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What did you want to know about the Katana but were too shy to ask, like ... what about folding?

Pt 1 of 5 parts.

So basically: "its complicated." I knew that, but good to hear it confirmed

Lindybeige's take on the Katana


Plus his follow on

You have a thing for Katanas eh?

No.

My preference would be something like the Rapier



But how many times have you heard 'the Rapier can cut through a machine gun barrel ... IIRC, I been hearing that type stuff about the Katana since the end of WW2, literally.

So a series of videos debunking the miracle weapon is in order.

Ah that makes sense!

Quick & deadly. After seeing a proper Lunge demonstrated, with a rapier, it struck me as having very surprising and lethal capabilities from deceptive distances.

I also have an old rapier, of the more decorative style from around WW1. The thin steel blade has a serious point and is surprisingly light & quick. Would take almost no effort, running right between & through a ribcage.

Of course, if it came down to old school melee weapons, the tried and true spear, and it's derivatives, was always the first choice workhorse.





Yeah, there's been too much overblown hype regarding the katana. Sure, it's a good looking tool and quite capable at slashing un/lightly-armored peasants back in the day. Being a curved blade, it was also more of a one-trick pony. Like most swords around the world, it was mainly a status symbol and back-up weapon. For the Samurai, the Daikyu (bow) and Yari (spear) were the real go-to weapons of warfare.

This guy ("Skallagrim") has a huge amount of weapon testing, sparring, informational YT vids. Some interesting stuff. He's obviously into competitive sparring, collecting, etc, so has far more practical experience with all this stuff than the rest of us do.

Also has some antique gun stuff.


I think someone posted one of his first-person cam Saber duel vids, here, in the past.


https://www.youtube.com/user/SkallagrimNilsson/videos

Speaking of Skallagrim



For a view of Jorge viewtopic.php?p=297542#p297542

I want to see a video of someone hitting a machine gun barrel with his katana as hard as possible! I'd love to see his perplexed expression as his beautiful and expensive sword is reduced to scrap metal!

That said, katana, just another sword. Every imaginable culture capable of building swords had at least one unique design, even some Pacific islands have their own unique swords.

When it comes to swords, I think the best that can be said of swords is (paraphrasing)

"Among good quality swords there are advantages and associated drawbacks in other areas or the sword is close to 'average' good sword by handling and characteristics. Good swords don't differ *that* much from each other, the real differences are between a sword and a dagger, sword and a pollaxe, spear or so. Polearms are by definition far superior to swords, swords are typically superior to daggers and so on. Different swords are for different purposes, rapier is the ultimate dueling sword, zweihanders and greatswords are great weapons to defend the flag, gate or a bridge on a battlefield, etc."

You can totally defeat a longsword wielding fencer with a katana. That said in historical battle the katana will be of inferior steel and only has one edge, has inferior crossguard and has inferior reach. What does that amount to? The best fencer still wins except that there are countless anecdotal evidence of great fencing masters being struck down by a double hit or just sheer misfortune.

What I have gathered from the ancient texts being a fencer is not so different from being a rifleman - being better at it certainly improves your odds but you are always at a disadvantage if outnumbered and even a single unskilled opponent can land a lucky hit on you when the fighting is 'in earnest'.


PS.
Katana is the only known sword that can cut through a main battle tank.


My two absolute favorite youtube channels are Skallagrim and Scholagladiatoria. I'll link them in the military thread since they're mostly not about katanas but European gear.