The Katana
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2009
- Revered object of sacred mystery and deadly beauty, or tool for hitting people - you decide. I'll help.
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Spanish subtitles kindly written by Pablo Monjas.
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They were extremely effective against unarmed Chinese prisoners.
and citizens of Singapore.
Oh damn. That's a nice one
And just peasants, eg people with not enough money for good armour.
Actually they were design for this purpose only since only nobles had katanas
My Japanese granddad was a Rodney (the shame) in the Kwangtung army. I've read officers were 'blooded' into the Kwangtung army by having to behead a couple of Chinese prisoners.
"Lloyd destroys weeaboos hopes and dreams: Part One"
He doesn't destroy them, he ends them rightly.
+Legate Lanius Lodged in their skull. If the pommel went off, we'd all be dead.
I just realized the word "pommel" has "pomme" in it, which is the French for apple. I'm betting the two are related.
Man I see this on every one of his videos. Where does the "end rightly" joke come from?
Skallagrim, a youtuber found a wierd text on one of the old documentations where it said something like "If all ell's fails, throw your pommel at him and end him rightly". It's becomming a running meme on sword channels.
Wow, Lindybeige. Do you not remember all the tanks that were sliced in half because of the katana?
hackerism1 he is stupid he didn't mention that katana can melt steel beams
Ilham Abdulhakim the Japanese did 9/11 confirmed
hackerism1 The katana could slice trough an entire US navy vessel. Hell, it's how they sunk the Yorktown!
RULES OF NATURE
#nevafogetthe tankmassacre
"this video sharing site" hahaha oh how far BeigeTube has come
That made me smile too.
Was this video recorded on a Japanese handy cam in 1300AD?
This didnt age well. Its going downhill now.
@@Likexner Funny thing is its supposedly always going downhill. At least they got rid of the make a 10minute video or else you dont get paid for views policy in youtube. Everyone acts like everything was always better in the past i gotta say it wasn't
@@Jebu911 Of course it was better, it wasnt nearly as communist as it is now.
Nippon steel, folded over 3 million times because this type of steel sucks so we had to fold it or it wouldve broken otherwise
folding it that many times would make it brittle as candy
They were not folded a million times or more, but some were layered a million times or more. Think about it like this, start out with a stack of say 5 pieces of metal, fold once, 10 layers, triple fold and 30 layers, cut into 4 sections and weld and your at 120 layers with only 4 welding heats. It's a geometric progression. There are different methods and schools, but as an example just doubling every weld starting with 2, it'd take 19 "folds" and your over a million layers. Of course that's not taking into account that a percentage of the layers are lost to scale, but then if your goal is layers just fold it again. They were double, triple and quadruple folded so it would take less than 19 folds and welding heats. The smiths were not concerned about getting a million layers, they were concerned about evening out the carbon content and working out impurities and would keep folding until the desired carbon content was achieved and the impurities were removed.
All this was due to them have crap iron and not having a way of smelting and making crucible steel. Not sure when Japan developed the means to cast steel and stopped using the bloomery type smelters.
But its a meme..
Look man, pedantry knows no bounds. Memes are no impediment to a man on a mission.
Oh boy.. I suggest you guys read on the topic. Firstly, yes. They made their blades out of inferior quality iron ore sand, all from a certain area. Only a little bit of the process, when successful, made the riht kind of iron, "Tamahagane". From that, they made different types of steel, and made different shaped bars or different hardness metals by folding them separately. Now, depending on the period, they would use 2-5 bars, of 2-3 different types of metal to forge weld the crude blade before making the final form (straight blade at this point) The quench was a differential hardening, using clay-ash-water based mixture which covered most of the blade, excluding the cutting part, making the narrow part of best hardening metal the hardest. This differential quench makes the bend in the blade shape. This was a lengthy explanation made into 0.1% of the length needed to properly go throughthe basics of the process. Ask the internets. It knows.
240p has never been this informative
Word
This guy has more facts than pixels
"Sharpened iron bars with handles on the end of it. Get use to it". Ha ha ha. Fantastic.
That's basically all sword, though I would have used the word hilt.
+MedievalArcher2639 Ah, but it doesn't have a pommel to end them rightly.
That's the fatal flaw of the Katana
I think I can sense the scent of stupid euro-western sword fan patriotism in his videos. He is always quite enthusiastic about greek, roman and medieval european stuff, but when it comes to asian stuff, like katanas or horse archers, it is always about proving that it wasn´t that great actually. It´s not the asian stuff itselfs fault that fantasy fans have mystified it. It might not have super powers, but I am sure it was reasonably good stuff.
Funny, but he is right. The most/if not all swords forged in Japan comes from iron rich sand which is heated in bulk to a huge blob of very impure iron ore which the sword maker takes choice picks off to make a sword from. The numerous folds (2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024 etc. ) are.done to purify the cutting edge.of the blade to make it as good as steel as possible. The europeans had better iron than the volcanic sand ore of the japaneese. The steel was also more available to make better armour and other weapons which the japanease had not..
b-b-but THE GLORIOUS NIPPON STEEL CUTS THROUGH ALL GAIJIN!
FILTHY GAIJIN GO HOME!
***** my grandad was a chinese in Japan during WWII and he said he once grabbed a katana off a glorious fallen japanese officer and dropped it by accident...the floor split open and the rising sun came out.
my grandfather was put into a labor camp in WWII and he never had a katana...he did have some problems after the war...some of them had to do with cutting birthday cake
My grandpa was a katana.
But a katana can cut a tank in half! I've seen it in the anime.
Slice a man in two? No no no,
The term is:
"CLEAVE A MAN IN TWAIN!!"
+Artyom Zaytsev The term is "Rekt RIP in pieces"
*Or perhaps he's wondering why you'd bisect a man*
*before throwing him out of a plane*
@@MatthewShute
"Was getting cleft in twain all part if your plan?"
"*_Of coouurrrrssssee_*"
I'm icelandic. Icelandic and English are germanic languages. I love seeing our ancestors understood eachother;
CLEAVE A MAN IN TWAIN.
KLJÚFA MANN Í TVENNT.
@@odinncool
Icelanders are my favorite Norse.
*_Sometime in the lost shimmery fog of the past_*
Lost on the violent sea, a people search for a home. They choose a gigantic violent volcano. And conquer it.
That's a hell of an origin story.
Making weebs cry like a true gentleman.
yeah I cringed at "najinotai"
I only cry for my sword not insults.
Levitating octahedron wow you're cringe
@@Nikotheleepic that anime profile makes all the more disappointing
@@levitatingoctahedron922 yuck
jeez even 7 years ago lindybeige's house still looked like hes just about to or just finished moving.
A cluttered house is a sign of an organized mind, and the opposite is true. My house is very organized. =P
My house is a car crash and so is my mind!
He's just a disorganized person. Personally I could never live that way.
@@marcmarc1967 Lol what? Both my house and my mind are barely organized.....
"But if the hype's Japanese, they believe it, because...the mysterious East, or something."
*mystic East
A little known fact, katana pommels turn into gundams when thrown.
no they turn into a pokey ball and capture the souls of the enemy for the emperor
+John Johnson That's a pretty good way to end someone rightly.
katana don't have pommels...
+Timothy Heimbach it's a joke bruh
I like this guy... He gives clear and definitive points about a weapon, their pros and con's without being too biased.
this is one of the consequences of isolationism. The Japanese were only fighting with each other for the bigger chunk of their history, so they did not face a superior technology which would force them to upgrade their fighting gears, the middle eastern and European nations however were almost always fighting each other and when they weren't they were just preparing for the next war, designing new weapons and armors. The Japanese didn't really need to design a new sword hence why they kept their Katana unchanged.
@Marry Christmas I don't imagine pirates as the inventive types.
Cough mongols cough
I don't buy your theory, mostly because war is war regardless what enemy you're fighting
@@dashua1735 but if the enemy has the same tech as you you don't need to improve
@@michaelterrell5061 didn't they get killed by a tornado?
Also thats just a handful of conflicts and not constant war
You clearly don't understand. The first katana was forged by Jesus himself (out of a meteor) and he used it to destroy the Roman empire in a single swing. A typical, average katana can cut through 30 cm of titanium. During the full moon it can shoot lasers and produce rainbows out of it's tip. In fact, samurai in the 16th century were well known to deflect AK-47 fire with just their swords.
Next time you comment on the katana, make sure you know the facts.
you forgot how FDR was cured from his polio after seeing a katana where he flew out of the roof of the white house flew to germany and used the katana to cut into 45 inches of diamonds to enter the furer bunker and cut hitlers head clean off
Lol
Lol
Lol
Stick it to the beige!
As a person born and raised in Japan, I don't really understand the infatuation the West has with Katana. (By the way you are extremely close to pronouncing 'katana' right. Try pronouncing without stretching the middle syllable.) Katana is beautiful, but it is not comparable to European swords in terms of usability.
+武道館 Tell that to the Otaku! XD
+武道館 The simple answer is that some people think anime is an accurate representation of everything Japanese. In particular, that katanas are godlike weapons capable of slicing anything in half.
+武道館 Katanas were very well designed, I think, for use in the kinds of combat for which they were used. So were most European swords. People like to forget that ineffective weapons got people killed, and stopped being used!
(I'm afraid I myself cannot pronounce 'katana' at all, though).
The reason that westerners revere the katana is because western martial art techniques were largely lost in time, so when people come forward with a weapon which they actually know how to use effectively, people in the west thing 'Wow, this must be special!'
+SpitshineSneakers Seriously? Never heard about Excalibur? It was the first and original Super Duper you lose if I have this sword.
VoiD except Excalibur is explicitly a fictional, magic sword. Otaku think that ordinary, non-magical katanas are somehow inherently superior and can cut through anything.
Ahhh the katana. The most overhyped sword in human history.
Not in Anime doe -_-
It’s got style points. Looks great for the cameras.
It was amazing because it had to be. Lol. Obviously european steel was better.
@@CarlosSanchez-my7zg Well its also like the handgun of japanese weapons. No one would first pick that for a war. Even a simple spear works better.
Weeb
Ah, the mythical Katana. Made from mystical super steel called 'Tamahgane'...or as we call it in the west 'pig iron'.
My favorite bit is that Samurai were primarily mounted archers. A Samurai showing off his sword skills would be like a modern sniper bragging about his pistol skills.
Actually that's not entirely true. In the EARLY days of the samurai, they served primarily as horse archers; and indeed, any samurai who had to kill an enemy with his sword was viewed as a poor samurai.
However, during the periods of time that most people think of when they think of samurai the Sengoku Jidai and the late Edo, early Meiji era, the samurai valued the katana above all other weapons. They certainly USED plenty of other weapons, but none were given as much cultural value as the sword.
By the later days of the samurai, killing your opponent in hand-to-hand combat, presumably with your sword, and particularly in a one-on-one duel, was considered the most honorable way to face an enemy.
Again, they used plenty of other weapons. That whole Last Samurai "he doesn't dishonor himself by using guns" stuff is complete nonsense, but the sword WAS important to the samurai.
Is it just me that is a lot more amazed at different ranged weapon designs of the middle east rather than the swords and melee weapons? I mean, as Lindy said - they are sharpened metal bars with handles on the end.
1st of all, only the outer layer of a katana would have been pig iron. Second of all, that was only true before folding, which burnt up most of the carbon, after which the outer layer would be high carbon steel, not pig iron.
Still not ideal, but if katanas were made of pig iron they would break immediately upon any impact. Which didn't happen. The outer layer would crack, the core would bend, but it wouldn't shatter like pig iron would.
I like to imagine samurai or any other "warrior" wielding a katana same as some western gunslinger. I bet in any culture where it was common, swordsmen were seen as what we see gunslingers today
God why is it that’s everyone I go to one of these videos there are theses Eurocentric people commenting about how everything western is amazing and everything eastern sucks and is overhyped
This man is the coolest person I’ve ever seen on this website
100. I'm sad that I only found him 2 years ago. I'm still trying to absorb all the old content.
I think that what people who glorify the katana don't realize that when it was first created in a culture where shields were never used or even invented, and where armor developed into steel scale and lamellar and stopped. The blade wasn't possessed of uncanny sharpness or ability, it was merely heavily carbonated steel used against lightly armored opponents - Very much like Damascus Steel blades. Was it good? Yes, but it was good at what it had to do. It was specialized. Stand a man in Milanese plate before a Samurai and the katana will break without leaving much more than a few scratches along the surface.
I will say this for the katana: In terms of metallurgy and technique it was excellent. The Japanese swordsmiths not only figured out how to carbonate steel to various degrees of sharpness, hardness or flexibility but also how to combine hard and flexible layers into a whole. It deserves attention for that at least.
The Japanese did use shields, but largely abandoned them sometime before Heian. There are numerous hypothesis's as to why, and any number of them might have some truth to them. As for Japanese armour, just like in Europe it underwent constant evolution. At no point did the development stop, though it underwent a curious retro-development in Edo, mixing old and new styles for the sake of aesthetics (the practicality of armour became less important in peaceful times).
Nevertheless, the armor evolved on different lines than in Europe. They primarily used lacquered leather plates, iron scales, and so on to produce light and flexible suits. In Europe, flexibility and mobility gradually gave way during the Fourteenth Century, possibly due to the extreme evolution of ranged weapons such as the Longbow and Arbalest. Solid metal plates began to appear linked into the mail, and eventually would evolve into suits made primarily of molded plate. European weapons reflected this change, evolving over time to be either heavier and more flexible (so you can hammer away and crush plate without it shattering) or more tapered and stiff to stab through joints and links. Japan never had to deal with these changes, because the radical changes in armor happened during periods of foreign invasion (Mongol landings, wars with Portugal, attempted invasion of Korea) when access to foreign technology necessitated radical change to cope and new technology and ideas percolate back into traditional culture.
VelmiVelkiZrut Flexibility and mobility did not give way in 14th century Europe. Plate does not affect flexibility because the joints are still allowed full movement. Naturally, any extra weight is going to affect how quickly you are fatigued, but 14th century plate was not more cumbersome than the maille hauberks before. Maille breathes better, but plate is more articulated - and as we enter the 15th century, often even lighter than maille.
In Japan, on the other hand, early yoroi was very boxy and cumbersome. Armour evolved to improve flexibility in Japan as well, but the notion that European armour was somehow less flexible is a 19th century myth. The notion that the evolution of Japanese armour and weaponry stopped in its tracks is likewise a myth.
Another point concerning plate: plate armour was never molded. Bronze was molded, but molded iron is brittle. Steel/iron plates (as well as tools and weapons) are always hammered out.
Also, Japan was never at war with Portugal. They had a couple of scuffs, but there was never any war. And while the adoption of firearms certainly was revolutionary (from trade with the Dutch and the Portugese, and also the Chinese), the evolution of armour was all but unaffected by the Mongol invasions, and European contact didn't change much either, except the introduction of the nanban-do.
People seem to think of Japan as traditionally being isolationist. But for most of Japan's history, that was not the case at all, and technological evolution did not progress by leaps and bounds whenever they fought against foreign powers, but rather gradually. Even in the period they actually were isolationist (mid 17th - mid 19th century), foreign trade with the Chinese, Koreans and the Dutch was still kosher.
Plate is indeed articulated, but this only plays a role if it is superbly fitted to the wearer. I have tried a suit that was just barely too large, about four centimeters off, and I couldn't move to save my life. The joints bent at the wrong spots for me. I do think that most people couldn't afford the time to be fitted for a suit so precisely, so the vast majority would wear something quite inflexible or just revert to mail and scale.
And I never said that that Japanese armor never evolved. I do still hold that on average it was more flexible, lighter, and never evolved to quite the heavy plate level experienced in the European Late Medieval Period.
+VelmiVelkiZrut If you could barely move in that armour, if the joints were in the wrong place for you, then the armour didn't fit you and you wouldn't wear it in battle. That's the thing about plate: plate was tailor made to the wearer. You are absolutely right that most people couldn't afford it, but that does *not* mean they wore *bad*-fitting plate. That means they wore something other than plate, for example maille, brigandine etc. No one, but no one would wear something quite inflexible.
As for Japanese armour, it wasn't even lighter. A full suit of O-yoroi could easily outweigh a full suit of Gothic plate (and would certainly be less flexible). But for the most part, in Japan like in Europe, warriors couldn't afford full protection and so settled for what they could afford. Many bushi would wear only domaru and kabuto, with no protection for arms or legs. Similarly, in Europe many would have no armour beyond helmet and shield, and some would have to make do with just the shield.
LIES!!!! Katana is awesome. My fathers uncles 2nd cousin thrice removed adopted identical twin half-brother from the Navy saw a Zero with a katana attached to the propeller slice the Arizona in half.
+Clay Ronso I can confirm this, I was there and saw the whole thing. Would have uploaded it to youtube if it werent for a ninja walking on the water stealing my camera.
+necronsplayer And the Japanese used there Katanas to resurrect there fallen allies although they didn't need to because none of the Japanese master pros died because they were using Katanas
+Jack Marshall
It is known that a katana can cut throught the sun if anyone could get that near.
well the Katana could generate a force field to block the suns heat.
+Clay Ronso my step uncle used his katana to cut a black hole because the katana can teleport you anywhere in space and creates force field full of air true story
I know for a fact that if you hold a katana in an upward position behind your head it will start to glow, when you release it it will produce one of the most powerful bursts known to man. My grandfather who was a theoretical physicist astronaut witnessed these effects himself.
I guess your misinformation comes from the testing of subpar katanas. Try the katanas of the legendary maker Wang Long. There are 5 still preserved today and they have not lost their edge for 300 years
really not sure if joking or if you actually believe in what you're saying
You can check out the legendary swordmaker Wang Long at his wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Long.
If you have any questions feel free to email me at ofcourseitsajoke@youdimwit.com
is he referring to SAO
what's funny is that the name you invented for a pun means dragon king... in *Mandarin*.
the name's actually LONG WANG - stupid westerners always mix up the first and last name for some reason.
Also, the reason the folded the steel was because they used the worst steel imaginable. It was so bad that if not folded, it would break almost immediately. Even then it would break easily.
+TheNerdLord Yup japan had shit iron.
+TheNerdLord The technology to completely melt iron didn't make its way to Japan, thanks to Japan's insistence on pretending the rest of the world didn't exist.
+Noah Weisbrod Indeed.
TheNerdLord I find it amusing that a technology from India made its way to Europe before Japan.
+Noah Weisbrod I know right!
As of this comment: 448 katana cultists got their butts royally hurt by a youtube video.
What did we expect from weeaboos who cant differentiate reality from anime?
I'm not saying that he is wrong but it could be that there are actually very few people who have actually mastterd using a katana and also beauty is personal preference and I quite like the look but that is just my opinion
Marti Jones A sword remains a sword, a good swordsman can inflict a good cut with any sword. The katana isnt special, its just a sword with a slight curve.
Divert i know all im saying is that people might not actually know enough about the way they fought in battle im not saying that the sword is a god send just that i really like the shape and that people might not be giving the overall sword and fighting style enough respect
Marti Jones If you can deliver a godlike draw cut with lets say a scimitar, i dont see why doing a godlike drawcut with a katana would be different, you can basically test how good it is at cutting. From what i know, the best cutting sword, according to many historical references and how much european officers prized the sword, it would be the tulwar. Yes the katana is a good sword, but its not the best at anything, nor is it the most balanced or well rounded. It just has really cool and interesting lore. :P
Posted 11 years ago, yet the banter could’ve been released today. Never change, Lindybeige.
Spartans + katana's + spiked armor + plate-armored ellephants = unbeatable!
That is a very shitty combination. Rambo could take that down no sweat.
Rambo is a pussy
Must be ended rightly.
gets thrashed by the mongol mounted archers
Spartans + katana's + spiked armor + plate-armored ellephants =/= unbeatable
Spartans + katana's + spiked armor + plate-armored ellephants = a pissed off elephant with spikes embedded into his back.
My great uncle fought in WW2(lost his arm) and he brought home a few katana trophies. He is dead now(has been since I was 12
) but he did tell me a lot of stories about those katana's in more graphic detail than I probably should of got at that age.
They were mostly ornamental adornments, but they were still a critical part of the japanese training for close quarters combat, and he told me some quite graphic stories about them being used to hack at necks and stab into chests. In close quarters, it is quicker to charge with a sword than it was to reload, and when already 20 feet from someone who wants to kill you, you have no where to hide. So its fight or die.
The allied soldiers used their shovels(entrenching tools) or bayonets for the same effect, but the katana served as both an entrenching tool with its ability to hack arteries open, and as a bayonet, with its ability to stab.
It was an extremely effective weapon when in a situation where both sides do not have the time or room to reload their weapons, and the allies frequently found themselves in such a disadvantage in those situations, the stories of the katana were exaggerated out of proportion to save their ego. This is where the stories of katana's chopping the barrel off machine guns and all the other nonsense came from.
However, had the allies carried a saber as a melee weapon instead of relying on a bayonet and entrenching tool, i don't think the stories would of been inflated as much as they were.
As for how he lost his arm? Well, when he told non-family friends, he would go grab one of his katana's off the wall, and let another legend be born, but actually, he shot his own arm off crossing a fence(not OFF, it had to be removed due to infection).
To his credit, the real story is not nearly as exciting.
All that aside, the katana is just a Japanese saber. In some ways inferior, in some ways superior, but basically effectively the same. However, Japanese trained with the strengths of their blades in mind and updated their training to fit into trench warfare, when at the time, swords had been all but phased out in allied military application, so its difficult to judge the two fairly. However, the katana is arguably a more optimized blade for soft targets than the traditional european longsword, however, the European saber is a more fair comparison. I honestly don't see much REAL difference between the two.
I will say this, the steel they used was not very... good. They are all pitted and develop rust days after polishing. This may very well be because of material shortages because of war however, but they appear to just be pig iron. I really don't see the grand appeal.
***** Ha, very true. I described what the allies carried as the default melee weapon was their entrenching tool, but it was quite poor in melee, but better than nothing. They also had bayonets, which would be preferable to say the least :P Yes, the japanese would have to trade that tactical advantage for another, or carry more weight, you are right about that.
The Entrenching tool was a folding shovel.
*What I meant as 'served as an entrenching tool' is SOLELY in its hacking ability, NOT in its other practical uses.*
+Richard Smith Actually a sharpened entrenching tool was one of the best weapons you could have *IF confined to tight quarters such as a trench, tunnel, or bunker hallway.* This was learned in WWI, when it was discovered that it's really hard to stab someone that's within arm's reach with a bayonet, and that in fact that person can easily grab your bayonetted rifle and prevent you from using it to any effect while they slit your throat. It got to the point where trench raiders would often carry only their sharpened spade or trench knife (often an improvised blade or point) and as many hand grenades as they could fit into a bag, since their rifle became fairly useless once they got to the trench.
Granted, WWII saw a lot more open and fluid combat than WWI, and bayonets would certainly give a nice range advantage in open settings. But they had been made considerably shorter during WWI due to their useful double purpose as a combat knife when not attached to the rifle. The older bayonets of WWI were practically swords!
+Richard Smith Hey man, thank you so much for sharing your grandpa's story.
Nice story. Before connecting with the west, Japan sucked badly at metallurgy. The historical japanese sword required regular care. I believe it was part of martial discipline to keep it in shape.
The folding process to create a katana was there to compensate for shit material. That said, modern katanas, which can benefit of western metallurgy and japanese forging technique, could be completely different in quality compared to traditional weapons looted by your great uncle.
Though sadly, you didn't get as much English as you "should of" got. (Sorry, had to)
The katana is a saber blade attached to a 2 handed grip... There is a reason Europeans never took those 2 things and put them together, it was ineffective against just about every option available.
It's pretty effective at looking good over a door or on a wall.
And it's really tiering to use.
***** This is incorrect, squires were taken on around 13-14 years of age and some times earlier. Also the Europeans had both saber blades and two handed grips, but chose to NEVER attach the two together. Why? because it is a bad design, sabers are more effective as one handed weapons since you gain more versatility of motion. Two handed swords benefit more from a different shaped blade for diversity of attack. The Katana has ONE effective attack and that is the draw cut. A longsword is capable of draw cuts, push cuts, and piercing thrusts (not to mention the design of the quillons and hilt also allow for levering maneuvers, punches, and bashes). They can also be used in one or two handed grips with out losing their power, unlike the katana, which REQUIRES both hands to be wielded with out feeling poorly balanced in the hand. The katana is one of the worst designed blades in history.
***** "any well-made sword will feel balanced with one hand" This is simply not true of the katana, a well made katana has it's point of balance near the upper mid section of the blade to assist with the draw cut. As I stated earlier the blade is not good at anything but draw cuts, and this is why it is not a good sword in my opinion. I highly recommend you go watch Scholagladitoria's katana series to get some actual information on these ancient junk blades.
***** The rapier is a fine blade for it's time and served a specific purpose for self defense in a very specific time frame, but is not the only blade European enthusiasts like. However, Japan ONLY offers the katana and variations of the katana. While it is true many people praised the craftsmanship of the blades there are no accounts to my knowledge of people swapping out their longsword for a katana. Why? Because, It is one thing to say that is a nice piece of work and another to say that is a good tool.
As I mentioned the Europeans had both saber blades and two handed grips, they NEVER put the two together because it is a comparatively bad design. Assuming all things equal if you had given a young Japanese boy a Long sword and trained him to use it from the same time he would have started learning the katana he would have the advantage in every fight against katana users of his same skill level.
Katanas are an interesting thing, if you look at them culturally. They were basically a samurai's side arm for when he was out of armor and not in active fighting, but still wanted to be armed. It was also sort of like a dueling pistol, something to fight other samurai with in one on one battles for various reasons, most of them having to do with some sort of honor or dishonor or respect or bushido, etc. That or a weapon to murder peasants with.
It's a weapon that, as a kind of weapon rather then as an individual weapon, carries a kind of mythology and cultural importance that completely transcends the realities of the blade itself. In many ways, it parallels the American fascination and mythology of the Handgun. Both are weapons designed for particular purposes and came in a variety of qualities, but both have taken on a sort of larger than life quality thanks to the beliefs of the cultures using them.
more like to kill themselves when the situation is dire
I BallisticRaptor
Actually Seppuku rarely involved a katana, at least not in the hands of the one doing the dying. They used shorter blades like Tanto or wakizashi. If they were lucky, they had a second to decapitate them with a katana, but they never used it themselves.
I mean, it's really more a matter of logistics then anything else. Stabbing yourself is a hell of a lot easier with a foot long knife then a 3 foot sword.
Audiodump but you are not honorable it is for the emperor why not give it your all
I BallisticRaptor
Because what is considered honorable is weird.
Write a death poem, reach for a fan and get your head cut off. This is capital punishment in Edo japan. Shit's weird.
Audiodump wow
The Katana is the perfect weapon for what it was primarily used for: striking down unarmoured peasants.
Almost 10 years later but still the same Lindy
I actualy heard that katana's where used to sink warships.
+TheChillimouse and fired nukes, don't forget that
Not many people know this but there was actually a third nuke dropped on Japan during the war, but they dropped it over a dojo where an ancient samurai tradition was passed on into the modern age, and one of them was training outside with a katana and looked up just in time to see the bomb. Obviously we know from history how that turned out.
+TheChillimouse In WW2
+MS Cowboy jokes aside, that would mean he would have to be at the height of a low-level bomber, as the Nukes dropped during WW2 had barometric airburst fuses
Nah, airplanes. The Japanese soldiers in WW2 would throw them into the air and they'd pierce through the plane and bring it right down.
In fact, the only reason we managed to drop the bombs on them was because they'd run out of katana.
Katanas do look good, though. There's something very appealing about the curve.
Karreth over the eras the design of the curves evolved, thus they are some very different looking katanas over the years. However the general design didn't change.
@2011
colten bennion i don't like to troll ..i just troll fucking idiots who are butthurt about kanata fans that exists around the internet ...it is so childish ...lol.
colten bennion you gave me what ??? are you high ? hahahaha lol
Mister Babadook you were the first to be trolled ..lol..no need to get mad lol.
colten bennion zzz okay dude.
A katana might not be able to slice through a machine gun barrel, but a 6 minute video can sure slice through a lot of sacred cows.
Nothing beats triple wielding katanas. In fact it was the main reason the 7th Panzer Division lost to the Samurais.
+Salty Admiral And you now owe me a new keyboard, as well as re-imbursement for the medical bill, as I snorked my kidney out of joint.
***** :D
The 502nd heavy panzer battalion also had struggles against katanas too
You mean they lost to Zoro.
Why do people hype up swords in general? Spears are way cooler.
+Amiibo Cell I fucking love maces
Ehh, personal taste?
But probably because heroes were always portrayed using swords.
Even though blunt weapons are much cooler.
***** I guess swords are like... crosses? Meh, unlikely, because everyone has them. Yeah, I much rather knock a guy on his ass and have him wake up really embarrassed and probably concussed than to seal someone's fate.
Dad Maces are cool. Polearm maces are cooler.
Amiibo Cell Woah, those are pretty damn cool.
And waves of weeabos cry every time the truth is told about the katana. I was also stupid once, believing it to be inherently superior to "crude" western swords. Now, give me a good Spanish style sword any day.
***** For killing guys with any kind of armor, it IS woefully inferior to many western swords. There are also western swords that cut just as well.
***** Weeeelll, not to rain on your parade there friendo, but damascus steel is more or less better served for decorative or display purposes since, well, it isn't really all that tough. Damascus actually is a term used to describe certain forms of pattern forged blades, the purpose is all for the appearance. The steel itself has more to do with what "beats" what in the end. Now a' days, we have access to types of steel that people back then could only dream of. You want a good blade? Get one made of "vasco wear". Hardened and tempered it will have an edge on it that will simply not get dull, just because of the properties of the steel and the other metals that are in it.
So, I'm not sure where you're getting your information from but here's the cited reference for mine:
Hrisoulas, Jim. The Complete Bladesmith. Boulder, Colorado. Paladin Press. 1987
These are the facts.
Please help stop the spread of misconception.
Thank you for reading.
TheChiconspiracy What Western swords are there that cut as well as the katana?
DerpBane When it comes to practical cutting, getting through flesh and bone, a tulwar scimitar, or falchion, or even good quality saber can cut exceptionally well with hand.
TheChiconspiracy Yeah I watched a video of a Tulwar cutting and it looked like it cut pretty amazingly. But I would prefer the two handed grip with a katana, since the extra control it grants you allows you to both control and recover from cuts more easily.
I mean, in the video I watched, the Tulwar wielder had to draw his arm back, and swing forward with a noticeable amount of force to cut through some things. And I couldn't help but think - ooo - if he moved out of the way, much over-extend.
This was the first negative thing I heard about my beloved katana and the first Lindybeige video I ever saw. I was hooked ever since.
Tamahaganes can't melt steel beams!
Beams don't melt steel memes
laser beams maybe could
Jacob Baumfalk maybe jet fuel tho
The katana was used by samurai to intimidate unarmed peasants. It's a bullying weapon.
Thiago Monteiro kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...
Thiago Knofel WTF?
Thiago Knofel k?
naphackDT
kkkk=huehuehuehue=hahaha
Choco Doco for brazilians
You and Skallagrim should get together sometimes, i think you would like each other!
+Rasmus Lundqvist Been a fan of Skall for years, just found this dude hours ago and I've been addicted to his videos xD
GamePhysics
This guy is also totally awesome.
This guy actually seems to be somewhat more experienced as well.
Tell us Lindybeige, what are your previous experiences?
Rasmus Lundqvist Seems to me he knows quite a bit! The only thing I've known he has said wrong was in the first video I watched of him some hours ago. It was about Helen of Troy, that terrible fucking movie xD Anyway, he commented on an arrow with 2 fletchings and said it doesn't work. Not quite true.. Aboriginals in America used both 2 and 3-feather fletching on arrows. Both will work. Sometimes they even used 4. Other than that, this guy seems to know so freaking much about historical weapons and fighting techniques. And also cloaks. Cloaks are great.
GamePhysics
Cloaks?
+Rasmus Lundqvist I don't know why, but I don't think they would get along, both of them are extremely practical and rational, but I think they don't have the same "system" of thinking?
Like, there isn't a "scientific method" for saying what's silly and what's worth doing in spite of lack of practicality, take Lindy's arguments against dangly ties for example, one could easily say: "Most people likes how they look and I don't plan wearing them in close combat, there isn't a real reason why I shouldn't benefit from wearing them".
But didn't you know it was wielded by an Egyptian Spaniard with a thick Scottish accent after he married the daughter of a Japanese lord
Nice Highlander reference, I almost missed it.
Och, Heather!
Well of course the katana can't do all that on its own. You have to meditate, build up your chi, and THEN focus it into the blade. THEN you can just cut through everything.
Chi is a Chinese term
@@crimsonholocene949 Similar nonsense from a similar part of the world..
Xu Xiaodong would like to know your location
(but his social credit rating is too low to travel for some reason)
Do you hear that . . . Thats the sound of 10,000 weabs screaming in anguish
Capable of firing over two hundred rounds per minute, with it's rotating barrel and its hand cranked automatic reloading system. This, gentlemen, is the Gatling Machine Gun.
LEECHESANDCREAM Murica. (I understood that reference)
***** No it's not.
chemistrycounts Lol yes it is. Gatling was american, and he invented it.
chemistrycounts Of course the Gatling gun is American. What the hell do you think it is you idiot? Lol
LEECHESANDCREAM I'd rather an Anti-Materiel Rifle.
Though I am a fan of the Katana, I can tell you that the Katana was a miracle sword. As in it is a miracle it even exists. The metal was pretty poor but they worked on that with extra work in the forging. In reality the Katana could have been better if the Japanese were not so stubborn. The Katana looks great but the European sword works better.
How many people have you killed with a sword?
that is totally besides his point
How many people have you killed with a spoon?
My question is just as relevant to this discussion as your question. :P
And the millennium falcon flys better than the viper mark vii.
toothANDclaw13
Speak of the devil, I'm watching Battlestar Galactica right now.
Draw it out, have a bash, and hope for the best. Sounds like my sex life.
Thank you for this video. Seriously.
That's not even mentioning the fact that the reason it took the Japanese so long to get to smithing techniques that Europeans had mastered centuries earlier is because like most islands Japan is not mineral rich. What minerals there are, aren't exactly superb. Certainly not what you'd find in mountainous, rocky Northern Europe. The weapons of choice for most of Japanese history were polearms and ranged weapons. Most of all the hype we hear these days about Japanese weaponry and skill is spill-over from the Japanese Imperial propaganda machines.
Naturally, most katanas today are made from higher quality metals than anything native Japanese had access to before the island opened itself to the world. Even guys who do things the traditional way won't use native Japanese metals. They'll import higher grade stuff. Naturally the process of folding steel with higher-grade minerals will make an unbelievably strong sword, but regular Toledo steel was better than anything someone was walking around with in Feudal Japan.
The first problem with classical japan made blades was inferior quality ore high on penalty elements like sulphur. Secondly, tatara furnace did not help processing it because tatara is not a true Liquidus furnace, and does not therefore help cleaning up penalty elements often abundantly present in said ores. Thirdly: non-reducable oxides were equally a frustrating problem: you just had to accept the fact that you had "stones" in your steel. Nowadays these things are of course understood and not a problem, not so in the era of painstaking trial and error to fend off this frustrating randomness. I sometimes wonder how many humble swordsmiths did just quit because of overhelming frustration.
I thought Katana was banana flavoured KitKat.
That sounds good.
+Edward Proxy "Kitkatana" anyone?
Wouldn't it be a Kitana?
240p... it hurts.
He may as well be holding a shiny stick.
That katana is so sharp it can slice video quality in half.
This video is older than most Katanatards, so ja.
Hurts more than a katana to a machine gun.
7years old. I think 360p became CZcams top notch quality 8 or 9 years ago.
Katana: Sharpened iron bar with a handle on the end used for hitting people.
Best description ever.
I once witnessed a man slice through time and space itself with the slightest effort put into a katana slash.
It's so cute seeing Lloyd saying "you can see from the progress bar that there's still plenty of time to go" on a *6min* video. Now he has half a dozen videos that go for over an hour. We've come far my friends.
"perfect for slicing through an unarmed peasant"
One of the reasons the design of the blade did not change is that Japan was not rich in metals and had a strict policy of shutting itself off to the outside world, so the Japanese armor didn't change due to lack of metals. In Europe the armor kept changing as more metals were introduced so the bladed had to change to defeat the new style. Not so in Japan.
I agree, just to clarify japan wasn't rich in quality iron. the evolution of arms and armor came from advancing technologies in the production of making better quality equipment.
GetReal38 actually they used very much good quality iron sand found in mountains of a specific island of Japan (who's name escapes me at the moment) so that they could make there prized tomohogany the type of steel they used and it is known today that the sand was more pure resulting in slightly better steel (possibly) now that is still not to say that the Katana is the best or most powerful sword that simply does not exist there are numerous swords for numerous tasks there is no sword that is best for everything therefore there is no godly weapon that can slice three men in half with on strike or anything like that it simply cannot happen but that is not to say that your remark in that sense was incorrect
Matticuss StormBlade
Here, you get these for free: ................... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I don't understand
I assume that you write because you want somebody to read it. In that case, puncuation marks are a good idea. :)
3:17 'The Celts were doing this 2 millennia earlier!'
Me: Smiles in celt
Also me: frowns in weeb
The katana - A sharpened bar of steel.
The Ulfberht - A sharpened bar of steel.
The Montante - A sharpened bar of steel.
The Zweihander - A sharpened bar of steel.
I think I see a pattern here.....
You're a sharpened bar of steel. Ah my roasts are ah sharpened bar if steel.
....... What?
Correction:
The katana - A sharpened bar of pig iron.
Hah good point. X)
The Macuahitl - plank of wood laced with obsidian blades thinner than the space imbetween your skin cells.
I made my friend who knows jack shit about swords and armour, pretty mad when i crushed the mythic bullshit legends and crap about katana's xD. But at the same time we know the katana is infact a good weapon for Japan, not medieval Europe. :D
he kinda said it was not a good weapon even in japan, they used spears
It was a good weapon in Japan, don't believe everything he says... Yea, they used spears (called a 'yari'), and pole arms ('naginata' before the 'yari' became big with organized armies) they also used bows ('yumi'), everyone did. The Katana is still a good weapon, a major thing i hate about this guy is he knows a little bit about everything, but not enough to make these videos, he talks about everything with the same mindset. And people seem to forget that swords were more of a status symbol than a primary weapon, you could tell a samurai by the swords he was carrying. Most samurai carried a katana (or a 'tachi' if you were a lord or shogun) along side a shorter sword ('wakizashi' or a 'tanto'). If you tried to give a japanese footman a European sword, they would be much less effective (you'll notice that very few shields existed in japan for anything more than decoration (I'm assuming this is because they used shields and bows, causing shields to be more in the way than helpful))
"And people seem to forget that swords were more of a status symbol than a primary weapon, you could tell a samurai by the swords he was carrying. Most samurai carried a katana"
Maybe because it wasn't very good?????
It was a backup weapon and a ceremonial weapon. Nobody charged into a line of pikes with a katana.
Alon Shechter I'm assuming you're some random kid, and not anybody with any historical knowledge or experience with a katana, so stop trying
+Alon Shechter ignoring the fact that I hate anime... And have spent the past 10 years learning about Japanese weaponry and combat techniques.. sure kid, so I'm just going to me this section now.
Finally someone that isn't worshipping those piece of metal.
give me a claymore. i guarantee victory
you can't use a claymore you jackass.
Michael Minor
and just what would make u think that?
I doubt that you could lift a claymore, let alone swing it fast enough for it to be effective in battle with any katana or rapier.
Michael Minor lol im a 280lb beast man. descended from the highland scotch so its natural for me. by the way a claymore is very well balanced so its pretty agile
stonedimaculate1983 You're descended from a drink??? Interesting... I wonder what the SCOTS have to say about it.
"Sharpened iron bars with a handle at the end." Best description of a sword ever. XD
I love this channel! You're so blunt and real, need more people like you. Less click-bait, more @LindyBeige 🔥🙌🏻
People forget that the Katana was primarily a dueling weapon as well as a symbolic status symbol for the knighly class (samurai). It is a terrible rank and file weapon, especially with the introduction of gunpowder. What kept it alive was that it was still a practical weapon that the Samurai could use on horseback, because of the large curved blade. Other than that, it was the Ashigaru and good generalship that won battles in all of Japans feudal history, not great swordsmen.
And storms :)
TadRaunch between 1150 and 1600 japan was almost constantly i war, the mongol invasion was a small side step that only assured internal peace for a few decades before they went onto killing each other again in their constant in fighting, kinda like the Greeks and the Persians may i add.
also after the first attempt of the mongols the shogun ordered fortifications to be made at every bigger beach, even whit their sizable force it would have been hard for the mongols to truly invade japan, to add to that japan was a feudal country whit a lot of strong independent lords, some of them whit their own armies capable to rival most European armies.
I was under the impression that the katana was not only a symbol but also sidearm (and like all sidearms, not something you want to resort to), where they primarily used naginata even on horseback.
***** What is that argument for when you take into account Europe had seen hundreds upon hundreds of conflicts in that period of time, especially if you extend European armies extending into the middle east during that period. Not only that, their conflicts where usually on a global scale, meaning more experience and knowledge was exchanged in these conflicts. They constantly came into contact with new weapons, strategies and tactics. You are comparing players,trainers and coaches of a minor national footbal league with the quality of players and coaches in a World Cup.
If a same size european army would meet a Japanese army in 1500. In equal setting (so not Japan in it's comfortable defending island role) they would get shamefully butchered. They would be outclassed in weapon technology and battle-tactics.
armoredp the sengoku jedai had around 100 small countries each with their own private armies often spawning 1000s if not 10.000s of soldiers.
as a comparison it took Europe nearly 150 years to truly start using guns on the battle field in japan it took 10 years from the introduction till some armies had 1/2 of their armies carrying muskets.
then just 10 years after the sengoku jedai we had the sekigahara campaign which culminated in the battle of sekigahara, where over 130.000 men (mostly samurai) clashed at each other, NO European army was anywhere near those numbers until the late 1700s.
1 thing is learning from history as a commander, another thing is personally taken part in 20 battles.
I think the best swords came from people that dealt with the most variant types of armors, weapons and techniques. Japan was a bit isolated so generally their swords were best at dealing with themselves.
About the machine gun barrel thing, what if the slash just knocked the machine gun out of his hands, and in the heat of battle, thought it was cut off, and was too busy trying not to die to the sharp iron stick wielding asian-man in front of him, who by the way is equally intent on not dying.
I wonder why they didn't innovate over the centuries. Surely, in every generation, there must be one sword maker that raises his hand sheepishly and says "um, hang on a minute."
Yes, but in Japan, those people were shot down, and people who carry on the honor of tradition are highly respected.
bummer :(
Ikr
well they did innovate not in particular swords but in weapons generally creating quite a wide range of defensive & offensive weapons. Once they had a design that worked well they left it at that except for some tweaking.
They did innovate. I'm a fan of Katana, Nodachi, Rapier, Long Swords and Great Swords (not a fan boy of any mind you) as well as a practicioner of both Muso Jikiden Eishin- ryu and HEMA and there is a lot of misinformation in this video. In Japan there were different lengths of Kissaki (points), different blade shapes, different amounts of curvature, different lengths in blade and Tsuka (handle) and different points of balance. Keep in mind historically "Katana" actually was pretty much any daito (long sword) part of the pair of swords called a Daisho. If you look at what the 47 Ronin carried for example there were "Katana" which blades anywhere from 22"-36" and "Wakizashi" with blades anywhere from 12"-28" (there was actually one who carried a 33.5" blade and 28" blade as his Daisho). It wasn't until the 3rd Tokugawa Shogun that Katana came to mean a certain length of sword.
Thank you for not being another fanboy who believes the katana is a god...
That was posted before actually watching the entire video, was it?
MagnificentXXBastard Did you watch the whole video?
Mfolsom245
Oh yeah, sorry, I misread that post. I thought it said
"Thank you for being another fanboy who believes the katana is a god..."
I overread the "not"
don't worry about it that happens
oh and btw i did finish the video after i commented and don't retract my statement
Damn, I bought a $299.99 Katana just so that I can cut through people in plate armor, swords, machine guns, stone walls, tanks, battleships, and space battle cruisers... Seriously, if the Katana is as powerful of a weapon as the fan-base hypes it up to be, then the Japanese wouldn't have had to develop any other melee weapons. Fact remains that the primary battlefield weapons were spears (Yari - a wide range of them), naginata, bow and arrow, and muskets, until, of course, the Meiji era when Japan modernized. The Katana, during the Tokugawa Period, was the primary weapon of the samurai, but that's because it was largely a period of peace and stability when the daily carrying of all other weapons was outlawed and armor fell out of use, even for the Samurai.
Must by why Japan didn't have nearly as much siege equipment as i.e China: they simply cut themselves into their Castles.
junoguten The whole castle would've fallen down with a swing of the blade.
Charles W Or after being shot up with a Gatling Gun.
the only person a japanese officer killed with his katana was himself.
This comment has retained its sharp cutting edge even three years later.
no he also killed P.O.W's with them
I can't believe that Lloyd has been around for this long. I bet CZcams was still using the 5 star rating system when this video was made.
The Katana is like a gentleman's knife - they look classy and neat sitting in your breast pocket (or at your hip) but they don't cut branches (or limbs) any better, often worse, than the beefy combat knife sitting at home. It certainly has its place, a spot it fills beautifully, but that spot is either hanging on a wall, in a martial art, or in an anime.
Katanas as we know them were largely personal defense weapons. And while they may not have been "perfect" for that role, they were pretty damn good for it.
SidewaysGts But they were insanely expensive, beacause they took time to be made from the shit-iron from japan.
Raho Vart There is no such thing as "shit" iron. If it can be smelted, forged, sharpened, and used without crumbling to bits, then it's almost as good as anything else. After all, once you sharpen any weapon/tool steel to its sharpest, they perform _identically_ to each other for a good while.
Maybe I'm biased, but I'd prefer a good claymore anyway.
wee1owen12 form my opinion, the are good steel types for sword and bad steel types for sword, this japanese iron(it has really high percentage of sulphur) was one of the worse material, because it needs folding, and hammering like every food needs salt. And if you would not fold the steel, it would have impurities and probadly crack in contact with other swords, what is serious damage and the repairing needs giant effort.
And yeah, i like european swordtypes(by that i mean mainly straight swords) better, i think, that they would be able to be used even in modern CQB(mainly shortswords against kevlar vests, maybe even type 2 armours).
wee1owen12 that's completely untrue. depending on the purity and composition of the ore, one chunk of iron can be much better than another, identical looking chunk of iron.
Weeaboo status:
[_] Not told
[X] Told
good to see in 11 years the only thing that's changed on this channel is the camera
katana is so sharp, it will turn your camera into a potato by neutering the CCD sensor
Hand-and-a-half sword for the win!
I've always seen the katana as more of a ceremonial weapon for duels or chopping your buddy's head off while he commits seppuku =D
A Japanese friend told my that they were principle a symbol of rank. She has no reason to no better than most but it struck my as true as it seems true of swords in most cultures.
This was actually filmed in the sengoku era
my dad would cry at this video. he never stops banging on about katanas, i think they're a load of junk.
+Legate Lanius nah i dont have the heart to
+Nazeem The Jarl wants you to deal with Belethor. He's trying to rip off Ysolda again.
+Jacob Baumfalk obviously my I can help her with my business skills, I didn't come to own Chillfurrow Farm for nothing you know.
You must think you're all high and mighty working at the cloud district you go on and prat about.
I work at the blue palace, you insignificant pleb
Cthulhu Cultists oh what are you saying, of course I do
So the Katana is basically just a "meh" sword.
What made the Katana one of the worlds most amazing swords was not the blade itself, but the warrior wielding it.
Samurai were indeed skilled and formidable opponents with a long history and usually trained their entire lives to wield those weapons. However, the same can be said about European or Middle Eastern armies, or even other Oriental armies. a Wudang sword trained warrior with a Jian was probably just as dangerous as Segoku period Samurai with a katana.
I think the European Knights were just as formidable and much larger. Not to mention the superior technology. But I will admit the Japanese Samurai were great at killing unarmed and unarmored peasants.
Modern Japan is the most technologically advanced nation in the world today.
Jonethan Eames
i love buying panties from vending machines!!
Craig Brickey *dueling unarmed and unarmoured peasants. Anything less would be dishonourable.
;)
This is the video I discovered Lindy with. I was a bit of a katana cultist back then but he and Skall helped show me the light.
Watching "The Last Samurai" I was disappointed, annoyed, and in disbelief.
First I was disappointed to see that the movie did not do justice whatsoever to the rifle with a bayonet fixed. The soldiers were shown to only thrust as if that technique is the only thing anyone can do with their rifle plus bayonet, unlike the elite Samurai.
Second here's why I'm in disbelief (Spoiler Alert in case you haven't seen the movie). One Samurai at the last battle sliced through the stock and barrel of the rifle this soldier was using to block the overhead blow. And not only the Samurai cut through the soldier's rifle but killed him in the process in one single downward cut.
If it is so easy for Samurais with their Katana to slice through rifles then why did they, the practitioners of the following, also use their Bo, short staff, and Naginata to defend self from attack, not just use it to attack? If the Samurai sword can't cut through any of them with one hard blow then how can it ever slice through a wooden stock of a rifle, let alone a hardened metal tube called a barrel?
Or better yet why did they not use guns..thats holywood for you mate..
Well it is hollywood, notice that the samurai armor also has no resistance against bayonets while it was made out of metal like european medieval armors
Hawke35 werr kowalski Yes... it's Hollywood... but one would expect them to get better over time.
bluejay1611 the last samurai was still a very good movie compared to some today hollywood films
werr kowalski Aside from the unrealistic aforementioned I agree with you. The Last Samurai is one of the many improvements in movie making for Hollywood in not just action and scenery.
This video is 6 years old, noone is going to read these comments, certainly not the video creator, why are you posting them?... why am I posting this?
Fred Williamson Because you knew I would read it :/
Fred Williamson attention was drawn to this comment by the fact that it says no one reads the comments.
I love how so many people get angry and actually discuss this.
If anyone want to know about these things they should check out actual historical sites on the matter and do research rather than babble about stuff they don't know about. I used to hear about how sharp and good at cutting the Katana was and yet I see conflicting facts about the sword everywhere, which would be because not every Katana is made equal and if you want something that way sharper than a katana you check out the aztec wooden swords, because they are far sharper.
There is no superior sword, only weapons best suited in certain situations and against certain other weapons.
You sir, deserve a prize for that last sentence.
Wyatt Blackburn Thanks for the comment^^
That does not surprise me. Aztecs used obsidian to give their 'swords' an edge. There is very little in this world that can come to a finer edge than glass. A glass sword could potentially be the sharpest sword ever made. However, it would not last long.
And while I am sure there is historical examples of katanas that have been polished to a remarkably fine edge for their time, it makes little difference as you do not need the sharpest of edges to cut so long as the sword actually comes to an edge.
Side note- I have even seen historical accounts where samurai would dull the edge of their sword/s prior to battle so as the sword may better withstand the rigor of battle. I did a quick look for where I saw this information so I may provide you with a citation, but sadly I was unable to relocate this information.
WulfricUlfang M That's fine, I've seen accounts of "body blades" which were blades used for execution, where they'd strap multiple corpses or living people together and have a man use a single cut to see how many it got through, the highest I've heard is six bodies, but that is a cut through the stomach and into the back so the blade has to travel as short a distance s possible, still very nice though.
But yeah, it's overrated. I guess since Japan was all the rage for a few decades, it makes sense that their specific weapons would become popular in that crowd... also anime...
WulfricUlfang M The aztecs put obsidian on clubs and spears not swords
The Katana may not be as great as people elevate it to be, HOWEVER, it's a marvel in that they managed to make the sword as good as it is despite having less advanced metallurgic knowledge and overcame the inherent problems off the materials at hand.
I had a historian explain to me that the katana was a backup weapon for if they lost there primary weapon like a spear or whatever . And it was also what the samurai carried when they were walking around town as it was a status symbol and because carrying a spear around all day when you are shopping is a huge pane and bit awkward. That is probably where this idea that the Katana was this ideal weapon for fighting a battle comes from because that was what people saw them carrying on a daily basis and if a fight was to break out in town that is what they saw them use. Therefore that must be the best weapon to fight with. When in reality Spears, bows, Nainatas and etc were the ideal weapon used in war and it was just to much of a pain in the ass to carry the spear around all day in the off chance someone might try and pick a fight with you.
This is true of all swords. In my opinion, swords were the handguns of the ancient world. Handguns can be carried on your person in daily life and if you are ever accosted on the street or forced into a duel a handgun (or a sword in the ancient world) could very much save your life. Making swords and handguns incredibly useful and practical to master. But swords and handguns are bested by all other of their contemporary armaments when it comes to being on a battlefield. Every ancient soldier would rather have a spear and shield over a sword, and any modern solder would rather have an assault rifle over a handgun.
I'm not an expert, but it seems like the Katana was more of a ceremonial weapon, rather than something to be mass produced and given to an army.
+Dylan Bailey it pretty much was. samurai's had naganata or yari's
***** oops i meant an I not an A xD
+Dylan Bailey True that
+Dylan Bailey The samurai were hand picked so not a lot of regular people had them unless your father was a samurai and then he died. There is a really good documentary about how they are made. And anyways you have to find a really good sword smith to actually get a good one anymore any katanas that were brought back to america were garbage mass produced for japanese officers.
+Dylan Bailey Less ceremonial, more side-arm.
They were mass produced during the warring-states period, which saw a *dramatic* decrease in weapon quality, but even during the times of the mythical 'Masamune' making a superior katana was hellishly difficult.
It comes with using shitty ore and outdated forging techniques.
Awesome video. Finally someone just laid out the truth about the Katana. It's Hollywood image is crap and people need to hear the truth about the sword not the myth.
Agreed. Personally, I think the coolest thing about the Katana is the visual appearance of it, and I definitely wouldn't say it's the coolest looking sword.
joao lucas No actually it is not better than a long sword of equal quality. It is a slashing weapon that can't defeat low grade chain mail. A long sword was built to defeat the best armor of the time. It was tested by the best armies and soldiers. During some of the longest and grueling wars Europe and the near East has ever seen.
This has to be the gran-daddy of all "katanas are overrated" videos on CZcams, a golden Oldie.
I had a friend who would swear up and down that a katana could split hairs and chop through anything put in it's way. It was completely useless to try and reason with him.
Ulfberth is an example of weapons that were ahead of their time. Katana is ok but overrated.
Do you own one?
Randy Robertson Nope, all i know is my internet research on both of them. And despite being Norwegian i don't have a strong Viking bias.
Ulfberth was high crucibel steel if i remember right, which would not appear in europe untill the Industrial revolution.
MrTacticalinuit There where some very good swords from your part of the world way before the IR. I do net research all the time but field work is the real test. I have a few swords and knifes and love to "play" with them I know the limits of all I own. The katana is a good sword so is the hand & a half Viking Roman the list is endless. Now what I would pick going into battle hard to say I do not know who or what I may be fighting. In all truth I like a nice mid weight axe.
Randy Robertson I think he's just saying that it's an example of a weapon ahead of its time because that technique for making the metal din't reoccur (or maybe its more accurate to say wasn't common) until the IR.
Yes, the blade was bad. But the hilt is excellent.
The fact that you used the right musical instruments for Japan makes your video so much superior than other British TV programs.
12 years ago. Bloody hell. I'm getting old.
inb4: katana fanboys
The Katana is a beater/backyard cutter type sword. It is very stiff and blade heavy, thus ideal to transfer energy and cut through leather, padded clothes etc.
However, they handle like crowbars, when swung in one hand.
My 1300g sword feels so much lighter than my 1200g katana and in fact I would choose my 800g sabre (which feels pretty much like a compromise despite being much lighter) if shit hits the fan.
10 years and he hasn't changed one bit
10 years ago, wow. Love you LindyBeige!