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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 1679666" data-attributes="member: 19675">As I recall further, I was looking for historical data on rapiers, so that may be a key word to use in the search on those sites.Among the first articles I found were those discussing which was more dangerous, the slash or the thrust.What the various articles boiled down to was that thrusting weapons were deadlier- a well placed thrust would be quick and fatal- but it didn't have much "stopping power."  This was based on an analysis of the bodies of known duelist fatalities.  They tended to have multiple wounds- any of which would have been fatal, but the number of wounds indicated the fights lasted some time.  They also found a low number of healed wounds.In contrast, slashing wounds were found to have less lethality, but more "stopping power."  In a similar examination of bodies, the researchers found an overall higher number healed wounds, and a lower percentage of wounds that would be considered fatal.In addition, they did tests with thrusting and slashing weapons on the same kind of materials designed to test new ammunition properties.  Thrusts delivered deep, penetrating wounds that would do a serious number on a person's vitals.  The wounds were also small and mechanically efficient in that most of the energy of the strike was delivered into a small area, like an armor-piercing round.  While the thrust might be fatal, the opponent would not neccessarily be instantly disabled, allowing the fight to continue.By way of contrast, a well-delivered slashing cut transmitted a lot of force over a broad area, and tended to disrupt the surrounding flesh in the same way as a hollow-point round.  That is, there were visible shock waves that traveled throughout the "test-bodies"- the result in a living being would be intense pain over a great area around the wound, possibly putting the opponent into shock, dropping the opponent almost instantly.  Thus, a fight was more likely to be settled with a non-fatal blow.</blockquote>

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