[Updated: 21 August 2006] Your souvenir sword may save you some day
Dioltach said:
Well, it's really simple - "burgle" just sounds so silly. No thug worth his salt is going to go out and burgle. No newscaaster wanst to say "burgle" on screen, lest someone thing they'd burped, or something. "Burgle" is not a dark or dangerous word for a criminal enterprise.
Nyaricus said:
Don't you mean "chortlize" ?
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Cops tell victims to not fight back because they will only cause themselves more injury, yet just about every person I know that has ever been robbed, assaulted, beaten up, etc that has fought back has come out the winner as these guys did.
If more people would fight I think criminals would either think about their course of action more, or come in with more violence to start the crime, thus taking the fight out of the people they are criminalizing (sorry, had to do it
)
Peace all, and remember if you plan to fight, do it with everything you have, and do not stop until its over.
If more people would fight I think criminals would either think about their course of action more, or come in with more violence to start the crime, thus taking the fight out of the people they are criminalizing (sorry, had to do it
)Peace all, and remember if you plan to fight, do it with everything you have, and do not stop until its over.
Merkuri
Explorer
Dannyalcatraz said:
I've read before that Medieval swords weren't actually very sharp. As others have said, it's simply not practical to keep them that way, and they did their job anyway. If you swing something with enough force it doesn't need to be very sharp to cause damage. Have you ever seen a knight on a TV show or movie who braces his sword with two hands, one on the hilt and one on the end of the blade, as if he were holding a quarterstaff? Ever wonder why he doesn't cut himself? It's simply not sharp enough.
I used to hear that samauri swords were the exeception to this rule, but I also remember hearing that new evidence has shown that samauri swords weren't actually any sharper than the European variety. So I really don't know either way on that one.
trancejeremy
Adventurer
Umbran said:
Maybe if the fingers were against something completely immobile, like a brick wall. Otherwise a dull blade would simply move the hand back.
This is why branch cutters aren't simply just a sharp blade, but two blades (like scissors).
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
Yet weed whackers use a dull cord, spun at a high speed, to chop down weeds, grass, plants, and darn near anything. Industrial whackers can take down thin woody plants.trancejeremy said:
Not really- all you have to do is apply enough force to a small enough point.
Go buy a cheap ham or a chicken. Swing a 3' long, 1 1/2" wide, 1/8" thick unsharpened piece of metal at it and see if you don't do some damage...
I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't take a swing at the chicken in the air (like swinging at a baseball) and chop something off of it, especially if you do a 2 handed strike.
(Of course, I wouldn't expect a souvenir weapon to be good for more than 1-2 of solid hits before breaking or otherwise dissembling itself.)
A branch has a very different structure from a hand. A branch is a relatively homogeneous structure of cells with firm cellular walls and a hard exterior. The fibrous nature of a branch is very resistant to cutting.
In contrast, a hand is made up of a LOT of soft tissue around bone. Flesh isn't really designed to resist cutting. Cartilage is tough & spongy, but tears fairly easily. Bone is very, very strong- thigh bones have been shown to withstand crushing forces (along the long axis) of TONS before breaking. However, only a few pounds of pressure need be applied across the short axis of a bone to break it, as I found out- I broke my thumb blocking a pass when the point of the ball hit it squarely. The tiny bones of the hand and feet are not particularly strong.
If the blade intersected with the hand at or near a joint, fingers could be lopped off quite easily. With enough force, the same could happen even at the center of the bone, cleaving it in two.
BTW, for the record "Burglarize" appears in my Websters's Deluxe Unabridged Dictionary...y'know- one of those 10lb beasts? It does not, however, reveal WHEN it became a word.
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