Katanas

[Blackzilla]

I'm pretty sure they couldnt block maces, great swords, morning stars,etc.... I always though they were to weak to block.

[Tot.]

Ib4 arrival of the mongolian horde shocked with your thread and crying about their poor weapon having only instant swings and the damage of a greatsword.

[Bobthehero]

Strange, I though it would handle as well as longsword to receive blow, although I did read somewhere it was stiffer and thus more brittle.

[Digglez]

[Tot.]

Katanas were made of some of the best and dense steel in history.  I think the average Katana was steel refolded a thousand times (increasing the density & Strength), compared to European swords that were less than 50. 

Lol, fail. One of the reasons why katanas were such shit weapons compared to european counterparts is because of poor quality of the steel used by japanese weaponsmiths. For example, you could easily damage the blade by just blocking an incoming swing, that's why if the user received proper training he was going to block with the backside of the sword.

Hah, best steel.... Made my night.

[MrShine]

Katanas should be able to block projectiles and slice through tanks.

[Joxer]

None of the blades we have in game would be able to do the kind of blocking we have in the animation. They would realistically use low angle deflection with any of those. That isn't animated thought so we have to get used to this.

[Oberyn]

Katanas were made of some of the best and dense steel in history.  I think the average Katana was steel refolded a thousand times (increasing the density & Strength), compared to European swords that were less than 50. 

There is no physical reason, if you had the physical strength, why a katana could not block larger & heavier weapons.

Yeah, the reason it had to be folded so much was precisely because of the crappy quality of the steel. It was a meticulous and carefull process, a form of art in certain respects, but that didn't make it the "best steel" in history. Not sure where you got "densest" from either.

[Paul]

As said before the main reason why those folding techniques had to be applied was that Japan has crappy iron ore. I think they had to use some kind of iron sand. The folding was done to make sure that carbon part of the steel was  homogeneous in the blade or else it would have weak points.

I think some European smiths in the early Middle Ages used similar techniques but later on with an increase of ore refining technology and with access to good iron ore it became unneccessary for creating steel with homogeneous carbon content. I think most of the Japanese smiths would have happily switched if they had the option to and European steel was even imported at some point.

Top quality Japanese swords were on par with the best European swords I think but on average I'm pretty sure European steel equipment had the higher quality just because of the difficult, tedious and thus fault-prone process of creating usuable Japanese steel-work.

[Bobthehero]

Yeah Paul, Scandinavian and the likes were using the same folding techniques in either 500 bc or ac (or is it 700) can't remember.

[Gisbert_of_Thuringia]

Lol, fail. One of the reasons why katanas were such shit weapons compared to european counterparts is because of poor quality of the steel used by japanese weaponsmiths. For example, you could easily damage the blade by just blocking an incoming swing, that's why if the user received proper training he was going to block with the backside of the sword.

Hah, best steel.... Made my night.

You seem to know nothing about the world my friend 

Digglez is right

[chadz]

Just posting here to read the replies. Should be fun.

[Bobthehero]

I doubt there will anything fun, there aren't enough die hard wapaneese that are THAT stupid here.

[Spawny]

Yeah Paul, Scandinavian and the likes were using the same folding techniques in either 500 bc or ac (or is it 700) can't remember.

It's in here somewhere. Great watch. Laughed too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLWzH_1eZsc

[Bobthehero]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yeah Spawny, that guy is awesome.