----- --- 14898545 is katana the most memed weapon in the history of mankind? they're actually fucking useless. --- 14898572 >>14898545 (OP) Swords in general are memed weapons. There's not a whole lot they can do that spears, axes, clubs, maces, and polearms can't do 100x better with only a fraction of the materials required in making them. --- 14898602 >>14898545 (OP) Katanas were good swords that saw lots of use and imitation through late medieval and early modern east asia. They're far from shit and I'm not taking a katana of dubious make handled by someone of nonexistant skill as indicative of their use. That said, yes, I can't think of a weapon that has been more hyped and overrated than they have. I'd say spears are becoming a solid second place because of retards like >>14898572, but the distance to katanas is still beyond massive. --- 14898779 Katanas were fine for the role they fulfilled, which was as a sidearm and status symbol. --- 14899485 >>14898602 >a katana of dubious make This is is, really. No metal should warp like that. This is a genuine ebay era katana. --- 14899491 >>14898545 (OP) Katanas are meant to be used exclusively against flesh. Not armor, not wood, not plastic, not a rifle barrel, not even another katana. --- 14899510 >>14899491 >Not armor Then they're fucking useless. --- 14899529 >>14898545 (OP) You need an American blade to defeat an American beverage. --- 14900385 katanas not only are useless but are also gay tbqh. feminine "weapon". when I imagine a person holding katana it is some kind of skinny faggot or a woman. as opposed to something manly like claymore. --- 14900435 >>14900385 https://youtu.be/vzqeu0euWA8 [Embed] --- 14900457 I nominate the switchblade. It's criminalization in the US is entirely based upon popular panic derived from aesthetics and media. It's not meaningfully more dangerous in the hands of a criminal than a normal folding or sheath knife. --- 14900842 >>14898545 (OP) >samurai believed the sword was their very spirit imagine what regular coke would reduce Ichiro to --- 14900875 >>14898572 The sword is a far better weapon than all those meme melee weapons. They just happen to have a specialization whereas the sword is a generalist weapon. --- 14900881 Swords are oversized knives --- 14900936 >>14900457 That's a good point. When I finally got my hands on one, it was very disappointing --- 14900955 Did someone mention a meme useless weapon? --- 14901634 >>14898545 (OP) Probably, though a lot of people shit on katanas just as much in response to them being so overhyped by media. Historically speaking a samurai’s main weapon on the battlefield was either a bow/arquebus or a spear/polearm, with the katana being reserved for intense close quarter fighting or in case your spear/polearm broke. They got mythologized since they were symbols of the samurai as a class, used for duels and self defense, and carried around all the time. The whole folded a billion times thing is because Japanese iron is shit, so the whole process was necessary to make the swords decent in the first place. As far as it’s actual effectiveness in battle is concerned it seems the Ming held a pretty high opinion of them, in the Battle of Byeokjegwan during the Imjin War the Ming literally cited their daos (Chinese swords) being inferior as one of the main reasons they were defeated by the Japanese. (Battle devolved into a dense melee) The Japanese also seemed to think Chinese swords were pretty trash, and they would use the ones they found as impromptu spikes for their fortifications. Of course that might be saying more about Chinese swords than anything else, but I don’t really have any other examples I can think of that bring up katanas in particular. --- 14901714 >>14898545 (OP) Correct, if you want a curved blade go for an English cavalry sabre or a Persian scimitar. Both places had better metal techniques and technology than the Japanese. In japans peak katana production age, the Scottish had been making better swords for about 300-500 years. Some katana are beautiful pieces of art and the Japanese have cool weapon technique that has survived but that’s about the nicest thing I can say about them. Check out /k/ and ask the kommandos. They’ll know more about metal types and modern blacksmiths / forgers than I can remember. --- 14901785 IIRC the Germanic tribes in proto-feudal castle towns/city states had better construction methods for arms/armor. They were beautiful pieces of craftsmanship that were also amazing tools of war. That only really got more noticeable as they got placed under a local hegemon and urbanized more later on down the line. Tod did a pretty cool video on it a while back. >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hz-WDYtYCw&t=206s [Embed] --- 14901791 >>14899510 They were for killing peasants not soldiers --- 14901979 >>14898545 (OP) I am not a bottle slicer expert. How should this have looked with a proper sharp sword (of any type)? I would guess it would slice into it and embed itself minimum, but would it completely cut it apart? The latter seems a bit anime for something of a consistency such as plastic+water (I'd expect it for something like flesh). --- 14902020 >>14898545 (OP) >>14901979 What happens if you use a katana that isn't a halloween toy: https://youtu.be/bAkEd8r7Nnw?t=237 [Embed] --- 14902458 >>14898545 (OP) Katanas weren't made for war since the 1650s, they banned samurai duels around that time and had roughly 200 years of peace under a feudal military dictatorship. Also their unification war was fought almost entirely with guns, which they were continuing to manufacture during their peace time. --- 14902505 >>14898602 Swords has absolutely no strategic value on the battlefield. A formation of swords cant accomplish anything. A formation of spears has a hundred different strategic values. Spears could be mass-produced with very little cost. A sword required a hundred times more effort and cost to make. --- 14902858 >>14902505 spot the skinny fat hema autist --- 14902870 >>14898545 (OP) When you buy a sword from China it probably won't arrive sharpened even when it says it is sharpened. --- 14902877 >>14902870 Most if not all swords "Made in China" are really just what most hoplologists would call "Swordlike Objects". They aren't even intended for cutting and often use very soft steel. Their purposes are usually just as LARPing props OR as decorative art pieces, not as proper cutting tools. I honestly think thats what gives katanas in general a bad name. Properly made katanas are on par with European broadswords. --- 14903306 >>14898545 (OP) Wasn't it just yesterday that caused the massive schizo outrage --- 14904136 katana is overrated, and staff is underrated --- 14904163 >>14902505 And that's great up until that shit breaks, gets interleaved, or fighting gets close. Everyone who could afford a sword brought one, to the point where the Swiss had to have regulations forbidding pikemen from wearing full on longswords so they'd bring something shorter. --- 14904202 >>14902505 *Laughs in latin* --- 14904210 >>14898545 (OP) Yes. But the katana was a good sidearm for its place and time regardless. --- 14904223 >>14898545 (OP) It wasn't useless, but it wasn't exceptional either like in anime. It was the equivalent of a saber, scimitar or some other curved cavalry sword. >katana.webm If a bottle of coke can bend it permanently, it must be made of poor quality iron not steel. Poor quality iron was actually a problem in Japan which only has iron sands as a source of ore, this may have contributed to the myth of the Katana, their owners being among the few able to afford the best steel, they could have shattered the weapons of the Ashigaru levies or poorer Samurai. However, compared to a saber or scimitar from elsewhere in the world they were about the same. --- 14904700 >>14904223 So where did they source proper steel sourced during sakoku? --- 14904844 >>14904700 They used a,way of forging that turned pig iron into carbon steel, I think.