Tin Compass?

[Zzapdragon 5]

Must compasses be made of iron? Isn't iron a ferrous metal? I'm not sure that would be effective in creating a working compass, also iron is a mid tier metal that takes awhile (for me at least) to obtain. It also makes obtaining maps difficult aswell. Compasses should be made of tin, wood, or another cheaper material. The needle however must be either iron or steel as those are ferrous metals and are what make a compass work. but redstone is used as the needle ingame, so perhaps that could become the substitute vital item other than iron.  I hope this isn't too minor of a suggestion. Just an idea to share with others, hopefully someone else thinks the same about compasses...

[Regnilse 21]

You could use a chisel with some magnetite ore to make the needle, idk if its naturally magnetic, but hey it has magnet in its name.

[Countersync 3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetite

 

It would be naturally magnetic, however the act of chipping away at it would probably disrupt the natural magnetic field.  You might be able to use an iron whisker or sliver and a piece of magnetite ore to magnetize the sliver.  It would be very useful (and interesting) if this would point towards other ferrous ores and structures.

[Zzapdragon 5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetite

 

It would be naturally magnetic, however the act of chipping away at it would probably disrupt the natural magnetic field.  You might be able to use an iron whisker or sliver and a piece of magnetite ore to magnetize the sliver.  It would be very useful (and interesting) if this would point towards other ferrous ores and structures.

I never thought about the compass pointing towards ores and such. That would be a clever way of finding iron but also make it an obstacle when using it for its navigation purposes. (reading fom the wiki on compasses) the needle was rubbed with a lodestone to magnetize the metal. I feel the compass could potentially be pretty useful in the game.

[Regnilse 21]

hmm, not sure if it should point to ore veins, it would kind of make the pro pick a lot less useful.

[Bunsan 323]

It would also basically be magical.

[Countersync 3]

Magnets are 'magical', and have you ever tried getting a compass near a nice solid piece of iron?

[Bunsan 323]

Deviating the compass from pointing to true north is possible, but pointing to the ore, which was what was suggested, is not.

[snaketokill 24]

hey it makes cense because my knife if enough to set off a compass

[Bunsan 323]

The iron molecules in your steel knife are very ordered and the magnetic dipole of them is also quite easily aligned. Despite this it would only cause the compass to point at it if it was close enough. You'd not be able to use it to find your knife if it was lost somewhere in your home. Iron ore is disordered, diffuse and substantially further away. I'm not a geologist, but I would imagine triangulating the location of iron ore based on deviations would take one hell of a lot of computing power and extremely sophisticated algorithms.