Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Krieg" data-source="post: 1578343" data-attributes="member: 5282">Ironically enough, the "how sharp" argument has doubtlessly raged for several millenia. There are a myriad of different edge geometries on the western blades that have survived. This is because the "sword" is not a static object, it was a dynamic weapon that evolved in many different directions to meet many different goals.One thing we can't lose sight of is that weapons (in this case swords) never existed in a vacuum. The armor faced by a 10th century Viking was very different than that faced by his descendents 500 years later. Swords were designed to defeat whatever defensive measures they were to be wielded against, be it a simple hauberk or an all-whyte harness (ie full plate).A very large percentage of surviving western blades do have a sharpened edge. While few (if any) are of "razor" sharpness, don't be fooled into believing that they were not extremely efficient cutting weapons.Go into the kitchen & grab a Chef's knife. Wrap your hand around it & squeeze the blade against the inside of your palm, chances are you will not cut the skin. However if you were to pull that same blade across your skin under gentle pressure you would quickly be headed to the hospital for stitches. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Now ask yourself, is that blade sharp?The only European blades that were unsharpened as a matter of course, were the Tuck/Estoc & the Smallsword. Both were extremely specialized weapons that emphasized the point over all else. The Tuck did so in an attempt to defeat the escalation of heavy armor in Euope while the smallsword was supremely adapted for civilian duels. Half-swording seems to have been a very limited practice. The only primary evidence of it's actual use were in judicial duels, which were highly formalized and regulated. There are several explanations as to how a swordsman using half-sword techniques kept all his fingers. 1. Armored duels = gauntlets.2. Existing period greatswords have extended ricassos, and only the last 1/3 -1/2 of the blade is sharpened.3. It is quite possible to hold a sharpened blade in bare hands with a tight grip. You will not cut yourself unless the blade slides against the skin.You might want to reconsider that analogy. Ask a competent woodworker about how sharp a good chisel is. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I put far more stock in primary sources than I do in what constitutes "common" knowledge.<a href="http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/vm_viking_eng.htm" target="_blank">Fullero pattern-welded blade</a>Ewart Oakeshott referred to many of the period blades he had handled as being as sharp as "a well-honed carving-knife".If you have any doubts as to the abilities of a European longsword as a cutting weapon feel free to view the videos found at <a href="http://www.ejmas.com/jwma/articles/2002/jwmaart_cvet_0102.htm" target="_blank">The Journal of Western Martial Arts</a>.They will look familiar to any Iaido students who practice Tameshigiri. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Note: The first video contains a single usage of profanity.</blockquote>

Verification