teclis22
Member
Don't worry - be happy !
Posts: 250
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Post by teclis22 on Jun 25, 2009 22:33:37 GMT
Hi folks Well i finally broke down a bit ago and decided to break away from my routine of blunt stage combat swords and get a sharpy. Yea.. i admitt it.. all those cutting videos got me envy. It looked like fun Anyway, beginning of the week the package arrived and now i am the more or less proud owner of a sharp A&A claymore. Note: as opposed to the original it has a fuller as i asked Craig to make it a bit lighter then their stock version. Beeing an office employee and 10 years without sport tend to take a toll on ones back So I immediatly gave in to the urge and took a couple of swings..... (note, it was more then 3 card board tubes, its just a summary in 3 groups as individual attempts were similar in outcome) 1) a dry card board tube.... went bad. Maybe i should have become a baseball player. Thats how it felt 2) a card board tube.. soaked in water ... went bad. at least it had a visible dent where the blade hit... 3) tube even more soaked in water and it finally looked a tad like it got hit by a sword. but still not even half way through the tube... a 3rd maybe... and thats beeing generous So that leads to the question how sharp is sharp on a large sword ? Okay i am aware my technique is not the best and swords are not laser beams. I can run my palm over the blade without feeling unsafe in anyway. How do A&A factory edges measure up in the sharpness scale ? As this is my 1st sharp sword i lack the chance to compare :/ For references: img34.imageshack.us/img34/3825/kclay3.jpgthanks alot in advance Best regards tec
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on Jun 25, 2009 23:09:11 GMT
this is a good question and I think the answer is a definite "it depends". sorry to be so obtuse but it really does depend on what your sword will encounter.
to elaborate: in historical perspective swords of this type were probably not very sharp. what you have may in fact be a very historically accurate edge. as I understand it this sort of sword was primarily a war sword used on the field of battle which would mean it could easily encounter armored foes. thus the edge would be very widely angled and not super sharp to the touch. in a modern perspective your sword will likely never meet and armored anything. you will probably cut water bottles and cardboard, maybe tatami and bamboo or the occasional small bits of wood. but all in all not very hard targets (yes I know wood and bamboo can be pretty hard targets). when you take into consideration the use you will put it to and the fact that cutting things well is a lot more fun than not cutting them well, I think there's no reason you shouldn't go ahead and sharpen that sucker right up to paper cutting sharp. just understand that you don't have an historically accruate edge. a sword that was going to be used in duels in a civilian setting could be sharpened pretty well too because it wouldn't meet armor, just flesh bones and maybe the other sword (if you block with your flats your edge will be ok). so what do you want? to understand the feeling of historically accurate edge? then leave it alone. but if you want to do some really fun cutting of modern soft to medium targets then sharpen that baby up.
I like my swords quite sharp.
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Post by genocideseth on Jun 25, 2009 23:19:12 GMT
I stone sharpened my katana, file sharpened my kukri and might stone sharpen my future medieval blade. I fully recommend it. The edge cannot handle things as well as a thicker edge. But as long as you don't use it for pruning saplings, it should be ok against bottles, cardbaord tubes, tatami etc... I love my swords paper cutting sharp. ;D
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Post by hotspur on Jun 25, 2009 23:41:32 GMT
Of the three A&A here with me, the Edward III blade in diffrent fittings has been the most friendly for overall cutting. My GBS is a larger sword, not so unlike the mass of your new claymore but may actually be less a cutter. Although, it has proven handy enough for mats. I did bisect a #10 (gallon) metal can longwise and empty. My XVa, which has still managed regulation Mugen Dachi tatami omote. It will do this if I do my part in edge alignment.
A couple of tips before you alter the edge you already have. Disregard the perceived center of percussion and you'll find the best performance on those cardboard tubes by using the lead six inches of blade. Not so on my XVa (which likes to cut best inside the COP) but broader and thinner blades at the point will help your successes.
A&A edges can be tuned sharper right quick by running a diamond or ceramic rod/triangular hone from base to tip in a determined motion while maintaining a very shallow angle to the main grind. To look at things a little different, try to scrape labels off of things with the edge. Do so equally on both sides a few strokes and burnish off any wire edge you jsut made by using lighter strokes until it is keen and strong.. With these longer Blades, I tend to do it in sections but with much the smae motion while bracing the point and holding the sword in one hand (with a heavy cloth around the blade if you are woring a long one in sections). gain base towards the point and kind of a wiping motion at that low angle.
Note, a hone along the edge as I have described is also a method used by several I know, including katana polisher Keith Larman. firm and determined sttrokes followed by lighter strokes and then stropping if one has a hankering to.
Keep in mind that a very low angle of a visual secondary bevel can and does dissapear if you match that polish to the rest of the blade. What often is read as no secondary bevel will reveal in the polished grind, one will often be able to see that edge transition on what often dissapears as showing no seconday bevel at all. What I see is that those edges do transition and do get polished out, even when tackling things with a slack belt. Either way, really wide edge angles are not going to cut somethings easily in the context of backyarding.
Just my buck three eighties worth.
Hotspur; not that I haven't let shallow sharpening show on many of my swords
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2009 0:30:31 GMT
Don't get this wrong, but it's probably more your newbie technique than sword's sharpness. My first bottle cutting was with Del Tin 2142 and I reaaaally sucked. I thought my sword was badly sharpened and too blunt, but I kept cutting. After some time I got better and did some stuff I wouldn't even dream of when I first begun cutting bottles. So it wasn't the sharpness altough I was quite sure that it is at first. I never had any problems with cardboard tubes if they stood fixed securely so your sword might be a bit dull. But I would still recommend some more cutting before you decide to sharpen your sword more. It's not a cheap sword and I wouldn't want my first sharpening to be on such a sword.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2009 4:24:18 GMT
(Soooomewhat) echoing ianflaer's sentiments: I'd ask you first what you want this sword for and how you want to practice with it.
The (half) problem w/ backyard bottle- and tatami-cutting is it's reliable in the sense it'll never give you, scientifically speaking, a false positive, but it is capable of giving a false negative. That is, anything that cuts bottles or tatami well is virtually certain to cut meat and bone well--but some blades that will only bat water bottles can be deadly against real meat and bone.
I learned this a while back when I was fortunate for nearly a decade to live next door to a man whose main job for the Minnesota DNR was to pick up roadkill deer, and I had a steady supply of carcasses for cutting practice. Every once in a while a sword (especially, relevant to this discussion, that was a real "chopper") that wouldn't do jack against bottles would show it could sever an entire deer haunch w/ remarkably little effort.
Depending on whether you want to be able to practice on a steady supply or bottles or not, you might try buying some meat and seeing what your current edge does against it. (If nothing else, to satisfy any curiosity before changing anything.)
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Post by genocideseth on Jun 26, 2009 4:55:47 GMT
I agree with Lemal.
I sharpened my Katana even more today. It is scary sharp. My finger slip across a centimeter of it and it cut it pretty deep for that small amount. Yet, when I cut a bottle it was all jagged and such. It may have been my technique, but this same technique with my friends Katana can cut easily, even though it is lass sharp, yet my Katana can easily cut into a cardboard box while my friends just bats it away.
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