swords?

[Enkhidu]

There´s another important thing in the matter of balancing cutting blades -and tennis racquets-, and it´s the percussion point (I´m translating, don´t know it that´s the proper english word). If the blade hits with the percussion point, the handle -and hand and wrist- won´t notice the impact. I would explain it further, but I´m afraid I can´t without a good diagram.

I think you're talking about what is known in the US as the "sweet spot" - the point or area on a swung object that will most efficiently transfer energy from the swing to the object being swung at.

 

[Dogbrain]

I think you're talking about what is known in the US as the "sweet spot" - the point or area on a swung object that will most efficiently transfer energy from the swing to the object being swung at.

The formal term is "center of percussion".

 

[Dogbrain]

I find the french grip somewhat lacking.

Irrelevant to evaluating the sort of hilts and handles I wrote of. The French grip was developed for a very specific style of ritual combat. There is FAR MORE TO THE WORLD OF SWORD HILTS than the orthopedic and the French.

 

[Enkhidu]

The formal term is "center of percussion".

I got that. I also decided to use the more widely used and understood informal term. One day you will understand that's just fine. Today was obviously not that day.

 

[RangerWickett]

I don't know anything more than a layman's collection of sword knowledge, but I recall reading an article in Discover Magazine about this nifty new polymer-esque metal alloy, being marketed as 'liquid steel.' It's the closest thing to mithril this world has to offer.

I even pretended to be a representative from a collectibles company and sent them an email asking how much a sword would cost to make of this material. The man who replied said it wouldn't be worth the effort. The metal is basically pumped into a mold like plastic, so I imagine the cost per unit wouldn't be too high, but probably the set up would be ridiculous.

Still, it's a nifty metal.

 

[Krieg]

RW just out of curiosity what was it about this new alloy that made you think it would be a satisfactory replacement for steel in a sword blade?

 

[RangerWickett]

Originally posted by Liquidmetal-Technologies
Amorphous alloys are unique materials that are characterized by a random atomic structure, in contrast to the crystalline atomic structure possessed by ordinary metals and alloys. Bulk Liquidmetal® alloys are two to three times stronger than commonly used titanium alloys, harder than tool steel, and relatively non-corrosive and wear resistant. Bulk Liquidmetal alloys can also be molded into precision net-shaped parts similar to plastics, resulting in intricate and sophisticated engineered designs.

If you believe the hype, basically it's just ridiculously resilient. Maybe it's better for tennis rackets than swords, but it's still nifty. Hmm. Perhaps it's more like adamantium than mithril.

Originally posted by Discover Magazine
The wispy metal strip in my hands is 8 inches long, 1 inch wide, and as thin as aluminum foil.

“Try to tear it,” says William Johnson, a materials science professor at Caltech in Pasadena.

I pull—first gently, but soon with all my might. No go.

“See if you can cut this,” suggests Johnson’s postgraduate assistant Jason Kang, handing me a mirror-bright piece of the same metal. It’s an inch long, a quarter inch wide, and thinner than a dime. I bear down with a heavy-duty pair of wire cutters. The metal will not cut. I try again, squeezing with both hands until my fingers ache. Nothing.

But the most amazing act in this show is yet to come.

“Watch,” says Johnson. From a height of about two feet, he drops a steel ball onto a brick-size chunk of the metal. The ball bounces so high and for so long—1 minute and 17 seconds, with a metronomic tick, tick, tick—that it looks unreal, like some kind of cinematic special effect. “When you try that with regular steel, it goes ‘clunk, clunk, clunk’ and stops,” says Johnson. If the metal were glued to an unyielding surface such as concrete (instead of sitting on Johnson’s oak coffee table, which absorbs a lot of the energy), “the ball would bounce for more than two minutes,” he says. “I’ve done it.”

 

[Driddle]

I don't know anything more than a layman's collection of sword knowledge, but I recall reading an article in Discover Magazine about this nifty new polymer-esque metal alloy, being marketed as 'liquid steel.' It's the closest thing to mithril this world has to offer.

That's NOT what Dogbrain was talking about. In subsequent postings, please try to make even the slightest effort to imply a tangent to something about which he can jump on you with defensive, righteous anger. That IS the purpose of this thread, after all.

Thank you.

 

[RangerWickett]

That's NOT what Dogbrain was talking about. In subsequent postings, please try to make even the slightest effort to imply a tangent to something about which he can jump on you with defensive, righteous anger. That IS the purpose of this thread, after all.

Thank you.

My friend, please relax. You're coming across as a little aggressive, and that won't help anyone. Compared to threads elsewhere in this wide world we call the internet, this one has been positively tame.

 

[barsoomcore]

Well, yeah, I guess, kinda tame, but frankly, there's been a lot of vitiriol in general in this thread. It's a little surprising.

I mean, most people's posts in this thread have been pretty much correct -- if occasionally tangential to what the discussion was about. There appear to have been some misunderstandings as to what the point of a particular post was, but I haven't seen people earning the sorts of cutting remarks that have been directed at them.

Stainless steel will certainly corrode to some degree. But it sure resists rusting under general use. I bet different tests reveal different results.

"Real" swords, however, are not made of stainless steel. I'm not 100% sure why, but I'm sure somebody on this thread does. If someone expresses a lack of concern regarding rust and their sword, it's probably a good sign that either A) the sword isn't real (see above regarding real swords and stainless steel), B) they don't know anything about their sword or C) they're perfectly happy to clean their sword once you're done touching it.

My katanas balance about five to six inches from the guard. I remember comparing a French cavalry sabre with a British officer's sword (sorry I can't identify them more clearly) and noting very distinctly how the sabre's point of balance (and thus, its point of percussion) was much further out from the point where I was gripping it than the officer's sword. The manner in which a sword is meant to be used of course has a great deal to do with it's point of balance.

Or perhaps more accurately, a sword's point of balance determines how it can best be used.

Most grips I've experimented with have a certain flexibility and resilience in common. Japanese styles tend to emphasize gripping with the "pinky" finger and using the larger, stronger fingers for direction and control, presumably to avoid over-use of strength (which leads to having your sword taken away from you on a line that your strength isn't directed against). My limited fencing experience indicated that the same was true in those sorts of grips as well.

I sure love swords. I sure love talking about swords. But it's definitely a topic about which people seem to often feel a need to denigrate others' knowledge (or lack thereof) -- I suspect it's because, like UNIX geeks, sword geeks tend to derive a lot of personal worth out of their knowledge ("I am cool because I know more than other people about swords"), and so need to attack people whose knowledge is different than theirs. It's very disappointing.