As for the comic… well, so much for the “moron twins”.
Nice job on the armor bit. Most people seem to think swords can magically cleave through armor like a blowtorch through butter. The truth is that you really can’t. Try cutting through a 55 gallon drum with a butcher’s knife and let me know how that works out for you (and that is probably easier).
Cleaving through armor depends on the sword and the wielder. Basically there are different weapons for different armors and weapons for flesh. There are records of full helms being cut in half by a good blow. A more modern example, during wwII they had to change their blocking instructions in the pacific theater because the katanas would cut through the rifle.
FYI no modern broad sword would ever shatter like that. That requires a very low quality, high sulfer, cast iron that hasn’t been used in weapon grade steel since people learned about steel. Usually what happens is a blade bends (cheap steel is soft – in particular the edge curls under if the hit was true) or the tang snaps (the weak point).
The fun part is with the forces involved often even when the armor doesn’t collapse enough blut trama is transmitted to shatter the bones underneath. This was why the mace was popular – smash your opponent to a pulp and it doesn’t get stuck.
Also the angle for striking the armor is wrong. Looks the sword shattered by hitting this guy’s HEAD, in the FACE to be precise. If it was a swing upwards (hitting the armor that way) the sword would break under his arm downward.
Actually, the examples usually cited as evidence for cleaving through armor are little more than artistical exagguration when you look for real evidence. Look here for a world record of a guy hitting a helmet with katana: http://www.shinkendo.com/kabuto.html There are plenty of other things I could bring up, but long story short you do not try to cut through armor, you cut where it is not.
Furthermore, if you think swords, modern or otherwise, don’t ever snap, you need to do some looking on YouTube or something. I’ve lost count of how many videos and pictures I’ve seen of disappointed people whose brand-new sword snapped on them. (And no, I don’t mean stainless steel wallhangers, I mean high-carbon tempered swords.)
As for the angle of the attack, I didn’t really get that myself. I choose to believe that scratch mark was there to begin with and we’re seeing everything bounce back after a downward strike. Physics may not agree with that, but whatever.
Argh. I haven’t had it happen to me again. I’ll disable a couple of other things and check the code again. Thanks for reading and sorry for the site trouble.
I’m loving the sword/armor conversation. Thanks for all the info!
Sorry, Bob! The extra links made Akismet mark your comment as spam.
I’m 99% sure the trojans were only coming in through the Google Ads. I cleared the WordPress cache again and a took a few other measures. Fingers crossed.
Well that’s something of a relief. My computer has started acting screwy all of a sudden and I wondered if not being able to comment was related. Something else is wrong then…
Yeah, I hate those kinds of adds. There are loads od them on deviantart now. I hope they sort that crap out, because it’s annoying.
I also wanted to say that you have a fine comic here. BTW, you don’t have to worry about any of my ads being crappy like that.
I love vampires! Wow, I just totally changed thoughtss. Ha. But, i mentioned that I love vampires because I am going to start an online graphic novel about vampires called Bending Nature, based on my novel that I haven’t tried to publish yet. I have published some short stories, however. Anyway, I have to finish the comic for my video game first.
Hey thanks. I’ll let you know if it continues.
As for the comic… well, so much for the “moron twins”.
Nice job on the armor bit. Most people seem to think swords can magically cleave through armor like a blowtorch through butter. The truth is that you really can’t. Try cutting through a 55 gallon drum with a butcher’s knife and let me know how that works out for you (and that is probably easier).
Cleaving through armor depends on the sword and the wielder. Basically there are different weapons for different armors and weapons for flesh. There are records of full helms being cut in half by a good blow. A more modern example, during wwII they had to change their blocking instructions in the pacific theater because the katanas would cut through the rifle.
FYI no modern broad sword would ever shatter like that. That requires a very low quality, high sulfer, cast iron that hasn’t been used in weapon grade steel since people learned about steel. Usually what happens is a blade bends (cheap steel is soft – in particular the edge curls under if the hit was true) or the tang snaps (the weak point).
The fun part is with the forces involved often even when the armor doesn’t collapse enough blut trama is transmitted to shatter the bones underneath. This was why the mace was popular – smash your opponent to a pulp and it doesn’t get stuck.
Also the angle for striking the armor is wrong. Looks the sword shattered by hitting this guy’s HEAD, in the FACE to be precise. If it was a swing upwards (hitting the armor that way) the sword would break under his arm downward.
Actually, the examples usually cited as evidence for cleaving through armor are little more than artistical exagguration when you look for real evidence. Look here for a world record of a guy hitting a helmet with katana: http://www.shinkendo.com/kabuto.html There are plenty of other things I could bring up, but long story short you do not try to cut through armor, you cut where it is not.
Furthermore, if you think swords, modern or otherwise, don’t ever snap, you need to do some looking on YouTube or something. I’ve lost count of how many videos and pictures I’ve seen of disappointed people whose brand-new sword snapped on them. (And no, I don’t mean stainless steel wallhangers, I mean high-carbon tempered swords.)
As for the angle of the attack, I didn’t really get that myself. I choose to believe that scratch mark was there to begin with and we’re seeing everything bounce back after a downward strike. Physics may not agree with that, but whatever.
As soon as the site loaded, my virus blocker detected a trojan – just letting you know!
Love Abandon!
Argh. I haven’t had it happen to me again. I’ll disable a couple of other things and check the code again. Thanks for reading and sorry for the site trouble.
I’m loving the sword/armor conversation. Thanks for all the info!
Huh, I haven’t had anything since you first fiddled around. Maybe I’m just lucky or my anti-virus isn’t catching it.
And if swords and stuff are of interest to you, take a gander at these websites:
http://www.truefork.org/DragonPreservationSociety/ (go to the bottom and check out the dagger techniques)
http://www.thearma.org/essays.htm (all manner of random topics for the reading, since it is the essay and article section I linked to)
http://www.myarmoury.com/home.html (check out the features and forums, some of these guys really know their stuff)
Greg –
I came back today and nothing happened so maybe it’s a one-time shot? *shrug*
Sorry, Bob! The extra links made Akismet mark your comment as spam.
I’m 99% sure the trojans were only coming in through the Google Ads. I cleared the WordPress cache again and a took a few other measures. Fingers crossed.
Well that’s something of a relief. My computer has started acting screwy all of a sudden and I wondered if not being able to comment was related. Something else is wrong then…
Yeah, I hate those kinds of adds. There are loads od them on deviantart now. I hope they sort that crap out, because it’s annoying.
I also wanted to say that you have a fine comic here. BTW, you don’t have to worry about any of my ads being crappy like that.
I love vampires! Wow, I just totally changed thoughtss. Ha. But, i mentioned that I love vampires because I am going to start an online graphic novel about vampires called Bending Nature, based on my novel that I haven’t tried to publish yet. I have published some short stories, however. Anyway, I have to finish the comic for my video game first.
Keep up the good work.