) refers to an alloy consisting of titanium and gold. Such alloys are used in dentistry, ceramics and jewelry. Like many other alloys, titanium gold alloys have a higher yield strength, tensile strength, hardness, and magnetism than either of its constituent metals.

In July 2016, researchers led by Emilia Morosan at Rice University discovered that a titanium-gold alloy, β-Ti3Au, is an intermetallic alloy that is up to 4 times harder than pure titanium and most steels.

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    $\begingroup$ Note that the Ti3Au formula is somewhat misleading; titanium has a far lower atomic mass than gold, so this alloy is actually about 75% gold and 25% titanium by weight (and not vice versa). And yes, it looks approximately like gold. $\endgroup$ Commented 21 hours ago
  • $\begingroup$ A quick web search found a half dozen hard durable alloys that look like gold, notably Nordic Gold, a copper alloy used for Euro coins, and Manganese bronze used for the US Sacagawea coins. (A dragon's scales should be made of money, right?) See for example eng-tips.com/threads/… $\endgroup$ Commented 17 hours ago
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Why not different alloys for different colours, these are all much harder than the pure metal.

As we know, dragons come in varied colours.

  • White gold - palladium or nickel plus a little rhodium to enhance whiteness.

  • Green gold - silver.

  • Red/rose gold - copper, more results in a deeper red.

  • Purple gold - aluminium.

  • Yellow gold - copper and zinc.

  • Blue gold - iron.

  • Black gold - platinum and chromium form a black oxide layer. (This requires heat treatment, so a gold-coloured dragon could be black on one side if it'd been in a fight and flamed like that.)

For lightness and toughness you can't beat L.Dutch's answer.

References: 911metalurgist, Wikipedia and bullion.

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Rather than finding a way for gold to enhance (or at least not diminish) the scale structure, consider incorporating gold in a non-structural way. Gold plating is typically only a few microns thick, and won't compromise the material properties of the underlying material. A gold-plated object is no less durable than one that isn't.

Maybe different metals are metabolized differently, with strong metals like titanium forming the internal scale structure. Soft metals like gold, on the other hand, are ingested and incorporated only on the surface of the scales, perhaps not for added strength, but for other functional purposes like thermal or electrical conductivity, or even mating displays.

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    $\begingroup$ Gold plating may not degrade the underlying material but the plating itself will lack that durability. A fine layer of gold will wear off if subject to regular use. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ @sphennings So replace it - scales don't need to be permanent. The gold plating could be a biological coating, not really any different from skin or nails, which also regularly flake off and regrow. Despite the title asking how to "make gold stronger", the actual goal in the body of the question is just to incorporate gold without compromising structure, not necessarily to incorporate gold in a durably permanent manner. I agree gold plating might flake off, but that's not a problem if it doesn't make the scales weaker. $\endgroup$ Commented 20 hours ago
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    $\begingroup$ There is no reason that a six inch thick scale can't have an inch thick gold plating. That wont wear off quickly. Such a layer would be softer that the underlying scales, but this can be a good thing, soaking up an attackers energy. Maintenance becomes an issue -- the dragon would be seen to preen... $\endgroup$ Commented 20 hours ago
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Nacrized Gold Alloy

Generally I agree with L. Dutch's use of titanium gold alloy but it is important to know that "hard" does not equal "tough". β-Ti3A is very hard and has a good tolerance for heat which is a plus for dragons, but it is also a very brittle material which would make your dragon scales too easy to shatter, and so dense that it would weigh your dragon down too much for an animal that's supposed to be able to fly.

That said, biology has solved the problem of how to make incredibly tough, light, and hard materials from brittle, heavy, and hard components. Structure it like nacre (mother of pearl) so that it is lighter and tougher than titanium gold alloy is on its own and it is built up on a keratinized inner scale which will further reduce weight and add toughness. Basilly you can picture your scales like a brickwork of the gold alloy with proteins and chitin to hold them together that transitions down into a keratin inner layer. This way it is not much heavier than a normal scale, but it will be way more resistant to heat, cracking, and scratching than normal scales... Also, it will give your scales an iridescent sheen making their already golden shine even prettier.

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