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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kail" data-source="post: 1002122" data-attributes="member: 8851">"AND deflects effortlessly (unlike most European blades), and it weighs less and is much faster than comparable European weapons."Need to be more careful of those generalizations yourself.  The weight or most European weapons is exagerated.  A good bastard sword comes in at under 4 pounds most of the time.  And during the period where the katana became important, or even reached its recognizable form, your a pound lighter."The reason the katana didn't become mainstream the world over after Japan entered the world market, however, is simply because a great many European blacksmiths simply weren't able to master the proper techniques in creating the katana correctly."Multiple grade steel and patern type weilds in European weapons had been around long before the Japanese started cranking out katanas.  The Celts and Vikings had mastered this art long before the 12 or 13th century Japanese smiths did.  The reason the katan didn't become mainstream the world over after Japan entered the world market had nothing to do with what a European smith could do.  It had to do with the fact that Japan didn't contact Europe until firearms were already a major force on the European battlefield.  Swords had alrady changed function and were rapidly losing favor as primary tools of war.  European smiths were then capable, as they are now, of matching the Japanese sword smith in quality of work.  It was not a religious event, but a job to be done, one that your reputation and life could be resting on.To the post at hand.  That a katana, a smaller, curved blade, puts out damage like a larger weapon works to satisfy the "best blade ever produced" myth just fine.  No real need to do anything other than make it an equivalent.  Like the No-dachi working up as a great sword, large hacking blades weildable only in two hands, checks out with the logic test.</blockquote>

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