Great article about swords from a sword smith.
http://www.cracked.com/article_20634_6-things-movies-get-wrong-about-swords -an-inside-look.html
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Great article about swords from a sword smith.
link
linked for the phone users
Heck, that's pretty much the case in pathfinder anyway. I mean, it's a scimitar with an extra d2. I'm fond of it, but it aint the god weapon we want it to be.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah. You're better off with a delicious, delicious Fauchard.
Or a Falcata.
Ugh! Now I feel dirty. I'm gonna go wash my hands now. :/
lol i hart cracked articles another thing to note there is a lot of armor types that completely stop the katana but a baster sword will kill you regardless
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You better not be talking shit on bacon in here.
You better not be talking s%$$ on bacon in here.
You better not be talking s%$$ on bacon in here.that has serious repercussions
Exactly. Another +5 for your toaster good sir.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Exactly. Another +5 for your toaster good sir.You better not be talking s%$$ on bacon in here.that has serious repercussions
*pokemon evolution jingle starts playing*
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
*pokemon evolution jingle starts playing*Exactly. Another +5 for your toaster good sir.You better not be talking s%$$ on bacon in here.that has serious repercussions
obligatory post
amen to #12 on the list
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
lol i hart cracked articles another thing to note there is a lot of armor types that completely stop the katana but a baster sword will kill you regardless
Who needs a bastard sword when you have a poleaxe?
lol i hart cracked articles another thing to note there is a lot of armor types that completely stop the katana but a baster sword will kill you regardlessWho needs a bastard sword when you have a poleaxe?
or a shield
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
or a shieldlol i hart cracked articles another thing to note there is a lot of armor types that completely stop the katana but a baster sword will kill you regardlessWho needs a bastard sword when you have a poleaxe?
OR ME
OR MEor a shieldlol i hart cracked articles another thing to note there is a lot of armor types that completely stop the katana but a baster sword will kill you regardlessWho needs a bastard sword when you have a poleaxe?
+10 toaster much better than crap katana. it makes toast and slays demons
I think the only time I've ever heard of quenching a new blade in flesh was in A Song of Fire and Ice.
Maybe he was confusing that with the practice of testing new blades on prisoners? Which isn't exactly the same thing.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, sadly people out there really believe that was how it was done.
I've done some blacksmithing, so I pretty much knew all of these, but my favorite explanation was not actually in this article.
On the folding thing, a lot of the point of the folding was to take a hard (brittle, but will hold an edge) steel, and a soft (flexible, but dulls quickly) steel and combine them so that you get the best of both. To do that, you want to have a lot of thin layers. But you can't actually have a layer thinner than one atom thick. (Okay, you really can't have one much less than a couple atoms thick, and if you can get layers that have a consistent thickness of one atom, you probably have better technology than folding iron.)
The problem is, every time you fold, you double the number of layers. After about 26 folds (I might be slightly off by five or so on that number, it has been a while) some if not all of your layers are less than one atom thick, and the more times you fold it, the *fewer* layers you have left.
Yep. Just like in Europe: Gotta love spears/polearms and ranged weapons.
Asia had their bows (or repeater crossbows with poisoned darts). Europe had their crossbows. Asia had their spears. Europe had its bardiches, halbreds, billhooks, fauchards and poleaxes.
Ah, "facts"... what is supposed to be the bane of ignorance, but often simply ignites a flame war with belief :)
It's all just sharp pieces of metal to me(and to guys getting chopped by it)... at least PF didn't repeat the mwk. bastard sword for katanas.
I prefer high fantasy, so basically any weapon can look the way the player wants, names are just for stats.
Also; colors! cloth and metal... 'cause "the age of brown, black, rust and steel" is not epic.
(Ever notice how katanas always look like katanas, but longswords can pretty much look like any fantasy warrior's rainbow dream.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
But, but, but... Fauchards! My love for reach polearms is ticking clock.
Yeah, sadly people out there really believe that was how it was done.
I've done some blacksmithing, so I pretty much knew all of these, but my favorite explanation was not actually in this article.
On the folding thing, a lot of the point of the folding was to take a hard (brittle, but will hold an edge) steel, and a soft (flexible, but dulls quickly) steel and combine them so that you get the best of both. To do that, you want to have a lot of thin layers. But you can't actually have a layer thinner than one atom thick. (Okay, you really can't have one much less than a couple atoms thick, and if you can get layers that have a consistent thickness of one atom, you probably have better technology than folding iron.)
The problem is, every time you fold, you double the number of layers. After about 26 folds (I might be slightly off by five or so on that number, it has been a while) some if not all of your layers are less than one atom thick, and the more times you fold it, the *fewer* layers you have left.
26 is actually way too high. Once you get to 13 folds you're layers would be smaller than the atoms of the things blades are typically made of. And the point of folding the blade was to spread the 'weakness' of your material (many steel blades are made from railway steel... steel thats been sitting in the dirt for over 50 years getting rained on and driven over and generally frapped to hell....) out over the entire length of the blade so that the blade had no particular area of it where the weakness was focused, which would cause the blade to break at that point. 26 folds might get you down to the atomic width of iron, but a good cutting blade isn't made from pure forged folded iron....
Is there such a thing as too much Bacon?
they died happy
Only because they had their bacon flavored mint.
The twelve Swords in Fred Saberhagen's series of novels were quenched in the blood of the human smiths who assisted the god Vulcan in their forging. Vulcan also took the arm of the one smith who survived, but I'm not sure it was for any good reason.I think the only time I've ever heard of quenching a new blade in flesh was in A Song of Fire and Ice.
Maybe he was confusing that with the practice of testing new blades on prisoners? Which isn't exactly the same thing.
I've encountered it in a few other places, such as Freak's Squeele (and that one still kind of looked like it exploded during the process). I think that it was a trope in Western beliefs about Eastern cultures, but it fell to the wayside with time much like legends of headless tribes with eyes on their chests.
One indication that this is just superstition about other cultures is because I cannot pin it down on any one society in what I've seen. Sometimes its Japanese katanas, sometimes it is Middle Eastern/Indian damascus swords. It was used as a tantalizing story about whichever country became the fad to talk about at the time.
What is this ...
Why I never ....
*reads linked thread*
*backs out of thread slowly*
Katanas have to be special, because Leonardo favors one. If you can't trust a ninja turtle, who can you trust?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Leonardo's swords were easily stopped by a Donatello's wooden stick.
Wooo... wooden stick is the superior choice - and within my budget!
Leonardo's swords were easily stopped by a Donatello's wooden stick.
Wooo... wooden stick is the superior choice - and within my budget!
You can actually use it against people too. Those swords were obviously +1 construct bane weapons, since that is all you ever see them actually hitting. the rest of the time he just kicks.
|
You can actually use it against people too. Those swords were obviously +1 construct bane weapons, since that is all you ever see them actually hitting. the rest of the time he just kicks.
Spoken like someone who never read the original comics. Leo killed the resurrected Shredder by decapitating him.
Leonardo's swords were easily stopped by a Donatello's wooden stick.
Wooo... wooden stick is the superior choice - and within my budget!
Don was a beast in the original NES game. Leo was a close second.
As someone who has been part of an anime convention for the past 11 years(video game room), I can't tell you guys how many times I've heard some fan-kid go on and on about how amazing katanas are, or how amazing they are at using katanas, since they bought a wooden one at last year's con and have been "training."
The link at the top had me laughing pretty good. :)
As for quenching blades in people, I wonder if there isn't a grain of truth in it: Blood is essentially a brine (with a bunch of impurities), and brines were used in quenching blades. I could see someone quenching in blood, or at least advertising as doing so.
Well of course you advertise as doing so. Because it sound like a fairly metal way to ....forge metal.
But the logistics seems like it would be hard to pull off more of the time. Even if you made the concession of using some large animal's blood, you would have to deal with having the blood close at hand for who knows how long near the heat of a forge. It just seems like it could easily turn into a congealed and diseased mess fairly quickly. Sure, you could try to time when you get the blood to when the sword needs quenching, but that seems like it would take particular costs (having the animal butchered right then).
I could possibly believe that a sword meant for a wealthy lord might have such a technique used, but for the vast majority of swords? No.
But, but, but... Fauchards! My love for reach polearms is ticking clock.
Right with you on that one.
@OP. Great thread with lot of good reading.
edit:
@: Name Violation. Really good reading and some of the stuff is hilarious. “Crossbows are Underpowered in d20 “ and “Cats are Overpowered in d20” are two of my favorites. Well (allmost) all of them are really funny and the actual serious response to the original post is good.
Although the "Woomera" thing was both bad and offensive.
Any idea what Treblaine (one of the responders) mean when he says: “Google search /wiki/Rayleigh_scattering”
Except that isn't what happens. The sword gets folded in two layers. Those layers melt together, at least partly. The sword again gets folded into two layers. Again, they melt together. And so on. You can't simply multiply until you get down to atom size and say "at this point each layer is less than an atom thick". Metal is a very particular structure. If it were a bunch of atom-thick sheets, every time you hit something, the blow would scatter large such sheets everywhere.
Well of course, exploding in your face is part of why katanas are the awesomez...
Yeah, sorry. I forgot.