pgandy
Moderator
Senior Forumite
Posts: 10,296
|
Post by pgandy on Feb 21, 2020 21:42:11 GMT
I was watching a Matt Easton’s video entitled “Curved Swords-Are They Better than Straight Swords?” When he made a statement that sounded strange to me. At the time he had a straight sword in hand that I was unfamiliar with and he just referred to it as “a broad sword bladed British infantry officers sword”. A brief description would be having a brass gothic guard and a double edged hexagon straight blade. At mark about 12:11 in the video he stated that the “cutting portion of the blade is 8” down from the tip”, which is essentially a tip cut. I had considered the sweet spot to be at the CoP. Also to reinforce his statement during my recent cutting exercise involving limited elbow action when cutting plastic bottles the results were less than impressive when using the blade at the CoP, but when I moved to tip cutting the cuts improved remarkably. I still didn’t halve the bottles but did lay them open, in most cases cutting from side to side. Any thoughts?
|
|
pgandy
Moderator
Senior Forumite
Posts: 10,296
|
Post by pgandy on Feb 22, 2020 0:28:25 GMT
Here’s some examples of my limited elbow cutting. Actually basically cutting from the wrist with some elbow work as I expect in tight quarters. This is with backsword using it’s CoP. This is the best I got with any sword tested that way. The rest are tip cuts with the sword used listed. With all of these swords, and others, I got the best results with the tip. Cutlass M1902 The M1840 NCO did the worst, but the blade is designed for thrusting rather than cutting. Swinging from the shoulder would halve the bottles but there are many places that would not be possible or not practical as my centreline is open. Of course a shield is of value in that case.
|
|
|
Post by Jordan Williams on Feb 22, 2020 1:00:17 GMT
Something to consider is that when cutting an object that is fairly light (like the walls of a water bottle) and filled with fluid the less resistance the better. I have noticed the same - however, cutting something with more resistance like a jacket over meat, meat by itself, or tatami, the point of percussion helps immeasurably in actually cutting deeply into or through your target. Less to do with blade geometry and more to do with dynamics and weight as I understand it, at least in regards to the PoP. I've noticed a similar happening when cutting through a bottle cleanly with the foible of my sabre, and knocking it around more with my PoP. However, the same sabre will just not reliably sever tatami with the foible, but feels effortless with the PoP.
With my infantry sabre I felt more resistance with the foible cutting chicken hanging from a tree than I did with the PoP.
|
|
pgandy
Moderator
Senior Forumite
Posts: 10,296
|
Post by pgandy on Feb 22, 2020 13:43:35 GMT
Something to consider is that when cutting an object that is fairly light (like the walls of a water bottle) and filled with fluid the less resistance the better. I have noticed the same - however, cutting something with more resistance like a jacket over meat, meat by itself, or tatami, the point of percussion helps immeasurably in actually cutting deeply into or through your target. Less to do with blade geometry and more to do with dynamics and weight as I understand it, at least in regards to the PoP. I've noticed a similar happening when cutting through a bottle cleanly with the foible of my sabre, and knocking it around more with my PoP. However, the same sabre will just not reliably sever tatami with the foible, but feels effortless with the PoP. With my infantry sabre I felt more resistance with the foible cutting chicken hanging from a tree than I did with the PoP. I’m inclined to agree with you in that it depends on the target. I’ve cut effortlessly through a variety of targets with a thin bladed machete that I couldn’t otherwise have done so easily. And then there were those that I needed the sweet spot on a sword. I started to say “heavier sword” then I remembered I’ve severed pigs’ legs with my 4¼ lb bastard sword. That one has cut everything I’ve put in front of it. I repeated it later with my 26” machete. The difference was that one time I did it with the bastard sword with the leg protected with two rugs. I’m sure that’s beyond the capabilities of any machete. In both cases I wouldn’t consider a foible equalling that of any of my swords. I need to find some meat targets for a realistic idea of how those restricted cuts will work realistically. I think that will be my next project.
|
|
pgandy
Moderator
Senior Forumite
Posts: 10,296
|
Post by pgandy on Feb 22, 2020 13:46:15 GMT
I can see this dude and pgandy having a grand ol' time together.
|
|
|
Post by Adventurer'sBlade on Feb 22, 2020 14:24:57 GMT
More velocity towards the tip, better for some targets.
|
|
|
Post by howler on Feb 22, 2020 19:34:40 GMT
I can see this dude and pgandy having a grand ol' time together. Did he ever swat that fly?
|
|
|
Post by MOK on Feb 23, 2020 20:57:56 GMT
More velocity towards the tip, better for some targets. Absolutely. With light targets, in particular, higher velocity can easily make the difference between batting and cutting.
|
|