Did he expect that? I don't remember reading something like that. He would probably consider it a likely scenario but no more likely than surviving. Like a fifty-fifty thing. There were no prophecies as far as I'm aware as in the case of Rand.

 

Lews Therin himself, who intended to personally lead this huge raid, admitted that even with sucess, he expected few of the attackers to survive, perhaps none.

 

Does it really matter that much though? LTT believed his strike was the key to winning the war. Most scholars thought he would rip open the Bore if he displaced the Seals in the attempt. He was willing to risk destroying the Pattern, risking the strongest weapon you have to fall into enemy hands is not that significant compared to that.

 

Well, it matters because even if he succeeds in sealing away the DO, there's still the Forsaken to deal with. Now if the sa'angreal was key to his plan, I would understand. But this sa'angreal would have been useless as far as the sealing is concerned, and this was a raid, so the most important was speed. Not only that but he planned this raid in secret. Unless this sa'angreal was his (unlikely), would he really have been able get his hands on it so easely? Even as the Supreme Commander of the Light, it's not very subtle to ask for the most powerful usable sa'angreal the Light possesed, particularly considering the hostilities between the Aes Sedai at the time.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree. I've accepted yoniy0's answer about how angreal work. I may concede a few points but the fact remains LTT somehow handled as much saidin as Rand could with CK. The only explanation I can think of other than Brandon screwing up is that LTT had a sa'angreal that rivaled CK.

Did he expect that? I don't remember reading something like that. He would probably consider it a likely scenario but no more likely than surviving. Like a fifty-fifty thing. There were no prophecies as far as I'm aware as in the case of Rand.

Does it really matter that much though? LTT believed his strike was the key to winning the war. Most scholars thought he would rip open the Bore if he displaced the Seals in the attempt. He was willing to risk destroying the Pattern, risking the strongest weapon you have to fall into enemy hands is not that significant compared to that.

Nah, if the Ring is an object of Power, I think it would be a ter'angreal since they are not gender based.

He was pretty desperate before the strike at SG. He probably thought if he failed, they were goners anyway. If he thought he needed its power, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate the bring in the big guns.

I know I'm shooting in the blind here and there is no real evidence to what I'm saying but read yoniy0's post. It's the only thing that makes sense if he was holding that much saidin.

According to Lanfear there are two sa'angreal more powerful than Callandor. CK is one, maybe LTT was using the other. I agree it's extremely crazy LTT created the highest mountain in the world unaided.

Burning out might only be a risk. As in, it's not 100% sure it'll happen. I believe Rand over the limit in VoG with the CK. But he came out of that just fine.

 

How could he, if the Choedan Kal are not flawed like Callandor?

I think he was referring to Rand thinking "that much Power would destroy him". Well, yoniy0 put an end to that discussion. Rand probably thought it was just too difficult too fight that much of saidin and he would eventually lose control of it and unwittingly unleash something that would destroy him.

The buffer doesn't simply mean that the extra amount one can draw can safely be handled. Angreal actually allow a channaler to draw more than they would otherwise be able to safely, but they also have a buffer, stopping them from drawing even more than that (i.e., you can't burn yourself while using an angreal, just like you can't in a Circle).

Thank you. This answers my question perfectly.

From tPoD, Chapter 24

He had only thought the Power filled him before. Now he held more than ten men could have unaided, a hundred, he did not know how many.

It is not described this directly in tSR but you can still deduce it from the chapter when he fights the Shadowspawn in the Stone. Also, he thinks he used Callandor as it was meant to be twice. All of this points to the conclusion he went beyond what he could have handle without Callandor.

Two times as it was meant to be used (Rand's thought), a third time when killing Ishamael. Luck shouldn't matter though. Everything I remember reading indicates if you go over the limit, you are burned out.

Fact 1: A person can hold more of OP than he/she can handle and burn himself/herself out.

Fact 2: Angreal raise the amount of OP a person can hold and they have a buffer to protect that channeller from that raised amount of OP.

Fact 3: If we were to ignore the fact 1, according to fact 2, a person would hit a bar when he/she reaches a certain limit and could not hold unlimited amount of OP. Otherwise angreal would just be the buffer, they would not be built with a buffer.

Fact 4: Callandor has no buffer.

Question: When Rand seizes saidin through Callandor, he holds much more of OP than he could have unaided. But since it doesn't have a buffer, the amount he could handle safely should stay the same. Therefore any time he seized saidin through Callandor, he should have burned himself out. Why didn't he?