What is the ideal Survival Sword?
Aug 21, 2009 4:58:26 GMT
Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2009 4:58:26 GMT
Scenario:
It's the zombie apocalypse. Civilization has taken a vacation, the grand machine has ground to a halt. Corpses of dead cars rust alongside cracked asphalt, stripped of their wheels, windows, and all other useful flesh. Packs of starving, feral dogs stalk the city streets, hunting both the millions of cats that now dominate the silent cityscape and the hundreds of millions of rats and pigeons on which they feed. The local Wal-Mart is all looted out, its contents claimed mostly by one or another gang of highwaymen and villains, the surviving remnants of the urban gangs which once thrived parasitically on the blood of their host cities. It is a suddenly harsh world, returned to the rule of Nature and fit for a documentary on Discovery or History, both of which long ago ceased to broadcast. From here on out, the ones who flourish are the ones who can craft their own survival from the ground up.
Too far fetched? Ok, you are an oil services industry executive, overseeing new developments in a small Eastern European nation. You are overnighting at the construction site, and it's as peaceful as can be in the mountains, cool and quiet. You wake up the next morning to a panic, though. Some time during the night, Russian forces overran a large portion of the country and declared it to be Russian territory, and you are now deep behind their front lines. The brunt of their forces passed around your remote location, focusing on urban centers and operational and strategic objectives, leaving the rest of the countryside suddenly cast into confusion and lawlessness. The region is now an agitated melting pot of tribal interests, local mafia elements, resistance fighters, and the less savory representatives of the Russian military, and you are fifty miles from the nearest friendly border. You can wait for someone to come to you, and hope it's the Russian army that gets to you first (the least evil only by a slim margin), or you can strike out, avoiding the major roads (where deadly highwaymen rove the lonely stretches between Russian checkpoints) and trusting your skills in the open countryside.
You are a successful, wealthy finance attorney in New Orleans. A hurricane rolls through, and you have elected to ride it out, in order to secure your company's offices and documents. The financial futures of twenty thousand employees and investors depend on these documents remaining safe and these offices reopening at the earliest opportunity, and contrary to the popular media image of people in your position, you got where you are in life by doing whatever is necessary for your clients. So you send your own employees, your family, and the senior partners to safety in Baton Rouge, but despite their protests you stick it out. Then the levies collapse, and it becomes clear that no one can predict when the flood waters will recede and real civilization and the rule of law will return to the city.
In any case, you are now in a full-on extended survival lifestyle situation. Tier 4 gear, on my personal survival kit list. Note that the last item on that list is a sword. A survival sword, if you will. What is a survival sword?
Premise:
Your survival sword is your personal weapon. It is not a survival knife. We have a survival knife (in Tier 1) to serve as survival knife. The survival sword will not be used as a wood splitter or a shovel or in any of those other horrible ways we use survival knives (as in this scenario). It is noted last because it is your last priority, a tool for solely for defending yourself, reactively or proactively, against living (or undead) enemies.
Oh, well, sure, you say. In that case, my ideal survival sword is a 1911. Yes, yes, mine too. But this is the zombie apocalypse. You only have so many bullets, and you could be here for a long, long time. Hopefully you've made good choices. You have, rather than a .45 (or in addition to it) something like a carbine-length Ruger 10/22. You've also got your 12-gauge pump shotgun, such as the Winchester Model 12 or the Remington 870, with a variety of useful loads. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you don't have any of those, for whatever reason. Perhaps state and local authorities confiscated your guns for your safety, but they overlooked your "ornamental" sword. In any case, bullets are precious, and one never runs out of sword.
So what are the qualities of the ideal survival sword?
Requirements:
Tough. Not a big, hacking beast, like a machete. You won't use it to chop through anything more than light undergrowth on a regular basis. The rugged work will be done by your survival knife. But this sword will live a hard life. One hopes it will not see combat, but it must be ready for the task. It must also be able to handle the occasional hard use and abuse, when an emergency demands that you cut, chop, or pierce through something in short order, with no time to properly employ your knife and baton technique. It may take an occasional chip, roll, or set, and that is acceptable as long as the blade does not crack or break and the damage can be hammered or sharpened out in the field.
Sharp. It will be employed primarily against soft targets of flesh and bone. If the enemy is armored it will be with a thick coat of fur, or a thick layer of textile clothing. The worst case scenario is likely to be modern body armor with ceramic inserts, in which case the sword will need to be able to cut or pierce the kevlar between the hard plates. You will want a hilt that gives you the option of a two-handed cutting grip.
Deadly. This is primarily a tool of combat, not utility. It must be able to kill efficiently and, where necessary, quietly. A strong slash is good for doing battle with a rugged and nimble foe, but a deft thrust is also valuable, to secure a quick and efficient kill with a minimum of fuss. A cut enemy may still have enough time to draw a bead on you and pull the trigger. A man run through the heart will die before he has fully understood that funny feeling in his chest.
Long. Not terribly long, but long enough to extend your reach beyond that of a knife- or fang-wielding foe. You want enough reach with your weapon to give you the absolute advantage over a hooligan with a switch blade or a machete. You also want enough reach to put down a rabid or otherwise diseased animal or person with the least risk of personal exposure. Finally, if you do find yourself facing a gun-wielding opponent and without a gun of your own, he maintains tactical dominance by staying out of your arm's reach. In that most harrowing of situations, every additional inch afforded you by your sword is an asset. (If you win this fight, be sure to take the gun!) Beware though, for length must be balanced with nimbleness.
Nimble. It is too much to hope for, in a lawless society, that you will face a single opponent in a regulated duel. Nor are you guaranteed a traditional open battlefield. In all likelihood you will be surrounded, backed into a corner, in tight quarters, and probably in the dark. Furthermore, your opponents will be fast, unpredictable, vicious, and numerous. (Examples include rabid or ravenous dogs, post-apocalyptic gang bangers, and speed zombies.) You will need to be able to address multiple opponents efficiently, with extremely rapid follow-up strikes, quick recovery from misses and unexpected fouling (such as bouncing your blade off an unseen obstacle in the dark), and a great deal of accuracy so as to thin the numbers of your enemies as quickly as possible, before fatigue and probabilities can overtake you. You will also need to be able to fight indoors.
Light. This sword will be your sidearm and constant companion, whether you are trekking hours on end across vast wildlands or making the rounds in your local settlement as you attempt to rebuild some modicum of civilization. It must be a natural part of you and never burdensome, lest you be tempted to leave it behind, and lest you be so wearied from carrying it all day that you are unable to effectively employ it when an attack befalls you at sundown. Three pounds is an upper limit; four pounds is excessive. (Remember, it is the accumulation of excess weight that gets you. You must be proactive in shaving off a pound or even an ounce wherever possible.)
Your thoughts?
The question put to this forum, then, is what sword currently manufactured meets these requirements? Is it a short-bladed Katana, such as the Hanwei Practical Ninjato? Perhaps the Oniyuri from Cheness? (The versatility of this design intrigues me greatly. Is it robust enough to stand up to an extended cycle of abuse and repair in the field?) Or is it a heavier Western design, such as Cold Steel's mighty Gross Messer (This seems like it would be a wonderful wilderness sword, but for its prohibitive weight. Also, it lacks nimbleness and deep piercing ability.) or the Celtic Anthropomorphic from Generation 2 (another rugged sword, but again perhaps lacking the finesse necessary to adapt to a variety of tactical scenarios)?
The sword toward which I am looking most intently at this time is the Oniyuri, which promises remarkable versatility. Its short blade suggests handling comparable to that of Hollywood ninja swords, quick and responsive. At the same time, it retains the overall geometry of the Katana, the value of which has been borne out over centuries as a fine balance of cutting and piercing ability in a light-weight weapon. Finally, the extensive hilt (or tsuka, as I believe you purists of the Japanese sword section call it) permits its user to change the relative balance and overall length of the sword on the fly, from a close-in turning weapon with a point of balance less than three inches from the hand to a longer, more brutal cutter with greater reach and a point of balance five or more inches from the user's grip. This seems, on the modern battlefield of lawlessness and unpredictability, an eminently capable and versatile killer. But hell. I don't know nothin' about swords. What are its down-sides? And what other swords in the modern marketplace can boast such a wide array of advantages?
It's the zombie apocalypse. Civilization has taken a vacation, the grand machine has ground to a halt. Corpses of dead cars rust alongside cracked asphalt, stripped of their wheels, windows, and all other useful flesh. Packs of starving, feral dogs stalk the city streets, hunting both the millions of cats that now dominate the silent cityscape and the hundreds of millions of rats and pigeons on which they feed. The local Wal-Mart is all looted out, its contents claimed mostly by one or another gang of highwaymen and villains, the surviving remnants of the urban gangs which once thrived parasitically on the blood of their host cities. It is a suddenly harsh world, returned to the rule of Nature and fit for a documentary on Discovery or History, both of which long ago ceased to broadcast. From here on out, the ones who flourish are the ones who can craft their own survival from the ground up.
Too far fetched? Ok, you are an oil services industry executive, overseeing new developments in a small Eastern European nation. You are overnighting at the construction site, and it's as peaceful as can be in the mountains, cool and quiet. You wake up the next morning to a panic, though. Some time during the night, Russian forces overran a large portion of the country and declared it to be Russian territory, and you are now deep behind their front lines. The brunt of their forces passed around your remote location, focusing on urban centers and operational and strategic objectives, leaving the rest of the countryside suddenly cast into confusion and lawlessness. The region is now an agitated melting pot of tribal interests, local mafia elements, resistance fighters, and the less savory representatives of the Russian military, and you are fifty miles from the nearest friendly border. You can wait for someone to come to you, and hope it's the Russian army that gets to you first (the least evil only by a slim margin), or you can strike out, avoiding the major roads (where deadly highwaymen rove the lonely stretches between Russian checkpoints) and trusting your skills in the open countryside.
You are a successful, wealthy finance attorney in New Orleans. A hurricane rolls through, and you have elected to ride it out, in order to secure your company's offices and documents. The financial futures of twenty thousand employees and investors depend on these documents remaining safe and these offices reopening at the earliest opportunity, and contrary to the popular media image of people in your position, you got where you are in life by doing whatever is necessary for your clients. So you send your own employees, your family, and the senior partners to safety in Baton Rouge, but despite their protests you stick it out. Then the levies collapse, and it becomes clear that no one can predict when the flood waters will recede and real civilization and the rule of law will return to the city.
In any case, you are now in a full-on extended survival lifestyle situation. Tier 4 gear, on my personal survival kit list. Note that the last item on that list is a sword. A survival sword, if you will. What is a survival sword?
Premise:
Your survival sword is your personal weapon. It is not a survival knife. We have a survival knife (in Tier 1) to serve as survival knife. The survival sword will not be used as a wood splitter or a shovel or in any of those other horrible ways we use survival knives (as in this scenario). It is noted last because it is your last priority, a tool for solely for defending yourself, reactively or proactively, against living (or undead) enemies.
Oh, well, sure, you say. In that case, my ideal survival sword is a 1911. Yes, yes, mine too. But this is the zombie apocalypse. You only have so many bullets, and you could be here for a long, long time. Hopefully you've made good choices. You have, rather than a .45 (or in addition to it) something like a carbine-length Ruger 10/22. You've also got your 12-gauge pump shotgun, such as the Winchester Model 12 or the Remington 870, with a variety of useful loads. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you don't have any of those, for whatever reason. Perhaps state and local authorities confiscated your guns for your safety, but they overlooked your "ornamental" sword. In any case, bullets are precious, and one never runs out of sword.
So what are the qualities of the ideal survival sword?
Requirements:
Tough. Not a big, hacking beast, like a machete. You won't use it to chop through anything more than light undergrowth on a regular basis. The rugged work will be done by your survival knife. But this sword will live a hard life. One hopes it will not see combat, but it must be ready for the task. It must also be able to handle the occasional hard use and abuse, when an emergency demands that you cut, chop, or pierce through something in short order, with no time to properly employ your knife and baton technique. It may take an occasional chip, roll, or set, and that is acceptable as long as the blade does not crack or break and the damage can be hammered or sharpened out in the field.
Sharp. It will be employed primarily against soft targets of flesh and bone. If the enemy is armored it will be with a thick coat of fur, or a thick layer of textile clothing. The worst case scenario is likely to be modern body armor with ceramic inserts, in which case the sword will need to be able to cut or pierce the kevlar between the hard plates. You will want a hilt that gives you the option of a two-handed cutting grip.
Deadly. This is primarily a tool of combat, not utility. It must be able to kill efficiently and, where necessary, quietly. A strong slash is good for doing battle with a rugged and nimble foe, but a deft thrust is also valuable, to secure a quick and efficient kill with a minimum of fuss. A cut enemy may still have enough time to draw a bead on you and pull the trigger. A man run through the heart will die before he has fully understood that funny feeling in his chest.
Long. Not terribly long, but long enough to extend your reach beyond that of a knife- or fang-wielding foe. You want enough reach with your weapon to give you the absolute advantage over a hooligan with a switch blade or a machete. You also want enough reach to put down a rabid or otherwise diseased animal or person with the least risk of personal exposure. Finally, if you do find yourself facing a gun-wielding opponent and without a gun of your own, he maintains tactical dominance by staying out of your arm's reach. In that most harrowing of situations, every additional inch afforded you by your sword is an asset. (If you win this fight, be sure to take the gun!) Beware though, for length must be balanced with nimbleness.
Nimble. It is too much to hope for, in a lawless society, that you will face a single opponent in a regulated duel. Nor are you guaranteed a traditional open battlefield. In all likelihood you will be surrounded, backed into a corner, in tight quarters, and probably in the dark. Furthermore, your opponents will be fast, unpredictable, vicious, and numerous. (Examples include rabid or ravenous dogs, post-apocalyptic gang bangers, and speed zombies.) You will need to be able to address multiple opponents efficiently, with extremely rapid follow-up strikes, quick recovery from misses and unexpected fouling (such as bouncing your blade off an unseen obstacle in the dark), and a great deal of accuracy so as to thin the numbers of your enemies as quickly as possible, before fatigue and probabilities can overtake you. You will also need to be able to fight indoors.
Light. This sword will be your sidearm and constant companion, whether you are trekking hours on end across vast wildlands or making the rounds in your local settlement as you attempt to rebuild some modicum of civilization. It must be a natural part of you and never burdensome, lest you be tempted to leave it behind, and lest you be so wearied from carrying it all day that you are unable to effectively employ it when an attack befalls you at sundown. Three pounds is an upper limit; four pounds is excessive. (Remember, it is the accumulation of excess weight that gets you. You must be proactive in shaving off a pound or even an ounce wherever possible.)
Your thoughts?
The question put to this forum, then, is what sword currently manufactured meets these requirements? Is it a short-bladed Katana, such as the Hanwei Practical Ninjato? Perhaps the Oniyuri from Cheness? (The versatility of this design intrigues me greatly. Is it robust enough to stand up to an extended cycle of abuse and repair in the field?) Or is it a heavier Western design, such as Cold Steel's mighty Gross Messer (This seems like it would be a wonderful wilderness sword, but for its prohibitive weight. Also, it lacks nimbleness and deep piercing ability.) or the Celtic Anthropomorphic from Generation 2 (another rugged sword, but again perhaps lacking the finesse necessary to adapt to a variety of tactical scenarios)?
The sword toward which I am looking most intently at this time is the Oniyuri, which promises remarkable versatility. Its short blade suggests handling comparable to that of Hollywood ninja swords, quick and responsive. At the same time, it retains the overall geometry of the Katana, the value of which has been borne out over centuries as a fine balance of cutting and piercing ability in a light-weight weapon. Finally, the extensive hilt (or tsuka, as I believe you purists of the Japanese sword section call it) permits its user to change the relative balance and overall length of the sword on the fly, from a close-in turning weapon with a point of balance less than three inches from the hand to a longer, more brutal cutter with greater reach and a point of balance five or more inches from the user's grip. This seems, on the modern battlefield of lawlessness and unpredictability, an eminently capable and versatile killer. But hell. I don't know nothin' about swords. What are its down-sides? And what other swords in the modern marketplace can boast such a wide array of advantages?