That sword is a bit too close to those dude's legs. One errant twitch and someone could get hurt. Due to the possible safety hazard, this image goes from 9.5 to a -3.7 on the safety scale.

Tomatot said:
That sword is a bit too close to those dude's legs. One errant twitch and someone could get hurt. Due to the possible safety hazard, this image goes from 9.5 to a -3.7 on the safety scale.

Not all swords are Lightsabers. You're not gonna lop your leg off if you brush against the flat.

fours said:
Not all swords are Lightsabers. You're not gonna lop your leg off if you brush against the flat.

In addition to that : most swords aren't too sharp because they're made to fight against armored opponents. The only options left are penetrating (not THAT kind) or crushing the armor.

Salok said:
In addition to that : most swords aren't too sharp because they're made to fight against armored opponents. The only options left are penetrating (not THAT kind) or crushing the armor.

That's actually a myth. Swords are not intended to fight against armor (that's what polearms, such as the bec de corbin, and maces are for). All swords, minus odd examples such as the estoc and smallswords, are sharpened for cutting at the very least. Trying to crush armor with a blade's edge would only destroy the sharpening.

The longsword and arming sword (blades with crossguards) do however have a unique style of fighting to combat armor in emergency cases. The first, known as "half swording," is where the blade is grabbed like a spear to poke through gaps (neck, armpit, etc). The other is known as mordhau ("murderstroke"), where the sword is held backwards, carefully, and the crossguard is used as a hammer. There is extensive historical information on this, if you wish to look it up.

While all swords with a true blades are sharp, most are not razor sharp. A razor edge will fold and shatter on hard targets, making it less effective than a thicker edge, which amusingly cuts better due to its better geometry and more substantial mass. This is usually called "sword sharp," and a majority of swords will be like this, from katana to longsword and saber.

Bit of a long post, but I hope it proved interesting, haha!

Hai_An said:
That's actually a myth. Swords are not intended to fight against armor (that's what polearms, such as the bec de corbin, and maces are for). All swords, minus odd examples such as the estoc and smallswords, are sharpened for cutting at the very least. Trying to crush armor with a blade's edge would only destroy the sharpening.

The longsword and arming sword (blades with crossguards) do however have a unique style of fighting to combat armor in emergency cases. The first, known as "half swording," is where the blade is grabbed like a spear to poke through gaps (neck, armpit, etc). The other is known as mordhau ("murderstroke"), where the sword is held backwards, carefully, and the crossguard is used as a hammer. There is extensive historical information on this, if you wish to look it up.

While all swords with a true blades are sharp, most are not razor sharp. A razor edge will fold and shatter on hard targets, making it less effective than a thicker edge, which amusingly cuts better due to its better geometry and more substantial mass. This is usually called "sword sharp," and a majority of swords will be like this, from katana to longsword and saber.

Bit of a long post, but I hope it proved interesting, haha!

So this is what it feels like to get SERVED.

Salok said:
So this is what it feels like to get SERVED.

XD No worries! There's quite a number of myths on swords, and it can sometimes be difficult to tell fact from fiction unless you can get access to antiques or good replicas.

Also, on a side note the technique of mordhau should not be confused with the recent video game of the same name. Forgot it existed. Might case confusion during google searches.

I am not sure if the game depicts the technique, however I do know that it was infamous for depicting the thrown pommel technique, called the "end him rightly" joke, which is an insider joke amongst sword historians and one of the oldest memes I know of.

Okay, that's another way to earn your money, plus have some fun in the meantime. ;)