New test cutting vid - blunt sword on thick bamboo

[John_Clements]

http://www.thearma.org/Videos/NTCvids/t ... erials.htm

[Kenneth Armstrong]

Pretty neat.

Where did that poster in the background come from?

[Jeffrey Hull]

That was nicely illustrative of how well someone can cut testing material even with a blunt European sword if he uses good techinque and power, even if said material (i.e. thick green bamboo) supposedly can be cut only by the super senseis of Whatever-Ryu and only with special deity-approved and imperially sanctioned $10000 iaido katanas.

I have similarly proven to myself that one could cut through saplings, PEX tubing, etc and other such stuff with a rather unsharp (and admittedly cheap) longsword.

Doing those sorts of things teaches one first-hand about one's ability and one's weaponry.

As an aside, it led me to realise how ridiculous was all the deifying at certain other websites of persons who would brag about their razor-sharp katanas and how they could cut through various testing media common as if nobody else anywhere else could ever possibly equal such feats.

[Neil Bockus]

Very nice video, and I'm not surprised at the result. A few weeks back we test cut against a wetted industrial cardboard tube (~1/3-1/2in. thick) with a blunt Cold Steel two-hand sword. One of my friends got through a section of tube in a single cut (I had a bit tougher time). All the more ammo for me when trying to be logical with some of my EMA roommates (some "true believers" in the katana, let me tell you) .

[JeremyDillon]

An acquaintance of mine has always insisted that the japanese sword's "superior cutting edge" would allow it to cut much more effectively through materials than a european sword. He actualy insisted that a japanese longsword could "slice" through plate armor. He recently showed me a video of his "teacher" (an out of work karate instructor who bought a sword on ebay and is therefore, aparently, qualified to give weapons training) cutting similar bamboo, so I was delighted to be able to show him this video. Thanks!

[Derrick Berrier]

Kind of puts a lot of myths to bed for me. I look forward to the chance to do some cutting of my own soon. As of yet I am still bound by wood. Anyway good clip.

Derrick Berrier

[Rodolfo Martínez]

Hi everyone!
Its impressive the cutting power of a blunt straight sword. Some days ago i saw on tv a collector of a museum, saying that japanese warriors, in the XVII century prefered their own curved katanas instead of the straight doubled edged europead swords because katanas were superior and the straight swords were rustic and archaic. What about a green bamboo cutting blunt bastard sword? So, my question is, in an hypothetical case, can a blunt japanese katana cut as well as the ¨archaic¨ straight bastard swords?

[Randall Pleasant]

So, my question is, in an hypothetical case, can a blunt japanese katana cut as well as the ¨archaic¨ straight bastard swords?

I hope you understand that stright bladed European swords were not in any manner "archaic" in comparison to the katana. Given how little Japanese swords changed over a very long period of time it might make better sense to consider their design "archaic".

[Jeffrey Hull]

Hi everyone!
Its impressive the cutting power of a blunt straight sword. Some days ago i saw on tv a collector of a museum, saying that japanese warriors, in the XVII century prefered their own curved katanas instead of the straight doubled edged europead swords because katanas were superior and the straight swords were rustic and archaic. What about a green bamboo cutting blunt bastard sword? So, my question is, in an hypothetical case, can a blunt japanese katana cut as well as the ¨archaic¨ straight bastard swords?

Most museum curators have never cut anything with any sort of sword. For that matter, most museum curators probably have no experience with martial arts. For that matter, most museum curators fill their professional reading time with treatises on art-history and design-lineage, or peer-journals extolling the latest psycho-sexual criticism of artistic symbology, or articles about the newest utilitarian conservation techniques...Yet not with any fight-books.

A decent guess is that the quoted museumite was simply relaying one of the manifold, tired, wrong notions that plague the study of hoplology even as folks like us strive to make it fruitful, truthful and expansive.

If anyone finds all that unduly harsh, then please know that I say such because I am totally sick of the constant nonsense that some well-paid academics spout in smug expectation that it shall go uncontested beneath the aegis of their titles and tenure. Just bloody well had it with them.

I can count on one gauntlet the number of museum curators with whom I am acquainted who have bravely pulled themselves out of the peer-approval paradigm to try to understand the old arms and armour in a manner similar to how serious students of Renaissance martial arts strive to do.

[Mike West]

What make, model of sword was used on the bamboo cutting video?

[John_Clements]

It was an older Raven Armouries bastard sword from the UK.

[Rodolfo Martínez]

¨Archaic¨ was ironacally. I never handled a sword, but i understand that a sword isn´t only an edge, is a strong hilt, fuller, pommel, a hand, a brain and a lot more and that is enough for me to know that straight swords weren´t archaic weapons, not only european, chinese too.

About test cuts, my friend told me that a blunt longsword can dismember an arm in a vertical position. Is this true?

Last week i saw a master using a long odachi blade. But the edge was very curved, maybe more than a Katana´s blade, So didn´t a very curved blade difficult a good and deep slash? I mean, giving a powerful and deep slice trough someone´s flesh.

Thanks to all.

[Jeffrey Hull]

Our super-smart comrade George Turner explains the thought and misthoughts about curved blades in part 3 of his article
Sword Motions and Impacts: An Investigation and Analysis
under heading "Blade Curvature".
http://www.thearma.org/spotlight/GTA/mo ... pacts3.htm

[Rodolfo Martínez]

Thank you Jeffrey!

I was told too that odachis weren´t used by samurais (But i think they really do), they were used by lower rank foot soldiers to cut horses´ legs. So, can a sword cut horses´ legs?

[Mars Healey]

We are having a Changdao master come to our school on Dec 5th and give us a demo of the Chinese "horse sword".



Ming Dynasty two-handed swords (probably early to mid-17th century) known then as the "changdao" but are more popularly known today as the "Miao Dao". These blades have ridged cross-sections and were obviously inspired by the large Japanese swords (known as "nodachi") used by the Japanese pirates raiding the Chinese south-eastern coast. As for the diagrams showing the swordsmen, they are from a Ming martial arts manual published in 1621.


These large 2-handed sabers were first used by the Northern Border Troops under the command of Ming General Qi Jiguang in the late 1560s-70s to deal with Mongol cavalry, and remained in use right up to the late Ming (1620s-1644). At that time, these sabers had an overall specified length of 1.95 meters.

Information taken from: Ming and Qing swords

I'll let you know what I learn from him.