Actually, you might do well to comprehensively read my previous post (that you had posted parts of)
I'm sorry....are you talking about your post #55? What content do you believe is in it, such that there could be a comprehensive read of it?
Some of my experiences (and others that have cut with me) are here for all to read as well. I claim no great knowledge beyond my own experiences and others I associate with in real life.
If you claim your experience
at all in the context of proving a point, then you need to say what that experience is and how it's specific to proving a point. What you can't do is tell general stories about your experiences somewhere and expect that that establishes you as a subject matter expert whose word must be taken at face value wherever you go in a particular community forever after...even if you provide lots of pictures of your swords to go along with it.
You made the very specific claim that "the advantage of a curve blade is close to nil". What you did not do is tell us, specifically, what you did to establish that. Apparently, you have these "experiences", and - so you say - your "experiences" support your claim. However, for all we know you were doing it wrong....if at all. Unfortunately, we cannot vet that....because
you haven't given us your specific actions on which you based your conclusion. Apparently, we're supposed to base our blind acceptance of your conclusion on your anecdotal reputation at Bladeforums.
Let's go back a bit in this thread a bit here.
That, your response to my comment
Then
I get the sense that you're trying to make a point with the citations you made; but I'll be darned if I can see it. What's going on there? Did you do an inventory of the number of "ham slicers" residing in the world's kitchens? Are we comparing that number to the numbers of curved blades? Is this a numbers game, such that if X = the number of curved blades and 100X = the number of straight blades, then the curve must not do anything? Do meat processors who use curved blades say, "well, according to Horseclover, the curve doesn't do anything, but what the heck....let's make our work more difficult!" Do you even know how many curved blades there are vs straight blades?
You said, "Look at a ham slicer". OK.......what is your point? What are you going for, exactly?
You may have missed this towards the end pf that post of mine.
You might also be missing that the form was for the light cavalry and heavy cavalry used straight swords. The British 1796 heavy not a slim pallasch (look it up) but rather a blade not so unlike the slashing swords of the "vikings". We'll get back to curved swords in a minute.
Didn't miss anything. Why would I comment on a point that supports my argument?
That's what I've read the curved blade is better for; and it seemed to be a technique facilitator, not any kind of improvement to the actual mechanics of the blade cutting.
Do you know "why" light cavalry used curved swords and heavy cavalry used straight swords? Do you think maybe that they saw some mechanical advantage to each blade type given the role of each type of cavalry? Or is their "experience" not enough for you?
Another section you you replied to reads
You were replying to this
You seem to think I am writing this from some sort of vacuum and had thought of nothing you relate.
On the contrary.....I think you writing from the false presumption that you know enough to be correct, when it doesn't seem like you do. Your response to Crimson Falcon's mechanical advantage comment was patently false; and it doesn't take specific knowledge in sword technicals to see it....merely the ability to analyze motion. The advantage of the curved blade in the draw cut is the tangent nature of its contact with the surface being cut regardless of the path of the swing. In the same way - but opposite orientation- a hawkbill blade will always have the tendency to draw the material into the cutting surface. A straight blade does not have a tangent; if it impacts at or near parallel to the surface tangent, the direction of the stroke must change 90 degrees to do a draw cut. Mechanics of motion.....no "experience" with swords is necessary.
Undoubtably, you have a rehearsed example of where you made a draw cut with a straight sword and didn't have to change the direction of your swing. Save it. Had we all been present, we'd have seen that your swing and the impact and mass of the sword pushed the target into the correct orientation. A perfectly valid and legitimate outcome; however, engineeringly different than your "close to nil" conclusion.
Moreover, all of the above depends upon "everything else being equal", which you openly failed to recognize when you -accurately- pointed out that "large western medieval types...have succeeded where the katana [has] failed (
due to mass at speed due to longer blades)." In other words, because of
other variables besides curve, which is exactly what I meant when I said you needed to control your variables. Ergo, my point....QED.
Bore you with details and real life experiences with others? C'mon down next time we do this. Always glad to see BFers. The
Northeast Cutlery Collectors Association were happy to have visited this day. We have been doing this since 2003 and an associate longer than that down in Lincoln RI. There are knives as well and mine actually as big a public draw as my four dozen or sword swords (yes, I cut with some antique swords as well).
Do you guys fight to the death for real? Do you have a mechanical arm that you can set force/speed of swing, for reliable replication of cutting techniques? Do you have near-identical sword specimens with single variable differences in order to reliably narrow cause-effect analysis? If not, it sounds like a hobby organization with a focus on entertaining and education. We have Ren Faires here that do that. I love swords....but I also love a lot of other things; and I value my time.
Thanks, but I'll pass.
Books? Sword related? Ummm, yup.
How much is too much curve? Russian infantry
More than a katana huh?
Which sword below has more tip speed and overall cutting ability (with both swinging and drawing at the same velocities). Read that again, just in case.
Which target below was
more impossible to cut with a katana (I know hard to see but discussed by me recently, here at BF.
What was that last bit? Free association of some kind? I'm not getting your point....
Not sure why you seem to need my credentials when you have offered none directly to me, nor bothered to reply with what your slicers are. A pretty simple request. What is your personal experience with swords? I'm not bashful but a real inventory and reviews of all will take the rest of my life. Suffice it to say I have not handled all the swords ever made but I have decent relations to the five dozen I have and had, with larger medieval types being what I have cut most with. BTW, it was not only in my hands that the katana did not make the cut (that's a pun, if I were to make a point).
I don't need credentials because I didn't maintain anything. I very clearly told Triton that I am in no position to evaluate sword technicals; and I clearly identified that what I said was what I'd read. I don't have a problem admitting that I don't know a topic.
Adding input for discussion is fine; where you crossed the line is where you presumed yourself the position of "credentials supervisor". It is not a leap of logic to say that anyone who challenges someone else's credentials as a way to stifle disagreement or evade addressing a legitimate point is just asking for their own credentials to be picked apart, so they ought to have them in order.
