how to attribute attributes in alchemy?

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, so I hope this is something like what you're looking for. You could think about changes in boiling point and freezing point; how reactive they are in oxygen; how incandescent they are; how much they smell; how much pain they cause to be near. You could take these things and tweak them to fit within your story world. Or you could use your story world to suggest things. A low technology, Dickensian-type world could have axes associated with how well they spread disease, or how much they remove toxins from the air, perhaps. Something that is very poor at removing toxins could become a toxin itself, for example.

Hmmm...I don't know the answer to your question, but this website may hold it, or inspire something in you that is your answer.

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html

It talks about the philosophical aspects, spiritual aspects, chemical aspects, and the visual (art) aspects. Fascinating stuff, from a historical perspective.

satyesu said:

I'm not sure how to say it...I'm looking for the 'rules of transformation', i. e. what you need to change about item/substance a to turn it into b. The book I read first taked about an elemental cycle, like you had to change all the fiery aspects through earth into water. But what kind of attributes would a sword have, for example? Earth, because it's metal? Fire, because it's harmful? But then what would differentiate it from a dagger? What metaphysically makes this item different than another?

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Maybe you could give an example of what effects you want to achieve. Physical alchemy is about transformation/transmutation of substances, not objects, generally. So a sword as an object wouldn't necessarily have attributes, but the metal it is made of would. For example, in some traditions, iron is related to Mars and Fire, as well as strength. The attributes of alchemy don't really serve as a big chart on which you can place each specific object in its own little box.