-=> Quoting Matt Smith to John Perz <=-
 MS> No.  Bullet deformation is what allows Kevlar body armor to stop
 MS> bullets.  That's why Eastern-bloc .380 ammo with sintered-iron core
 MS> will go through a vest despite low velocity.
 JP> John is filling the jacket with epoxy, which can be pretty tough.
 MS> Will it deform on hitting a hard object?  (One test might be to
 MS> make the slug and hit it with a hammer!)
 One might reasonably expect that the aforementioned sintered iron core ammo 
may not perform too well at resisting deformation under the "hammer test".
 Tungsten projectiles would fairly fly through a vest, but if struck with a 
hammer, they would shatter into a thousand (give or take) pieces. TIG 
electrodes are generally sized by being struck this way. If you just try to 
snap them by hand, they bend. Sharp blows shatter them.
 Do not confuse "hard" with "tough". Hard substances are generally pretty 
frangible. Epoxies can be tough OR hard, but not both. Steels same same. 
Files are hard but brittle. Hammer heads (the tools) are less hard, and 
tougher. They are still quite hard and thus CAN chip. Cheap Korean 
screwdrivers are tough. Snap Ons are hard. Snap On tips just crack off if 
over torqued. They do not (generally) round off. Cheapies almost never chip 
or crack, they simply wear and bend.
Then there's malleability...
... A cat will blink when struck with a hammer. ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 
--- InterEcho 1.11
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