Knight v. Samurai
editors note; this article is so cool, and amazing, that it needs no editing. At all.
Hey everyone, I have been having a debate with a lot of people lately, and I think it is time for a chat.
About swords.
About swordsmen.
About truth.
A lot of people think that if they got in a fight, a samurai would win. This is simply impossible.
The equipment for one thing. If I'm a 6 foot German with a 48' longsword and I'm going up against a 5 foot japanese man wielding the same length blade, and they're both wearing armor representative of their people, I'm very comfortable encased in steel, as opposed to a leather jacket and (not that I have anything against it) silk underwear.
People say a s. would lop off the kn.'s head.
No if the kn. is in armor, with chainmail! You can't cut through chainmail, and a katana is a curved blade, which means its great at cutting, but awful at stabbing, which was chainmails weakness.
But Sparton, you say, the kn. is heavy and slow in all that armor, couldn't the s. just tire him out?
No! Lets run down the equipment.
We'll say our Kn. is a 200 pound man at 6' tall.
His equipment weighs the equivalent of a U.S. Marine in full battle rattle in Iraq right now.
A marine, who we'll equivocate to a kn., can run at 2/3 speed, do push ups, fire a weapon, operate a vehicle, and dig a foxhole, all before succumbing to exhaustion.
But anyway, he has equipment that weighs approx. 1/2 his body.
The samurai, is a 5' man weighing 110 lbs.
Under a katana, the shorter sword, the knife, the silk underwear, the leather, his equipment comes in at about 50 lbs.
So, their equipment is about the same, meaning that the knight is getting tired at no greater rate than the samurai.
So no, the s. can't tire out the knight.
Lets look at the sword.
Japan is an island, and a rather small one at that. There is no steel of high quality to make a sword, so it is a POS center, with a think skin of quality steel, whereas a European craftman has the oppurtunity to get the best steel, and create a marvelous sword with it.
I can assure you, the reason so many katanas are still around is because they have employees with the exclusive job of maintaining this blade. A defeated viking tosses his into a river. Each weighs in the neighborhood of between 3 and 5 pounds.
Alright Sparton, but the samurai has been trained for years, all the knight does is hack at the bad guy, right?
Abso-freakin-loutly not!
A knight was in boot camp from age seven to 21, fourteen years of learning how to handle steel in a boot camp akin to a Fort Bragg of the 1300's.
A samuria spenta few minutes a day reading a book called "The Sword and the Mind", and thought about the ocean, while his knees cramped up in the lotus position.
So, while I know someone is going to comment on this with the opinion that I have all my facts wrong, and that No, a knight would have his ass handed to him.
But you know your wrong.
Hey everyone, I have been having a debate with a lot of people lately, and I think it is time for a chat.
About swords.
About swordsmen.
About truth.
A lot of people think that if they got in a fight, a samurai would win. This is simply impossible.
The equipment for one thing. If I'm a 6 foot German with a 48' longsword and I'm going up against a 5 foot japanese man wielding the same length blade, and they're both wearing armor representative of their people, I'm very comfortable encased in steel, as opposed to a leather jacket and (not that I have anything against it) silk underwear.
People say a s. would lop off the kn.'s head.
No if the kn. is in armor, with chainmail! You can't cut through chainmail, and a katana is a curved blade, which means its great at cutting, but awful at stabbing, which was chainmails weakness.
But Sparton, you say, the kn. is heavy and slow in all that armor, couldn't the s. just tire him out?
No! Lets run down the equipment.
We'll say our Kn. is a 200 pound man at 6' tall.
His equipment weighs the equivalent of a U.S. Marine in full battle rattle in Iraq right now.
A marine, who we'll equivocate to a kn., can run at 2/3 speed, do push ups, fire a weapon, operate a vehicle, and dig a foxhole, all before succumbing to exhaustion.
But anyway, he has equipment that weighs approx. 1/2 his body.
The samurai, is a 5' man weighing 110 lbs.
Under a katana, the shorter sword, the knife, the silk underwear, the leather, his equipment comes in at about 50 lbs.
So, their equipment is about the same, meaning that the knight is getting tired at no greater rate than the samurai.
So no, the s. can't tire out the knight.
Lets look at the sword.
Japan is an island, and a rather small one at that. There is no steel of high quality to make a sword, so it is a POS center, with a think skin of quality steel, whereas a European craftman has the oppurtunity to get the best steel, and create a marvelous sword with it.
I can assure you, the reason so many katanas are still around is because they have employees with the exclusive job of maintaining this blade. A defeated viking tosses his into a river. Each weighs in the neighborhood of between 3 and 5 pounds.
Alright Sparton, but the samurai has been trained for years, all the knight does is hack at the bad guy, right?
Abso-freakin-loutly not!
A knight was in boot camp from age seven to 21, fourteen years of learning how to handle steel in a boot camp akin to a Fort Bragg of the 1300's.
A samuria spenta few minutes a day reading a book called "The Sword and the Mind", and thought about the ocean, while his knees cramped up in the lotus position.
So, while I know someone is going to comment on this with the opinion that I have all my facts wrong, and that No, a knight would have his ass handed to him.
But you know your wrong.
posted by Sparton_501 at 11:16 AM
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