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[Fidite Nemini]

 

Sure as hell wouldn't want someone come at me with that sucker.

 

 

 

Though if we're talking looks only:

 

 

As for swords, I actually very much like the look and styles of the Longquan sword:

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

As for swords, I actually very much like the look and styles of the Longquan sword:

 

Super classy if get rid of the red part.

 

Can that Titanium Blade easily cut through Steel Swords?

[Duelist]

I have always preferred Chinese swords, particularly the Dao.



Doesn't cut as well as say, a katana but it's light enough to be held in one hand and for me to throw kicks with while holding it.

[Commander Rpg]

A persian shamshir

 

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

A persian shamshir

 

 

The ancient Persian sword was artistically better:

 

 

still not impressive compared to Romans and Chinese swords.

[PhroXenGold]

When it comes to swords and knives, I'm very much a fan of weapons like the falcata:

 

or the kukri:

 

The curved shape and larger, heavier end of the blade allows for a greater force to be exerted on whatever it is striking than a more traditional sword. You end up with a chopping weapon who's effects are closer to what you would expect from an axe, while still maintaining the advantage of the longer blade that a sword offers. 

[Broganisity]

When you're a fencer and everyone's posting about curved swords.

 

[vometia]

Talking of Curved. Swords., there's also this thing as well:





Obviously based on Arwen's Sword from the LOTR films, but this is a one-off I had made by Rob at Castle Keep. Mostly, the details are his, though from what I vaguely recall, "put some kinda ivy viney stuff on it" was my request, if I recall. He did really nice work with that, the "ivy viney stuff" being etched into the blade and then continued with silver wire inlay into the wooden grip. I really need to give its silverware a bit of a polish though, it's looking slightly neglected at present.

[Cknarf]

[Cknarf]

 

Trebuchets make me go WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[Serza]

When you're a fencer and everyone's posting about curved swords.

 

 

Funny, I was just talking about the term Dovahkiin with a friend, and here's a meme, straight from Skyrim!

[Fidite Nemini]

 
Trebuchets make me go WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

 
That just made me remember:

Skip here for Trebuchet flinging inferiour cars!
 
Trebuchet goes CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

[Duelist]

When you're a fencer and everyone's posting about curved swords.

For the resident fencer, a proper fencing sword: the Epee.

[Cknarf]

Vityaz SMG.

 

 

I'm kind of sad there's no 9mm AK variant on the market here in the states.  I really don't see a good reason why there isn't, (other than sanctions) because we would buy the crap out of them.

 

If I remember correctly, somebody built their own, and it used MP5 magazines.

[Commander Rpg]

Which is the best metal or metal alloy for a sword, anyway?

[Fidite Nemini]

Which is the best metal or metal alloy for a sword, anyway?

 

Depends on the task. There is as of yet no breakthrough in metallurgy that resulted in the ultimate alloy to fit all purposes.

 

For large blades like swords, you're pretty much stuck with steel with varying degrees of hardness.

Soft steel can absorb impact force better than hard steel, but hard steel holds its edge better. The most sophisticated forging techniques meld those properties by using different degrees of hardened steel, see for example some katana forging techniques:

 

 

 

For smaller blades, it really depends on what you want the knife to do. Ceramics can make very sharp and light knifes, but aren't as tough as steel. Or you can make small blades from glass, like say Obsidian daggers. Freshly broken glass is one of the sharpest materials known to science, with edge thicknesses of just a couple nanometers, whilst also having smooth edges, as opposed to the typically ragged edges you get with sharpened metals, which is used in medical surgery.

[vometia]

For large blades like swords, you're pretty much stuck with steel with varying degrees of hardness.

Yeah, steel it is, which is annoying because of its tendency to rust! But we have to live with rust (and my swords are overdue for their periodic maintenance) because the stainless steel found in "decorative" swords is actually entirely unsuitable for anything other than small knife blades because it's too brittle. Though the construction of European swords is entirely different to katanas, it's still all down to what a good bladesmith can do with the metal.

And before the subject of "folding" comes up, that's just to improve the quality of metal which often wasn't very good: folding it made it much more consistent and ironed out its weak spots. European swords aren't folded because the original steel didn't need to be, though elsewhere you'd get other interesting ways of dealing with metals such as Damascus steel: can't say whether or not it's better than regular good quality steel, but it looks pretty!

[Commander Rpg]

A marine grade stainless steel may help.

[bEVEsthda]

Yeah, steel it is, which is annoying because of its tendency to rust! But we have to live with rust (and my swords are overdue for their periodic maintenance) because the stainless steel found in "decorative" swords is actually entirely unsuitable for anything other than small knife blades because it's too brittle. Though the construction of European swords is entirely different to katanas, it's still all down to what a good bladesmith can do with the metal.

And before the subject of "folding" comes up, that's just to improve the quality of metal which often wasn't very good: folding it made it much more consistent and ironed out its weak spots. European swords aren't folded because the original steel didn't need to be, though elsewhere you'd get other interesting ways of dealing with metals such as Damascus steel: can't say whether or not it's better than regular good quality steel, but it looks pretty!

 

While there is a relationship between the properties of hard and brittle, this is much, much, much more pronounced in partially hardened steel, than in fully hardened and thoroughly tempered steel. Even today, most "hardened" steel is still partially hardened, for reasons of production economy, and by various methods. Basically, only tooling steel, like stamps and dies, some machine parts, tools for cutting steel ("HSS"), are fully hardened, and maybe some premium quality knives. Fully hardened and tempered steel can absorb a huge amount of impact energy without chipping or fracturing. It's so hard that it's not particularly obvious, but this steel is now also very tough. There is still a range between hardest & brittle - less hard & tough, but it's neither as brittle or as soft as the partially hardened steels.

 

And almost all medieval steel is partially hardened. The reason is obvious. If you completely quench carbon rich steel from an austenite state, it becomes so brittle it will spontaneously shatter or crack, just by its own volume changes (steel expand as it becomes hardened). This steel is so brittle it more resembles the properties of porcelain, so it's useless. So smiths will typically limit quenching to some measured dipping, and/or limit heating time.

 

The secret of fully hardened and tempered steel was discovered in Europe, close to Solingen in Germany, at around precisely 1400. By 1450 the process was somewhat spread in Europe. And I believe it was first used for swords. For what I know, it was never discovered outside Europe, before modern day technology transfer, while other cultures did discover how to make purer steel by the crucible process.

 

What must be done is that the steel has to stay in the heat for considerable time, to let the steel become richly austenitized, then it's violently and completely quenched in brine/water, but withdrawn when it's still somewhat hot, say 90-170 degrees C, then immediately transferred to a tempering environment, for instance smoking hot oil or an oven with carefully controlled and even temperature, 180-200 degrees C. Where it has to age, temper, for about two hours. Then it's allowed to cool slowly. Then it's returned to 200 degrees again, for another two hours, and left to cool again. Repeating the process a third time is not wrong.

 

The temperatures for heating and tempering varies with the exact alloy of steel, as does the heating time and the violence of the quenching (modern alloys need to quench more slowly than simple carbon steel, with oil, air, or even melted salts as medium) but otherwise the process is identical. The toughness vs hardness of the finished steel is controlled by the tempering temperature. Some modern tooling steels are actually tempered in 500-600 degrees C, and still achieve 65-67 HRC. But a straight carbon steel becomes soft again if you go above 200 C.

 

Some Samurai swords retain a laminated structure due to folding. By using two different steels with different carbon content, the Japanese smiths were able to make a sort of 'composite' steel which had better stiffness without being prone to break, than they could make otherwise. This smithing process is however quite difficult and must be very fast, clean and precise. There is also an exact number of folds, done with two different steels, it might be 11 or 13, I don't quite remember. One single fold too many or too little and the results will be ruined.

 

Folding a block of steel repeated times is otherwise a common procedure, also used on the two different blocks of steel before combining them, and used widely in Europe as well. The folding process is done in order to make the steel purer and also to control the carbon content. The carbon content is reduced during the folding.

 

In Europe too, inlaid harder steel was used for sword edges, and the Vikings also used a 'composite' blade technique by braiding and twisting bars of different steels together.

 

P.S. Stainless steel has wonderful resistance to corrosion, but unfortunately it's otherwise crap. That's why all modern knives stink.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

It makes sense. Carbon is fragile, if you infuse (or whatever the correct verb is) too many carbon in something even steel, it had to show its property in the host.

 

P.S. Stainless steel has wonderful resistance to corrosion, but unfortunately it's otherwise crap. That's why all modern knives stink.

 

So I can't use stainless steel knives as small Katanas?

[bEVEsthda]

It makes sense. Carbon is fragile, if you infuse (or whatever the correct verb is) too many carbon in something even steel, it had to show its property in the host.

 

 

So I can't use stainless steel knives as small Katanas?

 

It may make sense, but it's not how things work. Tin and Copper are both rather soft metals. Combining them you get something very hard: Bronze.

What makes steel different from pure Iron, is the carbon. You could in a way say it's an alloy of Iron and Carbon. The reality is much more complex, with a number of different crystal structures. That is what one manipulates with heat treatment (i.e. hardening) and carbon content, the crystals. But one of the desired crystals, cementite, one gets during the tempering, happens to be the same thing as 'Iron carbide'.

 

Both carbon and nitrogen (in small amounts) tends to make some metals very hard. Tungsten carbide, for instance, is a magnificently hard substance. Combined with Cobalt it's commonly called "carbide" for short, and is used for metal cutting edges, like in milling machines and lathes. It's also used for drilling in rock.

 

You can use stainless steel knives for whatever. I'm just saying there are 'better' steels. That depends on what you mean by better of course, which I suppose is why stainless is the overwhelmingly most popular choice today. I challenge you to find a proper razor knife made of stainless steel though.

[Commander Rpg]

I wish I had the knowledge to be able to compare the italian rapier versus the spanish one.

And also who would be winning on a "Italian rapier vs Persian scimitar".

[PhroXenGold]

I can't say much about its use in weaponmaking, but as a hydraulics engineer I come across stainless steel in pumps, pipelines, pressure vessels and so on, and in general, it's crap. The only times when you use it are on small pipelines and vessels where the cost of protecting carbon steel from corrosion is high relative to the cost of the metal, and in extreme conditions (especiialy when the metal is exposed to both salt-water and air), and you've got a lot of money. The very top end SS is decent enough, but it's very expensive.

 

Properly cared for carbon steel shouldn't rust, and a sword is something you should be able to care for with relative ease - clean it regularly, keep it dry when being stored etc.

[vometia]

Properly cared for carbon steel shouldn't rust, and a sword is something you should be able to care for with relative ease - clean it regularly, keep it dry when being stored etc.

Unfortunately, I tend to sneeze a lot. Oops, TMI.

My swords need some TLC, though. And then another application of that waxy stuff to keep my snot off them.

[Nattfare]

Don't know if the Sgian Dubh (dagger black or hidden black) can be counted as an actual weapon. It was used mainly for eating or certain labors. Plenty of Scotsmen were in posession of one that they would keep concealed. It was custom to hand over all your weapons when vising someone but the Sgian Dubh would still be kept on person for some personal defense should the host still try to attack the visitor.