The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers wrote:Japanese polishing will remove weight over time but many swords have not been polished through the outer layers---pretty easy to recognize a "tired" sword and of course

Yep, but it's the metallographic evidence that shows that it's weight loss rather than being made that way. The hard part is proving that it's the polishing over the years that did it instead of it having been done up front.

Ok, just an update here. I want to thank everyone again for all the help you've offered. It has been very helpful.

It's not gonna make a dent in her stance. She's going to do her own research, and nothing I say will have any impact. This is no bad thing tho. I guess it was good enough, with you guys' help, that she feels she needs to do more research on it. It was, hopefully, compelling enough that she thinks there is a real possibility she may be teaching something inaccurate and wishes to fix it. This is a good thing.

Thanks for the help, gang. Seriously, thanks. Special thanks to Suzerain who is made of awesome.

Christopher

RenJunkie wrote:She's going to do her own research, and nothing I say will have any impact. This is no bad thing tho.

Agreed. All of the research she could do will support your position.

You stumbled across one of the two big history myths that should be debunked wherever they are found. The other one is that Columbus thought the world was round when everybody else thought it was flat (except perhaps historical fiction author, Washington Irving). In reality, everyone in Columbus' time knew the world was round. Columbus thought it was smaller than everyone else's (surprisingly accurate) calculations: he was wrong, but lucky that he found land before he ran out of food and drinking water as he should have.

RenJunkie-I'm glad that you got the chance to get this off your chest in a tactful manner.

I came upon this thread late, or I would have asked the question: "If knights led from the rear, then why did they train all their lives so they could heft those 30lb. swords in the first place?"
They were tanks compared to the regular footmen, would they be content just to watch from the rear...it seems more likely that if you trained in arms your whole life, you would at least want to test your skills in real battle.

This holds true for man to this day, as most servicemen I know, including myself, wanted a piece of the action in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Where are all of those 30lb. swords she speaks of? Surely they would have survived, and been passed on generation to generation, especially since she thinks they were never used. I guess that is why we never found anything like that on dig sites... .

If maille is not "real armor" then why did the Franks use it to such good effect? They were rendered nearly impervious to injury according to some recorded accounts from "real" battles. References escape me for now, but I can get them if you want to revisit this argument later.

(Somewhat off-topic aside) Did anybody catch the episode of "Deadliest Warrior" when they showcased the Samurai vs. Viking? In that episode, the fella wielding a katana told everyone that the sword could cut any Viking in half (paraphrasing). They put a mail shirt over a pig carcass, and let the guy have at it...to no effect whatsoever! I don't think he tried thrusting through it though, just powerful slashes to a stationary target. I am sure the guy under the maille would have had bruises, possibly some cracked ribs (if he wasn't wearing padding underneath), but he would have survived the blows for sure.

I know you would never use that show as an example to your professor, but I thought I would mention it anyway, because several people spoke of Japanese culture in this thread, and it brought this show to mind.

Have a happy Thanksgiving,

Oddvarr

No; there is some *BAD* data out there even in stuff with folks with lots of letters after their name. But the preponderance of data is for the right weights!

Yeah, as long as she's not counting guys like DeVries as leading scholars in the field, I think she'll get it. Which is in the long run what really matters.

Ya know, I've had sword conversations that involved the light saber-esque qualities of katana blades. Dude swore up and down that a katana would cut thru any other type of sword on earth. Honestly, if this was true, no one would have felt the need to produce a plasma cutter. We'd load all our guns with little tiny katana-bullets and every soldier would be a tank killer. Incredibly dumb.

To be fair to Columbus, he did find land exactly where he expected it. Just due to his misjudging of the size of the orb, it was the wrong land. At least......that's what I heard!

Thanks!
Christopher