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A comment on The companies that bring us knife steel. Parent comment

Re:The companies that bring us knife steel by cyphar on Thursday October 08, 2020 @07:52AM (#24718234)
I'd think that it's more likely that all swords are about as good as any other. If katanas really were junk swords to the point where it made a material difference, Shogun would've used imported western sword designs (pre-isolation) and today's modern katanas would have ended up being just western swords.

I'd have assumed thay "any cuttystabbything will do" applies to basically any kind of sword.

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Re:The companies that bring us knife steel by antepodius on Thursday October 08, 2020 @09:22AM (#24718856)
People focus too much on swords, anyway. Pole weapons were the primary melee weapons for most combatants, including samurai, with swords being akin to sidearms.

But there are certainly trade-offs in design. Katanas are good at chopping unarmoured opponents and being sharp. The crossguard of a longsword can and was used to bludgeon an armored opponent, who would be basically immune to cuts. So if I abducted you and forced you to pick a sword from a lineup, then fight someone to the death, you'd want to know who you were fighting and what they had, and pick based on that.

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Re:The companies that bring us knife steel by Waterluvian on Thursday October 08, 2020 @08:00AM (#24718290)
That sounds sensible. Probably really didn’t need the quality we can muster today, just quantity and capacity for repairs.

Now I’m curious and have to explore this further.

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