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Third Post:Used like a brass knuckle? The sword will certainly cut through the wielder's hand.Mastery completely misunderstands what I am refering to. The basket guard is the metal that wraps around the wielder's hand. One can punch with that piece of steel as one would with a brass knuckle.Removes head and limbs in a single stroke? No, can't even cut through cardboard at once. Look carefully at the video, and you'll see how weak the cutlass is.That was wood board, not card board, and the blow was rather light. He cuts completely through it in the horizontal direction later. Here's another video, in which you can see it slice completely through the head and skull of an accurate (in terms of bone and flesh density) model of a human body. It also cuts mostly through a pig with a very light cut. Once again, pretty much any sword blade of the proper weight is capable of removing a head or a limb. The cutlass is superior because of its dimensions and guard, making it perfect for close quarters fighting.But, short-swords allow zombies to approach dangerously close to the attacker. Then the zombies can surround & destroy the attacker.Two feet is hardly short.Little energy per swing??? NO! That wouldn't even cut through a cardboard box. Besides, sabres don't require much training. 'With an effective saber a person of reasonable strength can easily cut off limbs, split human skulls, and decapitate heads. Actual test cutting has proven this assertion beyond any doubt and the historical record (such as the British cavalry against the French during the Battle of Waterloo) backs up this claim.'[1]The cutlass is a military sabre that's been designed for naval use. It is the fact that it's designed for naval use that makes it better against zombies than other sabres, while still retaining all of the other charactaristics and advantages.Sabres are a "cut and thrust" weapon like a cutlass. With a sabre, draw-cutting is automatic, not requiring the co-ordination of 'time' of a master. Obviously, sabres can be can be used for point-work (a very important skill in modern fencing), and the sabre is a cut-and thrust weapon. As shown in my rebuttals, tests have shown that sabres can easily decapitate heads etc. The Point-of balance is also very close to the hand, which prevents the wielder from dropping the sword or using too much energy. Since a cutlass is VERY similar to the cutlass, but not precisely the same, most advantages the cutlass has the sabre has. The sabre also doesn't require much experience to operate basically.The cutlass is a sabre. Once again, the differences lie in the heavy basket hilt and the slightly shorter, slightly broader blade; characteristics which make it perfect against zombies. Fourth Post: Distance of a Cutlass outweighs a machine gun? No way! It's common sense. And how does the head move more than the feet?Mastery misunderstands what I am saying once again, and then relies on pedantics. What I meant is that the distance at which one uses a firearm makes it much harder to hit with. When I said "the rest of the body," I was talking about the torso, where a shooter is trained to aim.As the cutlass hits zombies, its blade becomes blunt quickly and thus is rendered useless.Firstly, it takes quite a while to dull a 1055 high carbon steel blade. Secondly, even a fairly dull blade can cut quite well, as this video demonstrates. Sharpening would only have to be done every week or so, and it would simply consist of using a knife sharpener or a coarse rock to maintain the edge. This is incredibly easy to do, even with limited resources.{Apocalypse: an event involving destruction or damage on a catastrophic scale.}With that in mind, there has to be many, many zombies.Of course, but one also has to keep in mind how vast the world is. Zombies would be fairly spread out, and once again, when "surrounded by thousands of zombies," nothing will save you.But so do swords. A blunt one won't work, and considering the number of zombies, of course the cutlass will have to be resharpened every minute.Extreme hyperbole to say the least. I have explained why swords are easy to maintain already.Actually, the information stated proves this.An unsubstantiated claim doesn't support itself.What is 'incorrect' is debatable. I could say you have broken the rules because a firearm is better than a cutlass. No, because we are debating that very question.And, as shown in YOUR OWN VIDEO, a cutlass FAILS to cut through a piece of meat in one slash.A massive piece of meat that is frozen completely solid, bones and all. I've touched on cutting abilities multiple times already.In R2 I have stated that it is the average person being evaluated. The average person is NOT trained.Fair enough. That doesn't mean that the average person is so uncoordinated that they'll hit themselves.Thank you for your time.