sharp pointy things

[Mike n NC]

I had a big respose trying to debunk the whole "katana is better stance" but decided that it would be better to just say, no style of sword is the best, just better wielders, and NO REGIONAL STYLE IS BETTER THAN ANY OTHER. All swords are designed for one purpose or another. A 4 pound nodachi (which is a little heavy on the sword scale) is a slow unwieldly thing in close quarters compared to a grosse messer or katzbalger, while on a battle field a nodachi would have a definite advantage to someone with only a katzbalger.

I did not want this to become a sword vs sword thread but I don't like it when katana fans say their swords are better than a european style sword without reasonable basis (and this has been rehashed so many times on the internet that it isn't even funny). I just wanted to see what people on the forum liked and what involvement they have with swords, not a debate on what sword is better than another for whatever reason.

And do please note, I prefaced my comments with the word "I". This is my "opinion" (which evidently isn't welcome here) and wasn't to be taken as set in stone.

I do however find your rather sweeping attack on my comments a bit annoying. I won't trouble you with any more such rubbish.

Mike

[bubba]

The European swords and the Katana are designed for entirely different fighting styles. No real comparison is possible.

[bikercelt1]

The European swords and the Katana are designed for entirely different fighting styles. No real comparison is possible.

And I like Apples better than Oranges! Amen Bubba!

While I have great respect for Japanese sword art and craftsmanship, it just isn't what interests me. Neither are the German or Italian sword disciplines. I'm interested in rediscovering the Celtic martial arts. That doesn't mean my Dad can beat up your Dad or that my area of interest is any better, or worse, than yours.

I got interested in Broadsword as an extension of my interest in wearing the kilt. I saw guys strutting around with the worst looking chunks of scrap metal "Broadswords and Dirks" hung from their sides because they thought it looked cool with the kilt. None of them had any idea how to use them, so they were just decorations. I don't like useless items so I decided to learn what yeilding a sword is all about. I found out I like the physical challenge and sport of it. And I'm basically a pacifist. Go figure.

Jamie

[yoippari]

And do please note, I prefaced my comments with the word "I". This is my "opinion" (which evidently isn't welcome here) and wasn't to be taken as set in stone.

I do however find your rather sweeping attack on my comments a bit annoying. I won't trouble you with any more such rubbish.

Mike

I never said opinions are unwelcome or even attacked your opinion, that is what the thread is about. I said that statements such as

Been making them longer and better than europe ever thought of

are wrong in that it is a blanket statement saying, as bubba and bikercelt put it, apples are better than oranges. The phrasing of your statement, in fact your whole first paragraph, was an absolute.

Sorry guys but I have to go to the other side of the world.

= you opinion differs, ok.

Been making them longer and better than europe ever thought of. A Katana is just so much lighter, faster and sharper.

= Absolutes

I can do much more with my training and bokken than you can with your broadswords.

= may be true but you don't know that it is.

Please, make your opinion known, but don't try to say, keeping with the analogy, apples are better.

[Dreadbelly]

Give me a good hammer or a reinforced mace, and I could smash yer wee daintly blades in to slivers.

All this fuss over swords.

You people take your selves to seriously.

[bubba]

All things considered, the Chinese made iron swords many centuries before the Europeans. Those blades had more in common with the Gladius Hispaniensus than any other style. The "Celtic" blades weren't really broadswords either, they were lighter and thinner that a true broadsword. Each style of blade favors a particular fighting style. A Katana id a wonderful weapon, but useless against plate armor while the broadsword isn't suited at all to the fast moving individualized combat of the Samurai. The only way any particular sword type can be deemed superior to another is in relation to a particular fighting style and in confined quarters a knife is superior to any sword.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Give me a good hammer or a reinforced mace, and I could smash yer wee daintly blades in to slivers.

All this fuss over swords.

You people take your selves to seriously.

Dread, thanks for injecting some reality. For my part, if I decide to go armed, I think a Stinger missile and a .357 should equip me to deal with most situations!

And before anybody gets too out of whack, I know that this is a thread about swords and traditional weapons, just providing some levity.

[Southern Breeze]

I have a small number of Buck knives and have several that I carry.(utilitarian only). As for swords I have a claymore and two generic broadswords that are wallhangers.The development of firearms made swords and maces kinda useless. Don't get me wrong,re-enacting,sword and knife making ,plus learning how to use them is a good thing.If we forget the past,how can we see the future?

[yoippari]

Swords did have their place in history. Out of practicality they were replaced by firearms. I've got no problem with guns and I do have certain guns I like more than others. But swords and an asthetic quality that guns can't reach. A sword can become artwork. They have an elegance to them. Guns are a more efficient method of getting something done, thats it.

If we were going to expand this to favorite melee weapon I would have to say a hammer of some sort. A flanged hammer with a long pick on the other side, prefferably something in the hand and a half 3-4 foot range for a shaft. It is one of the few weapons out there that could even think of *bashing* through plate. It isn't as elegent as a sword, but it could make someone decked out in plate that shrugs off most sword wielders think twice.

[Dreadbelly]

I hope I am not out of place with this post.

Anything a hammer makes, a hammer can undo. No matter how much armor you wore, a hammer could, and would, make it crumple and fold like tinfoil. Against a well trained hammerman, armor was a curse. The crumpled crushed edges of smashed armor bit in to the skin and grated against the bone. You could make armor that could deflect sword blows, deflect some arrows and missiles, but you could not defend from the hammer. It was the hammer that was the undoing of gothic field plate and heavy armor. Not the sword. It was the hammer that defeated chain mail, not the sword. For every improvement made to armor, there was very little they could do to fend off crushing hammer blows. Swords, for all their beauty and deadliness, have glaring limitations. They also break. I am leaving guns out of this, although the gun was the final straw for heavy plate.

While swords project a romantic elegant image, a hammer projects raw brute force authority.