From: phil_hatch.slc.mentorg.com
Subject: katana stuff (long)
Keywords: Japan above all others
Organization: Mentor Graphics Corp.,  Murray, Utah
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 20:00:45 GMT

Back in '85 when I was still in college, I photocopied an article from
Knife Digest.  It's called "HYPE... as ancietn an art as sword making"
and was authored by Hanke Reinhardt.  I'll excerpt a few pertinent 
points:

	"(list of unbelievable events from guns to fist fights to)
	... swords that shear steel plate and concrete columns and then 
	are struck edge to edge and never take a nick, and knives that 
	cut barbwire with a mysterious twist of the blade.  Most of 
	this people see as hype, but for some reason, when the 
	japanese sword is hyped, everyone believes it.

	As a student of arms and armor for many years, I find this 
	both distressing and amusing. When I mention that a Viking 
	sword, "Quernbiter" by name, was called this because it was 
	supposed tohave cut a millstone in half, everyone laughs and 
	considers it a tall tale, which it undoubtedly was.  Then the 
	same audience will gravely assure me that the japanese Katana 
	has been know to cut a machine gun barrel in half.
	
	This stunt must have happened several times, because when I 
	tried to track the suource, it seeems to have occurrd on 
	Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Iwo Jima, Taraw, and several other 
	isalnds. I have come to believe Japanese soldiers have some sort
 	of pathological hatred for maachine gun barrels.  I have also 
	wondered why they never tried to cut down the gunner."

This "friend of a friend" (FOAF) no location story is called an urban
by folklorists such as Jan Brunvand who has read this article.

Paraphrasing some, he tracks the history of European blade manufacture
to Japanese blade manufacture, denigrating neither, nor going into great 
depths since that has been done well elsewhere.  Hank spends a few 
paragraphs reiterating the thread of a short time ago where sword damage
is analyzed.  He then discusses draw-cutting which is the style the 
katana is used im "In soft tissue suach as flesh or bone, it delivers a 
truly fearsom ecut, being easily capable of cutting a torso  in half.  
The drawback is that it doesn't cut armor, even mail, very well. A draw 
cut is very ineffective against hard armor. Changing the cut, and 
delivering a shearing blow does not work either. The blade of the katana`
is thick, with a sharp cutting bevel.  The edge is strong, but the 
wedge it presents has to move aside more amterial."

The japanese made good swords, but they made good armor too.  For actual
combat, the japanese used the nagi-nata, yari and bow. Then, "In Europe,
when practical firearms made armor obsolete, it was quickly abandoned. 
The same thing is true of Japan. One thing the Japanese are not is stupid."

As to the nicks of a blade,

	"I have been assured, frequently in fact, that Japanes blades are 
	so st4rong and tough that they never b reak, nick or bend. Well, 
	they break, they nick and they bend. They frequently nick quite badly.
	Damascus stell is a superior stell, or it can be when done by a 
	superb smith. But even a superior steel is still steel and will
	respond like steel. One sad fact is that the harder the steel, the 
	more likely it is to chip and nick, A softer metal will bend, 
	flatten or otherwise distort. When this happens, it is relatively 
	easy to pound or file a new cutting edge., When a chip leaves a gap, 
	not much can be done. A peice can be reforged into the blade, but
	this also requries that the blade be retempered."

Cutting swords in half,

	"No way.

	Given that the katana has avery hard edge, and given that it is 
	heavier it still will not cut through a rapier held in a man's hand.
	...If you brace the rapier in two places, then cutting does become 
	possible, but even a cheap axe could do it then."


Conclusions:

	"The Japanesew wer,e and a few still are, excellent bladesmiths. But 
	because a few were superb, it doesn't mean that all of them were. 
	....I've seen old and valuable katanas with more welding flaws than
	fleas on a hound and others that were damn near perfect.  I've seen
	them bent, broken, nicked and notched, some with huge gaps.  I once 
	watched a valuable katana broken in half cutting into a pine 2X4.
	(He hit it slightly wrong, and I had already told him that swords 
	were not axes and shouldn't be used for cutting wood, so I didn't 
	feel sorry for him.)

	Charles Daniel, one of hte best martial artists in the U.S. today,
	pointed out to me that the Japanese never developed the lunge, and 
	that was probably due to their physiology.  When you're shore with 
	very short legs in relationship to your torso, a lunge doesn't do
	you much good. However, for a tall European with loing legs, it 
	becomes a very devastating technique. 

	I feel that no style is any better than the man using it.

	As for the mystic nature of the samurai blade, i have to say that 
	hype, even hype made in Japan is hype."

So, all things being equal, things are pretty equal in reality.  A game is 
whatever the folks involved say it is.

Have fun.

Phil
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