Would you want a Katana?

[Frungy]

Would I want a katana? I own a wooden one that I use for practice and that's enough. Why?

1) Maintenance - A real katana (not some replica) is made from river/pig iron bonded with carbon by folding. It rusts like a ***** and requires careful and constant maintenance (I live quite near the sea in a humid area so rust is a real worry). I'd have to clean and powder it every time I unsheated it, as well as wet the peg that keeps the sword attached to the sheath... all in all a real katana is just more work that it's worth unless you've got several hours a week to spend maintaining it.

2) Practicality - Katana shatter like glass. No jokes. A real katana was never used to block, only to deflect, and 99.9% of Hollywood katana action sequences you've seen would result in the user standing there looking like a moron holding a shattered sword. The best sequences are, ironically enough, in Kill Bill, but even those take some liberties. True story, a friend of mine found a black mamba (very frikkin' dangerous snake) in his room, so he grabbed the first weapon he could and killed it. Yes, he killed the snake, but he wasn't careful with his stroke and his katana hit a wooden post and when he tried to extract it he twisted slightly and it shattered. About $10 000 worth of sword shattered and beyond repair.

So no, I wouldn't want a katana.

 

[Frungy]

Yeah i'd like to have a katana. I'd also like to learn Kendo so it's a bit more than a decoration.

I'd also like a Frostmourne replica. And a motorcycle. But hey, a dude can dream.

If you're studying kendo then you want a shinai, which is a wooden practice sword made of strips of bamboo. Kendo is a sport and they don't use live blades, ever, just like most fencers wouldn't know what to do with a real rapier. Katori is what you're looking to learn, but there are very few teachers outside of Japan.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Yes, because they sell them at the fleamarket for pretty cheap, I've just never gotten around to it.

 

[Subzerowings]

Katana?
No, I'd take a nodachi though.

 

[Arkzism]

mm a katana noo no i wouldnt.. i already have a machete and a crowbar.. btu if i want a sword id go with a decent long sword.. i dont see the big deal everyone has with Japanese swords

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I have a few katanas 1 battle ready the rest generic display types.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Would I want a katana? I own a wooden one that I use for practice and that's enough. Why?

1) Maintenance - A real katana (not some replica) is made from river/pig iron bonded with carbon by folding. It rusts like a ***** and requires careful and constant maintenance (I live quite near the sea in a humid area so rust is a real worry). I'd have to clean and powder it every time I unsheated it, as well as wet the peg that keeps the sword attached to the sheath... all in all a real katana is just more work that it's worth unless you've got several hours a week to spend maintaining it.

2) Practicality - Katana shatter like glass. No jokes. A real katana was never used to block, only to deflect, and 99.9% of Hollywood katana action sequences you've seen would result in the user standing there looking like a moron holding a shattered sword. The best sequences are, ironically enough, in Kill Bill, but even those take some liberties. True story, a friend of mine found a black mamba (very frikkin' dangerous snake) in his room, so he grabbed the first weapon he could and killed it. Yes, he killed the snake, but he wasn't careful with his stroke and his katana hit a wooden post and when he tried to extract it he twisted slightly and it shattered. About $10 000 worth of sword shattered and beyond repair.

So no, I wouldn't want a katana.

No, no Katanas are very good at not breaking thats why antique ones are still around along side modern production ones.

All blades rust but you are correct, clove oil was the prefered method of maintence but they do require a lot of time to aviod rust and mould, most western blades are cheap stainless steel ones and thus don't need maintence but authentic ones do.

Swords are never used to block intentionally and breaking only occurs when used improperly it's firmly user error not a weakness of the weapon.

99.9% of everything hollywood does exists in their own reality the science is wrong, the physics is wrong, history is wrong.

 

[Elric_de_Melnibone]

No, no Katanas are very good at not breaking thats why antique ones are still around along side modern production ones.

No, they aren't. You're just wrong.
There are antique ones still around because the 'primary' katana of any Samurai was rarely used for combat, if at all. That's why they aren't broken and still around.

Have you seen old japanese artwork? You can even see the dents and scratches in most katanas there, when the art is depicting katana fighting.

Guess why? Because Katanas prone to getting defects and nicks.
It's a fact. Just accept it. Seriously.

Do you know what happens to a katana that strikes something really hard, like steel, full force? It will BEND. B-E-N-D. It will be deformed. Because the back of the blade is a tad softer than the cutting edge, due to the historical accurate forging methods.

B-E-N-T = Completely useless.

 

[Tekkawarrior]

The most over hyped weapon in the universe, if I had a melee weapon of choice, I'd pick one of the follow:

1 - machete
2 - Kukri

alternatively
3 - crowbar

 

[Tarranium]

Indeed it is.
Its ligth weigth not that big sharp and cool.

 

[jamesworkshop]

No, no Katanas are very good at not breaking thats why antique ones are still around along side modern production ones.

No, they aren't. You're just wrong.
There are antique ones still around because the 'primary' katana of any Samurai was rarely used for combat, if at all. That's why they aren't broken and still around.

Have you seen old japanese artwork? You can even see the dents and scratches in most katanas there, when the art is depicting katana fighting.

Guess why? Because Katanas prone to getting defects and nicks.
It's a fact. Just accept it. Seriously.

Do you know what happens to a katana that strikes something really hard, like steel, full force? It will BEND. B-E-N-D. It will be deformed. Because the back of the blade is a tad softer than the cutting edge, due to the historical accurate forging methods.

B-E-N-T = Completely useless.

All metal weapons nick the sharper and the harder an edge, the easier it chips and cracks from use (suffers brittle failures).
That is incredibly different to shatering like glass all weapons have a working lifestyle just like how guns jamming is almost always he result of a careless user not a poorly made weapon

Hard strikes against armour will bend what is effectivly an iron bar but the point is Katanas were not employed in such a fashion.

several styles of Japanese swordsmanship devised specific techniques not to cut at armor, but to stab and thrust at the gaps and joints of it just as the Europeans did against their own plate armor. The primary technique for fighting nearly any kind of armor with most any kind of sword is not to cut but to thrust at the gaps and joints.

Katanas were employed on the battlefield thats why you can dig them out of the ground

Ultimately, any sword is only a tool; well-forged, carefully tempered and honed, but still just an inert piece of handcrafted steel.
No sword is indestructible, all are produced as perishable tools with a certain expected working lifetime.


Im not a fanboy of any weapon I just get annoyed by people that think despite never having fought for their life in a historical battle has any idea of what worked and didn't work despite thousands of years of history being defined by weapons that have a proven historical track record of being tools that met the needs of the users and worked as intended.

It's a bit like the moderen belife that european knightly longswords were blunt and useless so obviously when in 1096 at the start of the first crusade the Seljuk Turks must have died out of politeness, not wanting to embarrass their enemies with the reality of how badly their weapons were made.

 

[NinjaRabies]

Already have several for-show-katanas and wakisashi, and I'm saving for a real sharpened one.

Wouldn't it have been better to just buy a real one.

Yes, but they are VERY hard to come by where I live. Or have them delivered here for that sake. Besides, the ones I have bought cost just a fraction of what a real one costs and were bought with at least a year or more inbetween.

 

[AllLagNoFrag]

Love katanas. When I think of it, I just think "clean, effecient, smooth" it is a nice weapon with an awesome history. As a part Japanese, I am planning to get one (or two, for that matter).

 

[jamesworkshop]

Love katanas. When I think of it, I just think "clean, effecient, smooth" it is a nice weapon with an awesome history. As a part Japanese, I am planning to get one (or two, for that matter).

Get one Katana and one Wakizashi

Now thats the business

 

[AllLagNoFrag]

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Well, knowing me, I wouldnt be wielding it like that guy in the pic, probably end up cutting myself. It'll be more for display purposes

 

[jamesworkshop]

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Well, knowing me, I wouldnt be wielding it like that guy in the pic, probably end up cutting myself. It'll be more for display purposes

Think of it this way it displays that you have a better knowledge of the subject

 

[Elric_de_Melnibone]

More practical against a trained, armored knight you mean. Also, the katana could split a steel helmet in half.

That is wrong.
A katana could not split a decent european 14-15th century helmet in half.
Nor could it cut the advanced plate armour of the high medieval age.


@Jamesworkshop

The fact remains that the katana was especially likely to bend when hitting hard surfaces and objects, due to what give them their special, curved shape.

Of course every sword receives nicks over time, especially when using the edge to deflect blows.

But japanese forge materials were inferior to european ones. The historical accurate katana does -not- stand up to plate armour, hard objects or european swords in terms of durability, not one bit. Simply due to materials.

Besides, the katana is a horrible weapon for thrusting and stabbing.
It's a slicing weapon, and that's what the curve is for, and that's a fact. It's not really easy to go about and stab your opponent in vulnerable spots with a katana.


I tried both katanas and european swords. They handle very differently, and they all have their upsides and downsides. And I actually participated in 'historical' battles, wearing plate armour and wielding shield/sword, or just a hand-and-a-half sword.

I admit, most of these battles are not realistic nor historical due to all these safety rules ( I don't really agree with most of them, but hey, I have to play by the rules if I want to participate ), but they certainly give you an idea of how combat was done in the medieval period, and private sparring sessions with friends you know, with alot more realistic and in-your-face combat rules complete that experience.

But a katana is a horrible weapon for stabbing, it feels wrong when handling it. It's a cutting weapon.

And you can't cut plate armour with a katana. I'm not even sure if you can cut maille with a katana.


So yes, I do know what I'm talking about, to an extent. I'm not historical professor nor a weaponsmith but I used and handled all of the mentioned weaponry, and used them in combat.