Turns out that Europeans manufactured spring steel which dispenses with all that repetative forging technology while allowing long thin blades. Roman swords were short because they did not have spring stell either.
It was obvious with the later rapier and saber, but it also allowed the true long sword in the first place.
I wonder if gthe Chinese used spring steel as well?
Is that true that the samurai sword is much lighter, deadlier and more accurate than the heavier sword of the western world that’s been used by knights since the ancient and medieval days?
Kane Schlichting
Kane Schlichting
Literally everything in that question is a “no”.
You see this?
That weighs only about 700 grams (the same as two cans of Coca-Cola) less than this:
While being the same size as this:
Plus, katanas are actually HEAVIER than European single-handed swords, by quite a lot. Katanas are basically two-handed grips attached to a single-handed sabre blade. The only reason they seem faster and more agile than a single-handed arming sword (not a longsword) is that they’re designed to be used with two hands, which grants more leverage and striking power than a comparably long one-handed sword used with one hand.
Why are katanas heavier? Because European medieval swords are all made of uniform spring steel. They spring back into shape when bent, this means you need less material, the blades can be longer, and this also means that, for longer blades, the swords can be lighter. Katanas, by contrast, have all of the hard steel at the edge, and the lower-carbon steels and even just straight iron at the spine. This means that katanas have to be thicker and heavier to be durable enough to use, because katanas, if they bend, don’t spring back into shape, but they stay bent.
The reason katana steel needed to be folded (pattern-welded) is because they didn’t have access to the smelting technology, or the raw resources, to make uniform spring steel blades. Japan was a small island nation that had little access to raw resources.
Accuracy and deadliness? Well, that depends on the user. If you just swing it like a moron with zero training, they won’t be accurate of deadly.
Oh, and knights aren’t ancient. Knights are a medieval phenomenon in both Japan and Europe. They were a product of feudalism, which wasn’t really a thing in the ancient world. In Europe, especially, the emergence of feudalism happened when the Romans fell.
And this man is not nobleman who swears fealty to a higher noble on religious grounds in exchange for land (which is what a knight is). This man is a citizen soldier of the Empire, who volunteered to join the Legion to fight on behalf of the Emperor and his homeland.
You see this?
That weighs only about 700 grams (the same as two cans of Coca-Cola) less than this:
While being the same size as this:
Plus, katanas are actually HEAVIER than European single-handed swords, by quite a lot. Katanas are basically two-handed grips attached to a single-handed sabre blade. The only reason they seem faster and more agile than a single-handed arming sword (not a longsword) is that they’re designed to be used with two hands, which grants more leverage and striking power than a comparably long one-handed sword used with one hand.
Why are katanas heavier? Because European medieval swords are all made of uniform spring steel. They spring back into shape when bent, this means you need less material, the blades can be longer, and this also means that, for longer blades, the swords can be lighter. Katanas, by contrast, have all of the hard steel at the edge, and the lower-carbon steels and even just straight iron at the spine. This means that katanas have to be thicker and heavier to be durable enough to use, because katanas, if they bend, don’t spring back into shape, but they stay bent.
The reason katana steel needed to be folded (pattern-welded) is because they didn’t have access to the smelting technology, or the raw resources, to make uniform spring steel blades. Japan was a small island nation that had little access to raw resources.
Accuracy and deadliness? Well, that depends on the user. If you just swing it like a moron with zero training, they won’t be accurate of deadly.
Oh, and knights aren’t ancient. Knights are a medieval phenomenon in both Japan and Europe. They were a product of feudalism, which wasn’t really a thing in the ancient world. In Europe, especially, the emergence of feudalism happened when the Romans fell.
And this man is not nobleman who swears fealty to a higher noble on religious grounds in exchange for land (which is what a knight is). This man is a citizen soldier of the Empire, who volunteered to join the Legion to fight on behalf of the Emperor and his homeland.
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